WWE RAW HITS & MISSES 10/10: DX attraction a hit, Lashley and Lesnar miss, more

Bloodline – HIT: The Bloodline is by far the best thing going in WWE (really, all American wrestling). Everything they are involved in is so much more important than anything else. They all play their roles to perfection. Sami Zayn continues to be incredibly over with the fans. Once he officially turns babyface, WWE is going to have something big on their hands. They have to be a little careful with him going up against babyfaces like Matt Riddle because you don’t want Riddle getting booed. He also played his part well here. This advanced the storyline of Jey Uso’s growing discontent and the idea that Zayn is now in charge of him within the Bloodline. It set up the main event effectively. The later scene with Roman Reigns leaving was also strong.

Gargano vs. Theory – HIT: This is a marginal Hit for a good match with a clean finish between Johnny Gargano and Austin Theory. My issue is that WWE has been building to this match since Gargano’s return, but this felt a little anti-climactic on Raw instead of a PLE, only going 9 minutes. While I appreciate the clean win (for either wrestler) and Gargano needs some wins to help build himself up, Theory losing again as Mr. Money in the Bank hurts that gimmick. WWE needs to do a better job picking MITB winners who they can actually get behind who can get a series of wins to make them look strong before the actual cash in.

Judgement Day – Styles & Gallows & Anderson – HIT: The stuff between Dominik and Rey Mysterio before this segment was fine. Mysterio’s match against Chad Gable was ok. This segment also started out fine with The Judgement Day addressing what they did to Edge at Extreme Rules. It started getting good with Finn Balor calling AJ Styles to the ring for one last chance to join with their group. Styles did a nice job of teasing that he was going to join them by admitting that he realized that Balor was right that he needed someone to have his back. The rumors about a return for The Good Brothers have been all over the place, so this wasn’t a big surprise, but it still worked well to reintroduce them as Styles’ old friends. They are a good team and can add some much needed depth on the tag team division while working with Styles in this current program.

Bayley vs. LaRae – HIT: This was another good match with another clean win. I am definitely hopeful that those will become the trend and not the exception. I was surprised by the fact that Candace LaRae got the win. They seem to be continuing Bayley vs. Bianca Belair for the Women’s Title, but Bayley doesn’t seem like a legit challenger after losing here, just two days after she lost to Belair at the PLE. But like with Gargano earlier, LaRae needs the wins to help establish herself on Raw. The post-match attack worked well to allow Damage CTRL to stand tall in the end.

Miz’s Birthday – MISS: There are plenty of ways to add “sports entertainment” elements into pro wrestling without losing credibility. Everything WWE is doing with The Miz and Dexter Lumis causes a loss of credibility. I know these types of birthday celebrations or similar segments are par for the course for WWE, but I wish they would go away. If you are promoting a real wrestling show, would you allow your wrestlers to go out to the ring for these types of non-wrestling related activities? It doesn’t make sense. The Miz’s balls jokes have got to go. They were stale months ago. The whole bit with Lumis being in one of the presents wasn’t believable. The bit with Maryse going into the cake was totally botched. Later on, we got this idiotic match stipulation where Lumis can win a contract with WWE by beating Miz, but if Miz wins, Lumis won’t get a contract. But what does that matter? Lumis isn’t under contract now and he gets into every arena anyway. So what does it really matter?

Lashley – Lesnar – MISS: I get a kick out of Cowboy Brock Lesnar, but he has been a babyface, so I didn’t like seeing him randomly attacking another babyface in Bobby Lashley. I have been asking WWE to do something with Lashley as the United States Champion. We finally get him in a program with Seth Rollins, but instead they quickly pivot to Lesnar vs. Lashley for the next Blood Money show. That isn’t what I had in mind for a program for Lashley. I didn’t want to see him lose the US Title to Rollins either. I get that we are supposed to find him strong and courageous and patriotic for accepting Rollins’ challenge despite being injured, but to me it just makes him look stupid. So, I was’t a fan of any of this.

Riddle vs. Zayn – HIT: The main event which was set up in the opening segment did not disappoint as Riddle and Zayn had a good match which played perfectly into the Jey/Zayn angle. There was plenty of good wrestling action throughout which isn’t surprising given the talent of Riddle and Zayn. I liked how Jey kept trying to cheat but kept getting chastised for those attempts by Zayn who didn’t want his help, until the end when he needed help and Jimmy tried to cheat, but Jey kept him from doing so. The announcers did nice job of talking about how Roman Reigns’ order to Jey to help Zayn win went against Zayn’s own wishes. I look forward to seeing Roman’s reaction to this match.

DX – HIT: I got a kick out of the short opening scene at the very beginning of the show. I appreciate that DX didn’t take over the show and only had a few backstage segments and then the short scene to end the show in the ring. They got in some of their greatest hits as part of their 25th anniversary celebration without overstaying their welcome or big footing any current act.

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: 10/10 WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW RESULTS: Keller’s report on DX reunion, Bloodline, Theory vs. Gargano, Lashley defends against Seth