7 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (2 Dec - Results & Review)

Ups…

7. Women’s Triple Threat Surprises

WWE Raw Shayna Baszler Dakota Kai
WWE

On paper, Dakota Kai versus Shayna Baszler versus Katana Chance sounded like an exercise in how quiet an arena could be for a match. But the Women’s Intercontinental Championship tournament match managed to succeed by avoiding pitfalls and not overstaying its welcome.

Rather than falling exclusively into the trap of the old WWE triple threat trope of “one person gets tossed to the floor and the other two wrestle, then switch one out,” they weaved in a few fun spots and kept the action going, particularly coming out of the commercial break.

They subverted the typical Tower of Doom spot by having Baszler punch Chance down, only for Kai to shove Shayna to the mat. Then Katana hit a Frankensteiner to send Dakota crashing down on top of Baszler. They cycled through a series of impact moves and pin attempts before Chance hit a 450 splash to break up a Kirafuda Clutch, but she fell victim to a Kai GTK for the pin.

This was nowhere in the ballpark of the men’s IC title triple threat, but the women kept it lean and full of action, and fans reacted accordingly, so that’s a win.

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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.