SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Opening Segment – HIT: This week’s Raw was much better than last week’s. It got off to a strong start with Roman Reigns. It was interesting to hear him trying to talk about where he is now in his career as opposed to a few years ago. Hopefully WWE has something meaningful in mind for him coming out of this, because he has largely been wasted in tag team matches since turning babyface after losing the WWE Championship to Cody Rhodes a year an half ago. The interruption from Paul Heyman and Bronson Reed was also very good. WWE has done a nice job of building to their match at Clash at Paris. The interplay between Reigns and Reed was fun, and I liked the idea of Reed as being a different type of Samoan from the Bloodline family.
Dragon Lee vs. McDonagh – HIT: There were a few sloppy spots in this match and the sit down power bomb move was a bit scary. Luckily, JD McDonagh was okay. I am giving the match a Hit despite a few off moments, because overall it was a good match which played into the feud between Dominik Mysterio and A.J. Styles. Dragon Lee got a much needed win, although both Tag Team Champions lost singles matches on this show. The other, Finn Balor vs. A.J. Styles was ok, not a Hit nor a Miss.
Hype for Clash at Paris – HIT: We got to see interviews with the three challengers to Seth Rollins’ World Title, along with seeing interaction between Rollins and his Vision mates. We also saw videos on both Sheamus and Rusev ahead of their Old Fashioned Donnybrook match. The opening segment and a later brawl worked well to tease the physicality between Reigns and Reed. The main event and aftermath would sell the World Title match too with the three babyface challengers not able to get along to the delight of the Champ (more later). We also got the set up for the Intercontinental Championship match between Becky Lynch and Nicki Bella (more later).
Penta vs. Kingston – MISS: This wasn’t a bad match, but there were enough issues with it that I am giving it a minor Miss. I would not have had Kofi Kingston kicking out of the Penta Driver. I understand that lately Penta has been using the Mexican Destroyer more as his finisher, but the Penta Driver was still a legit protected finisher until now. They are starting a story of getting the Destroyer banned. So, maybe the thinking was to make his other finisher look weaker, so losing the ability to do the Destroyer will feel like a bigger deal? There were also some sloppy spots. They covered for them well, but they still took away from the quality of the match. This also felt like that all too familiar 50-50 booking where Penta got the win over Xavier Woods last week, but took the loss this week. There was plenty of good wrestling in this match too, and that kick that Penta gave to Grayson Waller when he tried to interfere was great. But, this match should have been better.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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Lynch – Bella – HIT: This was a nice verbal exchange between Intercontinental Champ Becky Lynch and Nicki Bella which cemented her as Becky’s next challenger. I am not looking forward to the match, although it will likely be solid. However, the verbal encounters between them have been good.
Ripley vs. Perez – HIT: This was a good match of Rhea Ripley vs. Roxanne Perez which isn’t surprising. But, this was not a good night for Judgment Day. The focus on the match was actually the physicality afterwards when Raquel Rodriguez attacked Ripley leading to Iyo Sky making the save despite previously telling Ripley that they needed to go their own way. That of course led to more bickering between Iyo and Asuka and Kairi Sane. They weren’t nearly as annoying as last week, although I’m still not sure any of them are looking particularly good here. The story is that Ripley is interjecting herself into a family dynamic. How will it all play out?
Knight vs. Breakker – HIT: Considering that Bron Breakker lost in the main event to Jey Uso last week, it isn’t surprising that WWE gave him the win here against LA Knight, even though Knight is in the World Title match at the PLE. Because of that, and due to WWE’s terrible track record of disqualification endings to their matches, particularly the Raw main events, I was fully expecting a DQ finish here. So, I will take Breakker pinning Knight even if it did come after interference from Seth Rollins. As I said before, the match and the fighting afterwards worked well to build to the World Title match on Sunday.
(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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