7 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Raw (Mar 22)

3. Peyton Hangs With Asuka

Peyton Royce Asuka
WWE.com

Dear WWE, we’re not asking for four-star matches and huge pushes for every superstar on the roster. But what you did with Peyton Royce on Monday night is a nod in the right direction.

Royce emerged from obscurity on Monday night to challenge Asuka to a non-title match and actually hung with the Raw Women’s Champion, countering some of her signature moves and absorbing others. Peyton hit her Widow’s Peak variant and a diving double stomp among her offense, and she managed to get a couple of rollups for near-falls.

No one was seriously buying Royce as winning at this stage, but showing that she wasn’t a pushover and capable of competing helps bolster the women’s division. It’s far easier to build someone up when they’re competitive than to have a division with only 2-3 superwomen and a bunch of jobbers.

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Contributor
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.