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RAW HITS
Jason Jordan: This was the best week for Jason Jordan since he became Kurt Angle’s son. He was more intense than he has been which was good. Later in the show, he was showing more heelish tendencies which worked well. I liked how he said he was 100% healthy when wanting to take on Triple H, but as soon as he found out that he had to face Braun Strowman instead, he told his dad that he was still hurt. Was he still hurt? Or was he just pretending to be hurt at that point? I like the mystery around that. It wasn’t totally clear. He did a nice job in his various scenes including trying to sound brave in saying that he wasn’t afraid of Strowman. The scene with Matt Hardy was good. His scene apologizing to Angle wasn’t as good. I didn’t like the scripting more than the performance at that point and the closing line that Strowman is indeed a monster among men was bad. But, this was a good week overall for Jordan.
Balor vs. Joe: I would like to see Finn Balor elevated to be Brock Lesnar’s next opponent, perhaps at The Royal Rumble. But if that were to be the case, he needed to win this match against Samoa Joe and every match before that Universal Title match. So I was a bit disappointed in the outcome, but I can’t be too disappointed because Samoa Joe also deserves a strong push. This was a good match. That isn’t surprising given their talent. The clean victory was surprising. I would have liked to see it go longer, but it was fun to watch while it lasted.
Asuka vs. Brooke: This was a good strong squash victory for Asuka over an established member of the Raw roster. This was a step up from her recent victories over local jobbers. Yes, Dana Brooke is the bottom rung of the women’s division on Raw, but she is part of it. It was a strong win in only 3 minutes which made Asuka look dominant. She should win the Women’s Title at WrestleMania. It would be great if WWE kept the Smackdown Women’s Title on Charlotte for a year. If they did that, and if Asuka was still undefeated as the Raw Champion, then their match at next year’s Survivor Series would be a huge draw.
Miz TV: The Miz was great in this segment getting the fans who wanted to cheer him to boo him. Roman Reigns was good in reacting to some of the chants too. The mic work all around was pretty strong. This wasn’t a great segment. But it did set up the big Reigns vs. Miz main event for the Intercontinental Championship. And I was particularly impressed with how the wrestlers reacted to the fans throughout the segment.
Sheamus vs. Ambrose: This was a good match that went 13 minutes. It continued the feud between Ambrose & Rollins and The Bar. We’ve seen a lot of these teams against each other, so there is some concern about it growing stale. For me, it hasn’t gotten to that point yet. I enjoyed this match. I liked how Cesaro and Seth Rollins’ involvement was kept fairly minimum, but did play a little in the ending. Rollins and Cesaro are the better workers, so I am looking forward to what I’m guessing what will be an even better match between those two next week.
Paige’s Return: I was very happy to see Paige return on Raw. The fans in the arena seemed just as happy as I was. She got a very good reaction. I was worried that she would never come back, although with a movie in the works from WWE and The Rock about her family, I figured they had to keep her around. She was the Women’s Revolution before the Women’s Revolution. She saved what was not a good night for the rest of the women (more later). I like the idea of adding some NXT talent to the women’s roster. I like the idea of Paige leading a faction. I’m not sure that I would have picked Mandy Rose or Sonya Deville for this opportunity. I don’t mean that against them personally, I’m just not convinced either is ready for the main roster yet. There are definitely more deserving women in NXT. But, I’m rooting for Rose and Deville to prove me wrong. They certainly carried themselves and performed well here. The backstage encounter with Alexa Bliss also was well done. I’m excited to see where this goes.
Strowman vs. Jordan: This Hit is really for what happened after the match. I wasn’t looking forward to the match, so I liked that it was kept short. Jordan was protected and as I said above, I liked the idea that you weren’t totally sure whether he was faking the knee injury or not. The attack from Kane was good. I appreciate that they didn’t go for the cheesy bit that some were predicting / fearing with Kane coming up through the ring. The attack on Strowman’s throat worked well. Strowman was great in selling that injury. This was all well done.
Reigns vs. Miz: This was a very good episode of Raw and it had a good ending with the main event Intercontinental Title match between The Miz and Roman Reigns. Miz continued his very good 2017. He had a great performance in this match. I liked how the match was booked to make him look so strong despite taking the loss. And he didn’t cheat or take any shortcuts to get the advantage over Reigns during the match. The announcers really put him over. Reigns carried his part of the match as well. There were plenty of nice near falls as the match built to the end. Reigns did a nice job of celebrating becoming the new IC Champ. I wonder if he went over the top celebrating it since John Cena called him out awhile back for looking at becoming the United States Champion as a demotion. Either way, it was a strong main event and a nice Title change and celebration.
RAW MISSES
Opening Segment: This is a minor Miss. There were some things that I liked about the opening, but more that I didn’t like. I didn’t like starting the show with Stephanie McMahon. Of course, it all has to be about Triple H. I’m not a fan of showing videos after someone has come to the ring like they did showing the highlights of the end of Survivor Series after Triple H came out. It is awkward timing. I did like that Kurt Angle came out at that point and got in Triple H’s face and showed great intensity, however I don’t like a babyface saying if you ever beat me up again, I will do something not very nice to you, which is practically what Angle said when he came out. It wasn’t nearly as strong a response as it should be. Also “you can take this job and shove it” is a very weak statement to make and didn’t rise up to the level of intensity that Angle was showing while saying the line. As I said above, I liked Jason Jordan this week and he was good here. His acting was so much better than last week. I don’t think we are going to get Triple H vs. Braun Strowman, but maybe I’m wrong. I didn’t really care to see Strowman vs. Jordan so this didn’t make me excited for the rest of the show.
Women’s Segment: Alexa Bliss was good in her promo to start off this segment. But then we got the traditional WWE parade of wrestlers coming out to claim that they should be the #1 contender for a Championship. I’m not a fan of this type of segment and this one wasn’t a good example of it. The mic work from those involved wasn’t particularly good. I didn’t really pop for any of them coming out as damage has been done to Sasha Banks and Bayley, and I’ve seen enough of Mickie James vs. Bliss. I get a kick out of Alicia Fox, but she isn’t a serious Title contender. So none of this got me excited for the fatal four way that was to follow.
Cruiserweights: WWE failed to keep my attention with the Cruiserweights this week. Enzo Amore went on forever with nothing interesting to say. This was so boring. I didn’t get excited when the babyface crew came out. None of them are particularly good on the mic. I’m not looking forward to the next great promo from Rich Swann or Cedric Alexander. Yes, they can be very fun to watch in the ring, but this 8 man tag did nothing for me and featuring 8 men in a 5 minute match isn’t a way to get anyone over.
For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell’s views to mine by visiting prowrestling.NET’s “Hitlist” section here.
Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com’s WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw and Smackdown each week. Email him at jmezz_torch@yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @JonMezzera.
NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: WWE RAW HITS & MISSES 11/13: Miz TV, Heyman and Lesnar address Styles, Triple H surprise, Kane vs. Strowman, Angle-Jordan saga
I thought this was a really poor follow up to the PPV.