WWE RAW HITS & MISSES (2/23): AJ Styles Career Tribute, Lesnar’s Open Challenge, Liv Morgan’s Decision, Jey vs. Reed vs. Americano, Elimination Chamber Hype, Je’Von vs. Kofi

Opening Segment – HIT: There was a lot going on in this opening segment as Gunther interrupted Michael Cole and Corey Graves as they were introducing the Tribute To A.J. Styles theme for Raw. Gunther was great in his role. We got more of a tease for the eventual Gunther vs. Dragon Lee match. That won’t be at WrestleMania which leaves Gunther’s WM opponent still a mystery. We also got a special appearance by Cody Rhodes, a tease of him vs. The Vision, and a tease of the opening match – an Elimination Chamber qualifier.

Jey vs. Reed vs. Americano – MISS: It is very unfortunate that Bronson Reed got injured during this match. It seemed very likely that he was supposed to win, but WWE had to call an audible and switch to Jey Uso after the injury. That was the way to go, but it didn’t save this match. The match was mostly fine, but the missed diving head butt spot really took me out of the action. El Grande Americano went up to the top rope to do the head butt, but for some reason, Jey had rolled all the way to the opposite side of the ring. Why did he do that? At that point, Chad Gable stupidly jumped off the top rope and came up short which anyone could have predicted given the distance he had to cover. He still went for a pin even though he didn’t hit the move. These guys are way too good and experienced for that type of amateur hour crap. Also, the Americano gimmick is bringing down anything that it touches.

Morgan’s Decision – MISS: Why does everything have to be a swerve? I still don’t buy into Liv Morgan crying last week. I don’t understand why she was looking so nervous this week. I guess it was part of the act to trick Stephanie Vaquer. But, the whole insincere apology bit leading to the “surprise” attack didn’t work. WWE does this stuff too often (seems like mostly with the women) that it doesn’t work anymore. Who actually was fooled other than Vaquer? That makes her look stupid.

Dupri vs. Nattie – MISS: We’ve seen far too many wrestlers going head first into the ring post (which isn’t even metal anymore) without getting knocked out to believe that Maxxine Dupri would get knocked out here. It wasn’t believable. For some reason, WWE won’t give us a full match between these two. The feud was practically DOA based on how bad it started, and it just keeps getting worse.

Lesnar Open Challenge – HIT: Paul Heyman got a little repetitive in talking about Brock Lesnar’s potential WM match, but he was mostly good. I like the idea of trying to make whatever match Lesnar is in feel like a co-main event. The idea that Lesnar will show up several times before WM to see if anyone steps up to accept the open challenge is a nice hook. The fans clearly want it to be Oba Femi which would make a lot of sense. How long will it take for someone to accept? I hope they don’t go all the way to WM.

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Evans vs. Kingston – HIT: This was a good match. It is always nice to se Je’von Evans in a match that doesn’t involve Los Americanos. He is going to be in the EC match so of course he was going to beat Kofi Kingston which made the outcome predictable, but that’s ok. Evan did a nice job of fending off the rest of New Day and hitting that crazy amazing looking OG Cutter for the win.

Elimination Chamber Hype – MISS: This was a big miss. WWE did nearly nothing to hype the PLE on the go home Raw. CM Punk was ok in his promo, but it didn’t focus on Finn Balor, his opponent on Saturday. Balor’s appearance was limited to a short bit in the Judgment Day clubhouse talking about how he wanted to prove himself on his own. There wasn’t much to it. We did get two EC qualifiers, but we didn’t hear from the others who have already qualified. What will winning the EC mean to LA Knight or Rhea Ripley? A pre-taped promo from Becky Lynch didn’t seem like enough to hype her Intercontinental Title defense against AJ Lee (even though it was better than their in person encounter last week). I know that they wanted to focus on AJ Styles, which makes sense. But there was more focus on WM with Lesnar and Morgan /Vaquer than there was for the event coming up in less than a week.

Sky vs. Rodriquez vs. Sane – HIT: I liked this EC qualifier much better than the men’s earlier in the show. I’m glad that Raquel Rodriquez won. None of the potential tag teams ended up together in the match which is good. That troupe has been done. They have a potential story with Rodriquez winning to challenge Jade Cargill while her Judgment Day teammate Liv faces Vaquer. I don’t think WWE is going in that direction, but it is at least a possibility which will make EC less predictable. The match itself was good with two very good wrestlers and one pretty good one. They worked well together and put on a good match.

A.J. Styles Tribute – HIT: WWE did a great job of honoring A.J. Styles throughout the show. The various videos they showed of his career highlights were well done. It was nice to see people from his past organizations like TNA and NJPW who aren’t in WWE being there. It is good timing that they are partnering with TNA right now to get some of those people and the footage from his early career. The announcers could have done a better job of explaining who some of the people were like Abyss for instance. But, it was ok. Those appearances made the tribute feel very important. Right before he came out, WWE had a final long video which was great. Styles did a very nice job with his retirement speech. The surprise appearance by the Undertaker to announce Styles will be inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame was a nice way to end the tribute and the show.

(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.)