5 suggestions for improving the Raw women's division

There's no question that Raw's women's division got hit hard by last week's superstar shakeup. While SmackDown's tag team division was rocked by the loss of The Usos and being unable to claim another top team in return, no division in the company became as depleted as Raw's women's division after last week, with the blue brand gaining Ember Moon, Bayley, and Kairi Sane, while Raw gained only Naomi in return. Meanwhile, Ronda Rousey is gone for the foreseeable future and Nia Jax is out for a year with an injury.

Becky Lynch will appear on the show and will probably move there permanently soon, but as of now, only she and Alexa Bliss are big stars in that division.

With Becky Lynch about to have a feud with Lacey Evans that probably won't set the world on fire, WWE needs to address this problem. Once an afterthought, women's wrestling is now an integral part of the programming, and the combinations currently available in that division probably won't do much to retain viewers.

Here are five things the company can do to make the division more enjoyable and save it from what looks like a coming dark age.

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#1 Put the tag team titles on Asuka and Kairi Sane

This needs to happen for the sake of the titles anyway, lest they become permanent jokes right out of the gate in the hands of the IIconics. However, it needs to happen for Raw's sake, too.

The women's tag team champions get the privilege of traveling between brands. Asuka and Kairi Sane would thus be able to travel to Raw and feud with teams there, despite SmackDown being their home brand. This would be a crucial boost to a thin Raw division, as Asuka and Kairi would easily be able to improve the match quality in the division, while Paige would be able to help get feuds over.

Asuka, Kairi, and Paige being able to appear on Raw frequently would paper over many weaknesses.

#2 Turn Alexa Bliss babyface

Dominant for so long, Alexa Bliss now suddenly finds herself in a weird position. With the appearance of Lacey Evans on the scene, she is no longer Vince McMahon's highest priority. There are questions about her injury history now, too, and whether she'll ever be a full-time competitor again.

Alexa Bliss can use this as an opportunity to revamp her character. Her heel act got stale long ago and needs changing. People would cheer for her if given the opportunity, and with Lacey Evans now suddenly the top "heel diva," Alexa Bliss is redundant. A babyface turn would allow her to fill a new niche and reinvigorate her character, all the while likely making her matches better. She would use more moves and wouldn't dominate for most of her matches, which was always jarring to see.

Becky Lynch and Alexa Bliss as the top babyfaces in the raw division would make for a popular combination.

#3 Push Ruby Riott

Now that the Riott Squad is dead, its leader has the opportunity to show how much better she is than the role that she was given. Ruby Riot will never be a constant main event presence, but she's a solid hand who the company can do much more with than what they were doing with her.

Lacey Evans is entirely unproven at the mome (her match with Natalya last week certainly wasn't a good start) and the Raw women's division will need more than one formidable heel, anyway. Rebuilding Ruby Riot and pushing her to a place of some prominence would help to anchor the shaky scene.

Whether she and Sarah Logan still team together (the division certainly needs more tag teams) or whether she goes on her own way, Ruby Riot can fill in and hold down the mid-card in the Raw division at a moment's notice.

#4 Beg Sasha Banks to come back

Given how badly the division was gutted, it's more obvious than ever that it needs Sasha Banks. She's (as of now) the only member of the four horsewomen and former NXT Women's Champion still remaining as a full-time member of Raw. The quality of work in the ring that she does won't be able to be easily replaced by the other women currently in the division, that's for sure. WWE needs to get out of its own way and address her concerns.

And by the way, turn her heel!

Much like Alexa Bliss, Sasha Banks needs a character turn. She's always been better as a heel, and with the Lacey Evans experiment already off to a poor start, a heel Sasha Banks is a ready-made top star in the division.

Heel "boss" Sasha Banks vs. Becky Lynch would be an instant money match for SummerSlam.

#5 Call up Shayna Baszler

This has been overdue since last summer, but somehow, it still hasn't happened. Shayna Baszler has more than overstayed her welcome in NXT and the current depleted state of Raw's women's division just makes it more obvious than ever that now is the time for the "submission magician" to make her way up to the main roster.

Shayna Baszler is a ready-made top heel and would be an instant threat to Becky Lynch and her Raw Women's Championship. That's another money match waiting to happen, even without counting the Ronda Rousey hook that would be involved in it.

For the sake of both the yellow and red brand's women's divisions, it's time for Shayna Baszler to drop the NXT Women's Championship to Io Shirai and make her way to Monday nights. Her arrival could potentially be one of the most memorable call-ups of all time.