WWE Raw Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for May 1

State of the Women’s Division

Man, Alexa Bliss is so so so good.

So many of the other women competitors in WWE – if not all of them – are seemingly incapable of deviating from a scripted promo. They all follow what was written for them verbatim, and can’t ad lib to respond to crowd reactions.

But not little Miss Bliss. Alexa can read a crowd better than 90% of the roster, male or female. Her ad-libs and improvisations sound more natural than the stilted dialogue of, say, Sasha Banks.

The kind of Women’s Division round table segment that kicked off tonight’s Raw was laid out perfectly. Even better, it didn’t feel like it went on for too long. My biggest complaint? Here’s literally the entire Women’s Division in the ring to kick off Raw, which means – aside from the inevitable atomicos match coming up – this is all we’ll get from the women tonight.

If that’s the case, it’s an A+ way to build the division. Clear battle lines are drawn – Bliss picks on all the faces (except Dana Brooke because LOL) to set up possible matches. And even Bayley gets some sadly needed character development. Normally, I’d think Bayley taking the first shot was the most anti-Bayley thing possible. But anyone who’s gone through a public school education knows: if you needle the quiet, goody-two-shoes kid long enough, they’re gonna explode. It’s how they put up defenses to avoid bullying – show they’ll stand up for themselves. Here, it works perfectly.

And of course, it sets up a match, because Kurt Angle went to the Theodore R. Long School of Pro Wrestling General Managers.