6 Ups And 5 Downs From WWE Crown Jewel 2023

5. Iyo Wins With A Little Help

WWE Crown Jewel 2023 Kairi Sane IYO SKY
WWE.com

Iyo Sky defending her WWE Women’s Championship against Bianca Belair with a little help wasn’t much of a surprise. What was a shock was that it wasn’t (just) Damage CTRL that saved Iyo.

Kairi Sane made her return to WWE after a three-year absence, taking out Belair on the floor after Bayley’s attempted interference proved insufficient. Sky quickly capitalized and nailed her Over-the-Moonsault to pick up the win, and she and Kairi celebrated before demolishing Bianca with an InSane Elbow.

The match itself was fine, but the interesting note here is that Bayley did not look like she realized Sane was going to run in, which raises the question of whether the two Japanese stars are going to form an alliance outside of Damage CTRL (and have others join them), or if Kairi will join the group. Bayley has fumbled about in trying to help Iyo at times, so it’s possible the Genius of the Sky takes her leave of the group.

While the story of a stable having instability is way overdone in WWE, Damage CTRL is a group that might actually benefit from a shakeup of sorts.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.