SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Acknowledging Ceremony – MISS: While Tribal Combat between Roman Reigns and Jacob Fatu was a good PLE main event at Clash in Italy, I was only interested in it from the standpoint of the World Championship. I felt that Fatu winning would set up far more intriguing possibilities, whereas Reigns winning would set up more of the same. Unfortunately, we got the later. I don’t like WWE announcers using terms like “neutered” to describe a potential top star like Fatu. Having him be subservient to Reigns isn’t good. Yeah, there are some slightly interesting family dynamics with the Usos and their unique views on the situation, but I’m not interested much at all in what’s going on with the main event program on Raw, which is likely going to spill over to Smackdown.
Femi vs. Hayes vs. Penta vs. Sikoa – HIT: I’m not a fan of having the first rounds of the King and Queen tournaments as fatal four ways. But, we got two good fatal four ways on this Raw to start off the tournaments. This first one for the men was built around Oba Femi and his attempt to get back on track after his loss to Brock Lesnar as the PLE the night before. I liked how the other three jumped Femi to start the match, only to have him easily fight them off to finish his ring entrance. The match was well built around these attempts which were more or less successful to get Femi out of the match and turn it into a triple threat. Carmelo Hayes, Penta, and Solo Sikoa were good in the match as well, with chances to shine. In the end, the right guy won with Femi overcoming the odds. His strong promo afterwards in addressing Lesnar was a great way to put a stamp on the situation, and show that he hasn’t lost any momentum after that loss.
Lee & Mysterio vs. Page & Rusev – HIT: This was a good tag match which was nicely set up on last week’s show. It continued the story of the dynamic between Ethan Page and Rusev. Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee have good chemistry and history together, and the announcers were able to talk about the difference in the relationships between the two teams. The wrestling action was good throughout with the babyface team getting the crowd pleasing win.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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Sky vs. Giulia vs. Perez vs. Legend – HIT: As I said above, we got two good fatal four way matches. The women’s version wasn’t quite as good as the men’s, but it was still a good match. Iyo Sky seemed like the most likely winner (like Femi in the first one), so there wasn’t much in terms of a surprise here, but that’s ok. It was fun to watch, and set up a nice moment later in the show with Roxanne Perez getting annoyed at Liv Morgan who wasn’t convincing in pretending to be concerned over her losing the match. It will be interesting to see what’s next for this group.
Maxxine Dupri – MISS: I’m not interested in seeing Maxxine Dupri as part of The Vision. I don’t want to see her doing anything if I’m being honest unless she actually learns to act or wrestle which she hasn’t yet.
Rollins vs. Breakker – HIT: The Raw main event was very good which isn’t surprising. The feud between Seth Rollins and Bron Breakker has continued to grow despite more injuries to members of The Vision. They had a good main event here with Austin Theory and Montez Ford getting involved. Ford coming to Rollins’ aid made sense after they finally got on the same page last week. They seem like they are going to work together at least for awhile. The bump from Paul Heyman as he got accidentally speared by Breakker through the side barrier was quite the spot. Heyman has a history of selling these types of injuries well, so I expect the same here. It seems like they are setting up Rollins & Ford vs. Breakker & Theory for the Tag Team Titles which should be a good match with intriguing possibilities coming out of it based on how WWE books it and what direction they want this story to go.
(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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