7 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (Feb 21)

1. Belair, Lynch Light It Up

They never made physical contact, but Bianca Belair and Becky Lynch were a hot rivalry Monday night.

Belair was basking in her Elimination Chamber win, setting her up for her second consecutive WrestleMania title match, and she delivered an impassioned promo about being the “hardest” working woman in the back, basically taking back the narrative of the past six months after losing her SmackDown Women’s Championship to Lynch in 26 seconds.

Becky was all too eager to bring up that title win, as well as WrestleMania 35, but she then declared she was the victim in this situation, as she was The Man… until she showed up at SummerSlam and beat Bianca, and then fans turned on her. She blamed Belair for this and pledged to destroy her at Mania.

Then Bianca had her match against Doudrop, and they had another solid bout between the two, but the story was Lynch on commentary, becoming more and more despondent as she watched her Mania opponent out-toughing Doudrop. She recoiled at Belair suplexing, powerbombing and then nailing the KOD on her larger opponent, the latter of which caused Becky to toss her headset and jump on the table to hoist her title.

It was a perfect little segment, with Becky as the paranoid, insecure champ who is clearly doubting herself against a stronger opponent but hiding behind bravado. Give this match 15-20 and let them let it all hang out.