A WWE Hall of Famer has come to the defence of Aliyah after the star came in for some criticism online.
On the August 29th edition of Monday Night Raw, Aliyah and Raquel Rodriguez were crowned Women’s Tag Team Champions. The win came in the finals of a tournament to determine new champions after the belts were vacated following the May walkout of former champions Naomi and Sasha Banks.
The pair defeated Shotzi & Xi Li in the first round before dispatching Natalya and Sonya Deville in the semi-finals. On Raw, the duo upset Dakota Kai and IYO SKY to claim the gold.
Despite the win, Aliyah has been repeatedly criticised by some fans online. When it was put to Booker T on his Hall of Fame podcast that Raquel Rodriguez should win the titles on her own, the veteran defended her tag team partner. Booker said that he had actually been impressed by Aliyah.
“I’m going to tell you, man, Aliyah is a diamond in the rough. She’s young, she’s got a lot of years in the business, she’s talent. She’s a looker too. When she comes out of the curtain, boom, it’s all eyes on Aliyah. And what she’s shown me in the ring, I’ve been impressed with her,”
“I’ve been impressed with her to not go out there and screw it up. When she goes out and performs in the ring, you can be rest assured… When I watch somebody work, I look for the little bitty things, I look for if they’re going to go out there and put themselves in a position to screw up. And that’s something, when I watch Aliyah, I don’t see that.”
Following her victory on Raw it has been reported that Triple H has big plans for former NXT Women’s Champion Raquel Gonzalez.
H/t to Sportskeeda for the transcription.