WWE RAW HITS & MISSES 8/2: The return of Orton, Styles vs. Orton, Drew vs. Corbin, Lilly the doll blinks, Priest vs. Morrison, MVP & Lashley talk Gage Goldberg, more

Opening Segment – HIT: I wish we had gotten an explanation as to why Randy Orton has been gone for 7 weeks. But once I get past that, this opening segment was a good way to restart the Orton-Riddle relationship while continuing to tease the possibility of Team RKBro taking on AJ Styles & Omos for the Tag Team Championship. It also set up the big Styles vs. Orton main event.

McIntyre vs. Corbin – HIT: I have enjoyed Sad Baron Corbin on Smackdown, so I was fine seeing him cross over to Raw for this episode to try to take out Drew McIntyre on behalf of Jinder Mahal. I’m still not a fan of McIntyre’s sword, but at least he wasn’t trying to kill anyone this week. The match was solid, and I particularly liked the end when McIntyre showed some compassion for Corbin, only to have Corbin ask for $100,000 to get him through the next few days. That was great and a way for McIntyre to show he’s a good guy, while also not getting taken advantage of.

Kieth Lee – MISS: I’m giving a Miss to the fact that Kieth Lee wasn’t on this week after getting his big win over Karrion Kross last week. WWE hurt Kross with that loss, and by not having Lee on this week to capitalize on that win, he doesn’t gain anything from it. Jeff Hardy didn’t gain anything from his win over Kross in Kross’ Raw debut. Having lost another match since then, I don’t think Kross gains much from beating Hardy here. So, what good was any of the last few weeks for Kross, Hardy or Lee? At least the NXT Champion won this week, but he’s 2-2 on Raw so far.

Lilly Blinks – MISS: I turned Raw off after this match between Alexa Bliss and Doudrop. I had to walk away and finished the next day. The doll blinked. I don’t think I need to justify this Miss. I was really hoping that the live crowds would force WWE to cut back on the supernatural aspects to Bliss’ character, but I was wrong.

Sheamus vs. Ricochet – HIT: Not surprisingly, Ricochet and Sheamus had a good match against each other. We’ve seen it multiple times which brings it down a bit. We see the same matches over and over again. I did enjoy it, plus Sheamus using his face guard as a defensive weapon worked well to give him the advantage in the end. The bit after the match when Damian Priest interrupted Sheamus’ celebration by coming out to the ring early for his match against John Morrison was a nice touch too.

Priest vs. Morrison – HIT: Speaking of that match, it was also good. It was short at about 5 minutes. I would have liked to see more of it since it was good while it lasted. But, like the previous match, this one was one we’ve seen before. Also, Priest needed a strong win going after Sheamus’ United States Championship, so the shorter was probably the way to go. The main reason I’m giving it a Hit is for the ending when Priest shook off the attempted distraction from The Miz to easily get the win over Morrison. It was nice to see a wrestler get hit by water from the drip stick and not act like its the end of the world or something. I’m also hopeful that now that Miz is out of the wheelchair, he tweaks his character in some way. I’m certainly not optimistic. Either way, at least something different is coming. Also, I may be reading too much into this, but did it seem like Morrison looked surprised that Miz was able to walk again?

VIP Lounge – HIT: There was a bit too much focus on Gage Goldberg, but it was still an effective promo from MVP talking about what Bobby Lashley is going to do to Goldberg at SummerSlam. I liked the line about how the only thing more painful than Goldberg’s spear is Lashley’s spear. This was a good warning of what Lashley plans to do to Goldberg in their WWE Title match. Lashley’s statement to end the segment was also strong.

Cross vs. Ripley – MISS: Putting your Women’s Champion in a non-title match against a top contenders and only giving that match 7 minutes which is interrupted by a commercial with a non-clean finish is a recipe for a Miss. I don’t want to hear a babyface Champion saying that they are almost certain they can win a match. That is ok for a lower card wrestler gimmick, but not for a top of the card gimmick. This continues to point to the fact that WWE jumped the gun by putting the title on Nikki Cross when they did. And don’t book the match if you can’t get out of it without Charlotte Flair getting involved to cause a disqualification.

Styles vs. Orton – HIT: WWE did a nice job of building to this main event. We got to hear from Styles and Orton and Matt Riddle. They told the story about Orton not wanting to team with Riddle any more while Riddle kept trying to convince him to stay in Team RKBro. The fans were certainly into that storyline and wanted to see them end up as a team together. The match itself was quite good which isn’t surprising given the talent of Styles and Orton. The match built to Riddle coming out to neutralize Omos at ringside and allow Orton to get the win. Orton teased a hug afterwards and seemed happy with Riddle until hitting him with an RKO. But, he still seemed to like Riddle after that in the way that he smiled at him and held his head afterwards. So, I don’t think RKBro is totally finished yet.

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.