SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
John Cena – HIT: A good Raw got off to a good start with John Cena’s show opening promo about his upcoming match against Brock Lesnar at WrestlePalooza. As an aside, I greatly enjoyed the very well made video on Smackdown about Cena and Lesnar’s history going back to OVW, and look forward to the second part on Friday. I appreciate how Cena talked about being scared of Lesnar and how it would have been very easy for him to say no to this match. But, he won’t back down from the challenge. It was a strong promo to hype that big match.
Valkyria vs. Perez – HIT: Last week, Lyra Valkyria lost to Raquel Rodriguez, but this week she got the win over Roxanne Perez. She did a nice job of selling the lingering back injury that she sustained in that match last week. It gave her a potential out for losing this match, so her winning was a bit of a surprise. It was a good match as expected between these two talented workers. The post match attack from Rodriguez followed by the save from Bayley in her hugger personality worked well to advance that storyline. The scene later where she was dark again and snapped on Lyra was a strong follow up as well.
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Penta vs. Kingston – HIT: I wouldn’t have minded if this match had gone on longer. It was too short to amount to much, but it was fun to watch while it lasted. It continued the feud between Penta and The New Day (plus Grayson Waller), but Penta hasn’t had trouble facing them in these singles matches. However, they attacked him later in the show to bring the War Raiders in to help him. Presumably we will get a six-man tag which should be very good, but I would like to see Penta involved in something more meaningful.
Rollins/Lynch – Punk/Lee – HIT: This as another good, but a bit overly long talking segment, a verbal exchange with Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch going back and forth with C.M. Punk & A.J. Lee. All four were good on the mic. They all made good points about each other. Punk and Lee showed a united front, and did a nice job of questioning whether Rollins and Lynch can actually work together considering their giant egos. Rollins and Lynch were strong in calling into question Lee’s neck health, and whether Punk has done his wife a disservice by bringing her into this feud. The fake out at the end worked well enough, but would have had more impact if WWE didn’t do so many other swerves all the time.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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Americano vs. Lee – HIT: I still question why Ludwig Kaiser is doing the El Grande Americano gimmick and why he’s working with Dominik Mysterio. I wish there was more story questioning of that first one particularly. But, I am curious to see where they are going with Dos and Tres Americano also. Besides that, this match between Americano and Dragon Lee with AJ Styles getting involved was a good match. I got a kick out of the announcers stooging on Dos Americano to tell Styles where he hid under the ring. Like Penta, I am hoping for big things for Lee. It is good to see him away from the LWO at this point. He can shine on his own.
Vaquer vs. Sane – HIT: Kairi Sane has been often sloppy in her matches since her return to WWE. She has a lot of talent, so I have been disappointed in her performances overall. But, she was good here in this match against Stephanie Vaquer. Vaquer is one of the best workers in the world, so I’m never surprised by her good matches. She can help carry a lesser worker to a good match, but Sane wasn’t carried here. They both were good in the ring and had a very good match. I get a kick out of the dynamic between Sane and Asuka. I assume they will somehow get involved in the match between Iyo Sky and Vaquer at the PLE, but I hope their involvement is kept to a minimum, hopefully just after the match itself. Vaquer vs. Sky has a chance to be a match of the year contender if they are allowed to have a match without shenanigans.
Breakker & Reed vs. Uso & Knight – HIT: The good Raw had a good ending with a good main event. I enjoyed the build to this tag match as L.A. Knight wanted to fight Jey Uso as soon has he arrived in the building which made sense given what Uso did at the end of last week’s show. But he still wanted to also get his hands on Bronson Reed & Bron Breakker, so he had to find a partner and wanted it to be Jimmy Uso. The story of Jimmy saying no, but then getting upset when Jey told him he had to say no, only to say yes worked well. The story and character development has been intriguing to watch so far. The match itself was a good, but nothing special tag match. I continue to appreciate Reed winning matches with the Jagged Edge instead of the Tsunami which will always be over. The physicality afterwards with Jey making the save, only to get BFTd by Knight to end the show further advanced the story nicely.
(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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