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RAW HITS AND MISSES
Women’s Promos – HIT: The mic work from the three women in the WrestleMania main event was strong to start off Raw. It underscored the big announcement that the Raw Women’s Title match will headline WM. Ronda Rousey was the best she’s been so far as a heel on the mic with her three short statements with the mic drops in between. But, she sort of turned back babyface in making fun of the Beat the Clock challenge. Becky Lynch was also really good in her promo. Charlotte Flair was the weakest. She wasn’t bad, but didn’t stand out like the other two. Overall, it was a good start to Raw.
Beat the Clock – MISS: Beat the Clock should have a prize, not just momentum for the winner. So, this whole thing seemed pointless. I don’t like this type of Beat the Clock challenge where it is only about half of the participants. Usually, either wrestler in each match can win to set a new time to beat. Yes, that was potentially possible here, but it was all about the three women in the Title match. This made the Riott Squad look bad. Two of them lost their singles matches in under 2 minutes and Ruby Riott was on the verge of losing hers too but she was able to hold off taping out long enough for the clock to expire. In the end it felt like a waste of time.
Balor vs. Lashley & Mahal – MISS: So my wife said to me while watching this, “isn’t Jinder Mahal a downgrade from Lio Rush?” Mahal is so far removed from his terrible run as WWE Champion that he doesn’t come across as a legit threat to anyone at this point. The match didn’t go long enough to add up to much, plus half of it was on a commercial break. We already saw Finn Balor beat Rush in a handicap match to win the Intercontinental Championship. Here, we saw him beat Mahal in a handicap match to earn an IC Title match. The back and forth nature of his feud with Bobby Lashley isn’t good. There is speculation of the Demon returning at WM, but that story hasn’t really been told yet.
Elias in New York – HIT: The three videos of Elias in New York were inconsequential. But, I was amused by them so I’m giving them a Hit. WWE wants Elias to come across as obnoxious so that when he gets interrupted during his musical performance at WM, the fans are really happy to see whoever it is that comes out to interrupt him. So, this worked in that sense.
Ricochet & Black vs. The Revival – MISS: I debated where this match should land. It was a match that featured good wrestling action. That isn’t surprising given that Ricochet and Aleister Black are supremely talented singles wrestlers who have made a good team and The Revival are a supremely talented team. But, what does it all add up to? Revival lose all the time. They have been very weak as the Tag Team Champions. So Ricochet and Black beating them in a non-title match doesn’t mean anything. Everyone beats them. This would presumably set up a Title match at WM, but given the stacked card, will it be given any time? And we just saw it. Will it be any better than this match from Raw? We’ve already seen enough of Lashley vs. Balor too. I want more new match ups at WM. Even if Black & Ricochet win the Titles at WM, will it be lost in the shuffle with everything else? I hope the match happens the next night instead.
McIntyre – Reigns – HIT: The angle involving Drew McIntyre and Roman Reigns worked well to add heat to their match at WM. McIntyre was good in his heel promo which started off the segment. Everything he does gets him heel heat and continues to help Reigns get a babyface reaction. I mean, who would cheer for McIntyre at that point? Reigns was also good in his rebuttal. The physicality was kept to a minimum so that they didn’t give away too much here, but it was well done. It gave McIntyre a chance to look physically dominant over Reigns.
Banks vs. Natalya – HIT: This Hit is for the match and the aftermath. It was predictable that Sasha Banks vs. Natalya wouldn’t have an actual finish. But, the match quality was good before that point. The attack by Nia Jax & Tamina worked well to allow Beth Phoenix a chance to show that she still has it in the ring. This was a better way to reintroduce her to the WWE fans than anything they’ve done up until this point. She looked good. She looked dominant. I still would rather see Banks & Bayley face a Smackdown team for their Women’s Tag Team Title and have Natalya & Phoenix vs. Jax & Tamina. But given that WWE is going with a fatal four way, this certainly helped hype that match.
A Moment of Bliss – MISS: There were some amusing moments in the back and forth between Braun Strowman and the SNL guys. But, there was a lot of lame humor too. The segment was so successful that the fans spent most of the time jeering the Yankees, but how does that help sell WM? What do I care about the Yankees vs. Red Sox rivalry? I don’t want to see celebrities in the Andre the Giant Battle Royal. I don’t know how Alexa Bliss as the host of WM has the power to force comedians into matches like that.
Rollins – Heyman – HIT: Seth Rollins is doing a nice job of bringing the fans on his journey. He is making his journey their journey too. This made the fans want to see him take the Universal Championship from Brock Lesnar even more than they did before. Paul Heyman’s interruption was also good. The hopes and prayers mantra that he did worked. It underscored, in a mocking manner, that even with the WWE Universe on his side, he still doesn’t have a chance against Lesnar. It was hilarious when Rollins ran down Heyman and Heyman fell down and told him he changed his mind and was hoping he would win. Heyman was great being that chicken heel manager. Or advocate. Then, Rollins ended the segment was another strong statement to put an exclamation point on it.
Joe vs. Angle – MISS: This was hard to watch. It looked like Kurt Angle landed on his head on an early suplex by Samoa Joe. He just didn’t get all the way over. He shouldn’t be wrestling at this point. I mean, he hit a missile drop kick to Joe’s stomach. That’s as much air as he could get from the ropes. This match made me nervous. And in the end, just like the Revival, Samoa Joe keeps losing matches. He doesn’t look like a strong United States Champion. I liked the interview that Angle did earlier in the show which was interrupted by Baron Corbin. I don’t like Angle vs. Corbin for Angle’s last match, but that back and forth worked well. We shouldn’t expect much from any Angle match at this point, so maybe Corbin will be ok, just to give Angle a nice happy ending to his career.
Triple H – MISS: I liked some of what Triple H did in his promo responding to Batista’s interview last week. However, the whole thing built up to an unbelievable stipulation being added to their WM match. Nobody is going to buy that Triple H is going to stop wrestling at this point. I mean, I wish he would. To me, instead of putting suspense on the match by making it seem like it might be Triple H’s last, it telegraphs the ending. Triple H did have some funny lines making fun of Batista. It was an attempt to own the bad segment from two weeks ago, but moving on and ignoring that segment would have been a better way to go.
McIntyre vs. Ambrose – HIT: This wasn’t nearly as good as their Last Man Standing match from a few weeks ago. However, it was still good enough to get a Hit in the way that it continued to put McIntyre over as a strong heel. It seems like Dean Ambrose could be used better on his way out of the company, but it has been ok.
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
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