7 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE Raw (18 April - Review)

1. Stuck In Second Gear

Bianca Belair
WWE.com

Our very own Dadley Boys love to point out that Bianca Belair is special and should be treated as a special attraction rather than a regular TV wrestler week in and week out, and that really looked to be the case Monday night.

The Raw Women’s Champion battled Dakota Kai in a pretty simple, straightforward match on Raw, though they moved tentatively for the first segment, with Belair dominating early on. Things moved along at a pedestrian pace, not offensive at all, but not a standout performance either.

Naturally, the EST toppled Kai by dodging her running kick and nailing the KOD. It was about the only thing to really pop the crowd, waking them up from their snooze. It was the most obvious conclusion to a match we saw this week, and that was even with the rest of Damage CTRL at ringside.

Belair looked to be wrestling at half-speed, which isn’t true, and it’s not like Dakota isn’t capable of a fast-paced, action-filled match. It felt like they had time to fill and were told to keep it simple, so that’s what we got.

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Contributor
Contributor

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.