
SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Logan Paul – Gunther – HIT: I’m not a fan of these types of verbal encounters between two heels, but this one worked because WWE is trying to sell the idea that Logan Paul might actually beat Jey Uso for the World Championship at Saturday Night’s Main Event. Nobody really buys into that possibility, especially with the winner defending the Title a few weeks later against Gunther. Hopefully, this segment will plant the seeds that they might face, with Gunther playing the babyface role in the match to make fans buy into Paul as a potential winner.
Penta & Styles vs. Balor & McDonagh – HIT: This was a good tag match which isn’t surprising given the talent in the ring. Penta, AJ Styles, Finn Balor and JD McDonagh worked hard to put on a good match. There were some clever spots like when Styles saw McDonagh flying through the air to break up his calf crusher on Balor, so he rolled Balor into the path of McDonagh. The action was fun, but we didn’t get a clean finish as El Grande Americano attacked Penta at ringside to give the Judgment Day duo the win. At some point, Penta should be focused on American Made, and Styles needs a more focused partner to take on Judgment Day.
Natalya vs. Perez vs. Lynch – MISS: These are three talented wrestlers, and their work in the match was perfectly good. The problem was the matchup itself. When was Natalya even on WWE tv last? Nobody expected her to win and most fans probably recognized that she was the designated jobber which she was. She is a babyface, but an ice cold one so fans aren’t going to go crazy for her. Roxanne Perez is a miscast heel who hasn’t had any success on the main roster. So she’s cold too, despite her great talent. Becky Lynch is going to get a strong response, but she’s also miscast as a heel, and Lyra Valkyria’s interference was very predictable (and the second straight match with interference). Perez did seem to be playing more of a face role in the match, and did get a better reaction as the match proceeded. I thought she was being positioned as a babyface which at least made me happy. But, she was then trying to join with Judgment Day later in the show which presumably keeps her as a heel.
Cole – Cena Video – MISS: This was very weird to me. I don’t get why they showed this video at all. This was not a good time for WWE. I don’t know any fans who have a fondness for this heel Michael Cole period. It felt out of place with John Cena now being a heel. I don’t get it.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show covering the latest episode of Raw: CLICK HERE to stream (or search “wade Keller” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)
Sheamus vs. Waller – HIT: This was a good match and a nice follow up to Sheamus’ return match a few weeks ago against Austin Theory. WWE is starting to build towards a break up for A-Town Down Under and are positioning Theory as the babyface after the breakup. He did get a pretty positive reaction here in the way he had some glee at seeing his partner getting beat up by Sheamus. But, Raw is so light on tag teams. Wouldn’t there be more value on actually pushing them as a team? On a side note, what happened to Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate?
Tyrese Haliburton Interview – MISS: I get that Tyrese Haliburton is an NBA star whose team has a solid chance (25 percent, based on WWE math) at winning the NBA Championship next month. He also appears to be a legit WWE fan which is cool. It is a nice coincidence that he was involved in a show last year with Jalen Brunson, whose Knicks are facing Haliburton’s Pacers in the playoffs right now. I get why WWE would want to capitalize on that and get some star power on Raw. But, this interview went on far too long and felt like another desperate move by WWE to feel relevant and to look like they are the land where big stars hang out.
Kairi Sane vs. Ripley vs. Stark – MISS: I feel sorry for Zoey Stark who lost her two partners to recent roster cuts, and then suffered what appeared to be a very serious leg injury in this match. Much like the other Money in the Bank qualifier, this match suffered from the matchup. I’m a fan of Stark, but she hasn’t been on tv in weeks and is ice cold. It also featured the return of Kairi Sane after several months away with a hand injury. Sane is super talented, but WWE did a terrible job of hyping her return. It would have been nice to see some vignettes the last few weeks to build her return. I don’t understand having her return match as a triple threat where she was clearly not going to win as Rhea Ripley felt like the only possible winner. They didn’t seem to want to call attention to her being part of Damage CTRL with Iyo Sky. Sane and Ripley handled the Stark injury well and had a good match against each other, but I wasn’t into the match because of the presentation.
Breakker vs. Uso – MISS: Speaking of not being into a match due to the presentation, I couldn’t care about the main event because it was 100 percent going to end with interference from Seth Rollins. Paul Heyman even talked about how Bron Breakker didn’t care about the match otucome and was only there to hurt Jey Uso. They didn’t even try to pretend that the match outcome mattered. So why would I care? I honestly didn’t pay much attention to the quality of the wrestling action before the disqualification ending.
Post-Main Event Angle – HIT: After that main event (I started to call it a disappointing main event, but I wasn’t disappointed since it was very predictable), the post-match angle with Sami Zayn, CM Punk, and then Logan Paul worked much better. Punk continues to get major babyface pops. He seems to be the most popular wrestler in the company. This worked well to hype the Rollins & Breakker vs. Punk & Zayn tag match at SNME, and the Uso vs. Paul World Title match. It was a hot ending, but they could have gotten there better without the lame copout finish to the main event.
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 him on BlueSky @jonmezzera.bsky.social
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.