WWE RAW HITS & MISSES 2/28: KO Show succeeds with comedy, Edge wins with drama and intensity, more

KO Show – HIT: I had a lot of mixed feelings about this week’s episode of Raw and it started out with this opening segment. I get a kick out of Kevin Owens and Seth Rollins. I get a kick out of Chad Gable. I laughed at Owens’ cowboy hat as he continues to troll Texas. I was happy to see Gable getting a Shoooosh t-shirt. There was definitely a lot of fun in this segment like when Owens and Rollins were making fun of the way Gable says “ah thank you!” But some of the humor got to be a little too much. With two sort of goofy acts going back and forth with the goofiness, culminating in the battle of shooshes, the segment got grating in the end. I still enjoyed it, but they need to do a better job with sprinkling the goofy humor into a segment as opposed to hitting the fans over the head with it.

Alpha Academy vs. Owens & Rollins – HIT: I had mixed feelings about this match. On the one hand, the wrestling action was very good which isn’t surprising given the talent of these two teams. It was certainly a Hit worthy match. The problem is that the heel vs. heel dynamic hurt some with Owens & Rollins getting more of a babyface reaction which can be ok, but when you are presumably building them up for something where they are heels at WrestleMania, you shouldn’t be the doing things that get them cheered in the short term. The other issue is that the Tag Team Champions lost going into the big triple threat Championship match next week. That isn’t ideal. Of course, keeping one of the challengers strong is important too. So why have the match at all? It was still good enough to get a minor Hit despite my reservations.

T-Bar vs. Omos – MISS: If you want to keep Omos around and keep him strong as a monster, then continuing to give him squash wins like this one over T-Bar makes sense. The problem is that T-Bar is far more talented than Omos and someone who could actually bring some value to the roster as opposed to Omos who hasn’t shown any improvement in the last year.

Six Woman Tag – HIT: One of the most memorable moments in WWE last year was when Bianca Bel Air used her hair to whip Sasha Banks in the stomach during their main event match of Night 1 of WrestleMania. Obviously, we had seen her do that numerous times in the past, but given the stage, and the huge welt it left, it seemed more impressive than ever before. During her feud against Bel Air, we saw Bayley use the hair braid a lot, some of which was cool, but it got to be too much. The braid is a unique attribute to Bel Air and she should use it. But, she shouldn’t use it too much. I loved how she used it here as a tease of what she might do with it to Becky Lynch at WrestleMania, but I hope that this was the peak usage of it. I don’t want to see a repeat of Bel Air vs. Banks. I’d rather see it as a tease in her WM match against Lynch without focusing on it so much. It worked well here, and this match with Lynch teaming up with Nikki Cross & Doudrop against Bel Air, Rhea Ripley & Liv Morgan was good. But, it didn’t make me think that there was much of anything in the works for the other women in the match other than a battle royal appearance (assuming they are doing it again).

Mysterios – The Miz – MISS: The mic work from Rey Mysterio was rough. Talking has never been his strong suit, but he can do better than this. The Miz was fine in his interruption, but none of this made me want to see their tag match at WM. The match that followed was ok, and I understand giving the Mysterios a loss because of Miz’s interference, but I still would rather see everyone kept strong. Find other ways to get heat on the heel other than having him cheat to cost the babyface team a win.

Carmella & Vega vs. Banks & Naomi – MISS: This Miss is retroactive to Smackdown when Sasha Banks and Naomi randomly became a team and challenged Carmella & Vega to a Tag Title match at WM. They aren’t a team, so why should they get a Title match? Their team feels forced. Carmella & Queen Zelina accepted that challenge here on Raw. They haven’t been featured much on tv lately. I like them as a team, but they aren’t treated like a big deal. Naomi has had a nice program lately working with Ronda Rousey, but it would have been better if they had done something to actually establish them as a team while keeping the champs strong. They have some time, so hopefully they get to a point where this seems like a WM worthy match.

RK-Bro vs. Street Profits – MISS: The ending of this match seemed to be edited on the west coast due to the botched pin fall. I read what I missed. It is unfortunate that Randy Orton got hurt, but thankfully he appears to be ok. The ending of the match lands it in the miss column. I’m not sure what was supposed to happen, but if the plan was to have RK-Bro lose, especially after a heel tactic from Angelo Dawkins, then I disagree with the plan. Having two of the three teams in the Tag Title match next week lose this week is a mistake. I don’t want to see The Street Profits go heel either. If that wasn’t the plan, then the poor execution of the match caused the problem, but that is worthy of a Miss too.

Priest vs. Balor – HIT: This was a good United States Title match with Finn Balor beating Damian Priest to become the new US Champ. I wasn’t sure what WWE was going to do as they have not always seemed sure themselves what they want to do long term with Priest. I was surprised that they went with a clean victory for Balor here. I thought we might get a snap with The Damian coming out of Priest. Instead we got a generic “the fans don’t respect me” promo before he beat the crap out of Balor. The heel turn should have been more memorable. The physicality was good, but that promo wasn’t. That is more of the mixed feelings I have about this show. It makes sense to turn Priest to set up a rematch (Demon vs. Damian) for WM, and the match was good, but the reason behind the turn felt somewhat arbitrary without a proper build.

Edge – Styles – HIT: This is another example of my mixed feelings about Raw. I would be fine with seeing Edge vs. AJ Styles as a babyface vs. babyface match. Edge didn’t need to go heel, and he should stay face in this phase of his career as a part time legacy star. I am looking forward to their match. The performances were good. Edge is a great heel. He played his part very well. It was intense and dramatic. I liked the initial physicality as it didn’t appear to be a heel turn as much as Edge trying to bring out the bulldog in Styles. There was a lot to like about this angle. It also came right after a heel turn from Priest which is odd. The key is the follow up. Edge has the ability to cut a great promo where he explains his actions. If the follow up works, then I will stick with this minor Hit. But if it doesn’t, then I will retroactively change it to a Miss.

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.

CATCH-UP: 2/28 WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW RESULTS: Keller’s report on Priest vs. Balor for U.S. Title, Edge addresses his WrestleMania future