Former Intercontinental Champion turns heel for the first time ever on WWE RAW

On the June 22 June episode of WWE RAW that emanated from London, England, we saw a shocking heel turn of a former Intercontinental Champion for the first time.

It was the opening match of the night after an intense segment between Oba Femi and Jey Uso. Paige and Brie Bella put the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship on the line once again. Two months into their reign, the veteran duo have turned out to be one of the strongest and most impressive tag team champions the division has seen in a while.

They have taken on all comers and have virtually eliminated every tag team in the division, barring a few. Either way, their trajectory has been upward. This week, they had to defend the Tag Team Title against the duo of Lyra Valkyria and Bayley. Before the match, in a backstage interview, Valkyria was visibly shaking with both nervousness and excitement. You could tell on her face that she thought this was the moment.

Unfortunately for Lyra Valkyria, putting all the weight of those emotions turned out to be a bad idea, as Paige and Brie Bella would end up retaining the Tag Team Championships anyway after the former Divas Champion pinned Valkyria, who nearly picked up the win moments earlier. After the match, Lyra Valkyria turned heel for the first time on WWE RAW despite Bayley trying to cheer her up. Lyra would send Bayley neck-first into the rope and launch a full-scale assault.

It’s an interesting change of trajectory for her. She hasn’t had the same luck since her Women’s Intercontinental Championship reign ended last year at the hands of Becky Lynch. She is free to challenge for the title again, but Sol Ruca has been on fire on RAW. Overall, things haven’t gone her way for a while, and that’s perhaps the reason why the frustrations mounted up the way they did.

Either way, it’s an interesting direction for Valkyria to take for the first time in her WWE career, as she had never been a heel on NXT, either, let alone on RAW.