A driven, determined Liv Morgan wasted no time taking the fight to Raw women's champion Becky Lynch from the opening bell. She delivered a springboard Codebreaker, fought Big Time Becks around the ringside and had the champ reeling with the Rings of Saturn submission. 

After a gorilla press slam from the top rope appeared to awaken her to the reality of her situation, Lynch downed Morgan and seized control of the bout. The challenger fought back and delivered a springboard dropkick that flattened the champion.

Lynch answered with a Disarmer, but Morgan fought out and delivered a DDT for a close two-count. She added a jaw-dropping springboard sunset flip powerbomb for another near-fall as the commentary team questioned what the challenger needed to do to win the match and title.

Lynch missed a leg drop from the top rope, and Morgan delivered a missile dropkick. The champ rolled to the floor, though, preventing a pinfall. When the challenger added a crossbody through the ropes onto the floor, Lynch again rolled to the sanctuary of the floor. There, she bashed Morgan's face in the commentary table.

Morgan recovered, stuck Lynch's arm in the stairs and stomped away on the limb. Back in, she caught the champion in a Rings of Saturn until Lynch rolled her up for two. The babyface set up for Oblivion, but Lynch countered and drove her into the mat for the clean pinfall victory.

Lynch defeated Morgan to retain

Everything was in place for Morgan to complete her childhood dream and capture the Raw Women's Championship. The build was there, there was a clear groundswell of support for her to capture her first title and the match unfolded in a way that suggested the story would get the appropriate payoff.

Then it didn't happen.

Instead, WWE opted to further enhance a star who has been on top of the division since WrestleMania XXXV. Lynch won cleanly, without a single hint of cheating. She absorbed everything Morgan threw at her and still picked up the win.

While there is nothing wrong with a champion outwrestling her or his opponent en route to a win, the storytelling clearly set up something else rather than Morgan's latest failure. No stars will ever be made by constantly failing to win titles. By the time they do, people stop caring or grow bored.

Ask Lex Luger.

Morgan should have won, even if she dropped it back in short order. It would have preserved her popularity, freshened up Lynch's persona for a bit and set up one last showdown between the competitors before WrestleMania. 

As it is, look for Bianca Belair to challenge for the title next.