SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Opening Segment – HIT: Raw got off to a good start with Roman Reigns and Sami Zayn addressing each other, their history, and their upcoming match at Crown Jewel. Both of them performed well and got in good shots at the other. It is refreshing to see Reigns playing a total babyface right now, and Zayn is playing a total heel. It makes it much easier to get engrossed in a match where there’s one clear wrestler to cheer and one clear wrestler to boo. They also brought up The 946 in a way to keep that feud in the minds of the fans.
Gable vs. Page – HIT: Raw continued nicely with the in-ring highlight of the show, the Intercontinental Championship match with Chad Gable defending against Ethan Page. They played nicely into the injury that Gable suffered during the tag match last week. Gable looked good in constantly fighting through the pain to come close to winning. Ethan got a pretty strong win. He didn’t cheat (on purpose), and didn’t have any help from Big Cass (or anyone else). I was pleasantly surprised with the lack of outside interference. Ethan will have a chance to really push his obnoxious character now that he’s the new IC Champ.
Six-Woman Tag – HIT: This was not great, but good enough to get a Hit. WWE has done a nice job of building towards Chelsea Green vs. Liv Morgan at Crown Jewel, although I don’t actually care about the concept of the Crown Jewel (non) championship (the same goes for the men’s one too). Morgan has gotten the better of Green more often than not, which likely points to Green getting the win at the PLE.
Randy Orton’s Babyface Promo – MISS: If Randy Orton was a babyface, this would have been a huge Hit. But, he’s a heel, facing Cody Rhodes who is supposed to be the top babyface on Smackdown. So, why won’t Orton go heel? It is very counter productive. This came on the heel of John Cena making Rhodes the first invitee for the John Cena Classic, but that’s a concept I care less about than the Crown Jewel Title.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
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Six-Man Tag – HIT: This was just good enough to get a Hit. It wasn’t anything special, and a bit underwhelming considering all the talent involved. It was good, but should have been better. It didn’t get a lot of time. One of the reasons that I am giving it a Hit is for the fact that Bron Breakker got the win over Je’von Evans. WWE’s typical formula is to have the potential challengers win these types of non-title matches over the champions in order to make it look likely that they will win the title down the line. It was nice to see WWE break from that formula here.
Sikoa vs. Keys – MISS: Man, this was just boring and slow. Solo Sikoa and Royce Keys are certainly good enough wrestlers to have good matches, but they didn’t click at all together in the ring. Their styles didn’t mesh in a way that produced anything exciting to watch. It was a dull clunker of a main event which ended in a lame disqualification.
Montana Cruz Joins 946 – MISS: It feels like WWE is building a War Games team, not a new faction that can last. They had something good going with the original group with Keys and OTM. Jayda Parker being added made sense given her history with OTM in NXT, and she certainly was deserving of a call up at that point. I did question her being a heel since she was over as a babyface in NXT (as were OTM). Carmelo Hayes being added was a stretch. I said at the time that there had to be more to him being connected to The 946 than just being an “angry black man.” So far, we haven’t even gotten “angry black man” from him. We haven’t gotten anything resembling a reason why he joined the group and turned heel after being over as a babyface. He hasn’t had a chance to talk. I am a fan of Cruz Montana and question why he spent any time in NXT at all. I’m glad he’s on the main roster where he belongs, but he was another babyface who joined this group. Maybe we’ll get a better explanation as to why he joined with Keys, but how they handled Hayes doesn’t leave me with a lot of confidence. They only seem to be adding these guys because they need five for War Games, which isn’t a smart way to build a new faction.
(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.)
