SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Opening Shock Attack – MISS
I appreciate WWE Raw starting off with a bang and a shock with Royce Keys and OTM attacking The Usos in the parking lot. But, the whole thing felt over-produced with the quick camera cuts and the blurring of the blood. If it was supposed to be live, how did they blur it so quickly? I know the show was pre-taped, but WWE didn’t acknowledged that during the broadcast. The way they produced the angle took me out of it. The other issue is that this put sympathy on the Usos, but recently they had finally settled into the heel role. This week, it felt like we were right back to that problematic Bloodline issue of how poorly defined their characters are. That issue was present in Roman Reigns’s promo later in the show, too.
Sol Ruca vs. Raquel Rodriguez – HIT
The Intercontinental Championship match is a minor Hit for pretty good wrestling action before the lame disqualification finish. At least it had a finish and wasn’t just a no contest, which WWE often does. Sol Ruca continues to look like she belongs on the main roster after her shaky start. This strong performance continues to give me hope that she will be the star that she looked to be in NXT, and is a big reason I’m giving this a Hit despite the ending. I also look forward to seeing Ruca vs. Lyra Valkyria. Raquel Rodriguez was good, but lost in the shuffle a little.
Ethan Page vs. Dragon Lee – HIT
The segment that came before this match which set it up involving Chad Gable, Dragon Lee and Ethan Page was okay. It gave Ethan a chance to continue to complain about Gable ignoring him and ducking him for the IC Title. Gable came across well, as did Lee. Having Lee have to earn the Title shot for the Raw in Mexico made sense. I didn’t know who was going to win. Ethan would make sense to finally give Gable a heel challenger, but Lee would make sense also because the show is in Mexico. The match was good. I liked that Lee teased the suicide bomb that we saw last week, but Ethan intercepted. That’s a big move that shouldn’t be done every match, but this was a smart way to tease it to capitalize on the buzz it got last week. Lee winning after Ethan was caught trying to cheat was a nice touch.
Roman Reigns – LA Knight – MISS
The last few weeks, The Bloodline seemed to be fully engaged as heels. But, Roman Reigns wasn’t acting like a heel here at all. He played to the crowd in a babyface matter. He showed respect to Rey Fenix and Penta. He made fun of LA Knight in a way that he would if Knight were a heel. But, Knight is a babyface. That’s the only thing that is really clear in all of this. He was good in his interruption. But, his reactions going up against Reigns would be stronger if Reigns was fully committed to being a heel. And if you didn’t want Reigns to be a heel, you shouldn’t have had him acting like a dick for as long as he was, or being a total heel two weeks ago in his dealings with Knight and Solo Sikoa.
Paul Heyman Interview – HIT
It is a little strange to have neither Oba Femi nor Brock Lesnar on the last Raw before their big match at Sunday Night’s Main Event, but the video recap of last week followed by this very good interview with Paul Heyman was enough. I didn’t feel like we needed more. Heyman did a great job of talking bout the match where he doesn’t know what is going to happen. He uplifted both wrestlers and made the match feel important.
Main Event Hype – HIT
WWE did a nice job throughout the show of hyping the main event. We saw Fenix and Penta arriving for the show. We got a replay of the good video from Smackdown highlighting the Lucha Bros and what this match means to them and their careers. The announcers talked about the great semi-final match last week between Fenix and Lee. Reigns talked about the tournament finalists and how much he respects them because they are earning their World Title opportunity. They made the main event final feel like a must-see match.
Rey Fenix vs. Penta – HIT
That main event did not disappoint. The match was fun to watch from start to finish. They had the show of respect at the beginning, but got to wrestling quickly to underscore the importance of the match. It went back and forth nicely. It was high energy and exciting. I appreciate that they protected the Mexican Muscle Buster. Fenix attempted to hit it, but Penta escaped. Too often in these types of matches, the winner will kick out of the loser’s finisher at some point. I prefer this approach where he avoids it. There were a few clunky spots where they got a little off, but that didn’t hurt too much from.
I wish Penta had defeated La Parka last week with the Penta Driver. That would have led to Fenix kicking out of it having more impact. Penta doesn’t have to hit the Mexican Destroyer every match. Keep the Penta Driver as a strong finisher. The Penta Driver on the announce table was a big spot. I loved how Penta hesitated to go for the Destroyer, but Fenix wouldn’t let him let up on him. The ending sequence was very strong with Penta ultimately hitting it for the win. The face-to-face between Penta and Reigns to end the show was also very strong.
(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.)
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.