SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Opening Segment – HIT: I saw something about how this was the first Raw in nine weeks which didn’t feature Judgment Day. As someone who wrote recently about Judgment Day being on Raw in too many segments, it was refreshing to see the show start off with Seth Rollins and ultimately Sami Zayn instead. Of course, they were talking about Judgment Day, but that’s fine. The performances from Rollins and Zayn were strong. They effectively recapped what happened after Rollins successfully defended his World Title at Crown Jewel against Drew McIntyre (in addition to the good video package recapping the entire PLE) when Zayn stopped Damian Priest from cashing in Money in the Bank. They addressed how Zayn had been told to give the case back by Adam Pearce (makes sense – who would let a wrestler run around with a stollen contract or Title?). It effectively set up the main event World Title match between the two. An argument can be made that a match like this should be announced ahead of time, and I expected a lot of interference from Judgement Day and/or McIntyre, but I was still looking forward to seeing it.
Priest & Balor vs. New Day – HIT: This was a good, relatively short match to give the Tag Team Champions a pretty strong win over a well established successful team like The New Day. This might be the current role for New Day which makes some sense at this point in their long time as a team. Having the Champions win a match like this to continue to show them as a strong team was the way to go.
Nakamura vs. Tozawa – MISS: Even at just 2 minutes, this felt too long for Shinsuke Nakamura to beat Tozawa. This felt like a detour from Nakamura’s intriguing recent videos talking about wanting a challenger to step up to him. He doesn’t need to do one of those videos each week. That would get redundant. So a match like this is ok, but there needs to be some emphasis on it at least from the announcers. This was a set up for Nakamura vs. Otis which will be ok, but with the total goofiness of Alpha Academy, I can’t take anything they are involved in seriously. So, this is dragging Nakamura down instead of continuing to elevate him coming out of his strong feud against Rollins for the World Title.
Fatal Four-Way – MISS: I liked how Adam Pearce set the stage for this match by talking about all four wrestlers in it and why they deserved to be in a # 1 contenders match for the Intercontinental Title. The match was pretty good overall. But, I am giving it a Miss. It seemed clear that Ricochet suffered a concussion early on when he landed on his head in what was otherwise a very cool looking spot (although I don’t think that’s been confirmed). He was part of multiple off spots after that, which suggests that he wasn’t clear headed. WWE should have seen that in the building if I could see it on my couch. I appreciate that The Miz occasionally tries some new moves, but those spots didn’t look that good. I am not into Miz at all as a babyface. And then the ending was clearly screwed up as the referee was totally confused as to what to do. It turns out that Ricochet was supposed to get pinned at the same time as Bronson Reed, but he kicked out, probably from being confused after a concussion. That botched ending wouldn’t have been good if it had happened the way it was planned as the double pin to set up Miz vs. Ivar was a stupid idea to begin with. Then it didn’t make sense for Ivar to attack Miz afterwards.
DIY vs. The Creed Brothers – HIT: I had mixed feelings about this match. It had enough good wrestling action throughout to get a Hit, but I wasn’t a fan of having the match in the first place. These are two relatively new teams to Raw. Putting them against each other so early when they both need nothing but wins doesn’t make sense. They protected DIY with Ludwig Kaiser’s interference, plus the Creeds clearly didn’t see the interference, so they weren’t taking advantage of cheating. But, it still wasn’t a great ending. So, that’s a lot of negative for a Hit, but I still enjoyed the action and the Creeds needed the win more. I like Diamond Mine’s presentation so far, including the contract signing scene earlier in the show.
Battle Royal – HIT: I enjoyed the battle royal more than I expected to. I liked how it started with Xia Li attacking Becky Lynch on the way to the ring. That gave Becky an out for not being in a match she wasn’t going to win, while continuing to build to their eventual match. It was great that Li was disqualified from participating in the match by Pearce at that point. In the match itself, I appreciated how Ivy Nile had a chance to shine in her first match on Raw. They told a few stories in the match like Carter & Chance working effectively as a team before being eliminated. I’m not a fan of an eliminated wrestler like Nia Jax being able to eliminate someone from the match, but it made sense given her character. I liked the final few minutes when it came down to Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark. Stark needs to be better established as a character, and I’m not sure if she’s supposed to be a babyface or a heel. But, her match against Rhea Ripley has a lot of potential to be very good.
Rollins vs. Sami – HIT: As I said above, I was sure that this match would feature a lot of interference. I figured it would have a cheap ending, or a total non-finish. So, I was blown away when Rollins pinned Sami after a very good long 20+ minute match. All of the shenanigans happened after the match just like I kept thinking throughout it. I was thinking “they could give an ending to this match and then have Judgment Day come out, but they wont.” I was pleasantly surprised. Plus as I said, it was a very good main event World Title match.
War Games Set Up – HIT: The end of Raw was very strong. Sami was great in being dejected, but gracious in his loss to Rollins. Judgment Day coming out at this point to attack both Sami and Rollins made a lot of sense. It was all pretty predictable how Jey Uso and then Cody Rhodes would come out to even the odds. It was a crazy hectic brawl, so it made sense for Pearce to try to get control of the show with all the security. The way he snapped at the end to book the War Games match was fun. He did a nice job with his performance, even if it was all very predictable.
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 @JonMezzera.
OR CHECK THIS OUT AT PROWRESTLING.NET: Powell’s WWE Raw Hit List: Seth Rollins vs. Sami Zayn for the World Heavyweight Championship, Ricochet vs. Miz vs. Bronson Reed vs. Ivar for a shot at the Intercontinental Championship
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