WWE RAW HITS & MISSES (6/30): Heel vs. Heel match for tag team titles, Bayley and Lya bicker until they’re both unlikable, Punk fans cheer despite rough prior week, Gunther-Goldberg build, more

By Jon Mezzera, PWTorch contributor


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New Day vs. Judgment Day – HIT: This was a little odd in that it was a heel vs. heel matchup. WWE has been doing a lot of babyface vs. babyface matches lately one of which was set up in the opening segment (perfectly fine, but not quite Hit-worthy) with Iyo Sky picking Rhea Ripley to defend her World Championship against at Evolution. Later we’d get another in the Lyra Valkyria vs. Bayley no. 1 contender match for the Intercontinental Title. There was also the finals of both the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments this past weekend. So, I guess having a heel vs. heel match is a bit of a change from the face vs. face ones. The dynamic doesn’t work well for the most part, but at least this was a good World Tag Team Title match with a surprise title change. The live fans certainly reacted to Finn Balor & J.D. McDonagh as the babyface duo in this match. It makes sense over The New Day, especially given the entertaining way that Balor has been pushing the buttons of fellow Judgment Day members Dominik Mysterio and Liv Morgan.

Goldberg – Gunther Build – HIT: I continue to like what WWE is doing to build to the Goldberg vs. Gunther World Title match at Saturday Night’s Main Event, despite not actually wanting to see the match. WWE has used strong videos for Goldberg, the interview last week and the career retrospective this week, mixed with great in-ring promos from Gunther both weeks very effectively.

Sheamus vs. Rusev – HIT: 20 minutes was a tad long for this style match, but I still enjoyed it overall. It was hard-hitting and intense which isn’t surprising given the wrestlers involved. I had a feeling that they would actually do the double count out which would have been a crappy cop out, so I was pleased when Rusev got the win, even if it came after a little bit of cheating, or at least some underhanded tactics. Undoubtedly, we will see more of these two after this match which is why I was assuming we wouldn’t get a clear winner. But, this still will work to set up a rematch while also having an actual winner.

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Rollins-Punk-Knight – HIT: Despite what seems like a large number of unforced errors in the C.M. Punk vs. John Cena feud, it was good to hear Punk getting a very strong reaction from the live fans when he came out to get revenge on Seth Rollins for costing him the WWE Title at Night of (very few) Champions. Rollins had played his part well in addressing Gunther. The fight was quick, but worked for what it was. L.A. Knight showing up right behind Rollins was a little too convenient, but it was okay to keep their issue going. We’ll see them facing at SNME. How will it all shake out with what seems like a five-on-three situation right now (Punk/Knight/Sami Zayn/Penta/Jey Uso vs. Rollins/Bronson Reed/Bron Breakker + maybe Karrion Kross?).

Bayley vs. Valkyria – MISS: These two came across as so unlikable during their backstage encounter which set up this match. Valkyria came across way worse to me than Bayley did. Bayley hasn’t done anything wrong. Valkyria doesn’t seem to understand why Bayley has a personal issue with Becky Lynch? Moving forward to their match, and the fans were silent. I understand why. We weren’t given much of a reason to root for either of these women, and the fact that it was guaranteed to be a draw of some sort to set up a triple threat match was so predictable that I’m guessing most fans didn’t care about the outcome. I know I didn’t.

Zayn & Penta vs. Reed & Breakker – HIT: This was a good main event. The heels took advantage of the rib injury that Zayn suffered earlier in the show when he was attacked by Kross. WWE is keeping Rollins’ helpers strong which makes sense. They are a good team, and could stay together as potential Tag Team Champs, but Raw doesn’t have a strong tag team division for them to compete against. They certainly don’t have many babyface teams. The match was fun to watch from start to finish. It went a long time but didn’t overstay its welcome. Penta and Zayn had some fun moments together and showed good chemistry as a team as well. The post-match save from Jey Uso worked well to end the show on a positive note.

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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