9 Ups And 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (May 18)

by Scott Carlson

1. Asuka Shows No Fear

Nia Jax Asuka Raw
WWE.com

New Raw Women’s Champion Asuka wasted no time in erasing any doubt that she was now officially a babyface.

The Empress of Tomorrow celebrated her title win Monday night, thanking Becky Lynch and basking in being a Grand Slam Champion (NXT, SmackDown, Raw and WWE Women’s Tag titles). But her celebration was cut short when Nia Jax came out and noted that Lynch was simply out on maternity leave, and Asuka lucked into the “greatest temp job” ever.

Thankfully, this didn’t turn into Jax being a dominating challenger who beats up the new champ, as Asuka attacked and knocked Nia out of the ring. Later, Jax attacked Kairi Sane, prompting Asuka to hunt her down and drop her with a head kick.

Jax will likely get a chance to get revenge next week, but the Empress needed to come out of the gate looking strong, which she definitely did going after Nia.

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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.