WWE RAW HITS & MISSES (7/21): Generic CM Punk, Heyman’s hapless attempt to recruit Reigns to replace Seth, Iyo Sky vs. Stephanie Vaquer, Rusev vs. Sheamus, LWO’s big win

Opening Segment – MISS: This wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t nearly good enough for the World Championship program going into SummerSlam. C.M. Punk was very generic here in opening the show and talking about how he’s going to beat Gunther for the World Title. There was nothing memorable about it. I’m trying to remember what he said and I can’t. Gunther was fine, but not particularly inspiring either. I was expecting a lot more from their first verbal encounter after Punk became the #1 contender last week. I still expect a very good match, but they need to really bring it next week in the go home show.

Rusev vs. Sheamus – HIT: This was a good, hard hitting physical match with Sheamus getting the better of Rusev to avenge his loss a few weeks ago. There was a bit of a scary moment when Sheamus slipped while going to the top rope, but he recovered well and luckily was fine, and able to eventually hit the dive on Rusev on the outside. Clearly, we will get a rubber match since it is currently 1-1. It is easy to imagine a best of 7 series coming too. Time will tell.

New Day vs. LWO vs. The Creeds – HIT: I was not expecting the LWO duo to win this match to become the #1 contenders to the Tag Team Championship. I figured they were there to take the loss in order to protect either the New Day or the Creed Brothers from getting pinned. Joaquin Wilde & Cruz Del Toro are a very talented team. They are fun to watch, and I assumed this was just a chance to see them do some of their cool moves before losing. I won’t complain about them getting the surprise win, as their match against Judgment Day should be very good. But, why not feature them a little bit here and there so this doesn’t seem to come out of nowhere. They didn’t deserve to be in this match in the first place. The match was a lot of fun with these three very talented teams. I still wish the Creeds were given a bigger push.

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Lynch – Valkyria – HIT: I got a kick out of Becky Lynch’s promo complaining about Lyra Valkyria trying to win multiple titles, only to realize as she was saying it that she was being a hypocrite given her Becky Two Belts run from a few years ago. This was a good heel promo which nicely set up a good babyface appearance from Valkyria. They added a stipulation to their Intercontinental Title match at SummerSlam which is ok. It was also good that Lyra didn’t fall for Becky’s disingenuous attempt at a handshake.

Valkyria & Bayley vs. Perez & Rodriguez – HIT: This was a weird match fitting into a weird story, with weird character development from Bayley as she teamed up with Lyra to take on Judgment Day’s Roxanne Perez & Raquel Rodriguez for the Tag Team Titles. But, it worked. Bayley was good in acting excited about teaming with Valkyria. Valkyria was good in showing her obvious skeptical behavior towards her partner. There was plenty of good wrestling action throughout the match which went along with the storytelling. There were a few off moments, particularly when Rodriguez accidentally “kicked” Dominic Mysterio at ringside. The AJ Styles bit was a bit too cute at that point like he was just waiting in case Dirty Dom needed medical attention. Otherwise it was a good match. Lynch’s interference worked to continue putting heat on her and making Lyra even more angry towards her heading into her match. Judgment Day got a needed win. I’m mostly curious about what all this will ultimately mean for Bayley.

Sky vs. Vaquer – HIT: I know that this match had a crap finish, but I was fully expecting that. They weren’t going to sacrifice either of these women as Iyo Sky needs to stay strong going into her Women’s Title match at SS, and Stephanie Vaquer needs to stay strong heading into her Title match in September. This is the second time these two have wrestled without a satisfying ending. At some point when we get a rematch with an actual clear winner, that should be a big moment. The match was certainly great until that point. These are two of my favorites in the ring in WWE right now so I’m not surprised how much I enjoyed watching them wrestle. The physical aftermath with Naomi, the Secret Hervice, and Rhea Ripley worked well too.

Closing Segment – HIT: I loved how Paul Heyman tried to recruit Roman Reigns to take over the leadership of the Seth Rollins faction while Rollins is out with the injury. Roman was good, although a bit redundant at times in his reaction. It was good to hear him acknowledge all the help he got from the Usos, Solo Sikoa and Sammy Zayn during his 4 year long Title reign. The history was good. This clearly was teasing an eventual match between Reigns and Bron Breakker who was good in his role. But, first we will presumably get the tag match with Reigns & Jey Uso vs. Breakker & Bronson Reed at SS.

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.