{"id":39978,"date":"2017-03-15T15:50:06","date_gmt":"2017-03-15T20:50:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=39978"},"modified":"2017-03-15T15:50:06","modified_gmt":"2017-03-15T20:50:06","slug":"wwe-raw-hits-misses-313-heyman-lesnar-reigns-hbk-danas-turn-new-day-enzo-cass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/03\/15\/wwe-raw-hits-misses-313-heyman-lesnar-reigns-hbk-danas-turn-new-day-enzo-cass\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE RAW HITS &#038; MISSES 3\/13: Heyman &#038; Lesnar, Reigns and HBK, Dana&#8217;s turn, New Day, Enzo &#038; Cass"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1774753558\" 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><h3><b><u>RAW HITS<\/u><\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>Heyman and Lesnar:<\/b>\u00a0 This wasn&#8217;t great, but it was good.\u00a0 Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar started off Raw.\u00a0 Goldberg has dominated Lesnar, first at Survivor Series and second at The Royal Rumble.\u00a0 Throw in the fact that he defeated Lesnar at WrestleMania 20 all those years ago, and there isn&#8217;t much reason to think that Lesnar has a chance against him at WM this year.\u00a0 So you have to do something to make the fans think he has that chance and having him hit Goldberg with an F5 last week was a good first step.\u00a0 This strong promo accentuating what happened last week was a good second step.\u00a0 The &#8220;Down Goes Goldberg&#8221; mantra worked well.\u00a0 It makes the fans start to think about what would happen if he is able to hit the F5 in the match itself.\u00a0 It was also not overly long which these opening talking segments often are.<\/p>\n<p><b>Perkins &amp; Tozawa vs. Kendrick &amp; Nese:<\/b>\u00a0 This was a fun match.\u00a0 This was the best reaction from the fans that TJ Perkins has received in a long time.\u00a0 He, Akira Tozawa, The Brian Kendrick and Tony Nese worked hard and put on a good match.\u00a0 It was a preview for the five way match on 205 Live to determine the #1 contender for Neville&#8217;s Cruiserweight Championship at WrestleMania.\u00a0 Most people are going to suspect that Austin Aries is going to win that match.\u00a0 And nobody is going to suspect that a heel like Nese is going to face the heel Champ.\u00a0 For that reason, I would have had one of the babyfaces go over to make the fans think someone other than Aires has a chance to win that match.\u00a0 They also seemed to hint at possible tension between Perkins and Tozawa, so we will see if that goes anywhere.<\/p>\n<p><b>Owens Promo:<\/b>\u00a0 Kevin Owens has done good work on the mic since turning on Chris Jericho last month.\u00a0 This was another example of a strong promo from Owens talking about how Jericho was never really his best friend and that Jericho was using him as much as he was using Jericho.\u00a0 This made the fans want to see Jericho get revenge on Owens even more than they did before.\u00a0 It also built anticipation for the tag match that was to follow which was too short to amount to much.<\/p>\n<p><b>Reigns and Michaels:<\/b>\u00a0 It was a legit nice surprise to see Shawn Michaels come out to talk to Roman Reigns about this upcoming match against The Undertaker at WM.\u00a0 The only reason I am looking forward to that match is the slight hope that it was cement Reigns as a heel and that WWE won&#8217;t go back to him being a babyface afterwards.\u00a0 This segment certainly made Reigns feel like a heel.\u00a0 I like seeing Michaels in a more serious role than when he often returns and does too much goofy stuff.\u00a0 He was trying to get Reigns to listen to his advice about not allowing Undertaker to get into his head.\u00a0 Reigns&#8217; line about Undertaker retiring Michaels but he will retire Undertaker was a great heel line to end the segment.\u00a0 Strowman&#8217;s attack afterwards worked well and that bump on the ramp was very memorable.<\/p>\n<p><b>Jericho and Tom Phillips:<\/b>\u00a0 I have mixed feelings about this, because part of me wants to see Jericho be more serious after the turn by Owens.\u00a0 It is more important for Owens to be serious than Jericho and he has been.\u00a0 Because of that, I am more forgiving of Jericho continuing with his goofy comedy like he did here.\u00a0 And, it was funny.\u00a0 I loved how he refused to believe that the interviewer wasn&#8217;t really Tom Phillips.\u00a0 And of course, when you insult Jericho&#8217;s intelligence like that, you know what happens&#8230; You just made the list!