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Opening Segment – HIT: I was expecting The Man to start off Raw, but given what happened, it made sense to have Seth Rollins start the show instead. Other than the poor excuse for using the low blow at WrestleMania, Rollins was very good in talking about becoming the new Universal Champion with his huge win over Brock Lesnar. The fans were very excited to see the Full Time Champ! The appearance by The New Day was a fun surprise. I figured that they would end up being interrupted by The Man too, to give the three new babyface champions a chance to stand in the ring together on the Raw after Mania. Of course, I was wrong again. Instead of that, we got this big challenge from Kofi Kingston for a winner take all match against Rollins. You could buy into it since they had just done the same thing with the two Women’s Titles on Raw. This was all good. I enjoyed Rollins’ reaction to New Day. But knowing what would ultimately happen, this was not a good way to start the show. But, more on that later.
Hawkins & Ryder vs. The Revival – HIT: This is a marginal Hit for a pretty good Tag Team Championship match. I’m not really interested in the Hawkins & Ryder team. I guess if you are going to give them the feel good moment on the WM Kick Off Show, then it is nice that they kept the Title for more than one night (as opposed to Zack Ryder the night after winning the IC Title at WM a few years back).
Corbin/Angle/Sullivan – HIT: This is another marginal Hit. Baron Corbin was good in his role bragging about defeating Kurt Angle in his retirement match. Part of the marginal part is for the bad announcing from Michael Cole. He acted like Corbin had cheated to win and then retired Angle. Angle was retiring regardless of the outcome of the match and Corbin won clean. Cole talked like Corbin should have laid down for Angle. Angle himself was good in coming out to get one last parting show to Corbin. The Lars Sullivan appearance was a nice surprise, but I was never that high on him in NXT. Angle looked stupid for walking up and getting in his face. The big power move from Sullivan didn’t look that impressive. The top rope head butt to end the segment was better. It will be interesting to see what they do with Sullivan going forward. The fact that nobody came out to stop him at that point is a good sign that they are going to build him up slowly before giving him a known opponent.
Bliss vs. Bayley – MISS: This was an ugly match. I want to complain about the fact that Alexa Bliss’ return to the ring against a star like Bayley only lasted 3 minutes, but if the match was going to be this bad, maybe it was good that it didn’t last longer. Why would Bayley try to cheat? Are they starting a heel turn storyline for her after being frustrated over losing the Tag Team Championship at WM? This wasn’t good.
The Man – HIT: Few things in wrestling give me as much pleasure these days than when Becky Lynch calls Ronda Rousey a little weirdo. I was happy to finally see Becky come out to brag about winning the winner take all main event of WM. I expected to see Rousey come out, but it worked without her. Becky was a lot of fun in gloating and playing to the fans who were thrilled to see her. Becky Two Titles was a fun moment. Lacey Evans has been rumored for a push for awhile. Some people thought she would face Asuka for the Smackdown Women’s Title at WM before Asuka lost the Title to Charlotte Flair. I was never that high on Evans in NXT, so I’m not excited about the idea of her facing Becky. But, the physicality between them worked well. They didn’t want Becky to get beat down, but they wanted Evans to look strong, so they sort of fought to a stalemate which worked ok.
Roode & Gable vs. Ricochet & Black – MISS: This match was good enough to get a Hit from a wrestling action standpoint, but it didn’t feel important in any way. Ricochet & Aleister Black have won all their non-title matches, but last week they lost all three of their Title matches against three different opponents for three different championships. That killed their momentum to me. If you weren’t going to have them win any of those titles, then I don’t know if having all three of those matches was a good idea. The idea that Gable & Roode are heels now is ok, but it wasn’t like they haven’t been heels before. Their team is super stale. The fact that we got a post-match attack suggests we are going to see a rematch which I’m not really looking forward to.
Lashley – Ambrose – HIT: This worked well as a send off to Dean Ambrose. Bobby Lashley got to be a dominant heel in taking Ambrose out before their match had a chance to start. Ambrose got to give his fans something to cheer for in the way he fought back and got the better of Lashley before being distracted by Lio Rush. The final blow with Ambrose being driven through the table worked well. I hope for something good for Lashley coming out of this and it isn’t just another match against Finn Balor.
Balor vs. Zayn – HIT: It was good to see Sami Zayn return from his long injury rehab. He seemed to be positioning himself as a babyface in his pre-match promo and open challenge. I was not expecting to see Balor as his opponent. It should not have been for the Intercontinental Championship, but it was a good match. It isn’t surprising given how good Balor and Zayn are in the ring. It was fun to watch and I’m glad that Balor got the win so he didn’t lose the title one night after winning it. The real story was Zayn’s promo after the match. He was great in turning on the fans and cementing himself as a heel. He is such a natural babyface, but he does work surprisingly well as a heel too.
Undertaker – HIT: I had mixed feelings about Undertaker on the Raw after Mania and not on Mania itself. WrestleMania is the biggest show of the year and having special appearances like this are part of the reason. Of course, if adding Undertaker meant adding another 15 minutes to the show, then it was good to save it for Raw. Plus, they’ve made this Raw the biggest Raw of the year and surprises like this which don’t happen at WM are part of it. Plus, this was well done. I don’t have any interest in seeing Undertaker wrestle any more. I’ve been saying that for a long time. All we need to see from him is a few of his big moves which is what we got here without having to see him take any bumps or put his body on the line. It was as nice moment. I hope it isn’t a set up for a match at the next Saudi Arabia show. I hope that those shows going forward are just house shows and not Network specials. It does upset me that someone like Taker would take a pay day for those shows, but not for WM.
No Roman – HIT: Given the largely indifferent crowd response that Roman Reigns got at WM, it was a smart move to not have him on this show. Reigns has been good as a character since he returned. He’s come across as much more likable and relatable than he ever had before. His match against Drew McIntyre was lackluster at best. That was disappointing for sure and he didn’t seem like he was ready to actually be back. So, keeping him off this Raw made sense.
Bait & Switch – MISS: There was no reason to book a Title vs. Title match if they had no intention of actually following through with it. What was the point? To put heat on The Bar? There were two types of fans watching Raw. The 1st expected a winner in that match. The 2nd expected some type cool swerve to explain why the match didn’t have an ending. Neither group was satisfied with The Bar. I like The Bar. They are a very good team, but they aren’t big enough to save this situation. And there wasn’t a good storyline purpose for them to interrupt the main event. The show had been pretty good to that point. But, the crowd was clearly not happy with this. If you go in this direction, you have to have something bigger. Daniel Bryan and Rowan would have been better, but not great. It would have at least made storyline sense and fans would have been happy to see Bryan on Raw. An NXT call up, particularly a group like Undisputed Era would have felt like a big moment. Fans would have been excited about the prospect of an Adam Cole vs. Seth Rollins or Kofi Kingston match. But, the Bar? It didn’t work. The match should have never been booked in the first place.
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 4/1: Stephanie’s WrestleMania announcement, Seth’s low-blows, Batista, Crazy Brawl with Police, Jinder vs. Apollo, Reigns-McIntyre angle, Demon
No one watching Raw should have expected one of them to win both titles. That just doesn’t happen on Raw.