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The May 6th edition of "WWE Raw" saw the opening rounds of both the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments as WWE builds towards their next big Premium Live Event of the same name on May 25th. Two matches that took place featured superstars who had been recently called up from "WWE NXT" in Ilja Dragunov and Lyra Valkyria, with Ilja Dragunov picking up the win over WWE Speed Champion Ricochet, while Lyra Valkyria defeated Dakota Kai, who was filling in for the injured Asuka.
During a recent episode of "Busted Open Radio," Bully Ray looked back on both of these matches and stated that he enjoyed the match between Ilja Dragunov and Ricochet, highlighting why the ending was special. "He didn't get off of him to try and cover him and hook a leg, he didn't go into a normal pinning predicament, he stayed laid out over the top of Ricochet, almost too exhausted to do a traditional cover, but laid just enough weight on him to get the three count. S**t like that sticks with me, I loved it," declared the Hall of Fame.
Bully Ray was the one who announced during the WWE Draft that Lyra Valkyria got called up in, so he was excited to see her on a bigger platform. However, he admitted that she needed to flesh herself out more to get the crowd behind her. "Too soon? Yeah, could be, maybe. If you listened to the crowd last night they weren't very invested in Lyra Valkyria and Dakota Kai, there wasn't much there. I think the effort was there, I think Lyra Valkyria definitely has to be carved out a little more."Â
Ilja Dragunov will face Jey Uso in the quarter-finals, while Lyra Valkyria will face Zoey Stark on the May 13th edition of " Raw."
Thank you to "Busted Open Radio" for the transcription.
Photo Credit: WWE
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