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Stephanie’s Announcement – HIT: Stephanie McMahon can play a babyface, or just a down-the-middle authority figure. That’s how she came across here. She wasn’t a heel which was good. She simply came out, cracked an April Fools joke, and made the big announcement that both the Raw and Smackdown Women’s Championships would be on the line in the main event of WrestleMania. It was short and to the point which was the way to go here.
Rollins, Lesnar, Heyman – HIT: The promo from Paul Heyman about Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar was strong. It wasn’t Heyman’s best work, but it was still good. Rollins was also good in his interruption. It was cool to see him just talk to Lesnar’s face. Lesnar was great in reacting to everything that Rollins was saying. The fans certainly responded well to it and were clearly behind Rollins with strong “Burn It Down!” chants.
Low Blows – MISS: The physicality that occurred at that point wasn’t as good because of the low blows that Rollins used to get the advantage over Lesnar. That isn’t a babyface move. That isn’t something that the fans should cheer for. As the announcers pointed out, Rollins won’t be able to do that in the match itself, so why should a Rollins fan be excited about Rollins getting the upper hand over Lesnar? His explanation afterwards wasn’t really an explanation. Those low blows weren’t needed and they made Rollins look bad.
Banks, Bayley, Phoenix, Natalya vs. IIConics, Jax & Tamina – HIT: This was a pretty good 8 woman tag. The women teased tension with their partners which made sense given that they will all be opponents at WM. This was clearly a chance for Beth Phoenix to shine. She looked good in the match. She got to be the alpha and look like a Hall of Famer. Of course, this points to the fact that she & Natalya will not win on Sunday. Since they won’t be winning then, WWE wanted to give her a chance to stand tall and hit her finishing move and get the win here.
Batista – HIT: This was a strong segment highlighted by the very good video package that Batista showed of him dominating Triple H in past matches with the mantra about how Triple H has never defeated him repeated throughout. That was a strong statement for Batista to point out how he has never lost to Triple H. He got in one strong line at the end which was all that was needed from him. The build to this match has been Hit or Miss for sure, pretty much on an every other week basis. It was good to end on a Hit, but I’m still not really looking forward to the walk and brawl that we are going to get.
Mahal vs. Crews – MISS: This did nothing to make me care about the Andre the Giant Battle Royal at WM. The match was short which is the only saving grace here. The brawl that broke out with the C list wrestlers didn’t make me excited to see them again. Braun Strowman is the only big star from Raw in the battle royal. The battle royal is only being built on the idea of the two Saturday Night Live stars Colon Jost and Michael Che being involved with him. There isn’t anything else to help with the hype and this didn’t help.
Angle Video – HIT: That was a great video package highlighting Kurt Angle’s WWE career. There were many great moments included. They had a nice balance of his in ring work and career accomplishments with the more goofy character stuff that he did. I suspect we will see it again at WM.
Three Women Interviews – HIT: The three backstage interviews with Charlotte Flair, Ronda Rousey and Becky Lynch about their six woman tag against The Riott Squad were all very good. Each of them played their role very well. The interviews fit their characters perfectly. They were effective in hyping that match while also looking ahead to their WM main event.
The Revival vs. Black & Ricochet – HIT: I didn’t like the fact that this match happened at all. This could have been saved for the Raw after WM. Aleister Black & Ricochet have been undefeated since getting called up from NXT. They are in the Tag Team Championship match at NXT Takeover on Friday, so they should not have lost before that. I know that it was a count out loss with some cheating from The Revival, which makes it better. But, I still wouldn’t have done it. However, the match was very good. These are two talented teams who work well together. It was exciting. It was fun to watch. It was certainly Hit worthy from a wrestling action stand point, but it should’t have happened.
Reigns – McIntyre – HIT: This was a case where a big WM match didn’t get a lot of time on this final Raw before the biggest show of the year. But, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes less is more. This was a good short interview with Roman Reigns before Drew McIntyre attacked him and beat him down. WWE continues to push McIntyre as a strong unbeatable heel while making Reigns the underdog making his comeback. It was simple and effective.
Crazy Brawl – HIT: There are some legitimate criticisms of this crazy brawl between Ronda, Charlotte and Becky. It was unbelievable in a lot of ways. The cops didn’t look like real cops. There is no way even fake cops would put Becky and Ronda in the same squad car. All three would be facing some serious felony jail time after assaulting police officers, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, destruction of property, etc. This just wasn’t believable and I don’t care. I loved every second of it. The wrestlers were intense. Their hatred for each other clearly showed in the brawl. Even though it made no sense to have Becky and Ronda in the same car, the moment when they looked at each other before starting to kick each other was great. I popped when Ronda accidentally kicked out the window. I popped when she somehow managed to slip into the driver seat and drive the car into the other one. I popped when Charlotte kneed Ronda’s head off. I enjoyed it despite (or maybe because of) how over the top and cartoonish it was.
Heavy Machinery vs. Roode & Gable – MISS: This is the very definition of a filler match. If there are still fans or people in WWE who don’t think Raw is too long at 3 hours, please look at this match. If you can’t fill 3 hours of the LAST Raw before WRESTLEMANIA without this type of 100% MEANINGLESS filler, then your show should not be 3 hours. PERIOD.
The Demon – MISS: There hasn’t been any real storyline reason for why Finn Balor would be The Demon at WM against Bobby Lashley. WWE hasn’t told that story. The basic story to explain it was that there had been rumors that The Demon would return at WM, Lashley responded to those rumors that he wasn’t afraid of The Demon, and then Balor confirmed that he would be The Demon. That was the entire story. It was also so cheesy how he transformed on the screen from Balor to Demon. That was a terrible moment.
Mysterio vs. Corbin – MISS: After the brawl, the final hour of Raw was really bad. I can’t imagine a more flat finish to the go home Raw before WM than this boring match between Rey Mysterio and Baron Corbin. I think everyone expected a shorter match with some type of surprise at the end of the night, but that didn’t happen. This wasn’t a good match. It didn’t get me excited about WM at all. Mysterio shouldn’t be losing to Corbin right before taking on Samoa Joe for the United States Championship at the PPV. I mean, how are we supposed to take him seriously as a challenger for Joe when he couldn’t beat Corbin? Of course, considering how poorly Joe has been booked the last few weeks, it doesn’t really matter. I just can’t imagine who thought it was a good idea to end this show with this match.
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
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