Welcome one and all to the RAW RECAP presented by THE REVELLEUTION! The Royal Rumble event is just days away and without any title matches on the event, the only bout for the women will be the all-important Women’s Royal Rumble Match. Will we see anyone get an upper hand going into this Saturday? And what’s next for the Women’s Tag Team Championship division with the current champs Carter and Chance set to defend against The Kabuki Warriors on Smackdown this week? Let’s get into it, and find out…
RHEA RIPLEY was backstage with The Judgement Day, and she called out the recent failures and weaknesses of her boys to keep them all in line.
JACKIE REDMOND interviewed IVY NILE and MAXXINE DUPRI in the Gorilla position just before Nile’s match. However, Nile barely got a word in when Durpi cut in to hype up Nile and The Creed Brothers did the same before Nile stopped them all and vowed that she would get that ‘barefoot freak’.
Singles Match
IVY NILE w/h MAXXINE DUPRI defeated VALHALLA
Nile hoisted Valhalla onto her shoulders but Valhalla escaped, raking the face before she got tossed over to take a kick from Nile. NIKKI CROSS was seen in the far distance at the top of the aisle just wandering about. While Valhalla roughed up Nile on and through the ropes with clubbing blows. Leading to a running Forearm shot on the outside before Valhalla briefly applied a fish hook.
Nile came back with strikes and an Enzigiri after Valhalla ducked a kick. Nile hit a couple more strikes then a Headscissors Takeover. Valhalla hit a Pop-Up Headbutt but when she tried to use the ropes to aid the pin, Durpi yelled about it. That distraction to yell out at Dupri meant Valhalla missed a Knee Strike to the corner. Moments later, Nile hit a Super Bulldog that she calls The Pitbull to get the win.
NIA JAX went to the ring for a promo. The crowd bombarded her with ‘What’ chants as Jax tried to claim any opponent like Rhea Ripley and Becky Lynch were afraid to face her and she’d kill any WrestleMania dreams. BECKY LYNCH of course came out to interrupt and mocked that Jax finally “had something new to talk about for the next five years” after beating her a few weeks ago. Pointing out that Jax had the biggest target on her back because the entire locker room hates her and threw in a line that Jax had injured half the roster.
Smackdown’s BAYLEY made a surprise appearance and taunted both women that they’d both lose at the Rumble. Bayley vowed to win, but when she entered the ring she just took a cheap shot at Becky Lynch. Jax tossed Bayley and went after her before Lynch got some shots on Jax. It lead to Bayley taking a Man-Handle Slam before Jax snuck up from behind and tossed Lynch over the top rope (because, you know, Rumble eliminations) before she hit a Legdrop to Bayley. Jax stood tall and taunted while Lynch fumed from the aisle.
Maxxine Dupri briefly showed up during an ‘earlier today’ video with The Alpha Academy.
Valhalla would appear to cause a distraction when Chad Gable was about to defeat Ivar, leading directly to Ivar getting the win for payback for last week’s distraction loss that Ivar suffered.
Tag Team Match
SHAYNA BASZLER & ZOEY STARK defeated CANDICE LERAE & INDI HARTWELL
Baszler and Stark didn’t get a televised entrance. KATANA CHANCE and KAYDEN CARTER watched the match from ringside. Baszler and LeRae started off, with Baszler easily tripping up LeRae and taunting with a scrape of the boot to the head. Baszler did it again after backing LeRae into a corner but got a little too cocky as she missed a corner charge, leading to LeRae (after a pause like she wasn’t sure what to do) doing a trip of her own.
LeRae hit a hat trick of Arm Drags before Stark tagged in. Hartwell did the same and got the better of Stark, setting her through the ropes to hit the combo of a European Uppercut then a Boot to the head. LeRae tagged in off the bounce off the ropes for the boot, and used a hand from Hartwell to walk the top rope and hit a Headscissors to send Stark off the apron and into Baszler with a Con Hilo!
After a commercial break, Hartwell countered a springboard by Stark into a Spinebuster. CHELSEA GREEN and PIPER NIVEN were shown watching the match from backstage. Baszler and LeRae both got tags, with LeRae hitting strikes to set up a wild Basement Single Leg Dropkick. LeRae cut off Stark and hit her with a Glimmering Warlock. Soon after LeRae hit the two-for-one to hit a Codebreaker on Stark and a Senton to Baszler. Stark broke up the pin but she managed to deck Hartwell with a Superkick before LeRae tossed her out.
Baszler locked in the Kirifuda Clutch but backed herself towards her team’s corner so Stark could make a blind tag. LeRae didn’t see it, so when LeRae reversed the Clutch to apply a pinhold it left her open for Stark to scoop her from behind. Hitting the Z-360 to get the win.
After the match Carter and Chance stared down with their potential next challenges but Baszler and Stark backed away with grins. The reason being ASUKA and KAIRI SANE, and Damage CTRL hype woman DAKOTA KAI, attacked their opponents for this coming Smackdown. Standing tall over the downed champions to taunt them.
Backstage NATALYA and TEGAN NOX confronted Damage CTRL about their actions. Adam Pearce showed up to get Nox and Natalya to leave after the shouting match that followed, and reprimanded Damage CTRL for causing chaos. Dakota Kai mocked Pearce, telling him to go complain to Smackdown GM Nick Aldis while Bayley told Pearce to get used to seeing them when the Warriors become Tag Champs this Friday.
A match graphic for the Women’s Royal Rumble still only listed four women so far as officially confirmed for the Rumble – Bayley, Becky Lynch, Bianca Belair and Nia Jax.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
While some people like the element of the unknown with not knowing who all will appear at the Rumble, it’s still rather boring to only have a small number of women promoted as being winners and official entrants. Why bother with a whole match if there’s only four top names who could win? Just make a Fatal Four-Way in that case! We can only hope the actual Rumble match delivers a lot more entertainment than the weak hype the WWE has given it so far. And this weeks’ short segment, even with the surprise of Bayley, didn’t help things much either.
Elsewhere, Nile versus Valhalla was thankfully short and painless. Dupri seems to be moved back to simply a manager role but we’ll see if anything more comes from her. Stark and Baszler got a solid win but whether they get a tag title shot is another story with Double KC defending against Asuka and Sane which could see a title change. We’ll wait and see on that front.
That’s your lot for this week! Be sure to stop by in seven days’ time for the post-Rumble edition of the RAW RECAP! See you then!