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Day 1 – HIT: WWE did a nice job of making this Day 1 episode of Raw feel like a big deal, including the last few weeks of tv when they were building to it. Having the announcers start in the ring to announce the big things happening on the show was a nice way to start. With multiple world title matches, some other big grudge matches, and a promise of a former WWE Champion making a return, they had a stacked lineup and sold that well.
Jax vs. Lynch – HIT: I was surprised that Nia Jax got the win here, but I’m ok with it. She has been doing pretty good work since her return. She’s been better than I expected her to be. She and Becky Lynch worked well together to put on a really good opening match. Clearly, WWE wants to build up Jax to make an eventual loss for her a big deal. This also gives Becky a mountain to climb as she tries to get back into the Women’s World Championship picture. I’m curious to see where both women go from here.
Rhodes – Nakamura – HIT: WWE has done a nice job of presenting Shinsuke Nakamura as a heel. You have to take a little of the presentation with a grain of salt, based on how produced his segments are. Sometimes it makes perfect sense. This one was a bit of a stretch in that he had to know that Cody Rhodes was going to challenge him to a match right then, right there in order to have produced this video saying he was going to make Cody wait one more week. The video itself was very good. Both of their performances were strong. This has been a good feud.
Ref Stoppage – HIT: Sometimes, I have to inject a little real life into these Hits & Misses. I have to commend WWE for stopping the Kofi Kingston & Jey Uso vs. Imperium match over concerns about Giovani Vinci’s health. That should be the norm.
Miz TV – HIT: There was a lot of good comedy in this segment with The Miz, R-Truth, Dominic Mysterio and JD McDonagh. And I got a kick out of some of the humor that followed in the tag match with Truth constantly getting confused about which team he was on. I would rather see Judgment Day get away from the Truth goofiness. Use Truth with lower card wrestlers for his good comedy relief. At least here he was only interacting with the bottom two rungs of the Judgment Day ladder. I’d rather see him with Dominic and McDonagh than Damian Priest, Finn Balor or Rhea Ripley. I also continue to not be a fan of The Miz as a babyface. I am sick of his gimmick. Having him basically say that its ok that he loses every match he’s in since he entertains the fans is idiotic. I was not looking for an Awesome Truth reunion. So, this is more of a minor Hit for the fact that I did find enough of it amusing to overcome my issues with it.
Ripley vs. Nile – HIT: There was no way that Ivy Nile was going to beat Rhea Ripley, but these two still put on a good match despite the lack of suspense over who was going to win. It started off a little rough with a few sloppy spots. But, they got it together after that and executed the rest of the match very well. Nile came across very well for having such a strong showing against Ripley despite the loss. Hopefully, WWE will build on this and continue to build on what they’ve done with The Creeds going forward to make Diamond Mine a strong act in 2024.
Mahal / The Rock – MISS: I get the idea of the bait and switch to have a disappointing obnoxious heel in the ring for The Rock to play off of. But, anything that reminds me that Jinder Mahal was a WWE Champion and Roddy Piper wasn’t is annoying. I would love to see the evil anti-America foreigner troupe go away. I found this to be very lazy writing. They could have gotten to the Rock in much more clever ways. This whole segment dragged and went on far too long. The Rock was his normal amusing self, and the line at the end about sitting at the head of the table was a good way to get to where they needed to go. But, the rest of the segment was a mess and Rock looked winded after 30 seconds of action. I’m reminded of his second match against John Cena several years ago where he wasn’t any good in the ring. Hopefully he will get in better ring shape and can have a good match against Roman Reigns at Elimination Chamber, not WrestleMania.
No Mic Work Before the Main Event – MISS: With everything else that WWE did to make this show feel like a big deal, I was surprised with the lack of hype for the main event. We really should have gotten mic time from both Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins.
Main Event – HIT: The actual main event World Title match was good. I am bored by Seth Rollins and find Drew McIntyre to be a much more interesting character right now. I would personally prefer to see McIntyre as the World Champion, but I was not surprised that Rollins retained here. But, it was a good enough match even if I was a bit disappointed by the outcome. There was a little bit of a distraction by Damian Priest teasing a Money in the Bank cash in. That would point to McIntyre going after Priest, but that is a heel vs. heel match up which isn’t great. Also, the continued teases of the MITB are starting to get old. At some point, he needs to cash it in. I saw someone online speculating that McIntyre will somehow win the MITB briefcase from Priest and cash in after Rollins vs. CM Punk at WM. That’s an interesting idea.
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.
OR CHECK THIS OUT AT PROWRESTLING.NET: Powell’s WWE Raw Day 1 Hit List: The return of The Rock, Seth Rollins vs. Drew McIntyre for the World Heavyweight Championship, Rhea Ripley vs. Ivy Nile for the Women’s World Championship
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