Liv Morgan pinned Chelsea Green on Monday Night RAW, giving The Judgment Day a victory in a wonderfully chaotic six-woman tag team match. Yet with WWE Crown Jewel approaching, the result might have told us less about who the better champion is than WWE would like us to believe.
The Judgment Day defeated Chelsea Green, Tiffany Stratton and Iyo Sky on Monday Night RAW at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York.
Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez emerged victorious after Morgan struck Green with her Oblivion finisher, securing the pinfall just five days before the two women’s champions meet at Crown Jewel.
A fairly straightforward outcome, then.
Except, after watching this match twice, I am beginning to suspect straightforward is the last word I would use to describe it.
There were dives, powerbombs, questionable alliances, three championship holders on one team and another three women who appeared determined to make the closing minutes as difficult to document as humanly possible.
At one point, I genuinely couldn’t keep up with what was happening.
Three Women Pointing at their Heads and Screaming. That’s Professional Wrestling.
Before anyone threw a punch, we got one of my favourite little moments of the evening.
Iyo Sky made her entrance alongside Chelsea Green and Tiffany Stratton, with both women joining her in performing that wonderfully ridiculous signature point-and-scream gesture.
There is something rather charming about three wrestlers, whose individual ambitions could scarcely be more different, temporarily agreeing that pointing dramatically towards the heavens is an excellent idea.
Because it is.
And professional wrestling is better when it remembers that.
The gesture also provided a lovely contrast to the uncertainty surrounding this particular partnership.
Green is the WWE Women’s Champion, preparing to face Morgan. Stratton possesses the Money in the Bank briefcase and therefore has a contractual opportunity to insert herself into the championship picture whenever she chooses.
Meanwhile, Sky has her own business with Rodriguez and the Women’s Intercontinental Championship.
These women aren’t necessarily friends. They’re colleagues with overlapping enemies.
For one evening, however, they appeared perfectly happy to share an entrance routine.
Chelsea Green Pledges Allegiance. Raquel Rodriguez Has Other Ideas.
Tiffany Stratton and Roxanne Perez began proceedings, an interesting pairing considering their respective histories in NXT and their subsequent trajectories across WWE.
However, Rodriguez soon entered the contest, bringing a completely different physical presence.
When Chelsea Green tagged herself in, she delivered her familiar pledge-your-allegiance taunt.
A splendid bit of nonsense from someone who understands that wrestling characters should occasionally behave as though the entire building exists exclusively for their benefit.
Unfortunately for Chelsea, Rodriguez wasn’t particularly interested in participating.
She intercepted Green and began imposing herself with a succession of power moves.
Morgan subsequently entered, introducing a slightly more personal dimension to the contest.
Rather than immediately trying to dismantle her Crown Jewel opponent, Morgan took the opportunity to embarrass her.
She stood on Green and flexed her biceps.
It’s a small detail, but an important one.
For all the discussion surrounding Liv Morgan calling Chelsea Green a joke, the champion’s behaviour suggested that she wanted Green to feel inferior before their championship meeting.
Morgan wasn’t simply trying to win an exchange. She was enjoying the opportunity to make Green look foolish.
There is a case to be made that this is precisely where Green becomes such an effective opponent.
Her character invites ridicule, but her career has been built around repeatedly demonstrating that ridicule isn’t the same as defeat.
And when Chelsea Green is given the opportunity to wrestle rather than simply provide the punchline, she can be remarkably compelling.
Three Dives, One Wonderful Sequence
Then everything became rather chaotic.
At first, I struggled to tell who was attacking whom, especially as the action split outside the ring.
A second viewing helped enormously.
Green launched herself through the ropes with a suicide dive, knocking down Morgan and Rodriguez on one side of the ring.
Stratton followed with a baseball slide, catching Perez.
Then came Sky.
From the top turnbuckle, Iyo launched herself towards the floor with a magnificent crossbody, taking out Morgan and Rodriguez.
Three consecutive attacks, each executed differently, each building on the last.
A lovely hat-trick of high-flying wrestling.
And then, because apparently the sequence wasn’t entertaining enough already, Sky performed her signature point-and-scream celebration.
Chelsea Green joined in.
Again.
I adore this stuff.
When discussing wrestling, there’s a temptation to focus exclusively on whether a move was technically perfect, whether a sequence advanced the narrative, or whether somebody’s shoulders were positioned correctly.
Those things matter, of course.
But sometimes a spectacular crossbody, followed by Chelsea Green enthusiastically impersonating Iyo Sky, is enough justification for spending your Monday evening watching six people fight.
Not everything requires an elaborate explanation.
Iyo Sky and Raquel Rodriguez Have Unfinished Business
Following the commercial break, Rodriguez was firmly in control of Sky.
This wasn’t particularly surprising.
Their rivalry has been developing for several weeks, with Sky recently finding success against Rodriguez and Perez.
The October 19 tag team victory and Sky’s subsequent pursuit of the Women’s Intercontinental Championship provide the context for what otherwise might have looked like another routine isolation sequence.
Rodriguez used her physical superiority to keep Sky away from her partners, while The Judgment Day worked together to maintain control.
Rodriguez’s presence is effective in these matches.
She doesn’t need to move as fast as Sky or Stratton. Her value comes from making their movement feel consequential.
A successful aerial attack against Rodriguez looks impressive precisely because bringing her down requires so much effort.
Eventually, Rodriguez missed an elbow drop.
Sky had her opening.
And with that came the hot tag.
TIFFANY STRATTON, the woman who won the Money in the Bank just a few weeks ago.
Tiffany Stratton Reminds Everyone Why She’s Dangerous
Stratton’s introduction immediately changed the pace.
