8 Ups And 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (July 20)

Downs…

4. A Farewell Gift For Kairi?

Kairi Sane Raw
WWE.com

We’re hesitant to give negative marks to a good wrestling match, which Kairi Sane and Bayley delivered Monday night.

Sane battled through an arm injury to reverse a Bayley-to-Belly attempt with a rollup for the surprise pin, dampening the spirits of the Golden Role Models. It was great to see Kairi show some of the fire and skill that made her a favorite in NXT but never quite blossomed on the main roster.

However, it’s tough to be glowing about this item if the stories about Sane leaving WWE very soon are true. Some reports state that Monday was actually her last day with the company, meaning that next week’s episode, which was also taped Monday, would be Kairi’s last.

So why give Sane a win over the reigning SmackDown Women’s Champion on her way out the door, especially when it hasn’t been announced ahead of time? She could have had a really competitive match and still lost cleanly and there would have been no shame in that.

This isn’t like when Dean Ambrose left and the Shield reunited and won a couple matches to close out their chapter. Sane is supposedly leaving WWE and pinned a women’s champion clean. Unless Bayley extracts revenge next week, it’s just a baffling decision. Good match, confusing booking.

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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.