WWE RAW HITS & MISSES (7/28): Hulk Hogan tribute, Jey Uso’s shaky promo, Punk fires up this week, Reed takes off Roman’s shoes, Lyra stumbles

Hogan Tribute – MISS: I can accept that WWE was going to do a big tribute to Hulk Hogan on the first show after his death last week. But, we got that tribute on Smackdown. I understand that he would deserve this type of treatment based on his career. Without his personal issues and controversies, I would be ok with them doing a tribute on all of their shows. But, with all the criticism about his life and the terrible things he said and did, they could have gotten away with just doing the Smackdown tribute. I didn’t need to sit through it again.

Opening Segment – MISS: Raw got off to a bit of a shaky start. Overall, Paul Heyman was good as you’d expect, but something about getting fans to boo him for being Jewish didn’t sit well with me. The bigger problem was Jey Uso who was not good on the mic at all. He’s never been a great talker, but he usually is better than this. He mumbled and stumbled over his words when he had a chance to make a verbal comeback against Heyman. It wasn’t terrible, but the opening was not good.

Styles & The Kabuki Warriors vs. Judgment Day – HIT: This was fun. While Roxanne Perez & Raquel Rodriguez are defending their Tag Team Championship at SummerSlam against a Smackdown duo, it is smart to keep the Kabuki Warriors in the conversation on Raw. This also played well into the Dominic Mysterio vs. AJ Styles feud ahead of their Intercontinental Title match at SS. I liked this much better than their silly interactions last week with AJ playing dress up throughout the show. Obviously, Styles getting the win on Dirty Dom shows that he will lose at the PLE, but I was already assuming that.

Lyra Valkyria – MISS: This was rough. Lyra Valkyria is a good in ring worker. I can’t say that she’s a good professional wrestler as I take the entire package into account when I use that term, not just the in ring work. She has been better recently. But, she still hasn’t found herself as a character or on the mic. This was bad. She got crickets when she talked about her big shoes which she was going to use to stomp on Becky Lynch. You could almost see in her eyes the moment when her soul actually left her body after her dorky little twirl when it got no reaction. She was clearly rattled as she mistakingly said “two weeks” instead of “next week.” The segment was much better with the physicality once Lynch showed up.

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Eight-Woman Tag – HIT: Back in the Divas Era, an eight-woman tag match like this would have been given at most 3 minutes. Time has thankfully changed as this match got 15. Most of the women in this match are very talented workers. Everyone had a chance to show off their skills. There was also a lot of star power in this match. Three of the babyfaces get huge reactions from the fans. Niki Bella is also a decent legacy star. Naomi continues to do good work as the heel World Champion. Chelsea Green and the Secret Hervice are always fun too. But, I will highlight Stephanie Vaquer who seems destined to surpass Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley (and Charlotte and Becky, etc.) as the top star in the women’s division.

Judgment Day vs. LWO – HIT: As I expected, this was a good Tag Team Title match with the unexpected challengers Cruz Del Toro & Joaquin Wilde falling short against the Champions JD McDonagh & Finn Balor. They certainly had plenty of opportunities to show of their high flying style. It was a lot of fun to watch. The match ultimately further advanced the El Grande Americano story with El Grande Americano 2 showing up to continue his feud against the LWO, while El Grande Americano 3 ultimately debuted to cost them the match. The idea of multiple Americanos at one time is intriguing.

Gunther – Punk – HIT: This was much better than what happened last week between World Champion Gunther and his SS opponent C.M. Punk. I wonder if Punk heard some of the criticism of his rather bland promo last week and decided to step it up this week. He was much more passionate this week, and brought it against Gunther in a more compelling way. Gunther was also good in his role. This should get Punk’s fans excited for the possibility of him winning the World Title at SS.

Show Closing Beating – HIT: The main event of Jey Uso vs. Bronson Reed wasn’t much of a match. It only lasted 7 minutes before Bron Breakker caused a disqualification. The match wasn’t much, but the post-match fight was very well done and a nice way to end the final Raw before SS. Roman Reigns’ appearance to save Jey was a nice surprise. It was interesting that the heel duo got the better of them without any help from a third person. These situations usually rely on the heels having the numbers advantage. Uso and Reigns thought they had the physical upper hand on Reed and Breakker, but they didn’t when they attacked them on the outside of the ring. The beating was memorable including the end when Reed stole Reigns’s shoes. Breakker was great in yelling about owning WWE during the beat down. Presumably, this is all just to allow Reigns & Uso to get their revenge at the PLE.

(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.)