Photo by WWE’s Twitter
The Jan. 14 edition of WWE Raw was an important show regarding the upcoming Royal Rumble pay-per-view with a major matchup getting a makeover of sorts.
Last night’s WWE Raw saw the Universal Championship match at the Royal Rumble undergo a major change along with several other noteworthy moments along the way, including a title change.
New faces also appeared on Monday night for the first time in what could become a permanent destination in the near future. With that being said, let’s take a look at five key takeaways from the Jan. 14 edition of WWE Raw.
5. Nikki Cross Needs To Be On SmackDown
The WWE has been preparing fans for the main roster debuts of several NXT standouts for a couple of months now. With the turn of the new year, it felt imminent that these debuts would happen sooner rather than later, and that came true last night.
Each superstar that was being advertised for a debut made a brief appearance last night, but the one that stood out the most was Nikki Cross. Cross was one of the most unique characters in NXT and her main roster debut was sought-after by the WWE universe, and the fans got to see her compete alongside Bayley and Natalya last night against The Riott Squad.
As expected, Cross had an impressive performance and helped her team get the win over the trio of Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, and Sarah Logan. However, the bigger question is what show will Cross end up on, Raw or SmackDown? It was announced last night that these new debuting superstars would be on both shows initially just to show what they have, so it’s still unclear who will be on what.
Cross needs to be on the blue brand, there’s no doubt about it. It would just be difficult to find her a purpose on Monday nights, which would lead to irrelevancy quickly if the WWE doesn’t handle things appropriately. If she ends up on Tuesday nights, she could do much more given the talent on the brand. Not to mention, Cross could reunite with SAnitY as well, which could be the perfect move for both sides of the equation.
Not that Cross wouldn’t be able to make a splash on Raw, but it feels like a home on SmackDown makes more sense for her main roster debut.