SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Lesnar – Femi – HIT: Raw got off to a good start with the first of the separate contract signing segments with Brock Lesnar signing the contract while Paul Heyman cut a promo on Oba Femi. This was good, but nothing particularly special. Later in the show, Femi signed the contract only to be interrupted by Heyman. The real highlight of the show was Femi’s promo answering Heyman. That was the best he’s been on the mic in WWE or NXT. It was intense and focused. The build to Femi vs. Lesnar has been the best build for any match at WrestleMania. Hopefully they don’t screw it up.
Charlotte vs. Valkyria – HIT: This was a good match, with a dippy ending. It also had that 50-50 booking that WWE is so bad about where Lyra Valkyria gets the win here over Charlotte Flair, who’s teammate Alexa Bliss defeated Lyra’s partner Bayley on Smackdown. But, the effort from Flair and Valkyria was strong, and the match was good other than the ending. This is just barely a decent way to build to a WM Tag Team Title match. So, I’ll call it a minor Hit.
Vaquer – Morgan Brawl – HIT: WWE has done a nice job of building to the World Title match at WM between Stephanie Vaquer and Liv Morgan. It has gone from being about the Championship, to being personal, to now feeling like its more than personal. I wasn’t a fan of some of the early things they did with this feud, like Morgan crying in that face-to-face several weeks ago. But, it has gotten quite a bit better. Their brawl this week was a strong follow up to Vaquer’s backstage attack on Morgan last week, with Morgan getting some revenge. It was short and didn’t overstay its welcome which can happen with these brawls. They have the skill to have a very good match at WM, and I’m definitely looking forward to it.
Usos & Knight vs. The MFTs – MISS: I’m a fan of the Usos, but I haven’t loved much of what they’ve been involved in lately. I am a fan of LA Knight, but his never ending feud against the very weakened Vision hasn’t been good lately. I like some of the individual members of the MFTs, but have not been a fan of the group as a whole, especially in their long played out feud on Smackdown with the Wyatt Sicks. I’m already having trouble caring about the six man tag match at WM, and those feelings weren’t helped by having one of those teams only able to win a match because their opponents (who aren’t at WM) were distracted by their own inner turmoil. This didn’t do anything for The Usos & Knight. The video with Logan Paul & Austin Theory training IShowSpeed was ok, but none of it interests me. I’d much rather see Asuka vs. Iyo Sky than this six man tag at WM.
Gunther – Rollins – HIT: This was just about the best WWE could do on the go home show to build towards the cold odd random match between Gunther and Seth Rollins. Rollins vs. Bron Breakker would have been better. Gunther vs. Rey Mysterio would have been better. The injury situation hurt. I get wanting to have these two stars on the show, so throwing them together makes some sense (I’d rather see Asuka vs. Sky). This final encounter between them did a good job of creating at least some type of issue between them. The performances from both were good. The match itself should be excellent. So, at least that’s something.
Mysterio – Balor – MISS: This is perhaps more accurately labeled as “Incomplete” than Miss. The build towards this WM match between Dominik Mysterio and Finn Balor started off very well. But, ever since the match was made, the hype for it the last few weeks has been practically non-existent. Where is Balor? Having Dirty Dom complaining about The Demon was the only thing they did on the go home show. The hype has fizzled at the end. It’ll still be a good match, but I’d rather see Asuka vs. Sky.
Sky vs. Sane – HIT: This was a good match as I expected it to be. I suspect that the eventual match between Sky and Asuka will be even better, even if it isn’t happening at WM. The story with Asuka, Kairi Sane, and Iyo Sky has been very good. This match was a good step in that story leading to the eventual match between Asuka and Sky. I just wish we would get that match this weekend.
Reigns – Punk – HIT: The build to the WM Main Event has been up and down. It got off to a very good start on the show after The Royal Rumble. This is a case where the extra time between the Rumble and WM has hurt the show. It is too long to build to a match that we’ve known about for months. There have been weeks when Roman Reigns and CM Punk have had very strong performances with good writing. Other weeks, it felt like they were doing damage to each other. It was interesting in this final sell that they showed more respect to each other. That this would have been a better tone for the entire story. They still hate each other. They still want to beat the hell out of each other. They still feel strongly about wanting to be the World Champ. It is important to them. But, they weren’t tearing each other down in a way that makes me want to root against both of them as has happened at times during the last several weeks.
(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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