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

3. All This To Set Up A Nattie Return?

Horrible name aside, it’s admirable that Triple H is trying to do something constructive with Sonya Deville, Shayna Baszler, and Zoey Stark. But Pure Fusion Collective does not feel like the threat they make themselves out to be.

Shayna’s match against Zelina Vega was decent enough, with Vega using quick attacks and then trying to evade Baszler. In the end though, the numbers game once again caught up, and Zelina fell to the Submission Magician (via pinfall, oddly enough).

Afterward, Lyra Valkyria ran down for the attempted save, but she also was overwhelmed and left laid out in the ring. Backstage, they revealed the big move for how they were going to combat Pure Fusion Collective: with Raw in Calgary next week, Lyra hinted at evening up the numbers, which heavily implied that Natalya would make her return.

Nothing against Nattie, but if the big angle to take on this baddie trio is a makeshift group of Zelina, Lyra, and Natalya, then this is DOA. PFC was being set up to take on Damage CTRL, so this would most likely be a pit stop for them, meaning Nattie would get a hometown pop and then be cannon fodder.

Worse, this would be yet another setback for Lyra after such a promising start this spring. She has become a non-factor in recent months, serving as an extra body to put over midcard heels who will lose to bigger stars.

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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.