WWE RAW HITS & MISSES (6/10): Cena makes Punk chase him to Saudi Arabia, Ron Killings drops silly R-Truth persona, Gunther vs. Jey Uso, Nikki Bella’s return, more

Cena – Punk – HIT: The post-Money in the Bank episode of Raw started of well with the verbal encounter between John Cena and CM Punk. Cena did a solid job of pivoting away from what happened at the PLE to move on to wanting better competition. Punk made sense as the next one to challenge Cena at that point. He was strong on the mic. It was a classic babyface/heel tactic of the face challenging the heel Champion, only to have the heel say yes, but not tonight. That always gets a strong reaction from the fans. I do have some issues with this segment. Isn’t Cena on Smackdown? They are building the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments around the idea that the winner will face their Champ at SummerSlam. So why not keep the Titles distinct to Raw and Smackdown? Also, I am disappointed that this match is happening at Saudi Arabia. I’ve made my feelings about those Blood Money shows clear, so I don’t need to rehash it now. But, I will say that I won’t be watching so I’ll miss this match.

KOTR/QOTR Format – MISS: I don’t like having the first rounds of the KOTR / QOTR tournaments made up of fatal four ways. WWE should do 16 person tournaments. But now we get these fatal four ways, with only the semi-finals and the finals to follow. Clearly WWE wants to have top names in the tournament, but don’t want those names to do the job, so they can have Rhea Ripley and Bron Breakker losing in a fatal four way without actually “taking the loss”. They double downed on the protection of those two by having outside interference (which is stupidly allowed in a fatal four way) costing them their matches. Those endings took away from those two matches (more below).

Gable vs. Styles – HIT: This was a good match, which could have gone longer without overstaying its welcome. We didn’t see enough of this match with the commercial break taking up about half of it. But, what we did see was strong, and the ending was very smooth with AJ Styles escaping the ankle lock, teasing the calf crusher, only to quickly roll into position to hit a quick decisive Styles Clash for the win. On an aside, Chad Gable has to win some matches with the ankle lock. WWE has created an environment over the past few decades where tapping out is seen as such a wimpy thing to do, that they don’t ever want a babyface to to it. Which totally neuters a heel’s ability to get a submission over. There is absolutely no drama to a Gable ankle lock. I can’t imagine anyone suddenly thinking that Styles will be the first to ever tap out to it.

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Morgan vs. Perez vs. Ripley vs. Sane – HIT: While I have reservations about having this match in the first place, and could have done without the interference from Raquel Rodriguez, the match itself was still very good with Roxanne Perez getting the win to advance to the semi-finals of the QOTR tournament. This also played very well into her ongoing storyline with Liv Morgan and Judgment Day. I don’t think that Perez will be facing Iyo Sky at SummerSlam, so I doubt she advances to the finals (Morgan will probably cost her in the semis).

Becky Lynch – HIT: Becky is winning me over as a heel even if I still feel she should be a face. She’s so entertaining. I loved her promo about what happened after her Intercontinental Championship win over Lyra Valkyria at MITB. I laugh every time she calls her a weird bird lady. Her excuse for politely asking Valkyria to help put the Title on her waste was great, as was her accusation that Valkyria had tried to kill her. Bayley was a nice surprise to start to get some revenge on Becky for injuring her before WrestleMania.

Ron “The Truth” Killings – HIT: R-Truth is entertaining, but very silly and meaningless. If you are going to bring him back based on the fans demands, making him a different character is a risk. But, I feel that it is a risk worth taking. If fans want to get behind him, and if this is going to be his last run, then why not go out with a more meaningful and serious presentation? His performance was great, and the fans responded very positively to the transformation.

Mysterio vs. Zayn vs. Brakker vs. Penta – HIT: My analysis of this match is pretty much the same as the QOTR match. It had plenty of good wrestling action. These are talented workers who had a good match with a disappointing ending involving needless interference to “protect” one of the wrestlers. I still give it a Hit despite that reservation. I will say that I was expecting Seth Rollins to cash in MITB at the end of the night, and a King Sami Zayn vs. World Champion Seth Rollins match at SS made a lot of sense, so he was my predicted winner here.

Nicki Bella – MISS: I guess there are some fans who are happy to see Nicki Bella back, but I’m not one of them. I particularly found it annoying how the women in the back had to fawn all over her. I nearly did a spit take when Sky thanked her for paving the way for her. Give me a break. When she came out to announce Evolution 2, I was reminded about how bad she is on the mic. “Oh my God guys…” The way she talks in that put on voice is so bad. Her horribly botched pronunciation of Stephanie Vaquer’s name should be disqualifying for her to ever be seen in WWE again. Has she not watched the show? She’s half Mexican. She does’t know how to pronounce a Spanish name? Did she only see it on paper and think Vaquer was French? She was better when she was verbally sparring with Morgan, but I have no interest in seeing them wrestle, either in a singles match, or with a partner (Brie or otherwise) against Morgan & Rodriquez.

Gunther vs. Uso – HIT: The main event did not go how I thought it would. I thought for sure that Jey Uso would successfully defend the World Title in a very difficult match, barely pull out the victory, only to have Rollins successfully cash in MITB to end the night as the Champ. I was confused when Gunther won the Title, but not in a bad way. Jey got a career appreciation award with the Title win at WM and the short reign. He didn’t need a long reign. The match was good with Jey selling his previous rib injuries well throughout the match. Gunther is certainly a worthy Champion. But, it feels unlikely that Seth tries to cash in on him. So, will they drag out the MITB gimmick with Rollins this year? Either way, we should be very happy to get a clean Title change on Raw like this.

(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.)