7 Ups And 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Sept 5)

5. The Road Less Traveled

nia jaxx anne esposito
WWE.com

The moment the announcers put up a Twitter graphic noting that jobber Ann Esposito was a friend of WWE superstar Alicia Fox, everyone probably assumed the same thing, but WWE was clearly just swerving us…

As Nia Jax made her way to ringside for her weekly local talent squash, the announcers flashed on the screen a tweet from Alicia Fox that she was proud of her friend Ann Esposito making her Raw debut Monday night. Of course, Jax trounced Esposito in a matter of moments, but it wasn’t the match fans were waiting on, it was the likely aftermath. Surely Nia would take liberties with Esposito after the match, drawing Fox out for the save and setting up Jax’s first feud/match against a “name” wrestler on the main roster.

But alas, Jax simply left the ring and the announcers switched gears. Just like that. Instead, we got a backstage segment with Nia confronting Alicia as she left the trainer’s room. And Foxy threw a temper-tantrum reminiscent of the crazy character she had in the pre-Team Bella days, throwing stuff and screaming. Because that’s what a strong female does in a women’s revolution.

There was a clear, easy way to book this, and while it was obvious, it would have worked nicely and everyone would have accepted it. Instead, WWE threw a curveball seemingly for the sake of doing it. That’ll teach us.

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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.