7 Ups & 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (10 Jan)

2. Arriving At Something Different

Doudrop Becky Lynch
WWE.com

Hats off to WWE for doing the smart thing in preserving the Bianca Belair/Becky Lynch WrestleMania rematch without damaging the EST Monday night.

Belair was in a triple threat with Liv Morgan and Doudrop for a title shot at the Royal Rumble, and the question was how they’d have Bianca lose without making her look bad. They did the smart move, with Belair hitting the KOD on Liv, but then Becky jumped into the ring and pulled her out, pummeling her in the process. This allowed Doudrop to take out Morgan and pick up the win, earning a title match at the “premium live event.”

So now, Belair has a very legit gripe as she presumably enters the Rumble to earn a title shot that Lynch can’t take away, and if she wins, it sets up a great program for Mania. If not, they’ll have to find a different way to get there.

But this was well done, the match was fine, and Doudrop hopefully will get to shine… and then change her damn name.

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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.