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RAW HITS
Ambrose Saga: Most of the Hits could have been Misses this week (and vice-versa). I could pick apart aspects of the Hits and find some good in the Misses too. I’m not giving the opening segment a Hit or a Miss, but part of it was folded into this Hit for what they did with Dean Ambrose throughout the show. I didn’t like Roman Reigns’ promo when The Shield came out to talk. The Seth Rollins part was better. Dolph Ziggler really did a nice job of starting the idea that Ambrose should quit the Shield. He gave a good promo trying to convince Ambrose that he doesn’t need Reigns and Rollins, but they need him. This was the start of the theme that connected the show together from start to finish. Again, you had Reigns’ terrible mic work saying to stop bumping your gums which was a terrible line. But after that opening, the theme continued nicely throughout the show with multiple backstage encounters. The best was when Rollins tried to do the same to Drew McIntyre, convincing him that he was being used by Ziggler. That sets up some intriguing possibilities going forward for the heel trio. The main event played into it as well, culminating with Ambrose staying with The Shield. But, will it last? I do wish that some seeds had been planted for this before this one show.
Tag Team Title Match: Shouldn’t The Revival have been given some mic time to talk about getting a Title match against Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre? They lost a Title opportunity because they were attacked backstage by Ziggler & McIntyre and taken out of the match. They haven’t had a chance to address that. What does getting the Title match mean to them? What would getting revenge on them mean? If you want them to be the babyface for this one match, shouldn’t you do something to make them connect with the audience before the match. Going into it, the lack of hype made me expect a quick squash. Instead, we got a very good and competitive 12 minute match. It is a testament to The Revival and their skill in the ring that they could start out with an indifferent audience and end up getting big pops for near falls when they almost won and a “This is Awesome!” chant. So this was clearly a Hit, but could have been so much more.
Shield vs. Corbin & AOP: As I said above, the main event played nicely into the story of what Ambrose would do in terms of staying with the Shield. The announcers did a nice job of discussing the various aspects of the angle during the match. Renee Young has been better lately, but I still think she’d be better doing play-by-play instead of color. The six man tag match was also just a good match. It had good wrestling action. It was fun to watch. I appreciated getting a chance to see the Authors of Pain in a main event, mixing it up with the top stars on Raw. I don’t like having them managed by Drake Maverick (I will talk a lot about character inconsistency this week). He isn’t the same character as he plays on 205 Live at all. And their manager should be doing more talking for them which he hasn’t done a lot of. But as I said, I did like having them in this match. They looked good and were protected since Baron Corbin took the pin fall.
RAW MISSES
Mixed Match Challenge: The problem with the Mixed Match Challenge is that it is ultimately a meaningless tournament, trying to get a bigger audience through Facebook, but it is hurting Raw and Smackdown. It is hurting the consistency of the characters. With Evolution coming up, Alicia Fox’s time on Raw should be leading to something for that PPV. Having her randomly teaming with Jindar Mahal for the MMC and in his corner for the match against Finn Balor here on Raw doesn’t do anything for Evolution. Some of the teams make sense like the smiley Balor and Bayley, or R-Truth and Carmella who have become a duo on Smackdown. But, what about The Miz and Asuka? Asuka should not be happy teaming with Miz. It goes against her character. The MMC muddies the waters of the characters and storylines of the important shows and the promotion of it takes time away from more important things on those shows.
Bellas & Natalya vs. Riott Squad: I appreciate the fact that The Riott Squad got the win here. I was impressed with how Ruby Riott seemed to take control of the match after Liv Morgan got concussed (as I said above, I could find some good things in the Misses). But, you could tell right away that Morgan was concussed from that kick from Brie Bella. The fact that the officials would let her get back in the ring after that is very negligent. It was uncomfortable to watch. The match after the commercial was solid to good and had the right winner, but it was still a Miss.
Connor’s Cure Segment: I called this Miss “Conor’s Cure Segment” because I don’t want to give a charity that helps fight pediatric cancer a Miss. WWE does good things for charity like Conor’s Cure, Be a Star, the Special Olympics and Make a Wish. But, it is hard to smile and go along with these segments when Stephanie McMahon (the person, not the character) has said on Twitter that philanthropy is for marketing purposes (that isn’t a direct quote, but the gist of what she said). The segment also fits in with the major issue of character inconsistency that WWE has right now. Triple H and Stephanie were playing different roles here than they did on other parts of the same show. Why not have some sort of brand ambassador like Big Show do this? Or just have Stephanie and Triple H as babyfaces all the time. There’s a novel idea. Another issue is that this is a wrestling show. Even if I thought WWE was altruistic with these charity endeavors, I wouldn’t want to see so much of it on Raw. A short video would be fine, but taking such a long time on the show takes me out of the show. I want to see wrestling matches on a wrestling show (another novel idea). Give me promos, interviews and backstage segments that build to those matches. I hate to sound jaded, but I don’t want to see these long charity segments on Raw.
Gable Loses to Konnor: I haven’t commented on the new team of Chad Gable and Bobby Roode as I haven’t been totally sold on it, but haven’t had a problem with it either. I have been taking a wait and see approach. At least they’ve been giving Gable some wins lately in tag matches and singles matches against The Ascension. He has so much talent and can be used much better than he has been, and seeing him get the recent wins has been nice. Unfortunately, he lost this match to Konnor who I don’t think has gotten a win on the main roster. That killed Gable’s momentum and credibility.
DQ Finish for Lashley vs. Elias: Inconsistency is a big theme for WWE. We’ve seen so many wrestlers at ringside getting caught cheating by tripping someone and getting kicked out of the ringside area by the referee. They cheat. They get caught. They get kicked out, but there isn’t a disqualification despite their purposeful cheating. Here at the end of a good match between Bobby Lashley and Elias (a Hit worthy match that ends up a Miss due to the terrible ending), Kevin Owens accidentally runs into Lashley at ringside while chasing Lio Rush. Why was that a DQ? It is particularly annoying when so many wrestlers purposefully cheat in similar situations and don’t cause DQs. They just get ejected. So why did Owens get DQd instead of being ejected? And once again, I have to point out the inconsistency of Rush’s character between Raw and 205 Live. He’s a natural heel and really good in that role, so this role just doesn’t make sense to me.
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 9/17: Corbin vs. Reigns for Universal Title, Drew vs. Dean, Rousey’s Open Challenge, Undertaker, Crown Jewel, Ziggler vs. Rollins
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