{"id":44565,"date":"2017-07-06T14:10:14","date_gmt":"2017-07-06T19:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=44565"},"modified":"2017-07-06T14:10:40","modified_gmt":"2017-07-06T19:10:40","slug":"wwe-raw-hits-misses-73-enzos-promo-joe-lesnar-balor-vs-cesaro-strowman-vs-crews-miz-tv-seth-vs-bray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/07\/06\/wwe-raw-hits-misses-73-enzos-promo-joe-lesnar-balor-vs-cesaro-strowman-vs-crews-miz-tv-seth-vs-bray\/","title":{"rendered":"WWE RAW HITS &#038; MISSES 7\/3: Enzo&#8217;s promo, Joe-Lesnar, Balor vs. Cesaro, Strowman vs. Crews, Miz TV, Seth vs. Bray"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-2223032635\" 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>Enzo Opens Show:<\/b>\u00a0 This is a minor Hit.\u00a0 Enzo Amore has been much better than usual lately getting past his stupid catch phrases, moving beyond being a caricature and just starting to talk like a human being.\u00a0 He was great last week, and was good here.\u00a0 The promo was too long.\u00a0 It was odd how he ended it and then seemed to realize that he hadn&#8217;t said everything in the script, so he stopped his music and started talking again.\u00a0 That was awkward.\u00a0 That and the length made what was a good segment, simply a minor Hit.\u00a0 The response from Big Cass was solid and then the attack that came from Enzo was good to bring the segment to a strong conclusion.<\/p>\n<p><b>Miz vs. Slater:<\/b>\u00a0 The fans in Phoenix were actually buying into Heath Slater which was good.\u00a0 They were popping for his near falls as he tried to defeat The Miz to become the new Intercontinental Champion.\u00a0 This was a good 12 minute match which teased that we might see a Title change and helped sell the Miz-tourage as a big gain for Miz&#8217;s act.<\/p>\n<p><b>Joe &#8211; Lesnar:<\/b>\u00a0 This was a good final sell for what has been a great overall sell job for the next PPV main event of Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship.\u00a0 It was good to hear Lesnar speak more in a live setting, even if he wasn&#8217;t in the ring.\u00a0 He and Joe both did a good job here.\u00a0 I liked how Lesnar reminded Joe that he isn&#8217;t fighting Paul Heyman, he is fighting Brock Lesnar.\u00a0 They both got in good lines.\u00a0 It was a nice juxtaposition between the heated and angry Joe and the calm, cool and collected Lesnar.\u00a0 It was a bit odd since Joe got the better of Lesnar last week, so you&#8217;d think Lesnar would have been more fired up.\u00a0 The tease of physicality at the end worked well.\u00a0 We have seen enough physicality between them already, so it was smart to not have then touch each other here.\u00a0 I am greatly looking forward to this match.<\/p>\n<p><b>Neville vs. Ali:<\/b>\u00a0 The crowed seemed more engaged in this match than they often are for a Cruiserweight match.\u00a0 Neville and Mustafa Ali put on a really good 6 minute match.\u00a0 It wasn&#8217;t long, but worked for what it was supposed to do.\u00a0 It had good action, gave Ali&#8217;s fans a tease of an upset victory with a few very close and believable near falls, and gave Neville the strong clean victory.<\/p>\n<p><b>Balor vs. Cesaro:<\/b>\u00a0 This was very good.\u00a0 You knew it wouldn&#8217;t end until Sheamus, the Hardys and Elias Sampson got involved, but it was still fun to watch from start to finish.\u00a0 It went 15 minutes and had plenty of great wrestling action.\u00a0 Finn Balor and Cesaro are both very good workers.\u00a0 They worked well together here.\u00a0 Matt Hardy did a nice job on guest commentary.\u00a0 Jeff hardly spoke, but was fine when he did.\u00a0 Their presence added to the enjoyment of the match.\u00a0 The fight at ringside towards the end of the match was very fun, even if it felt too choreographed.\u00a0 I loved when Cesaro hit that running uppercut on Jeff only to turn around right into the dropkick from Balor pushing him into the barrier.\u00a0 That led to the Coup De Gras for the win.<\/p>\n<p><b>Strowman vs. Crews:<\/b>\u00a0 The problem of the Titus Brand still remains.\u00a0 Everyone who is involved with Titus O&#8217;Neil is taken down a level.\u00a0 I&#8217;m not sure if he&#8217;s supposed to be a heel or a face.\u00a0 I think a heel, but his wrestlers are faces?\u00a0 So, this wasn&#8217;t a great set up.\u00a0 But, Strowman and Apollo Crews actually had a good main event.\u00a0 Strowman got to show off his size and power.\u00a0 Crews got in more offense than a lot of people probably expected him to.\u00a0 He even was able to knock Strowman off his feet.\u00a0 But, the real Hit here is for that sick move when Crews attempted the standing moonsault only to be kicked out of the air by Strowman.\u00a0 That was awesome and Crews took a great bump.\u00a0 Strowman reinforced his heel character by refusing to pin Crews until after three power slams.\u00a0 The fight afterwards with Titus was ok.\u00a0 But, again I don&#8217;t care about him.\u00a0 Then came the predictable ending with Roman Reigns surprising Strowman by coming out of the ambulance.\u00a0 Their fight was also ok.