WWE RAW HITS & MISSES 10/3: Riddle and Rollins miss, contract signing hits for ladder match, more

Balor & Priest vs. Mysterio & Styles – HIT: Raw was a much more “meh” show than it has been lately. It wasn’t bad, but there wasn’t nearly as much good as there has been. It started off with just a meh opening segment with The Judgment Day talking about the upcoming I Quit match between Edge and Finn Balor as well as the continuing Mysterio family drama. It was fine, but not a Hit. This opening match rose to the level of a marginal Hit. It was good, but somewhat forgettable. It was more of an angle with Rey Mysterio continuing to let Dominik’s behavior distract him from the match. It was largely just to set up AJ Styles getting mad at Rey afterwards which plays into the storyline of Balor trying to convince Styles to join Judgement Day. That all worked well enough.

Bobby Lashley – HIT: One of the bright spots on this show was how it featured Bobby Lashley. I have been complaining the last few weeks about how he has been wasted. Here, we got a backstage scene setting up his match against Mustafa Ali. Then we had that match, which did feel like the random United States Title matches he’s had lately, but at least this one seemed to be playing into something for Ali himself, and it led to the post-match attack by Seth Rollins. The match was well booked to hopefully be the start of a push for Ali, and the aftermath set up what will hopefully be a strong feud between Lashley and Rollins for the US Title.

Riddle – Rollins – MISS: I have enjoyed what WWE has done with Seth Rollins and Matt Riddle in the build to their Fight Pit match at Extreme Rules on Saturday. But, this final go home push was off. It felt a little too heavy handed with Riddle threatening to kill Rollins, and Rollins bringing up Riddle not being able to see his kids. It was too much of reality being used for a fictional story. The Daniel Cormier bit was odd too in that he was talking like they hadn’t already announced multiple times that he was going to be the special guest referee for the fight. There was some good mic work in this segment, but it was still a marginal Miss in the end.

Strowman vs. Gable – HIT: This match followed two “thumbs in the middle” type matches. Dakota Kai vs. Candace LeRae and Johnny Gargano vs. Otis both featured solid to good wrestling with an interference ending. I can’t give those matches Hits, as they weren’t good enough before the interference to earn a Hit (unlike some other recent Raw matches). They were just ok. I did enjoy this match that followed between Braun Strowman and Chad Gable. I was happy to see Gable actually getting some impressive offense in against Strowman before taking the inevitable loss.

Contract Signing – HIT: The mic work from Bayley and Bianca Belair was pretty good here. I liked how Bayley explained why she changed as a character because of the fans, while Belair rebutted that Bayley hadn’t really changed at all, but was just showing her true self. The physicality at the end worked well as Damage CTRL attacked Asuka and Alexa Bliss in the back to allow Bayley to attack Belair from behind. This would lead to the main event which was ok (again, not worthy of a Hit, but not a Miss either), but also allowed for a strong show ending angle with Damage CTRL standing tall on the ladder with the belts at the end of the show.

Sikoa vs. Dawkins – HIT: It is unfortunate that Montez Ford appears to be injured, but maybe a little break for The Street Profits would be good as they haven’t been elevated well at all recently. In the mean time, we get some singles matches like this good one between Angelo Dawkins and Solo Sikoa. This played out with the growing discontent between Jey Uso and Sami Zayn. That dynamic (both here at ringside and the backstage scene earlier with Zayn’s funny story) has been awesome. The wrestling action was good. Sikoa has shown in a short about of time that he belongs on the main roster with the rest of his family.

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.

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