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The May 6 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 25. Two matches that took place featured stars who had been recently called up from "WWE NXT" in Ilja Dragunov and Lyra Valkyria, with Dragunov picking up the win over WWE Speed Champion Ricochet, while Valkyria defeated Dakota Kai, who was filling in for the injured Asuka.
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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 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.
Ray was the one who announced during the WWE Draft that Valkyria got called up in, so he was excited to see her on a bigger platform. However, he admitted that she needs 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 and Dakota, there wasn't much there. I think the effort was there, I think Lyra definitely has to be carved out a little more."
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Dragunov will face Jey Uso in the quarter-finals, while Valkyria will face Zoey Stark on the May 13 edition of " Raw."
Please credit "Busted Open Radio" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
