SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Penta vs. Breakker – HIT: The opening segment with Seth Rollins and his crew talking about how he was the center of WWE was fine. It wasn’t good enough to get a Hit, but it was far from a Miss either. Raw got going with this opening match as Penta took on Bron Breakker. With Breakker’s buddies, you could definitely see WWE doing an interference ending, but Breakker won clean. Penta looked good in defeat, and came close to winning a few times. The fact that he has won a few matches lately with the Mexican Destroyer helped feed that near fall and made Breakker look stronger than he would have if Penta had never won with that move. The spear out of the air was an awesome finish to the match. Rollins’ threat to Penta after the match and Penta’s dismissal of it were strong touches too.
Goldberg vs. Gunther Hype – HIT: While I did not like how this match was set up last week, and while I don’t look forward to it, and while I don’t understand why it needs to be for the World Championship, I did enjoy what WWE did with it this week. We saw some of a sit down interview which Michael Cole did with Goldberg (will they make the entire 30 minute interview available on YouTube or something?). Goldberg played his part well here, in talking about how Gunther had disrespected his family and how that wasn’t going to go unpunished. Cole revealed afterwards that this will be Goldberg’s final match, and they set up the intriguing possibility of Goldberg retiring as the Champion (which is too similar to the John Cena story). Later on, Gunther had a great in ring promo responding to Goldberg. This was a very intense promo which played perfectly into his character. Gunther should not be intimidated by anyone, including Goldberg.
Roxanne Perez vs. Jade Cargill – MISS: This was a rough match at multiple times. Roxanne Perez and Jade Cargill did not have chemistry together in the ring. There were multiple awkward looking moments. Some of it was certainly physical mistakes, but their timing and communication also seemed off at times. Cargill was the right choice to win, but hopefully Asuka can pull a better match out of her at Night of (very few) Champions.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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Bayley vs. Lynch – MISS: I could not enjoy this match as I was just waiting for Lyra Valkyria to come out to accidentally cost Bayley this Intercontinental Title match against Becky Lynch. Becky and Bayley performed perfectly well in the match leading up to the inevitable disappointing ending. It was certainly Hit worthy from a wrestling action standpoint. But, WWE did everything but reveal the actual script to the show in order to let the audience know with 100% certainty that Valkyria would interfere and set up a triple threat match for down the line (possibly Evolution?). It ruined the match and made Valkyria look like a heel which doesn’t make sense, given she’s finally starting to actually connect with the fans as a face which she had struggled to do despite her good in-ring work.
Rodriguez – Ripley Brawl – HIT: This was a good segment to further advance the feud between Raquel Rodriguez and Rhea Ripley. They both were acting in a no nonsense way which added to the intensity of their brawl. Roxanne Perez getting involved was a nice touch to finally win Rodriguez over when she helped her put Ripley through the table. Will Perez replace the injured Liv Morgan as Rodriguez’s Tag Team Champion partner? Will Ripley get a partner to challenge them? It will be interesting to see where it all goes.
Jey Uso vs. Cody Rhodes – HIT: The main event was a very good match which isn’t surprising. It was predictable that Cody Rhodes would beat Jey Uso to make it to the finals of the King of the Ring Tournament to face Randy Orton at the PLE. There was no way that Uso was winning here, so that predictability did take a way from the match a little. However, the work from Cody and Jey was so strong, that it was still very good. We are at the start of the post-Main Event era for Main Event Jey Uso, but he can still appear in these types of main events. I doubt he ever raises up to challenge for the World or WWE Title again. But, that’s okay. WWE needs strong upper-mid card wrestlers like him. I’m curious to see where he goes from here.
(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.)
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