\u00a0 The bump at the end with Reigns spearing Strowman off the stage was big, but not nearly as memorable as what happened last week when Strowman threw Reigns into the side of the ambulance.<\/p>\n<h3><b><u>RAW MISSES<\/u><\/b><\/h3>\n<p><b>Banks &amp; Bayley vs. Jax &amp; Bliss:<\/b>\u00a0 I didn&#8217;t like how this match was booked.\u00a0 I guess it was supposed to make me have some sympathy for Bayley for being injured by Nia Jax and having to therefore leave the match.\u00a0 It was supposed to make Sasha Banks look strong for winning what turned into a handicap match.\u00a0 However, I was thinking more about how weak it made Alexa Bliss the Women&#8217;s Champion look.\u00a0 Bliss&#8217; later claim that she let Banks win to give her a false sense of security was stupid because if that really was her plan, she just announced her plan to everyone including Banks.<\/p>\n<p><b>Miz TV:<\/b>\u00a0 WWE would have been better served to ignore the terrible Miz TV with the Ball family from last week.\u00a0 Instead, they double downed on it with Miz talking about it on this week&#8217;s Miz TV.\u00a0 He was saying what most fans agree with about the Balls.\u00a0 So, why should I boo him?\u00a0 Then we went on with talking about Dean Ambrose.\u00a0 I continue to not care about this feud.\u00a0 It has gone on far too long and continues after three months to make a joke out of the Superstar Shakeup when we are just continuing to get an old Smackdown feud on Raw.\u00a0 When are we going to see a new opponent for Miz or Ambrose?\u00a0 And pointing out Ambrose&#8217;s legitimate flaws isn&#8217;t a good idea.\u00a0 There are reasons that Ambrose hasn&#8217;t gotten over as a main event talent in WWE and Miz talked about them, and not in a storyline type way.\u00a0 WWE too often focuses on a wrestler&#8217;s flaws instead of their strengths.\u00a0 That&#8217;s bad enough behind the scenes.\u00a0 But having it on the broadcast is a bigger deal.\u00a0 The bit with Ambrose and Slater at the end was fine to set up the match, but it was a bad segment otherwise.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-4063462810\" 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>Rollins &#8211; Wyatt:<\/b>\u00a0 I have liked some of what WWE has been doing lately with the build up to Seth Rollins vs. Bray Wyatt.\u00a0 This week, it wasn&#8217;t nearly as good.\u00a0 Seth Rollins&#8217; promo was solid, but not great.\u00a0 But, Wyatt&#8217;s was not good at all.\u00a0 It was back to having more of a rambling feel to it.\u00a0 What these two promos basically boiled down to is that Wyatt says that he is a god, and Rollins says that he isn&#8217;t a god.\u00a0 That isn&#8217;t an interesting wrestling storyline.\u00a0 And while that has been part of the feud all along, it wasn&#8217;t so much in the forefront when they&#8217;ve done the better promos in recent weeks.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK&#8217;S COLUMN:<\/strong><i>\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/06\/28\/wwe-raw-hits-misses-626-roman-reigns-braun-strowman-titus-brand-miz-tv-ball-family-sasha-banks-nia-jax-heymanlesnar-joe\/\">WWE RAW HITS &amp; MISSES 6\/26: Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman, Titus Brand, Miz TV with Ball Family, Sasha Banks-Nia Jax, Heyman\/Lesnar-Joe<\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<p>For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell\u2019s views to mine by visiting ProWrestling.net\u2019s\u00a0\u201cHitlist\u201d section <a href=\"http:\/\/www.prowrestling.net\/artman\/publish\/powelleditorials\/index.shtml\">HERE<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\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>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-tags clearfix\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-360894509\"><div id=\"pwtor-2593703391\"><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 Enzo Opens Show:\u00a0 This is a minor Hit.\u00a0 Enzo Amore has been much better than usual lately getting past his stupid catch phrases, moving beyond being a caricature and just starting to talk <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2017\/07\/06\/wwe-raw-hits-misses-73-enzos-promo-joe-lesnar-balor-vs-cesaro-strowman-vs-crews-miz-tv-seth-vs-bray\/\" title=\"WWE RAW HITS &#038; MISSES 7\/3: Enzo&#8217;s promo, Joe-Lesnar, Balor vs. Cesaro, Strowman vs. Crews, Miz TV, Seth vs. Bray\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44458,"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":[75,105,2609,1420,480,125,84],"class_list":["post-44565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-spotlightarticles","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists","tag-bray-wyatt","tag-brock-lesnar","tag-enzo","tag-miz","tag-miz-tv","tag-samoa-joe","tag-seth-rollins"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2017\/07\/StrowmanBraunTB_3x2_600.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44565","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=44565"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44569,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44565\/revisions\/44569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}