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Bayley vs. Bliss – HIT: This is a marginal Hit for the opening match that was just good enough. It wasn’t great, but it worked to give Alexa Bliss the big win to become #1 contender to Bianca Belair’s Women’s Championship. I liked how Becky Lynch chased the rest of Damage CTRL away from the ringside area before the match so that we could get a clean match. That further advanced the feud between her and Bayley. As I’ve written before, I’m not interested in a return to some type of relationship between Bliss and Bray Wyatt, so I was not a fan of what happened between Bliss and Belair after the match.
Styles vs. Gable – HIT: This is another marginal Hit. The wrestling action in this match was good, but it felt like they were just getting going when it ended under 10 minutes. It was a match built around making fun of Otis for smelling bad after the milk bath on Smackdown. So, it didn’t mean much. I guess that makes the shorter time make sense, but it was underwhelming. It feels like both AJ Styles and Chad Gable could mean more than they do right now. But, at least this was fun while it lasted.
The Street Profits & Tozawa vs. The Judgement Day – HIT: This was a fun 6 man tag. It featured five good wrestlers and Dominik Mysterio. I still say the wrestling god needs to decree no more Eddie Guerrero references in matches for at least a year. Just stop with the cheap pop/heat already. I would like to see Akira Tozawa being used for something more meaningful, but at least this is better than the 24/7 crap that he was doing for the last few years. Him taking the loss from Mysterio after a big move by Damian Priest was the right way to go to fit in with the story they have been telling with Judgement Day.
Gargano, Lumis, Miz – MISS: This was more of the same. Please, please, please let next week’s ladder match be the end of any type of interaction between Johnny Gargano, Dexter Lumis and The Miz. Please get Johnny Gargano back to being Johnny Wrestling, not Johnny Sports Entertainer. I don’t want to see that ladder match. This segment lasted forever. The fans got bored of what they were talking about in the ring, so they started going back to mocking Miz for having tiny balls. That tells you they weren’t connecting with the actual material that was in front of them.
Sky vs. LaRae – MISS: This was a fine match, that could have been so much better. The Poison Rana on the outside was scary. That move doesn’t belong in wrestling in general. It isn’t needed when it could lead to a serious head or neck injury. If you are going to do a big dangerous move like this, save it for a much more important match. Iyo Sky is lucky. The rest of the match was good enough, but it undid what happened last week. Candace LaRae got the big win over Dakota Kai last week. This week, she lost to Kai’s partner. So, we get that old 50-50 booking which doesn’t help anyone.
Sikoa vs. Elias – MISS: I liked that they brought up the past between Elias and Kevin Owens. It was good that Owens didn’t agree to be in Elias’ corner for this match against Solo Sikoa. The problem was the match itself just wasn’t good and it took Sikoa too long to beat the joke that is Elias. It would have been better to have Sikoa plow through Elias to set up the post-match angle.
Ripley vs. Asuka – HIT: It was interesting to see Asuka with a slightly different look without her face paint. I’m curious if that is the first step in some type of repackaging for her. I would like to see a more serious version of Asuka, heel or face. This was a good match against Rhea Ripley which isn’t surprising. Asuka losing after the interference from Dominik made sense. Even though she lost, she got to give the fans a fun moment when she blinded him with her mist to the face. Dominik and Rhea get credit for doing a nice job of playing their roles to get a lot of heat as a couple.
Ziggler’s Promo – MISS: I’m not sure what Dolph Ziggler was talking about in regards to Austin Theory and the WWE United States Championship. It didn’t really address how he screwed over Mustafa Ali last week. Where was Ali? This was weak follow up on a bad angle.
Lashley vs. Rollins – HIT: The main event delivered well as Seth Rollins beat Bobby Lashley to earn a US Title shot. It wasn’t great, and these two characters have not been well defined at all over the last few months. But, it was certainly a good main event. Rollins vs. Theory makes more sense at this point. Rollins brought up Brock Lesnar again during this match which isn’t an accident. The story of Lashley losing his temper and ultimately being fired at the end of the show was interesting. Where are they going with that? Where are they going with Lesnar? They have some good stories going here, but both Rollins and Lashley need to have their characters tweaked some to get them where they need to be.
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.
I don’t think that Bliss reverting to her darker character will mean tying her to Bray. In storyline terms….he unlocked something in her that she managed to supress after “therapy” but is reasserting itself, as it is clear the darker version of Bliss is more of a “winner.” Frankly I think it’d be a hoot if she went all the way in the other direction and went back to the “glitter fairy” thing she did when she debuted in NXT.