<\/p>\n<h3><b><u>RAW MISSES<\/u><\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>Who Will Foley Fire?:<\/b>\u00a0 The theme of Raw was who will Mick Foley fire?\u00a0 This was set up in the opening segment after the in ring promo from Heyman.\u00a0 Stephanie McMahon informed Foley that he had to fire someone by the end of the show to learn a lesson about management or something.\u00a0 In fact, she had to tell him twice in that scene that he had until the end of the show since she said it once and then he later asked her.\u00a0 I don&#8217;t think that was scripted.\u00a0 I appreciate a theme like this for Raw that connects the show together.\u00a0 However, I don&#8217;t like the idea that the theme would be about the authority figures.\u00a0 We got too much of Foley and Stephanie this week.\u00a0 I got my hopes up that Foley would fire Enzo, but I knew that wasn&#8217;t going to happen, so no matter who he would fire, it was going to be a disappointment.\u00a0 I just didn&#8217;t care about it.\u00a0 I knew for a fact that nobody was going to actually get fired in the end, so it was a meaningless question.<\/p>\n<p><b>Dana Brooke Turn:<\/b>\u00a0 I question the timing of this turn from Dana Brooke snapping on Charlotte.\u00a0 The execution was well done and got a good response from the live crowd.\u00a0 So, I will call this a minor Miss.\u00a0 It seems to muddy the waters too much too close to WrestleMania when you already have a triple threat Women&#8217;s Championship match and a fourth woman in Nia Jax who wants to be part of that match.\u00a0 Now you have Brooke in the mix too as possibly wanting a match against Charlotte.\u00a0 Also, there have been times in the past when it looked like Brooke would turn on Charlotte and they didn&#8217;t go that route.\u00a0 Here it felt too random.\u00a0 Brooke hasn&#8217;t been as big a part of Charlotte&#8217;s act in the last few months as she was in the previous few months.\u00a0 There was no build up to this moment.\u00a0 It could have been saved for after WM after a better build when it would have made more of an impact.<\/p>\n<p><b>Disqualifications:<\/b>\u00a0 Three out of the eight\u00a0matches on Raw ended in a disqualification.\u00a0 Give me a break.\u00a0 Twice, the heel or heels in the match got themselves purposefully DQ&#8217;d by continuing to beat on the babyface while disregarding the order from the referee to stop.\u00a0 It happened the first time with Owens and Samoa Joe beating down Sami Zayn.\u00a0 That worked well in the moment as did the beat down that continued on Zayn and Jericho after the match.\u00a0 It would have worked a lot better if there weren&#8217;t two more DQ endings as the show proceeded.\u00a0 You had Gallows &amp; Anderson attacking both Ezno &amp; Cass and Cesaro &amp; Sheamus to create a double DQ (or a no contest or whatever they called it).\u00a0 That was predictable and lame and is leading to a predictable and lame triple threat tag match at WM.\u00a0 Later, we got Jax getting herself DQ&#8217;d for continuing to beat on Bayley when she was hanging in the corner.\u00a0 WWE&#8217;s treatment of Bayley as a weak Champion also continues to be Miss worthy.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-935318715\" 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><b>New Day:<\/b>\u00a0 I&#8217;m just over them.\u00a0 That&#8217;s all.<\/p>\n<p><b>Enzo &amp; Cass:<\/b>\u00a0 I&#8217;d say I was over them too, but I was never into them in the first place (unlike The New Day).\u00a0 Now they are starting to go the shameless merchandise plug route that has been a major problem with New Day recently.\u00a0 So that is just one more obnoxious aspect to an act that was already the most obnoxious and annoying act in WWE history.<\/p>\n<p><b>Closing Segment:<\/b>\u00a0 I&#8217;m guessing that I&#8217;m in the minority on this big segment on Raw.\u00a0 But, I did not like the closing segment.\u00a0 Everyone did play their parts well.\u00a0 The fans did finally give a big pop for Seth Rollins and chanted his hame.\u00a0 He was more over as a babyface than he has been in his entire face run.\u00a0 These are all Hit worthy aspects to the segment, so I understand why people like it.\u00a0 However, this felt like a movie where the actors gave great performances but the screenplay is weak.\u00a0 This was the case of good performances in a bad segment.<\/p>\n<p>It was too long.\u00a0 It had too much talking from Stephanie and Foley who had already been in several backstage segments on the show.\u00a0 This is far too much involvement from the authority figures.\u00a0 It is too much time devoted to two people who never wrestle and one who wrestles once a year.