SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Lynch vs. Belair – HIT: Raw got off to a great start. It was nice to see the pre-match interviews with both Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair before their Women’s Championship match. It is a simple but effective way to hype a big match. The match itself was not surprisingly very good. It went nearly 20 minutes which was maybe too long given it had two commercial breaks. I would rather see a 14 minute match with one commercial, but that is a minor complaint. Yes, there was cheating in the end from Becky, but she is a heel. I will take that ending over what we usually see from big WWE matches. I was expecting outside interference, some type of distraction, or a total non-finish. This ending worked for prolonging the feud and Belair’s chase for the Title. Let them each go separate ways for awhile before bringing them back together and the fans will really want to see Bianca win the Title.
Mysterio vs. Theory – HIT: This was another good match which was preceded by an interview. We got to hear from Rey Mysterio about Austin Theory and what happened the previous week with Dominic. Again, this is a simple and effective way to put the match in context and build anticipation for it. The match was also good. It was a way to continue to build up Theory, while playing into the tension between Rey and Dominic. The disqualification finish worked perfectly in this context. I am also enjoying the selfie gimmick from Theory.
Rollins, Big E and Owens – HIT: This good episode of Raw continued the strong first hour with the first long talking segment of the show. Seth Rollins needs some more character definition other than just being the weird annoying guy in funny suits. He is playing that role well, but it isn’t a great role, especially for a main eventer. Big E was good in his interruption, as was Kevin Owens. They teased a Rollins vs. Big E match, but got heat on Rollins for refusing the match. That could get heat on WWE for teasing something and not delivering, but they set up the Big E vs. Owens match instead which got the fans back on their side.
Ripley & Cross vs. Zelina & Carmella – MISS: The wrestling action in his match was fine, but the problem is the gimmicks of all four of these women. Nikki Cross’ stupid almost a super hero gimmick is so bad that it is ruining her and Rhea Ripley. I am already over the Queen Zelina gimmick with her terrible English accent. Carmella’s weird mask isn’t working for me either. I couldn’t get into this match after the terrible backstage segment that set it up. It also had cheating involved in the end, the third straight match to have cheating as part of the finish. While it worked in the first two matches, here it just felt like lazy booking.
Balor vs. Gable – HIT: This was the shortest match of the show, but still lasted nearly 6 minutes. That is a better formula than what WWE did last week with a few long matches plus several very short ones. The match was fun to watch from start to finish. I would love to see a longer match down the line between Finn Balor and Chad Gable, but given their respective positions on the roster, the shorter length made sense. I’m curious to see if they are going to go with a Balor vs. Ottis match or feud next.
Street Profits vs. Dirty Dawgs – MISS: There was plenty of good wrestling action in this Miss of a match. But once again, we get the Street Profits losing because of a distraction from Omos. The director missed the ending of the match. I assume it was a ZigZag, but missing that move is a mistake which should be called out. The director also inexplicably cut to a replay video after the match right when it looked like Randy Orton was going to go fight Omos, leaving me wondering what was going on. The timing there was totally off. I liked Orton and Riddle on guest commentary. But, I didn’t like having Riddle getting involved with Omos afterwards. They seem to be building to RKBRo vs. The Dirty Dawgs again, with Omos & Styles vs. The Street Profits. Having Riddle attacking Omos muddies the waters in a way that wasn’t needed.
T-Bar vs. Priest – HIT: This was a good way to follow up on last week’s match. I liked the pre-match interview with Damian Priest (notice the pattern?). He explained what happened in his mind last week when he snapped on T-Bar. We also got an inset promo from T-Bar to explain why he threw the chair at Priest which played into Priest’s new gimmick. These segments set up the match effectively while continuing to explain the new character. The No DQ match itself was good. It was intense and physical. There were some big crowd pleasing spots. The idea that Priest was losing the match until he snapped again made sense. I still want to see a repackage for T-Bar and a push for him considering his talent in the ring.
E vs. Owens – HIT: It was interesting to see Rollins promising to help Owens win the match, only not have Owens tell him not to get involved. That played nicely into the end of the match when Rollins cheated and Owens actually tried to take advantage of it. He claimed that he didn’t see what Rollins did, but that seems unlikely. Big E certainly didn’t buy into it as he took out his frustration by hitting Owens with a Big Ending. I am intrigued to see where WWE goes from here with all three of these guys going forward. Oh yeah, the match was very good as well.
Cheating – MISS: Individually, I can accept the cheating endings for most of the matches on Raw. The problem is when you look at the show on the whole and see cheating in almost every match. Becky cheated with the exposed turnbuckle and by hooking the tights to beat Bel Air. Dominic got caught cheating to cost his dad his match. Zelina & Carmella cheated to win their match in a pretty typical heel tag team spot. Balor had a clean win. But then the Street Profits lost after a distraction from Omos. Priest won without cheating since it was a No DQ match. Then while Big E still won the match, it only came after Rollins’ cheating failed to cost him the victory. That’s five out of seven matches with some type of cheating or distraction.
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.
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