SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Opening Segment – MISS: I fail to see how faking an injury gave Seth Rollins a bigger advantage when it came to cashing in the Money in the Bank contract on C.M. Punk. Punk was exhausted after winning the World Championship from Gunther in Summerslam Saturday’s main event. Rollins could have run to the ring, hit Punk in the head a bunch of times with the briefcase, cash in, and hit the stomp, and he would have won the title just like we’ve seen so many other times with MITB. I was hoping that we’d get at least some explanation or reason why the fake injury gave him a bigger advantage, but we didn’t. It was fine otherwise, but not great in any particular way (other than Bronson Reed’s new moniker of the Tribal Thief, which is great). L.A. Knight’s interruption made sense and set up the main event hook, so it wasn’t all bad.
Rusev vs. Sheamus – HIT: Yes, this match had a draw finish with the double countout, but in this case I didn’t mind it. It came after several minutes of hard hitting physical action. We’ve seen finishes in each of the first two matches between Sheamus and Rusev, so this didn’t feel like a cop out to me. It played perfectly into the hatred that these two have for each other which has built over their first two matches. It also set up the fun gimmick of them continuing to brawl in the back which interrupted a few segments later in the show.
Waller vs. Penta – HIT: This was a good match to give Penta a strong win over Grayson Waller as he continues to try to join The New Day as Big G. The New Day are leaning too heavy into their goofiness which doesn’t serve them well as heels, but I have to admit to laughing at Xavier Woods’s ridiculously large hat, and Penta playing with it after the match.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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Charlotte – Bliss – MISS: I do like this team of Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss, and was fine with them wining the Tag Team Championship at Summerslam. I do believe it has been particularly good for Charlotte. I did chuckle when she pointed out that this was the first time she’s ever gotten a “You deserve it!” chant. But overall, this was a rough talking segment. They were too cute in dancing around the “f” word – friends. That led to even more all too cutesy moments where their saying the “a word” which was silly. It felt too PG Era on the night after Michael Cole yelled “Holy shit!”
Charlotte & Bliss vs. Perez & Rodriguez – HIT: Thankfully, the match that followed that was much better. I enjoyed their match at Summerslam, and this rematch was also good. These two teams have shown great chemistry together in the ring. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of them in the ring, but not right away. Let Judgment Day’s story continue away from the title picture for awhile and then come back to it.
Rollins vs. Knight – MISS: Just have Seth Rollins beat L.A. Knight and then do the run in from C.M. Punk. Rollins just won the World Title. Knight hasn’t been seen as a legitimate World Title contender. He can lose to Rollins. It is okay. The match was perfectly fine before that. I did appreciate that Knight was upset at Punk for causing the disqualification and costing him the match. I’m guessing we’ll get a triple threat match soon. The beating with The Vision coming out, followed by Roman Reigns worked well. Once again, Roman took a beating and lost his shoes to the Tribal Chief. It was good to see Bron Breakker moving around well after there was some concern that he might have injured his leg on Saturday. The big question coming out of this was where was Jey Uso? I hope that will be addressed next week. Perhaps we will find out that Breakker and Reed took him out beforehand. So, the very end of the show was Hit-worthy, but I can’t give a World Title main event a Hit when it doesn’t have an actual winner.
(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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