\u00a0 Foley should have fired Samoa Joe.\u00a0 He hates what Joe has become and it would piss off Stephanie and Triple H.\u00a0 It could have led to Joe coming out to beat him up and set up Finn Balor to make the save to set up a match at WM (since Stephanie could rehire him).\u00a0 Maybe we won&#8217;t get that match, but shouldn&#8217;t Joe be in some match at WM?\u00a0 It would have been a better plan for Foley than trying to fire Stephanie whom he knows he can&#8217;t actually fire.\u00a0 Of course, the point was to reintroduce Rollins, but that could have been saved for next week in other circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>I understand using Foley to generate heat on Triple H to transfer Foley&#8217;s babyface pop onto Rollins.\u00a0 But, Rollins should have stood tall to end the show.\u00a0 WWE finally got that great face reaction for Rollins.\u00a0 Why not end it with Triple H running away?\u00a0 He keeps calling Rollins a loser and by having him stand tall in the end, the heel was proven correct.\u00a0 Rollins is a loser.\u00a0 A few weeks ago, it was lame when we were left with the idea that Rollins may be at WM to call Triple H out for a fight (he promised to show up, but a moment later Michael Cole said that he would only be there if he was medically cleared).\u00a0 Having him drop the crutch was cool.\u00a0 Having him get the better of Triple H needed to happen.\u00a0 But why does Triple H get to be the only heel in WWE to get back in the ring in that circumstance?\u00a0 It was a long way to go to get that moment for Rollins.\u00a0 But, at least you had that moment.\u00a0 Once Triple H returned and attacked his knee with the crutch, it turned into a long way to go to end up exactly where you were before it started.\u00a0 If Rollins stood tall, you could announce that match.\u00a0 But with his knee being re-injured, it makes it feel like him being cleared is up in the air again.\u00a0 You could say that this gives Rollins a reason for revenge on Triple H, but he had enough reason for revenge already.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK&#8217;S COLUMN:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/03\/08\/wwe-raw-hits-misses-35-triple-h-claims-didnt-give-nicknames-goldberg-lesnar-aries-strowman-undertaker-reigns\/\">WWE RAW HITS &amp; MISSES 3\/5: Triple H claims he didn\u2019t give himself his nicknames, Goldberg-Lesnar, Aries, Strowman-Undertaker-Reigns<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>OR CHECK OUT JASON POWELL\u2019S HITLIST ARTICLES<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/prowrestling.net\/site\/category\/viewpoints\/jasonpowell\/\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<p><i>Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com\u2019s WWE Hits &amp; Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw and Smackdown each week. Email him at jmezz_torch@yahoo.com.\u00a0<\/i><em>Act now and become my 68th Twitter follower<a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/jonmezzera\">@JonMezzera<\/a>\u00a0(pretty clever handle right?). Just be aware that I don\u2019t live tweet Raw, I don\u2019t tweet much about wrestling, and I don\u2019t tweet much at all.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3866137938\"><div id=\"pwtor-3216810554\"><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>RAW HITS Heyman and Lesnar:\u00a0 This wasn&#8217;t great, but it was good.\u00a0 Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar started off Raw.\u00a0 Goldberg has dominated Lesnar, first at Survivor Series and second at The Royal Rumble.\u00a0 Throw <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/03\/15\/wwe-raw-hits-misses-313-heyman-lesnar-reigns-hbk-danas-turn-new-day-enzo-cass\/\" title=\"WWE RAW HITS &#038; MISSES 3\/13: Heyman &#038; Lesnar, Reigns and HBK, Dana&#8217;s turn, New Day, Enzo &#038; Cass\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3462,"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":[46,52,28,27],"tags":[131,763,222,254,74,248,250],"class_list":["post-39978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists","tag-chris-jericho","tag-hbk","tag-kevin-owens","tag-mick-foley","tag-roman-reigns","tag-shawn-michaels","tag-stephanie-mcmahon"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Owens_3x2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39978","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39978"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39980,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39978\/revisions\/39980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}