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RAW HITS
Rousey-Bliss: This is a minor Hit. Alexa Bliss doing her trolling, this time in her home town, is getting old. If she were the only one in WWE to do the pretend to be a babyface only to be a heel in the end bit, then I might be ok with it. However, that is Elias’ gimmick, and Carmella does it frequently on Smackdown, and we’ve seen The Miz do it recently too. The match between Bliss and Natalya was good, but too short. I do appreciate WWE trying to make Bliss look like she can actually hang physically with Ronda Rousey. Having her get the strong win with the arm bar was the right way to go. The physicality at the end with the heels jumping Rousey and using their numbers game to get the advantage worked well. Rousey tossing Alicia Fox around is one of my favorite things to see in WWE. That gave Bliss the chance to get the better of Rousey for awhile. But, it seemed like a mistake to have Rousey able to fight back this week. If they were trying to sell Bliss as a physical threat to Rousey, then they made a mistake with the end of the segment, which takes it down a little, but it was still overall pretty good. The backstage bit later with the Bellas was just sort of odd. I’ll wait and see where they go from here with that.
Michaels-Undertaker: Shawn Michaels wasn’t great on his own when he first started out his promo about the upcoming Undertaker vs. Triple H match. It wasn’t quite as focused as it should have been, but it was ok. The Undertaker’s interruption was a great surprise. He was very effective in his words, and Michaels’ performance was elevated at that point. His emotional promo about staying retired out of respect for Undertaker was very well done. I liked how he incorporated the “One More Match” chant into it. So many younger wrestlers who are used to memorizing their promos aren’t able to handle things like that, whereas a great veteran who is used to improvising in the ring was able to handle it perfectly. The final words from Undertaker about Michaels staying retired because of fear, not respect worked very well and then allowed him to put the focus back on Triple H. This made fans more excited about a possible Michaels vs. Undertaker match at WrestleMania than they were at seeing Undertaker vs. Triple H. Time will tell if they actually go that route. If they do, I think Undertaker has to win in Australia.
RAW MISSES
Opening Segment: This heel version of Braun Strowman wasn’t great in week 1 after the turn last week. Part of the problem is that Strowman was reasonable in his actions. He tried to cash in Money in the Bank, but The Shield heelishly saved Roman Reigns. So, why wouldn’t he want to get back up to counter Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose? He picked jerks, so that makes him a heel I guess, but his promo wasn’t a heel promo to me. It hasn’t been a good storyline leading to this opening segment which is part of why this segment wasn’t good either. The Shield coming out and inciting the brawl was ok, but I’m not a huge fan of these locker emptying bits.
Bellas vs. Riott Squad: This is a minor Miss. I actually think the Bellas looked good for the most part in their first match back in a long time. But, there were two botched attempts by Brie Bella to dive through the ropes. I think the first was actually Sarah Logan’s fault. I got the feeling that as Brie went to do the dive, she realized that Logan wasn’t close enough to the ropes to counter the move as she was supposed to do, so she sort of stopped and went awkwardly into the ropes. Regardless of fault, it was ugly. And then when she actually hit the dive later in the match, she came up short and it looked scary. There were certainly things to like about the match and the Bellas got a very strong reaction, but it felt a little too long. I also question Riott Squad losing, or not getting heat after the match. If we are getting the Bellas & Rousey vs. Riott Squad at the Australia show, then the Bellas needed a reason to have a tag partner. I get wanting them to get the win, but then have Ruby Riott enter at that point and have the three on two beat down to set up the idea that they would need to find a partner down the line.
Ziggler & McIntyre: I am fine with Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre becoming the new Raw Tag Team Champions. It makes a lot of sense and it is nice to see a serious team holding the Title instead of the joke (albeit a fun joke) team of the B-Team. However, this made the Revival look terrible. Ziggler & McIntyre basically announced to the entire world that they were going to attack the Revival to take them out of their Tag Team Title match, and they did. Revival should have been on high alert at that point so they looked stupid for letting Ziggler & McIntyre get the jump on them. Another big problem is that the announcers, particularly Michael Cole and Renee Young (she was pretty bad on this show) didn’t put heat on the heel duo for how they got into the Tag Title match. Where was the outrage for their actions? They were praised for making their own opportunity. How are heels supposed to get heat?
Drake Maverick: The Authors of Pain have missed Paul Elering as part of their act since being called up to the main roster. They need a mouthpiece and Drake Maverick is certainly a good talker. However, this pairing didn’t work at all. It was totally against Maverick’s character as the General Manager of 205 Live. He’s been such a good act there and a big part of why that show has been so much better over the past 6 months or so. But, how am I going to react to him as a babyface authority figure on Tuesday night after he’s been a heel manager on Monday night? It might work if AOP were babyfaces as they were towards the end of their NXT run, but they are clearly heels when they take part in the end of the show beating of The Shield. AOP need a manager, but Maverick isn’t the one.
Bayley & Banks vs. Brooke & Moon: This match featured three very good to great wrestlers, and Dana Brooke. Brooke isn’t bad, but she is clearly behind the other three in terms of in ring skill. So, it was very odd to see the other three basically taking a back seat to Brooke’s storyline of getting frustrated at the clashing advice she keeps getting from Titus O’Neil and Apollo Crews. The break up of Titus Worldwide isn’t nearly interesting enough to make the other three take a back seat. At least Bayley and Sasha Banks got the win. Ember Moon was totally lost here. It was just an odd match to have in the first place.
Owens Returns: One week after quitting in a very intriguing moment, Kevin Owens returned in a moment that wasn’t intriguing at all. This was a disappointment. We aren’t getting an Owens babyface turn which seems needed at this point. If WWE wants to keep Owens a heel, then why have him attack a lukewarm babyface like Bobby Lashley? At least it ended the terrible Jinder Mahal meditation segment, but having Owens return one week after quitting, not get any mic time, to just attack a random babyface was a terrible way to follow up on this storyline.
End of the Show: Did The Shield steal a police van? How stupid was that? They were out on bail or released on their own recognizance, both of which were said by Corey Graves – but, aren’t those things contradictory? I thought if you were let out on your own recognizance, you didn’t actually have to post bail. Either way, it seems like stealing a cop car would land them back in jail. It wasn’t needed. The main event between Strowman and Finn Balor was fine, but the fans were flat. They didn’t seem like they wanted to boo Strowman. The beating from the heels called into question the entire babyface locker room. We may get an explanation next week, but for now it made the faces look bad. The Revival would have had enough time to recover at that point. Wouldn’t they want to come out for revenge? Wouldn’t The B-Team want to also? Wouldn’t Lashley want to attack Kevin Owens who led the charge? I can maybe get behind the idea that the babyfaces don’t like The Shield, but those other questions are legit. There were certainly memorable spots in the beat down, but over all this was poorly thought out.
For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell’s views to mine by visiting ProWrestling.net’s “Hitlist” section HERE.
Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com’s WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw and Smackdown each week. Email him at jmezz_torch@yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @JonMezzera.
NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: WWE RAW HITS & MISSES 8/27: Triple H-Undertaker videos, Rollins vs. Owens, Trish Stratus, Strowman’s heel turn, Corbin as Acting G.M.
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