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Opening Segment – HIT
WWE overdoes the “babyfaces who can’t get along” troupe. They just did it with the Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley situation heading into the other War Games match. (Again, why are they doing two a year?) It does make sense in this situation given the history between Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes and C.M. Punk. But, we’ve seen these three reluctantly work together in the past. It does feel a bit redundant. But, the performances were strong from all three. The story about whose team it really is was fine. The exclamation point at the end that Reigns is eyeing one or both of the championships was strong.
Gunther vs. Hayes – HIT
The outcome of this match was never in doubt, but it is a compliment to Gunther and Carmelo Hayes that they had the fans buying into the near falls for Hayes. In fact, it was actually a near-count out that got the biggest pop. That was a very well done moment to give the fans hope that Hayes would pull off the upset. I am a little surprised that Hayes is getting as strong a babyface response as he is, but that’s a good thing. He should have some good momentum coming out of this match despite taking the loss. This was a very good match with the right outcome in the end.
Dominik and Little Cena – MISS
This was the most Vince McMahon segment in WWE since he left the company. It was just lame. When Dominik Mysterio was interrupted by John Cena’s music, I knew that it wasn’t going to be Cena. I’m sure I’m not alone in that. I expected it to be J.D. McDonagh dressed as Cena. That would have been much better than the stupid use of a little person to impersonate him. Dominik is better than this. WWE should be, too.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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Mysterio vs. McDonagh – HIT
This was a good match between Rey Mysterio and J.D. McDonagh. It was what you’d expect from these two talented wrestlers given about 11 minutes for their match. They are keeping Rey involved with Judgment Day until his presumed eventual match against Dominik for the AAA Mega Championship.
Becky Lynch – HIT:
Having dissension between the heel team members makes more sense than the babyfaces considering their personalities even if it doesn’t create the drama which WWE is looking for. Here the possible dissension in the women’s team for War Games was on display as Becky Lynch talked about HER team. She was so funny in taking credit for putting the team together even though she was the last one added to a team that was already together. I greatly enjoyed the way she “introduced” the other members of HER team. This fit her character perfectly. The others didn’t show much reaction to it, but I think they were getting annoyed. The physicality at the end when the babyface team came out to confront them worked well too.
Usos vs. Logan & McIntyre – HIT
I would say that the heels always win these matches to determine which team will have the advantage in War Games, but since WWE does two of them, we usually get one of each. It was still predictable that Logan Paul & Drew McIntyre would beat The Usos here, but it was still a good match despite the predictability. It was interesting how the Usos took control of the situation earlier in the show since the other three were bickering backstage. How will Reigns react to his cousins loosing there? I guess we will see on Saturday if there are repercussions moving forward.
This was a good main event with the heel duo taking advantage of the distractions at ringside to get a quick cheap win. The brawl afterwards leading to Reigns and then Brock Lesnar’s appearance was fine. Lesnar recovered well enough from his fall on the way out to make a very amusing and memorable moment. But, it doesn’t make sense to end the show with the start of a brawl like that. They had the excuse on regular television that they have to cut the feed. But, that’s not the case on Netflix. So, why are we cutting out the feed right when these then started to fight?
(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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