And Then There Were Eight

The countdown to Raw's debut on Netflix has reached the home stretch. We are now less than a month away from the momumental episode of Raw, which will air on the first Monday of 2025, and will take place at the Intuit Dome, the newly opened arena in Inglewood, California that hosts the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers. As WWE prepares for that moment, they are also preparing to crown two midcard champions in the Women's Division. The Women's United States Championship chase is almost over, but the one involving the Women's Intercontinental Championship is barely underway.

The tournament started on December 2, and the first of the four Quarterfinal matches saw Dakota Kai defeat Shayna Baszler and Katana Chance. Strangely, the latest edition of Raw saw the Semifinalist in action against Women's World Champion Liv Morgan, a match that Dakota lost, and she was later attacked by all three members of Pure Fusion Collective, who had been targeting Dakota for weeks.

Speaking of PFC, let's talk about the group's leader, Sonya Deville. I said in my last recap of the first Quarterfinal that I found it very strange that two members of PFC are in the tournament, but the leader isn't. I wasn't the only one. Sonya herself wondered why she wasn't in the tournament, and in her rant, she stated that she put out four-star matches constantly. Haters had the gall to belittle her injuries and absences, forgetting that Sonya was actually stalked and pursued by a deranged fan! My goodness. But yeah, Sonya should have been in this tournament somehow, but it is what it is.

The second Quarterfinal later took place on a night full of amazing Women's Division action, and in this go-around, it was Lyra Valkyria vs Ivy Nile vs Zelina Vega. All three women are absolutely amazing as hell; Lyra Valkyria absolutely showed out on NXT and got the nod from The Man herself, Becky Lynch, leading to a great run as NXT Women's Champion. Entering the tournament, Zelina Vega was my pick to win this whole thing, because a) the IC title reminds me of some of the Latinx wrestlers who held the title in WWE's history--Pedro Morales, Rey Mysterio, Carlito, and of course, the late, great Eddie Guerrero. Plus, WWE owes Zelina, a former Queen of the Ring and former tag champ. Ivy Nile's the wild card in this; she's still a bit fresh off her heel turn and alignment with the American Made faction, and this match was made because Zelina and Ivy had been going at it in recent weeks.

Ivy showed out in the bout for sure, and I was really hoping Zelina would take this, but it ended up being Lyra Valkyria who won and advanced. I knew Ivy wouldn't win; again, she's doing the whole bad-ass villainess thing with American Made, so that's good enough at the interim. This was really between Lyra and Zelina. I felt Zelina needed this just a bit more, but Lyra advancing is awesome, too. Part of me wonders if WWE's trying to make it up to Lyra for losing Queen of the Ring. Here's hoping that after all of the dust settles and we do have a Women's IC Champion, Zelina gets pushed to that title soon.

So I didn't really hear any clarification about which Quarterfinal will take place on the next Raw, but an exclusive segment saw Lyra confronted by the Unholy Union (Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn), with Alba Fyre boasting that her Quarterfinal match would take place in two weeks. Based on that, we should get Zoey Stark vs Raquel Rodriguez vs Kayden Carter on the next edition of Raw, followed by Alba's match with Kairi Sane and Natalya on December 23. The final Raw of 2024 should feature both Semifinal matches, opening the door for the Final to take place on that anticipated Raw premiere on Netflix on the first Monday of 2025.

Should be very interesting to see what happens in this chase to crown WWE's first ever Women's Intercontinental Champion. I know this much, this tournament and the Women's U.S. Championship Tournament have both been epic so far!