{"id":116550,"date":"2021-04-06T20:43:35","date_gmt":"2021-04-07T01:43:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=116550"},"modified":"2021-04-06T20:43:35","modified_gmt":"2021-04-07T01:43:35","slug":"wwe-raw-hits-misses-4-5-styles-and-new-day-give-too-much-away-drew-mcintyre-delivers-in-final-wrestlemania-hype-with-lashley-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2021\/04\/06\/wwe-raw-hits-misses-4-5-styles-and-new-day-give-too-much-away-drew-mcintyre-delivers-in-final-wrestlemania-hype-with-lashley-more\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE RAW HITS &#038; MISSES 4\/5: Styles and New Day give too much away, Drew McIntyre delivers in final WrestleMania hype with Lashley, more"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-350354043\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p><b>Opening Segment &#8211; HIT: <\/b> Drew McIntyre started off Raw with a strong promo talking about his upcoming WWE Championship match against Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania. He was very good. Lashley came out and interrupted and was much better on the mic than he was last week when he came across very shaky. This built anticipation for their match and also hyped the main event for this week\u2019s Raw with Baron Corbin trying to take out McIntyre to cash in on Lashley\u2019s bounty. Unfortunately, it&#8217;s hard to get excited about anything involving Corbin.<\/p>\n<p><b>Woods vs. Styles &#8211; MISS: <\/b> How is a 90 second match supposed to get me excited about a PPV match? I get not wanting to give too much away, but it is better to not give anything away at this point since we&#8217;re so close to WrestleMania. They are telling the story that New Day will overcome the physical presence of Omos because they have the chemistry that Omos and A.J. Styles don\u2019t have. That\u2019s been an ok approach, but it isn\u2019t great.<\/p>\n<p><b>Strowman &#8211; Shane &#8211; MISS: <\/b> WWE does a great job with video packages which was the case on this last Raw before WM. That included a well put together recap of the feud between Braun Strowman and Shane McMahon. The problem is that the feud has been so dippy that I didn\u2019t want to sit through a recap of it. I wasn\u2019t into Strowman\u2019s promo about being bullied for being stupid. It might be cliche, but the big strong guy usually is more likely to be the bully to smaller weaker kids. Shane wasn\u2019t any better in his interruption. The handicap match afterwards wasn\u2019t particularly good either. Elias and Jackson Ryker being this involved automatically brings the entire storyline down.<\/p>\n<p><b>Asuka &amp; Ripley vs. Baszler &amp; Jax &#8211; HIT: <\/b> It was silly to have this match at all and the outcome was very predictable. That said, the wrestling action was pretty good. I appreciate having Rhea Ripley firmly established as the heel against the firmly established babyface in Asuka. Ripley works well as both a heel and a babyface. I can see a good run for her as a heel leading to an eventual turn. Unfortunately, the rest of the women\u2019s division on Raw (and Smackdown outside of Belair vs. Banks) is such a mess. I assumed we\u2019d be heading towards some type of gauntlet match for the Women\u2019s Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania. Instead we are getting one on night one to see who will face Baszler &amp; Jax on night two.<\/p>\n<p><b>Lashley vs. Alexander &#8211; MISS: <\/b> I have major problems with what WWE is doing with Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin. Having them dumped by Lashley and MVP is not a way to establish them as a strong team or as babyfaces. Having them both lose easily to Lashley in back to back weeks doesn\u2019t help, especially when they double team him before the match starts to give Alexander an advantage. Yes, the wrestling action in this mach was certainly &#8220;hit&#8221; worthy. Yes, it is more important to make Lashley look dominating going into WrestleMania, but where will this leave the former tag champs?<\/p>\n<p><b>Bad Bunny &#8211; HIT: <\/b> I was impressed with Bad Bunny this week. He did a nice job with his reactions to seeing the vandalism that Miz &amp; Morrison did to his fancy car. I know there has been criticism about this not being relatable, but if someone put paint on my 2001 Mazda, I\u2019d be angry. I don\u2019t blame Bad Bunny at all. I liked how Damian Priest challenged Miz &amp; Morrison to make the story culminate with a tag match at WrestleMania. That made the most sense from the start, so it is good to see WWE get there in the end. Bunny\u2019s promo worked well. He effectively recapped his fandom for WWE, his respect for the business, and his love for the wrestlers, while being excited about his appearance at the Royal Rumble. He made a clear distinction between his respect for WWE and Miz &amp; Morrison\u2019s lack of respect for him. He was shaky at times during the English portions of the promo, but that came across as being because it is his second language, not because he isn\u2019t good on the mic. He was much more natural when he switched to his native Spanish. I don\u2019t speak Spanish, but I got what he was saying. It was effective and Miz &amp; Morrison were good as their obnoxious selves. I am more excited about this now than I was before.<\/p>\n<p><b>Riddle vs. Ali &#8211; HIT: <\/b> There\u2019s an old saying in wrestling that the best characters are the wrestler\u2019s actual personality turned up to 11. That works great for some performers, but when you have Matt Riddle\u2019s personality, turning it up to 11 results in the most annoying person in the world. Luckily, he is a great wrestler in the ring, as is Mustafa Ali. So, when you put them in the ring and give them 11 minutes to have a good match, they are going to deliver. Sheamus was good during guest commentary to add to the enjoyment of the match. He and Riddle should have a very good United States Championship match at WrestleMania.<\/p>\n<p><b>McIntyre vs. Corbin &#8211; MISS: <\/b> As I said earlier, I can\u2019t get excited about anything to do with Baron Corbin. I don\u2019t care what WWE has done to try to build credibility for him, I see him as a low card goof talking about being a king when nobody cares about him. For me, it hurts Drew McIntyre to take 17 minutes to beat this guy, particularly when he only wins after MVP accidentally distracted Corbin by giving him his cane. It was never clear if Corbin actually would have gotten a WWE Championship match at WrestleMania if he beat McIntyre. How would WWE officials allow that to happen? If he was just supposed to injure McIntyre like MVP said, why would the officials reward him with a championship match? So, the whole situation was stupid from the start. The match itself was fine, but didn\u2019t work in context.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-2494456961\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><i>Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com&#8217;s WWE Hits &amp; Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw each week. Email him at jmezz_torch@yahoo.com.<\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>CATCH-UP:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2021\/04\/05\/4-5-wwe-monday-night-raw-results-kellers-report-on-mcintyre-vs-corbin-and-final-raw-hype-for-wrestlemania-37\/\">4\/5 WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW RESULTS: Keller\u2019s report on McIntyre vs. Corbin and final Raw hype for WrestleMania 37<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-2018971270\"><div id=\"pwtor-993050253\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Opening Segment &#8211; HIT: Drew McIntyre started off Raw with a strong promo talking about his upcoming WWE Championship match against Bobby Lashley at WrestleMania. He was very good. Lashley came out and interrupted and <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2021\/04\/06\/wwe-raw-hits-misses-4-5-styles-and-new-day-give-too-much-away-drew-mcintyre-delivers-in-final-wrestlemania-hype-with-lashley-more\/\" title=\"WWE RAW HITS &#038; MISSES 4\/5: Styles and New Day give too much away, Drew McIntyre delivers in final WrestleMania hype with Lashley, more\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":52733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,28,27],"tags":[240,96,71],"class_list":["post-116550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists","tag-monday-night-raw","tag-raw","tag-wwe"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2017\/12\/StylesAJLeClairBrandon3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116550"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116552,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116550\/revisions\/116552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}