9 Ups And 7 Downs From WWE SummerSlam 2021

4. Good Match, But Doesn’t Matter

With a better storyline and likeable characters, the Raw Women’s Championship match could have been an easy “up” here.

The match itself was really good – particularly the second half – but it was impossible to get into this match when you’ve got Charlotte Flair, Nikki A.S.H. and Rhea Ripley, and you don’t know who to root for. Flair was obviously the heel, but Ripley is only now slowly rehabbing her massively botched run as champion, and Nikki has been a bad comedy character who lucked into the women’s title.

And really, all of this bad storyline just led back to where we were a month ago: with Charlotte as the Raw Women’s Champion once again. It’s as if they needed to do something with the women’s Money in the Bank briefcase and fill a month of stories, so they just booked this mess, ending right back where we started. Joy.

It really is a shame, because all three women delivered in the ring Saturday night, and it’s difficult to give them a pass and ignore the crappy storytelling and poor character development. Oh, and we now have to hear about Charlotte’s 12th title reign. Yippee.