RAW Women’s Championship Match
Alexa Bliss (C) vs. Nia Jax
The Reality: Probably some combination of The Dream and The Hope, with an uneasy feeling that The Nightmare might occur at any time.
Though there was always the fear that this could turn into Alexa somehow winning despite the obvious power — and offensive skill — advantage Nia has, but they managed to never quite get to the point where Nia winning wasn’t inevitable (though maybe another three or four eyepokes, who knows?) or Mickie appeared to be breathing.
It also feels important to mention that while Alexa’s body shaming of Nia played a major role in the narrative — especially during the post-match commentary — it didn’t overshadow Nia’s accomplishment in any way. She didn’t get this victory *because* she was bullied, but because she was capable of overcoming her bullying by tapping into her inner strength. Saying what you will about how they got there — and I’m sure people more qualified than me already have — that they satisfied both the utility of this feud as a real tool in their campaign against bullying and our thirst for comeuppance against the bully in the first place was a real accomplishment.
Alexa also deserve an enormous amount of credit as well, both as a “fighting” champion and as someone willing to carry the weight of being a shitty person, especially to someone she genuinely cares a great deal for in real life. It can be hard to be a terrible, hateful person, especially when dealing with the kind of issues that this match addressed. She, along with the Miz, has truly come to symbolize the need to have people in narrative for whom we can generate legitimate dislike and this feud was the apex of that so far.
Alexa’s career, at this point, has reach such heights it’s hard to assume she’ll see anything but a slight decline in her status going forward until Ronda and Charlotte have run through their respective rosters, but for Nia, her only limitation (for the next few months at least) will be her ability to consistently deliver matches that are safe for both her and her opponents, which hasn’t been a problem to this point.
Match: +.7
Show: 4.7
