WWE RAW HITS & MISSES (3/16): Punk’s sensitive to being called “old,” Oba Femi confronts Brock Lesnar, AJ Lee vs. Bayley, Liv Morgan video package, Orton-Cody follow-up

Lesnar – Femi – HIT: Raw got off to a strong start with Oba Femi accepted Brock Lesnar’s open challenge for a match at WrestleMania. It started with Seth Rollins and his masked geeks which I’m not a fan of, but Rollins was pretty good in his promo talking about taking out The Vision (but wrestlers have to stop talking about killing their opponents). The segment got good once Paul Heyman came out looking so disheveled, still recovering from Rollins’ attack on him two weeks ago. He was great in introducing Lesnar. Lesnar was great in throwing around the masked men. Before he had a chance to attack Rollins, Femi came out which was a nice surprise and a huge moment. The physicality with Rollins escaping and Femi overpowering Lesnar was awesome. Lesnar sold very well, both the concern over Femi when he first came out and the actual physicality. It will be very interesting to see how WWE books this match at WM.

Americano vs. Americano – MISS: The match was perfectly fine, but the story and the characters continue to be totally uninteresting to me. I don’t watch nor care about AAA. The story doesn’t make any sense. These are four talented wrestlers who could mean something if they weren’t being saddled by this lame gimmick.

Liv Morgan – HIT: This was a good video package to follow up on the Judgment Day kicking Finn Balor out of the group last week. Liv Morgan did a nice job talking about that moment and how it was a long time coming. She strongly hinted at the fact that she is the one pulling all the strings in Judgment Day. How will Balor respond when he returns to presumably set up a WM match against Dirty Dominik Mysterio?

Bayley vs. Lee – HIT: This was a pretty good match with A.J. Lee successfully defending her Intercontinental Championship against Bailey. Given how few matches Lee has had after such a long hiatus from in ring work, she looked solid here. Bayley carried the match. Bayley wasn’t going to win, so the outcome was never in doubt. But, I was expecting some sort of outside interference to set up something for Bayley (and by extension Lyra Valkyria) for WM. But, we got the clean win which was good followed by the post-match attack by Becky Lynch to continue their feud. Presumably we will get Lee vs. Lynch in some type of gimmick match at WM, while Bayley & Lyra will be part of the multi-team Tag Team Title (ladder?) Match.

Penta vs Lee – HIT: I should be clear that this was Dragon Lee. This was definitely the highlight of the show from a wrestling standpoint. Will this open challenge from Penta for his IC Title turn into a regular thing like it has with the United States Title on Smackdown? I won’t complain if we keep getting great matches like this. Penta and Lee worked very well together to have a high-energy, fast paced, back and forth match. I enjoyed it from start to finish. The ending with the Mexican Destroyer was very well done. Who will Penta face at WM? I keep wondering about Gunther. I had thought he might face Rey Mysterio who would come to Dragon Lee’s defense. But, Gunther hasn’t been on and I wonder if Rey is hurt. Gunther vs. Penta would feel like a come down in a way, but it would be a great match.

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Orton – Rhodes Follow Up – HIT: While this is a Smackdown main event feud, it is an important story going into WM, so it makes sense to give it some time on Raw too. They had a nice video on the heel turn when Randy Orton snapped and beat the crap out of Cody Rhodes. We had the intriguing moment before the scheduled interview when Orton was on the phone. Who was he talking to? The way he refused to actually participate in the interview, but made a statement worked well. The end with the line where he stole Rhodes’ statement about wrestling having more than one royal family was intriguing.

Vaquer vs. Rodriguez – HIT: Stephanie Vaquer suffered from an injury which sidelined her Championship reign some. She was saddled with a feud against Nikki Bella over the Title which hurt her. The top women on Raw have mostly been involved with the Tag Team Titles. So, she is cold as a Champion. She is super talented and WWE is starting to heat things up again. She had a chance to show off her in ring talent in this match against Raquel Rodriguez, who was supposed to be doing some dirty work for her buddy Morgan. I was a bit confused about Iyo Sky’s involvement. That felt totally random, when she should be part of a Kabuki Warriors story heading into WM. But, the rest of the match was good with Vaquer getting the win.

The Vision – MISS: The Vision is greatly suffering without Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed. Throwing Austin Theory and Logan Paul into a tag team to maybe get a Tag Title shot against The Usos isn’t working so far. That scene with Heyman and them in the back didn’t do anything for me. If they face The Usos, what about Seth Rollins? What about LA Knight? The story is getting a bit complicated, and there are too many babyfaces, with only the two heels. The background hint at adding Maxxine Dupri certainly doesn’t get me excited either.

Reigns – Punk – HIT: This was another strong verbal encounter between Roman Reigns and C.M. Punk to close out a Raw. This time, we finally got some physicality between them as Punk was pushed over the edge and punched Reigns, which was a strong way to show that Reigns is starting to get into Punk’s mind. Punk has been gloating about being in Reigns’s mind, so this was a good counter to that. Both played their parts well and both got in some good lines against each other. It will be interesting to see how the old and/or new Bloodline gets involved. I also liked how Reigns talked about why he would beat Punk in a match, the type of talk which was missing from their previous exchanges. I will say that my one negative here is that Reigns calling Punk “old” didn’t seem like enough to make him snap like that.

(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.)