Now, despite my intense and still-complicated feelings about Becky Lynch’s return on Night 2 of WrestleMania 41, I can still acknowledge that Lynch is “The Man.” Regardless of the backstage drama (if there is any in the first place), I’m cautiously enjoying Lynch’s current heel persona (and, obviously, for a Becky Lynch stan, it *is* good to have her back on my television screen). However, when Lynch and WWE Women’s Intercontinental Champion Lyra Valkyria came to verbal blows on Monday’s episode of “WWE Raw,” I found myself enjoying Valkyria’s mic work a lot more than Lynch’s, and that’s saying a lot.

Lynch opened up her promo segment on Monday’s episode by addressing the Bayley-sized elephant in the room. After leading the Kansas City crowd on with some pretty neutral speech, she loudly and proudly confessed that she was the one who attacked Bayley backstage. Honestly, on the surface, it was a pretty funny moment. With the typical backstage attack angle, you’re looking at a few weeks of “who dunnit” programming — take, for example, Naomi’s attack on Jade Cargill. While there’s nothing wrong with that booking, it is pretty funny for Lynch to come out and so joyously, so proudly proclaim her guilt. For lack of better terms, it slayed. I support women’s rights and women’s wrongs.

All joking aside, Lynch’s mic work was good as always — great, even. However, it did feel a bit too inauthentic, too inappropriately-placed, too Bayley-forward, considering her feud partner is supposedly Valkyria. This could have very well spiraled into a Hate, but Valkyria’s presence, however, saved the segment from the wrath of this news writing nerd.

Valkyria isn’t exactly known for her mic work, but with Monday’s segment, there was just so much passion in her promo that, once she got her footing, I found myself hanging onto every word she said. I found myself rooting for Valkyria — I found myself paying more attention to Valkyria than Becky! While she might be the logical option to rally behind as the babyface in this feud, it’s hard to get the crowd to back you over someone as acclaimed as Lynch. Valkyria managed to do it — “managed” being the operative word. It wasn’t effortless, and that’s its appeal. You could feel how hard Valkyria tried in this promo segment, and that effort enhanced the entire segment. It pulled us back to a Lynch/Valkyria feud, instead of a Lynch/Bayley feud. Valkyria’s grit made her words just so much more effective and engaging, and it resulted in a super authentic character that managed to outshine “The Man’s” polished and experienced performance. Valkyria seriously impressed me tonight.

I get that this feud is not the end goal for Lynch (it’s probably just to hold us over until Bayley and Lynch at SummerSlam), but I’m honestly super excited to see where they take this feud. Valkyria is really starting to blossom as a “Raw” Superstar, and this program with Lynch can really give her the pressure she needs to make diamonds.

Written by Angeline Phu