4 Ups & 5 Downs From WWE Raw (15 December - Results & Review)

DOWNS…

5. …And Then The Bell Rang

The Maxxine Dupri training montages in the Dungeon received high praise for being slickly produced and conveying strong emotions. But the looming criticism was always there that, eventually, Dupri would need to get into the ring, and unless she had been holding back for the past six months, the house of cards was going to fall apart.

Monday night, Dupri stepped into the ring against former friend Ivy Nile to defend her Women’s Intercontinental Championship for the first time. There really was no mystery here: Nile hasn’t had a televised singles match since June and hasn’t won a TV match since October 2024. There was naught chance she was going to upset Maxxine, but that’s not entirely a criticism; you need to have those churn title defenses every now and then.

The match itself, however, was disappointing, with Dupri out of place a few times and struggling through some sequences. When she wrestled a veteran like Becky Lynch, those mistakes were minimized on the fly. It’s no knock against Nile, but it’s not fair to expect her to be able to cover up those shortcomings as well as Lynch.

Eventually, Maxxine hooked an ankle lock and kept reapplying it until Ivy finally tapped out.

While this wasn’t that good, it’s somewhat admirable that WWE is sticking with Maxxine Dupri and trying to make it work, because she’s getting a decent reaction, and her Cinderella story is a rare instance where the company is just leaning into a feel-good story and letting it ride.