SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Opening Segment – HIT: Raw got off to a hot start with the brawl between Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax which started before they could have their match. Raquel Rodriguez and Rhea Ripley also came out to expand the brawl. The fans were excited for it, especially for Ripley. It made me think more than I already did that Ripley should be breaking away from Judgment Day as a babyface. She is over. She is far more over than Rodriguez. I guess we will ultimately get a fatal four way with these four for the Women’s Championship. But, Ripley will get the babyface treatment even though WWE keeps trying to keep her as a heel.
Judgement Day – HIT: Ripley is the leader of Judgment Day even if they claim to have no leaders. Damian Priest wasn’t necessarily listening to what she had to say after that opening brawl. They did a nice job with him pushing back against her by pointing out he still has his Title unlike Dominik Mysterio. Jey Uso was good in his interruption. This continued the story of JD McDonagh trying to get in good with the group and ended with the announcement that Jey and Cody Rhodes would team up to face Priest & Finn Balor for the Tag Team Championship. That seemed to come out of nowhere. WWE didn’t do a great job of building to that announcement from Adam Pearce. What have they done to earn a title shot? So, I had some issues with the end of the segment, but it will lead to what should be a very good Tag Title match.
I also had an issue with the very beginning of the segment where Ripley had said something to the audience during the commercial but the tv audience didn’t hear what she said. I didn’t think that was a mistake at first, but there were two other instances of what seemed like bad directing and timing later in the show also (more later).
Alpha Academy vs. Imperium – HIT: Imperium definitely needed a win after last week. It came at the end of a good match against Alpha Academy. Giovani Vinci in particular needed to look strong and he had the key cheating moment which allowed Ludwig Kaiser to get the pin on Otis. Chad Gable’s angry almost unhinged reaction later in the show was interesting. I’m curious to see where they go considering the way Maxxine Dupree and Otis looked at him as he ranted about the savages and idiots.
IC Title Contract Signing – HIT: This had strong mic work from Tomasso Ciampa and Gunther. Ciampa showed great passion about the importance of winning the Intercontinental Championship. Gunther was good in his dismissive attitude towards Ciampa. This built to the point where the match was moved up from the PLE to that night’s main event which made sense given the injuries that forced WWE to cancel a few of the announced matches for Raw. This could have gotten lost in the shuffle on a PLE with John Cena’s in ring return, as well as a Last Man Standing match for the World Title, and Uso & Rhodes vs. Judgement Day. It stood out more as the Raw main event.
Rollins – Nakamura – HIT: I was amazed at how the Japanese translator was able to get Shinsuke Nakamura’s words up on the screen so fast, wrongly assuming (like Seth Rollins) that Nakamura was talking live. But, it was a swerve! He was setting Rollins up for another attack from behind. Snark aside, this was an overall effective way to build to their Last Man Standing match. WWE continues to do a good job of making Nakamura seem like a real threat to win the Title. I doubt he will, but I hope he does. My only issue is that the director cut to Rollins multiple times during Nakamura’s promo, so we couldn’t actually see the screen to be able to read the subtitles. Unlike the Ripley bit coming out of the commercial, this was definitely bad directing.
Tegan Nox vs. Chelsea Green – MISS: As I said last week, I am a fan of Tegan Nox and want to see her get a chance on Raw. Clearly, she would have benefited from her scheduled match against Becky Lynch for the NXT Title over this match against Chelsea Green. I liked the encounter that set up the match. Green is hilarious in those situations. But, she isn’t that good in the ring. The match wasn’t good. Green came up short on her super kick. The match was too short. If you want to build up Nox, having her need Natalya’s help to beat Green who never wins wasn’t the way to do it. Nox needs more of a chance to talk and develop a character to connect with the fans, while having longer better matches to show off what she can do in the ring.
McIntyre – HIT: Now that Drew McIntyre is slowly turning heel, he’s a much better babyface. I find myself agreeing with him, but is that the hope of WWE creative? His promo was very good, taking shots at Rhodes, Uso and Miz. The interaction with Miz was fun leading to their impromptu match. I even appreciated the way he cheated to win, even though you know he didn’t really need to cheat.
Gunther vs. Ciampa – HIT: As I said, I enjoyed the set up for this match. I enjoyed the match even more. This was a very good IC Title match between Gunther and Ciampa. It was a long, but not overly long main event with good, hard hitting action from start to finish. The fans seemed to grow more and more into it as it preceded and were definitely behind Ciampa at the end (they seemed a little indifferent to start). In addition to the physicality of the match, it had phycology and told a story as Ciampa worked over Gunther’s right hand to take away the impact of his huge chops. He had trouble hitting some of his big power moves late in the match like the power bomb. He still got the clean win in the end which was the way to go.
DIY Reunion – MISS: I am all in favor of a DIY reunion. Johnny Gargano hasn’t been well used since his return to WWE. Re-teaming with Ciampa in what was a great team should be good for both guys. I had two problems. Ciampa has had a few cryptic promos that might have pointed to him wanting to get back together with Gargano, but WWE didn’t do much to lay the groundwork for this moment. Gargano has been MIA. Has he been there waiting for a chance to save Ciampa? And if you are going to do this reunion with Gargano saving Ciampa from the Imperium beating, how do you end the show without actually showing their tandem kick? It looked like they ran out of time. Was that the plan? That was the third odd bit of timing on the directing / production side of things which isn’t usually a problem for WWE.
(Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com’s WWE Raw Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw each week. Email him at jmezz_torch@yahoo.com. Follow Jon on Twitter/X @JonMezzera.)
OR CHECK THIS OUT AT PROWRESTLING.NET: Powell’s WWE Raw Hit List: Gunther vs. Tommaso Ciampa for the Intercontinental Title, Ivar vs. Xavier Woods, Tegan Nox vs. Chelsea Green, Alpha Academy vs. Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci
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