7 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (1 December - Results & Review)

DOWNS…

5. Good Production Values, But…

If an art student were critiquing the Maxxine Dupri training montage, this probably would be a positive item.

The black-and-white vignette featured Dupri getting her a** kicked while training with Natalya (who seemed to finally bring her “Nattie” persona from the independents to WWE). Nattie kept demanding Maxxine go again, and when she tapped out, Neidhart slapped her and told her to get out of her ring.

Dupri responded by demanding to go “again,” eliciting a smile from Nattie.

This was a well-produced video, but is anyone buying Maxxine – who has barely been able to get through a match without the wires being completely exposed – is suddenly going to become a mat tactician after training for a couple of weeks? No matter how good the video is, at some point, the bell is going to have to ring, and this version of Maxxine will be nowhere to be found.

They almost would have been better served to have done a more low-production segment with Dupri training and working on holds while Nattie critiques from the apron and tells the camera that people are going to be surprised when Maxxine gets back to Raw. But hey, if they can capture lightning in a bottle with Dupri again, more power to them. Call this a very mild “down.”

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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.