7 Ups & 3 Downs from WWE Raw (19 May - Results & Review)

1. Contrivance City

In theory, dropping Roxanne Perez into a triple threat against solid veterans like Becky Lynch and Natalya should have been a can’t-miss proposition for the Prodigy’s first official night on the Raw roster.

In execution, the match was an all-miss affair.

That’s not entirely fair - the match, with a Money in the Bank ladder match spot on the line, showcased Perez multiple times, and she drew some chants in her favor from the raucous crowd - but the women badly botched a handful of spots, while several other three-woman sequences were so ridiculously contrived that you couldn’t just see the strings, you could see the puppeteer manipulating the strings.

There was a sequence where Becky slid outside off a Nattie Irish whip, and Roxanne clearly was supposed to charge into the ring immediately after, but she was on the floor, with Lynch calling on camera for Perez to get in there for the next spot. Later in the match, Nattie was trying to German suplex Becky out of the corner, but Perez slowly climbed up top to set off a Pop Rox/German combo that looked awkward.

And the finish itself, with Lyra Valkyria interfering to attack Becky, was clunky. Perez badly botched Pop Rox on Natalya to get the pin. All around, this was bad on its face. And yet, fans were still cheering and chanting along as if nothing was wrong.