6 Ups And 7 Downs From WWE Raw (July 6)

by Scott Carlson

1. Asuka, Bayley Bring The Goods

Remember when it was a rare occurrence for a women’s match to main event Raw? When the announcers would hype it as a big deal?

Well, Asuka and Bayley had themselves a damn fine main event champion versus champion match Monday night. The two battled back and forth, with Bayley being the vicious heel who relied on Sasha Banks’ interference to help gain control, while Asuka delivered the crisp, stiff shots to come back.

And this wasn’t just some champ versus champ match. Mixed into this match were several different storylines, including Banks challenging Asuka for the Raw Women’s Championship at Extreme Rules, Nikki Cross (who was on commentary and later in the crowd providing a distraction) facing Bayley for the SmackDown Women’s Championship at the PPV, and the Kabuki Warriors challenging Bayley & Banks next week for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship.

That’s a lot of stuff going on, and yet it all worked really well. It was a rare confluence of angles that actually weaved together and played off each other nicely.

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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.