WWE RAW HITS & MISSES (3/23): The Raw Formulaic Format, Penta vs. Dominik, Punk-Bloodline interactions, Lesnar-Oba Femi, Heyman-Seth, more

Lesnar – Femi – HIT: Raw got off to a good start with Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar coming out to talk about what happened between Lesnar and Oba Femi on last week’s show. Heyman was great in coming up with several excuses for why Femi got the better of Lesnar. So, Femi had to come out to show that he can get the better of Brock even when he hasn’t already beaten up 20 masked men, or been distracted by Seth Rollins. The physicality once again worked well. Obviously, Lesnar is going to have to get the better of Femi soon. My only problem with this segment, is that it is part of a formula for Raw which has gotten far too regular (more later).

Usos vs. Vision – MISS: We waited a long time to get to the first wrestling of the show, a tag match that should be a Hit with Usos involved. But, after waiting through a lot of non-wrestling, a commercial break, and a plug for the stupid comedy show WrestleMania weekend, we finally get a little bit of a match and then it goes to another commercial. The match ended up being only 7.5 minutes long. 3 of those minutes were on the commercial break. So they put their Tag Team Champions in a match and showed less than 5 minutes of it. What we saw was ok, but not even particularly good. And then it ended in a disqualification when Jey Uso used the brass knuckles which LA Knight had slipped him after stopping Logan Paul from using them right in front of the referee. I get that they are playing into Jey being a hot head. I get that they wanted to set up a Title match for Paul & Austin Theory. But, it didn’t leave me wanting more.

Waller vs. Evans – HIT: This was definitely the highlight of the show from an in-ring standpoint. Greyson Waller and Je’von Evans had a high-energy, fun match which played nicely into the storyline where Kofi Kingston is trying to recruit Evans into The New Day. Evans is so fun to watch in the ring. His energy in infectious. Waller certainly contributed to the quality of the match as well.

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Heyman – Rollins – MISS: Shouldn’t the fact that Paul Heyman has a restraining order against Seth Rollins been part of the story before Rollins was arrested for violating it? It came out of nowhere. Legally, wouldn’t Rollins have to be informed of a restraining order? He didn’t seem to know. WWE goes to the wrestler getting arrested trope too often. I got a kick out of the mic work from Heyman when Rollins was being escorted out of the arena, so it wasn’t terrible. It is just a shame that WWE has had so many injuries with Rollins, Bron Breakker, and Bronson Reed leading up to WrestleMania. They are having to draw things out hoping that Breakker gets cleared to wrestle (the same goes for the Rey Mysterio injury and Gunther being off tv in the meantime since they don’t seem to have a backup plan for arguably the top heel on Raw).

Bayley & Valkyria vs. Kabuki Warriors – HIT: This was a pretty good match with Bayley & Lyra Valkyria getting the needed win over the Kabuki Warriors. This will help them get into the inevitable multi-team Tag Team Championship Match at WM (still holding out hope for a ladder match). It fit in with Valkyria telling Bayley last week that she would make sure that Bayley got a WM moment this year in the way that she got the win for the team. The loss by Kairi Sane fit in with Asuka’s growing anger at her partner, which played nicely with Iyo Sky later in the show, presumably setting up what should be a a great triple threat match at WM.

Penta vs. Dominik – MISS: This was the start of what should have been a very good Intercontinental Title match with Penta giving Dominik Mysterio a rematch. I knew that Finn Balor would come out to cost Dirty Dom the match, but I would have liked to see it go longer to at least give the fans something fun to watch for awhile before the crap finish. This went nearly 10 minutes, but should have been at least 15. The show is so lacking in wrestling, that giving the fans a longer main event after three relatively short matches would have been nice. The ending felt rushed after the distraction from Balor. The fight with Balor and JD McDonagh after the match worked well and this did continue the strong build for the presumed Balor vs. Mysterio match at WM, but what is Penta going to do?

Punk – Bloodline – HIT: This is a marginal Hit. I appreciated how CM Punk addressed the insult from Roman Reigns last week when he called him “old.” I complained about that, so it was good to get more of an understanding of why it upset Punk. I didn’t like the “insider” talk from Punk about why he talks shit, to sell matches. I’d prefer to leave the Usos out of it now. Their story is too muddled. There is enough with Punk vs. Reigns without the Bloodline having to be involved. But, the physicality at the end with Reigns taking advantage of Punk fighting with his cousins to get the better of Punk worked. The power-bomb through the announce table was a strong statement, but it was undercut by Punk laughing a few minutes later. I’m hopeful that that ending will convince Reigns that he needs to prove to Punk and everyone else that he can get the job done alone and we get the purely one-on-one match to close out night 2 of WM.

Raw Formula – MISS: This is the 4th straight Raw that started with some combination of Paul Heyman, The Vision, and Seth Rollins. It is the fourth straight Raw that has ended with CM Punk / Roman Reigns (or the Usos). WWE hasn’t ended Raw with a match since February 16th. They had main events close out the show in six of the first 7 weeks this year, but not since then. They haven’t started the show with a match since January 5th, which was the 1st show of the year for those keeping score at home. Recently, they’ve had far more video packages and far less wrestling. There were four matches, which all went under 10 minutes. That added up to a total of 34.5 minutes. Some of those non-wrestling segments are very good. I like a balance. I don’t want to see a Raw that is wall-to-wall matches. I like good video packages. Talking scenes can be entertaining, and can advance stories to make matches feel more important. But, this formula of lots of talking, lots of videos, and very little wrestling, with the same people taking up the same segments of the show has become very tiresome.

(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.)