RAW HITS & MISSES 10/31: Goldberg-Rusev-Heyman, Trick or Street Fight, New Day, Charlotte-Bayley, more

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: Raw got off to a good start with this opening segment involving Goldberg, Paul Heyman and Rusev. It wasn’t great, but good enough to get a Hit. Of course after the debacle from last week, whatever WWE did to hype Goldberg vs. Lesnar was going to be an improvement. Goldberg gave a great promo two weeks ago, but he isn’t a great promo guy. It was smart to have him interrupted almost right away this week. Heyman was good. The fans reacted the way WWE wanted them to. The tease of Lesnar coming out worked. I wasn’t expecting Rusev to come out, but that worked also. It gave Goldberg a chance to get physical with a current wrestler with a similar size and physicality level of Lesnar. Goldberg slipped, but recovered pretty well. I didn’t buy into Rusev being so overwhelmed by a few knee strikes that he would stand there the entire time that Goldberg milked the moment before going for the Jackhammer. I understand doing it, but it took me out of the moment. The spear to Heyman looked poor, but I understand that. My other concern was how tired Goldberg looked after a very small amount of physicality. He needs to do some major cardio.

Foley, Owens, Jericho, Reigns: This is a minor Hit. I liked a lot of the mic work here from Mic Foley, Kevin Owens, Chris Jericho and even Roman Reigns. Everyone played their parts well. It was good that Foley was upset at Jericho for ruining the integrity of the Hell in a Cell. I liked how Owens pointed out that Foley always lost in HIAC, whereas he won. Jericho was funny without going too far over the top. And Reigns was better at shrugging off the boos than he has been in the past and even got in a good line about not being able to find a Jericho costume so he could dress as a stupid idiot for Halloween. It set up the main event United States Championship match. However, there was also a lot of talk about the Survivor Series Raw vs. Smackdown Live (do they really have to say “Live” every time?) match which I don’t care about. Foley has no integrity if he wants Jericho on Team Raw just because he is good at cheating which is basically what he said. It should have been Stephanie who wanted Jericho on the team because of his devious nature while Foley wanted someone else with more integrity.

Jericho vs. Reigns: Raw got off to a good start and finished strong with the main event US Title match. This wasn’t a great match, but it was good. While Reigns winning was the most likely scenario, I felt there was a chance that WWE would put the Title on Jericho to add to the dynamic of team JeriKO, so the outcome wasn’t too predictable. The action was solid to good throughout. Owens was able to get in some cheap shots to help out his bestie. The beatdown that followed the match worked well to bring out Seth Rollins for the save. The final moment with Rollins and his former Shield teammate staring at each other was cool. The fans will be happy if Reigns turns heel. But he got fewer boos when he was doing anything with Dean Ambrose as fans liked him in the Shield. So, maybe the same will be true with a mini Shield reunion if he and Rollins find a way to reluctantly work together over the next month or so.

RAW MISSES

Trick or Street Fight: I seldom Tweet about Raw, but I had to Tweet when watching this Monday night as it was so horribly stupid. I had to stopped the DVR and go back to watch the rest of the show later. It was that bad. After finally moving Anderson & Gallows into a more serious role and giving them a strong win over Enzo & Cass at HIAC the night before, WWE went right back to the goofiness and had them lose the next night on Raw. This was a terrible idea. It was poorly executed. You could see Luke Gallows put the apple in his mouth with his hand. And Big Cass could not get the pumpkin on Gallows’ head at the end. I hope these four were embarrassed by this. Any of them who weren’t should think about a new profession. I can’t even remember the last time I saw something this stupid on WWE tv.

Kendrick vs. Perkins: This is a minor Miss. I liked the mic work from The Brian Kendrick before the match, gloating about his tactics which allowed him to become the new Cruiserweight Champion at the PPV. My hope is that this will get some more personality and character out of TJ Perkins who is bland outside of the ring. He showed good fire afterwards in attacking Kendrick. The problem is that the match itself wasn’t much. We only saw half of a 6:30 minute match since it cut to a commercial break at the very start of it. That isn’t much time for a Title match either. And while most of the action that we did see was good, there was that very scary bump when Perkins landed awkwardly on his neck on the ring apron. And then we got the lame count out ending. I understand why it was booked that way, but it was still lame.

On an aside, Todd Martin is on to something that he’s talked about on various VIP Audio shows. The problem with the Cruiserweight Division is the wrestlers, not the booking of the division. When the cruiserweights got over in WCW, they offered a wrestling style that was different from the style of the heavyweights like Hulk Hogan, Sting, Lex Lugar, Randy Savage, The Giant, Ric Flair, Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, Goldberg, etc. But now there are well established “heavyweights” who wrestle a similar style to the cruiserweights, but are better. I’m talking about guys like AJ Styles, Sami Zayn, Seth Rollins and Finn Balor. During the 6 man tag, when Michael Cole said that high flying action is what the cruiserweights are all about, it doesn’t work. The style doesn’t stand out any more and the guys that they have are good, but not good enough to stand out either. Plus some of the most impressive wrestlers in the Cruiserweight Classic like Kota Ibushi, Zack Sabre Jr., Jack Gallagher, and Akira Tozawa aren’t part of the Division (yet?). Gran Metalik was more impressive than some of the guys they are going with and he did appear when the Division launched, but hasn’t been on since. There is also NXT talent with star power like Austin Aires who would help if called up. These cruiserweights are talented, but not as talented as others who could have been signed, and they lack the star power needed to make the Division important.

On another aside, I was about to post this when I saw the announcement of the new Cruiserweight show coming soon to the WWE Network. I’m intrigued.

New Day: I wonder why this was a backstage vignette? It doesn’t really matter. It was sort of amusing to see The New Day dressed up as three of Charles Wright’s WWE characters, Kama Mustafa, Papa Shango and The Godfather. But, I felt this was a poor way for them to follow up on losing at the PPV, even if they kept the Tag Team Titles. Some of the jokes were good, but others fell flat. I’ve already mentioned not caring about the Survivor Series matches, so I didn’t care when they were talking smack about the Smackdown tag teams. There was no real material for New Day to work with. They weren’t the problem. The script was the problem.

Charlotte – Bayley: First of all, I was not a fan of the decision to put the Women’s Championship back on Charlotte. This is nothing against her, but she hasn’t been around long enough to be a three time Women’s Champion. After that great long Title reign, she finally lost to Sasha Banks, who then lost it back to her a few weeks later. Then, Charlotte lost it back to Banks soon thereafter, and now we have yet another Title switch. It is too many. Charlotte does a nice job with her Queen of WWE persona. But again, she’s mostly taking the time to address the Smackdown women. Am I supposed to boo her for talking bad about a heel like Carmella? If I’m a fan of Raw, am I supposed to cheer for this heel for being my team captain? Even when she’s talking bad about a babyface like Becky Lynch? It is a mess. Bayley wasn’t better. I didn’t need to hear her kissing Charlotte’s ass at first. She should have been angry at the dirty tactics that Charlotte used before the match even started in trying to get a forfeit Title victory over Banks. Instead, she was just talking about how wonderful it was to see two women inside HIAC for the first time. And all of this led to Bayley losing to Nia Jax who isn’t good. She has size to stand out from the other women, but she isn’t good. And Bayley does look like the weak link on their team. So, Charlotte appears to be right about her.

FOR ANOTHER POINT OF VIEW, CHECK OUT JASON POWELL’S RAW HITLIST: Powell’s WWE Raw Hit List: The Goldberg slip, Charlotte picks on Bayley before bringing back Nia Jax as her opponent, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins have a moment following a U.S. Title match