SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Opening Segment – MISS: I am a big fan of Bronson Reed and was very happy to see him return at Sunday Night’s Main Event, even though it led to a copout finish (oh the surprise) of a major match at a WWE special show. I’ve never been the biggest Bron Breakker fan, but he’s certainly a star. Logan Paul has done a pretty good job of becoming a WWE Superstar (I don’t usually use their corporate language, but I feel like its the best way to describe Paul at this point), but he hasn’t grown after his initial time in the company when he was so impressive for being so inexperienced. Austin Theory is not very good and has largely been presented as a loser. Maxxine Dupri isn’t good at anything and has also been largely presented as a loser. I can’t get behind the Vision considering the weakest links, the history of injuries, and the lack of Paul Heyman being as involved as he once was. I can’t believe we’re still doing Otis vs. Theory at this point. The announcers made a big deal about how Otis was back, but I didn’t even realize he was gone. It also rings hollow to hear them say that they run Raw, when they are on the same show as The Bloodline. Oba Femi’s interruption after the match was good, but it felt like more of the same from the end of his match against Breakker the night before. So, I couldn’t get into the start of this show at all.
946 vs. Bloodline – MISS: There were parts of the presentation of Royce Keys’ new faction 946 on Raw that I liked. The video near the beginning of Keys introducing OTM was strong. The dynamic between The Usos and Jacob Fatu made sense. Of course The Usos would be hot headed wanting revenge after what happened to them last week, with Fatu trying to calm them down and come up with a good plan. But, a lot of it seemed like they were spinning their wheels. It felt overly scripted how everything was saved for the “main event” slot of the show. There was a main event which should have been planned for the end of the show, and then they could have cut unexpectedly to something happening backstage as the show went off the air. But, clearly this was scripted to be the end because the Big Cass vignette aired after the main event which doesn’t make sense. This also is a heel vs. heel faction feud, so I don’t have a side to root for. The burning of the Usos’ car at the end was ok as an idea, but it was cheesy how it almost exploded right away. This didn’t work overall even if some of the performances were good.
Matt Mathews – MISS: I have no problem in general with a comedian like Matt Mathews being part of Raw. I’m not familiar with him, but I understand he has a pretty big following and has had a few successful stand up tours. But, just having him interviewed as a set up for a confrontation with The Miz and Kit Wilson who aren’t even on the show didn’t do much for me. The segment really went downhill when Matthews was able to pull off a head scissor take down on Wilson in the ring with no apparent wrestling training. If they had set up that he is friends with someone on the roster and had done some training on the side, maybe you could buy it. But, this was terrible. And he still got beat up in the end, so you know he will need to get revenge on the Miz, so this is not the end.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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Breakker vs. Mysterio vs. Page – HIT: I finally got to something I liked with this triple threat Money in the Bank qualifying match. Breakker was the most likely winner of the match, but I couldn’t totally discount giving a win to Rey Mysterio or Ethan Page, so the outcome wasn’t totally predictable. The wrestling action was good, and Mysterio and Page each had some believable near falls at times when Breakker was out of the ring. There was plenty of good wreaking action in this match and it was fun to watch from start to finish.
Ruca vs. Valkyria vs. Dupri – HIT: The women’s MITB qualifier was also a good match. Sol Ruca was definitely the right choice for the winner. Lyra Valkyria would have been fine, but Ruca will have a chance to do some very fun crazy things in that ladder match which I’m looking forward to. Dupri would have been a joke, but I was worried that they might make that decision since this was a night for The Vision to shine. Bayley’s interruption took the ending of the match down some, but it was ok and it was a good way to bring her back to continue to build her feud against Valkyria. Their first match was very good, so I’m looking forward to the rematch.
Funko Pop Tie In – MISS: This was terrible. The song that Joe Hendry sang about JD McDonagh looking like a Funko Pop figure was so cheesy and lame. Hendry vs. McDonagh was fine, but too short to amount to much. Having Ja’von Evans involved dressed as a McDonagh Pop figure was the worst part of this, because he could still be a big star if he was taken seriously. He got a chance to show more of an intense serious side in his recent short feud and match against Big Cass. Now, he’s back to just being silly, which was a big step back for him.
Vaquer vs. Morgan – HIT: The main event World Title match between Liv Morgan and Stephanie Vaquer was very good, although it had a lame distraction finish, which was predictable given that Judgment Day interference is how every one of Morgan’s Title matches end (all three of them). Given what happened early in the show between Vaquer and Becky Lynch, you knew this was the route that they were going to go in. The wrestling action before the interference was definitely good enough to give the match a Hit despite the finish. It seems like a triple threat match is in the works, but that wouldn’t solve the problem of Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez getting involved. So, where do they actually go from here?
(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.)
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