Morgan was the first to take the heat, but Rodriguez soon discovered Tiffany wasn’t particularly interested in respecting the boundaries of their respective rivalries.
A springboard stunner against Rodriguez was especially enjoyable.
The move combines timing, athleticism, and just enough theatrical excess to feel distinctly appropriate for Stratton.
She also connected with a rolling Alabama Slam and a Swanton Bomb against Morgan, coming agonisingly close to securing the victory.
Yet Rodriguez eventually responded with a powerbomb.
Ouch.
Then came an attempted Twisted Vader Bomb.
Now we’re talking.
Recently, WWE’s women’s division has provided some genuinely interesting variations in offensive technique. Seeing less-used moves incorporated into otherwise conventional television matches is a welcome development.
Not every contest needs to resemble Godzilla flattening Tokyo, but there is something satisfying about wrestlers occasionally producing an attack that makes you reconsider what might happen next.
Both Stratton and Rodriguez struggled.
And in their respective corners waited two fresh competitors.
Chelsea Green.
Roxanne Perez.
What could possibly happen?
Chelsea Green and Roxanne Perez Nearly Steal the Match
Green and Perez received their tags and immediately accelerated the contest.
Chelsea found success with a succession of clotheslines, momentarily appearing to have the advantage.
Then Perez delivered Pop Rox.
Suddenly, everyone seemed involved again.
Bodies entered and exited the ring, attacks were interrupted, and whatever orderly structure the match had maintained began to disappear.
Eventually, Green and Perez were alone.
Chelsea connected with the Unpretty-Her.
One.
Two.
Rodriguez pulled Green out of the ring.
Of course she did.
It was an excellent near-fall, although I must confess the closing sequence became almost impossible to document in real time.
And perhaps there is a small criticism to be made here.
When so many significant moves occur within such a short period, individual moments can struggle to breathe.
A particularly impressive manoeuvre might receive barely enough attention before another wrestler arrives to deliver something equally spectacular.
For those of us who spend an arguably unreasonable amount of our free time analysing professional wrestling, this presents a minor problem.
For everybody else?
Well, I suspect they’re having a wonderful time.
And perhaps they’re right.
Liv Morgan Pins Chelsea Green, but What Does It Actually Prove?
The closing moments were tremendous.
After Rodriguez dragged Green outside, Stratton attempted to intervene with another diving attack.
Unfortunately, Rodriguez intercepted her and sent her crashing onto the announce table, and Stratton rolled off at considerable speed.
Then Sky returned.
She executed a hurricanrana that sent Rodriguez into the barricade.
Was it the cleanest execution of the move I’ve ever seen?
Not particularly.
Did it accomplish what it needed to accomplish?
Absolutely.
Morgan then struck Sky with a running dropkick, removing another potential obstacle.
And here is where the finish became particularly interesting.
Morgan tagged herself in without Green recognising what had happened.
Chelsea attempted the Unpretty-Her, but Morgan avoided it and sent her toward the ropes, where she collided with Perez.
Green turned around. Oblivion.
One. Two. Three.
Liv Morgan pins Chelsea Green. The Judgment Day win.
The finish was convincing because it relied upon Morgan recognising an opportunity rather than simply overpowering her opponent.
Green had been competitive throughout the contest, and her Unpretty-Her had already brought her within a fraction of victory.
But Morgan stayed alert, exploited the confusion, and delivered her finisher when it mattered.
Morgan’s victory accomplishes that without necessarily suggesting that Green is incapable of defeating her.
Indeed, there’s an argument that the match presented them as relatively equal competitors, separated by one moment of awareness.
For a champion-versus-champion encounter, that’s a perfectly reasonable position to occupy.
Six Women, Several Stories and One Very Busy Monday Night
What I particularly appreciated about this contest was its ability to accommodate several ongoing stories without completely sacrificing the wrestling itself.
Rodriguez and Sky continued their increasingly physical rivalry.
Stratton reminded everyone of her athletic ability, while the possibility of a Tiffany Stratton cash-in against Liv Morgan remains an uncomfortable consideration.
And Green? Well, Chelsea Green lost.
But she wasn’t humiliated.
She produced meaningful offence, participated in some of the evening’s most entertaining sequences and came remarkably close to pinning Perez.
Some will inevitably question the decision to have the WWE Women’s Champion take the fall immediately before a major championship encounter.
It’s a reasonable concern.
However, professional wrestling isn’t exclusively about protecting everybody from defeat.
Sometimes the more important consideration is whether a wrestler emerges from a loss with something worth pursuing.
Green now has a rather obvious reason to want revenge.
Morgan has an equally obvious reason to believe she’s superior.
And the audience has been given enough evidence to question whether either woman is entirely correct.
That is useful storytelling.
At times, the action became almost too frantic, particularly during the closing exchanges, but I would rather watch six talented performers attempt something ambitious than sit through a match that seems afraid to take any risks.
The Brooklyn crowd had plenty to enjoy, and so did I.
I particularly enjoyed the contrast between Morgan’s calculated arrogance and Green’s wonderfully theatrical personality.
Both women can be irritating in entirely different ways.
Both understand how to command attention.
And both have developed characters that extend beyond their respective championship belts.
The question now is whether their singles encounter can preserve that personality without relying upon the delightful chaos provided by four additional wrestlers.
Because on Monday night, Liv Morgan had Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez helping to create the circumstances for her victory.
At Crown Jewel, Chelsea Green will surely look for an opportunity to show she doesn’t need anybody’s permission to be taken seriously.
And if Tiffany Stratton decides that the championship picture needs another participant?
Well, that briefcase may become rather important.
For now, Morgan has the victory, Green has the grievance, and WWE has five days to convince us that what happened in Brooklyn was merely the beginning.
I suspect there’s still quite a bit to unpack.
