SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Cold Opening – HIT: I should call it a hot opening instead. It is always nice to see WWE shake up their usual formulae, so I enjoyed how this episode started with Bron Breakker coming to the ringside area to complain about what happened to him at the Royal Rumble. Breakker was great here in being so unhinged. The announcers were good at being scared of Breakker. The rest of The Vision and Adam Pearce also played their parts well. This was a good way to catch up viewers who missed the Rumble on the situation while also continuing the feud between the faction and L.A. Knight.
Evans vs. Americano – HIT: This is a minor Hit as it was a mostly good match, with a few off moments. The fans also seemed to largely be sitting on their hands for it (although they sounded dead to me for most of the show). I am hoping that WWE has something better in mind for Je’von Evans going forward, and the ending of this match should mean the end of this feud which is good. It is also good to see Chad Gable back. But, the storyline around the two El Grande Americanos is not good. Michael Cole playing dumb about Gable when he was the one always talking about him being the original Americano makes no sense. So, hopefully both Gable and Ludwig Kaiser get past this and back to their real identities soon.
Gunther – Lee – HIT: The bit with A.J. Styles’s music playing only to have Gunther come out instead was predictable. That was played out, but it worked ok because Gunther came out right away. Usually, when heels use this tactic, they let the babyface music play for awhile before coming out. The rest of the segment was very strong as Gunther gloated about ending Styles’ career, only to have Styles’ friend and former teammate Dragon Lee attack Gunther. The story worked. The physicality was particularly strong as Lee got the better of Gunther until Gunther used the ring bell to gain the advantage, and then he beat the crap out of Lee at that point.
Femi Destroys the War Raiders – MISS: I had mixed feelings about this segment. I do like seeing Oba Femi presented as an unstoppable monster. It is interesting that he is basically auditioning to be on Raw or Smackdown. I know that the War Raiders don’t mean much right now now, but they could. The could definitely mean more on a show with a very weak tag team division as exemplified by the fatal four way #1 contender match last week. Why not sacrifice one of the loser teams from last week? And who exactly were the opponents for the War Raiders supposed to be? That made the whole moment feel overly fake.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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The Bellas – MISS: I wasn’t missing Nicki Bella before she returned. I wasn’t missing her sister Brie before she returned. I wasn’t missing their team before they were reunited in the Rumble. I’m ok with them returning, but they need to be better than this. This was one of the most boring Raw segments in a long time.
Maxxine Dupri – MISS: Ugh. WWE keeps scripting Maxxine Dupri to be some sort of badass and she isn’t. She is not elevating her performances to meet the new character. Her yelling about breaking Nattie’s ankle was not believable. It was so groan inducing. Also, Bert Kreischer has surpassed Jon Stewart as the most annoying celebrity fan of all time.
Penta vs. Reed – HIT: This was a good match. Bronson Reed dominated much it, with Penta getting enough hope spots in and making some short comebacks to keep things interesting. The announcers did a nice job of telling the story of how Penta was on his own as his friends Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee were hurt (Lee earlier in the show), while Reed had his Vision partners at ringside with him. That would play into the end of the match as they would get involved, leading to LA Knight returning (after supposedly being kicked out of the building by Adam Pearce earlier) to cost Reed the match. This was part of a larger story of the Vision having a bad night which needs to happen from time to time while also giving Penta a needed win.
Vaquer vs. Rodriguez – HIT: This match went on a little longer than it needed to, but it didn’t really drag too much. Stephanie Vaquer and Raquel Rodriguez worked very hard to put on a good WWE style street fight. It was physical and intense. The attempts at interference from Rodriguez’s Judgment Day mates worked to further the storyline of tension in the group coming out of the Rumble where the winner, Liv Morgan eliminated Rodriguez. The right woman won this match. Vaquer needs to keep the Title to continue to establish herself as a top Champion. I thought Rodriguez might win to set her up to defend the title against Morgan at WrestleMania, so I was relieved that they kept the Title on Vaquer. But, more can still happen before WM.
Reigns – Punk – HIT: This Raw will be remembered for this final segment as Roman Reigns came out to make his pick of which champion he will face at WM. The back and forth verbal encounter between Reigns and C.M. Punk was outstanding. They did talk a lot about Drew McIntyre, and I am curious to see how he responds to it on Smackdown. Moving past that, these two did a good job of bringing up their long history going back to Punk bringing Reigns and The Shield into WWE in the first place. They both performed well, and the scripting was right on to give them both strong arguments. You could easily nod along to what both of them were saying. It built to the point where Reigns picked Punk because of how much he hates him. This elevated the matchup beyond any World Title match, to a truly deserving WM 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.)
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