8 Match Star Ratings For WWE Royal Rumble 2020
4. Bayley Vs. Lacey Evans - SmackDown Women's Championship Match
An uneven match, it at least evidenced that the decision to turn Lacey was the correct one; she's still far, far from complete as a pro wrestler, but her raw, impressive athleticism - witnessed early with a nice, vaulting elbow drop - is more engaging than watching her work a basic hold in the customary, limited WWE heel vein.
Bayley is more proficient, obviously, but isn't interesting as a heel, and her heat spot wasn't interesting nor particularly convincing. She suckered Lacey into it by feigning a knee injury, grunted as she threw some strikes, shouted at somebody or other at ringside, and ground down the pace to very little reaction. The inevitable chinlock happened, and it was somehow worse than boring, because, following agent instructions, she shook her head from side to side as if to display anxiety at the show of support. It was largely silent in the stadium, highlighting what a patterned and ho-hum match this was.
It was also repetitive; Bayley applied three chinlocks in as many minutes. Comeback, cut-off, mimicked pose taunt, missed move, feeding the real comeback; this was the sort of match an agent phones in deep into RAW's second hour.
Heel grabs the tights, "wins" indecisively as rematch pretext, few if any react.
End scene.
Star Rating: ★★