7 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (8 May - Results & Review)

2. Rhea The Badass

Rhea Ripley
WWE.com

The easiest way to continue the very real perception that Rhea Ripley is a dominant champion is to have her go out there weekly and dismantle an opponent. Period.

Just 48 hours after toppling hometown hero Zelina Vega in Puerto Rico at Backlash, Ripley was on Raw demolishing Dana Brooke like she was cannon fodder. It was a great little piece of business, as Brooke is little more than a jobber with a name. There have been literal no-name wrestlers who have gotten more offense on WWE programming in the past five years than Dana did Monday night.

But that really is fine, as Rhea tapped her out, then laid Brooke out again with a Riptide and hooked in the Prison Lock a second time until Natalya sauntered down for the save.

A Nattie/Rhea feud is a fine program for the SmackDown Women’s Champion going forward, as we know Neidhart can handle herself in the ring and will give Ripley a really good, physical match, further building her legend. If WWE wants to build to an epic showdown between Ripley and Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 40, then squashes and programs like these will only help.

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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.