SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Opening Segment – HIT: Raw got off to a good start with the segment involving Randy Orton and Christian. It was a good follow up to Orton vs. Edge from Backlash the night before. It caught up viewers on what happened in that match and Edge’s injury. I laughed when Orton said that Edge would be cleared to wrestle in July… of 2029. He came across like the jerk he is. Christian was good in his role. The opening segment set the hook for the rest of the show to find out if Christian would accept Orton’s challenge for an unsanctioned match. The announcers did a nice job of questioning Christian for even considering it. There was good follow up throughout the show with people like Big Show and Ric Flair talking to Christian. Once he accepted, it created another strong hook for the main event.
Owens vs. Garza – MISS: Kevin Owens finally got a win, but it came in a match that was more about the continuing tension between Angel Garza and Andrade. As I wrote last week, I’m not thrilled with WWE going to a potential break up angle so soon after Austin Theory left the group, so I wasn’t thrilled to see it continue here. Owens vs. Garza should be a very good match, but they were only given 7 minutes, half of which took place on commercial. It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t amount to much, and the ending came because of Andrade which made Garza look stupid, so even Owens’ win didn’t make him look that good.
MVP – Lashley – Lana – MISS: Bobby Lashley with MVP in his corner can be a strong top heel on Raw. But, Lana’s involvement brings the act down. Now, the fact that they seem to be moving on from her could be a good thing as that they are playing up a potential divorce situation, but I doubt that she will be totally missing from the act going forward. I mean, divorces take time. Plus, they are all heels. This didn’t leave me wanting to see more of them. Throw in the silliness with R-Truth throughout the show (more later), and I was left quite cold on Lashley who is still being positioned as a top challenger for Drew McIntyre’s WWE Championship.
Ninjas – MISS: I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but the progression of The Street Profits and The Viking Raiders continues to move along very poorly, now with Akira Tozawa introducing ninjas into the angle. Now, he also has a 7 foot tall ninja. Big Show’s return was odd, considering the last time we saw him he was playing a heel against McIntyre after WrestleMania went off the air. After all the stupid competitions, Big Show gave them an idea which apparently they were too stupid to think of themselves, which is to have a wrestling match against each other. What a thought. The problem is that it is hard to care about that match after all the damage that’s been done. Plus I don’t trust WWE to actually present them in a regular wrestling match which is a shame considering how good a regular match would be.
Rollins-Dominic – HIT: The storyline between Seth Rollins, Rey Mysterio and Dominic has been well done so far and continued nicely here. They had teased that Dominic might be on last week, and he did show up. Rollins gave a good promo where he stated his purpose to recruit Dominic into his Messiah Complex (I can’t believe WWE hasn’t named his group yet, but when they do, they better go with my name for it). The idea that Dominic would either join or become another sacrifice like his dad worked well. Dominic attacking Rollins from behind was another good spot. He did a nice job of evading Theory and Buddy Murphy to escape punishment. It will be interesting to see where they go from here.
Natalya & Morgan vs. IIConics – MISS: I thought this was a chance to set up a new babyface challenger for Sasha Banks & Bayley’s Tag Team Championship. I was intrigued by the potential team of Natalya and Liv Morgan. I figured that they would get the win to set up a series of wins over other teams in the upcoming weeks to earn an eventual title shot. I know that WWE is hinting at a Natalya heel turn, which could happen after establishing her new team with Morgan, losing to Bayley & Banks, and then snapping. Instead, they just lost in 2 minutes which set up Natalya to be more of a heel already towards Morgan later in the show, possibly forming an alliance with Lana which I have zero interest in, and setting up the IIConics for another Title match. I don’t have interest in that heel vs. heel matchup which we’ve already seen a number of times already.
Crews vs. Benjamin – MISS: If Shelton Benjamin had been on Raw recently, getting some enhancement victories, the idea of him getting a United States Championship match against Apollo Crews would have made sense. I get that they are going for a fighting Champion character for Crews, but they could still make his challengers feel a little more credible. They tried here, with the scene with MVP talking to Crews about how he needs to be smarter to keep the Title longer, and Benjamin getting a pre-match promo, but then the match only goes 3 minutes and ends with Crews cheating? I know it was “fighting fire with fire” after Benjamin had tried to cheat to win a moment later, but for an act who is trying to be established and taken seriously, having him cheat to win was a mistake. If they are teasing a heel turn, then that is coming way too soon. It doesn’t work for him staying babyface either.
Lashley & MVP vs. Truth & McIntyre – MISS: I hated pretty much everything about this match. McIntyre has been so great as the WWE Champion, but he should be kept totally away from R-Turth’s silliness. As I said above, I would keep Lashley and MVP away from Truth’s silliness too. I hated the set up for this match. I made McIntyre look like an idiot for accepting the match in the first place where he could lose the WWE Title if Truth got pinned. There was some good wrestling action in the match, but not enough to make up for the terrible premise. At one point, MVP almost got a pin on Truth, so why would Lashley be okay with that, because if a 3 count happened there, MVP would have won the Title, not Lashley. Then after being so angry at the situation, it wasn’t believable that McIntyre would tag out to Truth and let him get the pin on MVP. This didn’t make Lashley look good either.
Asuka vs. Jax – MISS: Having a Title match on a PPV end in a double count out just to have the rematch the next night on Raw is a mistake. Having that rematch end with another controversial finish is another mistake. They are setting up a third match, likely for the Extreme Rules show, but will we have seen enough of it that we won’t care about it by that point? The action here was perfectly fine. So this Miss is really for the booking, not the wrestling. I guess Jax can complain about the fast count, but she was going to be disqualified for shoving the referee to begin with. So, does she really have a complaint? I didn’t like that ending.
Christian vs. Orton – HIT: The culmination of the show long storyline involving Orton and Christian turned out to be pretty good. There was no way that Christian could actually have a real match, so this made a lot of sense. I do question Ric Flair’s involvement. I mean, it was fine to have him trying to talk Christian out of it, but then he turned on him for no apparent reason. I hope that there is an explanation next week. Flair was not good in his role and his scene with Charlotte was one of the worst things I’ve seen in a long time (should have given it a Miss). He seemed old and incoherent. I am at least curious enough to find out the explanation, so it didn’t ruin the closing angle. The punt from Orton to Christian was well done with the cut happening right at the kick. Orton’s talking to Christian afterwards worked to further his character as a somewhat reluctant Legend Killer. So who is the next legend for him to kill?
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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