Lyra Valkyria continues to be consigned to an afterthought since what should have been a star-making performance.
On Monday’s episode of Raw, the Irish-born superstar ate the pin in a Women’s Money in the Bank qualifier against Sol Ruca and Maxxine Dupri. The finish came when Valkyria hit Dupri with the Night Wing, only for a returning Bayley to pull the referee out of the ring. The distraction allowed Sol Ruca to hit Valkyria with the Sol Snatcher and pin her to qualify.
This marks the second straight time Valkyria has been pinned since defeating Bayley on Saturday Night’s Main Event XLV in July. More importantly, and depressingly, it marks yet another instance of WWE failing to correctly capitalize on her momentum.
To properly understand how it got to this point, it helps to understand Valkyria’s WWE career thus far.
The former Aoife Valkyrie joined the promotion in 2020 and soon became one of the more successful carryovers from the now-defunct NXT UK offshoot. During her stint in developmental, she won the NXT Women’s Championship, notably defeating Becky Lynch to do so, and held it for over five months.
Valkyria’s gimmick was that of a traditional Celtic warrior who would invoke the Morrigan (an Irish goddesss of war) in her promos. This no-nonsense personality was a stark contrast to more bombastic characters like Jacy Jayne, and it would carry her over to the main roster.
Upon arriving on Raw in 2024, Valkyria got a major push, making it to the Queen of the Ring final and qualifying for the Women’s Money in the Bank match. In early 2025, she won main-roster gold for the first time in her career — the inaugural Women’s Intercontinental Championship.
Unfortunately, the limitations of the Morrigan-inspired babyface character became apparent, especially when compared to inaugural Women’s United States Champion Chelsea Green over on SmackDown. While Valkyria put on decent matches, cementing herself as an in-ring workhorse, her promo and character work were found to be rather lacking.
Not even a feud with Lynch could bolster Valkyria’s momentum, and she ultimately lost their big match at SummerSlam. She spent the rest of the year, and much of the build to WrestleMania 42, meandering in a tag team with Bayley. Together, they failed to win the Women’s Tag Team titles, then Valkyria snapped, viciously attacking Bayley.
Now, this begs the question: what should have happened with Valkyria after her heel turn? Here is an idea.
First of all, keep that SNME win. It was the perfect in-ring introduction to the new Valkyria: brooding, unhinged, ready to snap at a moment’s notice. What changes, however, is what happened after.
As seen on the German wrestling aggregator website Cagematch.net, Valkyria competed on Main Event on the same day Raquel Rodriguez won the Women’s Intercontinental title off of Ruca. That is completely unacceptable. Instead, Valkyria should be the one doing the deed.
Valkyria then wins a rematch against Ruca. After that, out comes Iyo Sky, who is reeling from failing to win the Women’s World Championship off of Liv Morgan. These two have a banger, which ends in the champion retaining.
Monday’s events play out the same way mostly as they did in real life, but there is one change. Bayley does not just remove the referee; she goes straight for Valkyria and initiates an arena-wide brawl. The referee returns just in time to see Ruca hit the Sol Snatcher on Dupri.
That is the problem largely solved. Ruca still gets to qualify for a big match, while Valkyria and Bayley now have a bigger reason to go after each other. Besides, it could also tie into speculation that “The Role Model” might leave WWE once her contract expires.
Make the match Career vs. Title. If Bayley wins, it means she will probably get a lucrative new contract that may have some incentives, including a possible transition to coaching. If she loses, it means she will probably follow her best friend Mercedes Mone to AEW.
The mishandling of heel Valkyria is just one of many mistakes that WWE has made when it comes to booking the women’s division.
Sticking to Raw, another blunder happened later on Monday when Morgan retained the Women’s World title against Stephanie Vaquer in the main event. With WWE ending a four-day tour of South America in Chile this Saturday, surely having Vaquer win would have boosted ticket sales there. It would also have led to a fun match with Lynch, with the build properly beginning with a promo exchange in Mexico, where Vaquer made her name.
Over on SmackDown, Blake Monroe is supposed to be one of the brand’s female faces. Instead, she has been reduced to backstage brawls with Giulia without having even a match. That is shocking booking for someone who had one of wrestling’s greatest rivalries against Toni Storm in AEW.
Speaking of Giulia, she was supposed to be America’s next big joshi crossover success. Instead, she has eaten pins at the most opportune of times, severely damaging her stock. One can only wonder whether she should have aimed for AEW instead, given the success her former sidekick Thekla is having there.
WWE’s women’s division has always been known to be among the deepest in the world, if not the outright deepest one. Alas, creative blunders like what Valkyria has been made to endure continue to prevent them from realizing their potential…
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