How Lacey Evans Is Beating Becky Lynch at Her Own Game Early in WWE Raw Feud

Lacey Evans is off to a great start on WWE Monday Night Raw.

She is a heel for the social media age. She's charismatic, mean and infuriating. And she's beating Becky Lynch at her own game, not by one-upping Lynch's Twitter trash talk, but by undercutting it. She's getting under the skin of opponents and fans by placing herself "above it all."

When Evans started regularly appearing on Monday Night Raw, she garnered heat by teasing a debut that never happened. Her music would hit, and Evans would walk out to the ring, dressed to the nines. Then, she would walk back up the ramp, smirking, and go back behind the curtain.

The first couple of times, this was intriguing, partially because it was new. But by the time we had reached the third or fourth week of this, it began to irritate. Then it became more intrusive; she would do her runway schtick in the middle of someone else's match instead of at a natural breaking point.

Our popular culture is one of immediate gratification, and by continually delaying her debut, Evans played against the expectation of "right now."

When she finally did something on the Raw after WrestleMania, it was also anti-climactic. She didn't have a full match; instead, she walked down the ramp and delivered a single, cowardly right hand to Becky Lynch's face.

She did the same thing the following day. And again a couple of weeks later.

Aside from her qualifying match against Natalya, which she won to earn her title shot at Money in the Bank, she's shown us little of her ringwork.

The average fan, who doesn't watch NXT, still doesn't know what she's capable of, or even if she is capable. Again, it's delayed gratification, for the purpose of frustrating fans.

It also builds anticipation for her eventual confrontation against Becky Lynch. Too many marquee PPV matches are spoiled by multi-person tag matches on the shows leading up to them—by lesser versions of the matches that we actually want to see. But this match is in a black bag; you'll have to pay money if you want to see it.

Lastly, Lacey Evans' social media game is perfectly tailored to deflect and counter Lynch's offense. Her hashtags, like #NoNasties and #LikeALady, are tailored to her snobby character. Whereas Lynch continually touts herself as one of the people, and uses the word "we" when referring to her accomplishments, Evans is a genteel snot, who spends her time insulting her fans' appearances on Twitter

As for her fellow competitors, she's not going to go for the personal, worked shoot attacks, because she's "better" than that. She's winning the race to the bottom by refusing to engage in it.

She is masterful at this sort of tweet, which is the textual equivalent up turning up one's nose:

She does something subtle and difficult here: She puts Becky over by conceding how hard she's worked to get to her spot, while also advocating for herself as a heel.

And when Becky gets extremely personal...

Evans dodges the insult entirely by saying this:

It's probably not a coincidence that Becky has spent more time in the past week going after Bayley and Charlotte Flair than Evans—Lynch can't win a Twitter war with someone who refuses to engage on her terms.

And the more Lynch tries, the more desperate she appears. When she implied that Lacey slept her way to her title contention spot in a recent promo, it felt awkward and misplaced. Meanwhile, Evans continues to gain additional ground by only attacking what's in front of her.

Barring some short-sighted booking decision, Lacey Evans will not (and should not!) win the Raw Women's Championship at Money in the Bank. It is much too early for that; Evans is too green, and she needs a lot more polish and in-ring experience before she can be trusted to carry the red brand by herself.

But she's given herself all the hype and buzz she needs to fuel herself for the next several months. So long as she continues picking her spots as well as she has thus far, she has a promising WWE career to come.