WWE RAW HITS & MISSES (6/29): Oba Femi-Brock Lesnar, Ethan loses to Rey, Joe Hendry Concert, Jimmy Uso vs. LA Knight, Reigns and Seth, more

Femi – Lesnar – HIT: This Hit is for the performances from Oba Femi and Brock Lesnar at the start of Raw, with some major reservations about the booking of this angle. I worried that Femi would challenge Lesnar for a match, and Lesnar would make Femi put his SummerSlam Title match on the line in order to get the match. I thought we would get this match on night 1 with the winner facing Roman Reigns on night 2. So, when they just made the match, I assumed we’d get the Femi vs. Reigns match also. I later thought that Femi was merely putting his Title shot on hold temporarily in order to finish his feud against Lesnar. I was ok with all of that. But, apparently he gave up the Title match entirely? I guess I misunderstood what was going on. I am not happy about this development. But, it was a lot of fun to hear Lesnar on a live mic for a change, and his performance was strong. I got a kick out of the segment and like the idea of adding Hell in a Cell to the rubber match.

Ethan Loses To Mysterio – MISS: The match between Ethan Page and Rey Mysterio was certainly Hit worthy, but the booking doesn’t work. At this point in his career, Mysterio needs to be putting over newer talent like Ethan. This also in retrospect hurts Dragon Lee who lost to Ethan last week. So Lee can’t beat Ethan, but Mysterio can? So now both of the potential future stars look bad when compared to the 51 year old semi-retired guy.

Joe Hendry Concert – MISS: I don’t mind Joe Hendry’s act or the idea of his concerts. They can be fun little silly moments in a lower-mid card type situation. But, they are far from cool. The Street Profits could still be a cool act, and I appreciate WWE doing a segment to celebrate their Tag Team Championship win last week. But, here they looked as far from cool as possible. The Vision is basically defunct at this point. Austin Theory looked silly for talking about a rematch which doesn’t seem actually likely to happen with Paul Heyman seemingly done with The Vision at this point. The Theory vs. Hendry match was perfectly fine, but this wasn’t a great way to follow up on The Street Profits Title win last week.

Sky – Morgan – HIT: WWE had a nice follow up to Iyo Sky defeating Liv Morgan in the finals of the Queen of the Ring Tournament. I don’t fully understand having that match as the finals just to turn around and have a rematch for the World Title at SummerSlam. I’m not a big fan of rematches like this at major PPVs. But, once that decision was made, this was a good way to further the feud. Morgan was very strong on the mic in addressing Sky and why the Title match would be different than the Queen of the Ring finals. The physicality with the rest of Judgment Day worked pretty well to show how Liv can take advantage of the numbers game, but Sky looked a little dumb for staying in the ring so long. I mean, she had to know that Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez would get up at some point and keep attacking her.

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Uso vs Knight – HIT: This was a better match than their match last week. I also got a kick out of Jey Uso’s guest commentary, like when he said he was basically hiding from Roman in catering all day since he didn’t want to face the music on losing to Femi in the King of the Ring finals. Of course, you knew that he was going to get involved in the match. I am at least somewhat intrigued by Solo Sikoa’s involvement, particularly after his encounter with LA Knight on last week’s Smackdown. I still have a lot of concerns about how everyone is coming across, and the heel-face dynamics involved, but I found myself enjoying this more than last week’s match between Knight and Jimmy Uso, so it is a marginal Hit.

Lyra Valkyria Video – HIT: This was also a good way to follow up on a recent story development as Lyra Valkyria talked about her post-match attack on Bayley after their failed Tag Team Title match last week on Raw. I loved the look and presentation of Valkyria. I want to hear and see more from this heel version of her. The response from Bayley is going to be important as well.

Rodriguez vs. Dupri – MISS: Thankfully this was kept short. For all the training and working with Natalya, Maxxine Dupri still isn’t a good wrestler. She isn’t much of an actor either. This wasn’t a good match, but at least the right woman won. Rodriguez is a solid challenger for Sol Ruca’s Intercontinental Title. But, I don’t care about Dupri, nor her potential relationship with Theory who is also a big loser.

Gable vs. McDonagh – HIT: This was a good match which isn’t surprising given the talents of Chad Gable and JD McDonagh. Unfortunately, Gable’s post-AAA momentum has stalled the last two weeks. I’m glad he won this match, and I continue to appreciate how he is getting the ankle lock over as a submission finisher. McDonagh was a good opponent for him. But, there is something missing in the presentation – a combination of the new music, the apology tour going on too long, and still being involved in any way with Maxxine Dupri and the rest of Alpha Academy. Hopefully, WWE can turn things around quickly and get Gable involved in something more meaningful to get him back on track with the stronger reactions he was getting a few weeks ago.

Reigns – Rollins – HIT: I thought for sure we were going to get Roman Reigns vs. Seth Rollins at WrestleMania a few years ago, with CM Punk against Cody Rhodes, John Cena against Logan Paul, plus Jey Uso against Gunther. That would have felt like a better way of following up on the Rollins-Reigns dynamic from the previous year’s main event when Reigns let his hatred of Rollins distract him long enough to give Cody the upper hand in defeating him for the WWE Title. WWE went in different directions which I contend made for a worse event. Now, they are finally getting to this match a year and a half later. Rollins was very strong here in laying out their history, pointing out all the reasons why Reigns should want to defend the World Title against him. They both performed well here, and it worked to set up the main event. But, it still should have been Oba Femi instead.

(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.)