WWE RAW HITS & MISSES 2/13: Women’s title picture a hit, Miz misses with Boogs, more

Opening Segment – HIT: This was a pretty good start to Raw. There were times when Becky Lynch and Bayley were a little annoying in their back and forth which brought the segment down, but overall it was an effective way to get to an intriguing main event with those two facing Bianca Belair for a chance to be added to the Elimination Chamber. Asuka appears to be the only likely winner, so adding a seventh in the form of either Bayley or (more likely) Lynch would make some sense.

Lesnar – Lashley Contract Signing – HIT: I was confused why WWE seemed to paint Bobby Lashley as the heel last week in his encounter with Brock Lesnar, when it seemed like Lesnar had been the heel before that. Moving past that, WWE stuck to those roles for them this week, which helps make this contract signing a Hit. Lesnar is having a blast playing this happy cowboy babyface. Lashley is good as a heel, and showed that off here. The physicality at the end worked well too. It will be interesting to see what happens in the match at Elimination Chamber. What does WWE have planned for each of them at WrestleMania?

Niven vs. Michin – HIT: An effective strong win for Piper Niven as she continues to be built up as a badass heel. Michin got in a few big moves, but ultimately got squashed pretty quickly. She certainly could mean more, but hasn’t been given a strong push since her return to WWE. However, given the upside of Niven and the trajectory that she is on since her return at The Royal Rumble, this quick match made sense.

Zayn – Rhodes – HIT: WWE continues to do a good job of building to both Roman Reigns vs. Sami Zayn at EC and Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes at WM. The key is winning over the fans who want to see Zayn beat Reigns, and are disappointed that he isn’t facing him at WM. You don’t want those fans to turn against Rhodes. They are effectively making Zayn a potential winner to face Rhodes instead while building up Rhodes at the same time. Everything they’ve done on Raw the last two weeks with the segments between Rhodes and Paul Heyman last week, and this one between him and Zayn have been spot on. Both Rhodes and Zayn played their roles well here. Zayn was particularly great. WWE continues to give me hope that Rhodes will get the desired response at WM. Having him beat up Baron Corbin a few minutes later didn’t hurt.

Asuka – HIT: I loved how Asuka decided to just beat up everyone involved in her six woman tag match. It seemed to fit in with her new character and helped make her look like a badass as she beat up her own teammates before taking out Liv Morgan for the win.

Ali vs. Reed – HIT: This is basically the same as the Hit for Niven vs. Michin. Bronson Reed getting a string of squash wins over opponents like Mustafa Ali (who like Michin could be used better) is the way to go to build him into a monster heel. It will be interesting to see what happens with Reed in the EC. I doubt that Austin Theory loses, so how does Reed lose in a way where he is kept strong?

MizTV – HIT: This was an effective segment in building to the ultimate match between Seth Rollins and Logan Paul at WM. WWE is trying to hype two PLEs at the same time, and this worked to point to that match while also building to the United States Title match at EC with the attack from Theory at the end. Theory and Rollins have had a good feud, so it makes sense to put some emphasis on their part in the EC match. Before that, Rollins did a nice job of explaining why he has a problem with Paul. It is also good that WWE is clearly painting Paul as a heel.

Miz vs. Boogs – MISS: There are so many instances of a babyface wrestler getting beat up before a match. Before ringing the bell to start the match, the referees alway ask the wrestler if they are ok to have the match and they insist on having it. Then, the ref calls for the bell. Here, Miz got beat up by Rollins, and said that he wasn’t able to wrestle because of that attack, yet the referee started the match anyway. That inconsistency really bothered me.

Bayley vs. Lynch vs. Belair – HIT: There were a few times in this match where the wrestlers relied too heavily on the triple threat trope of breaking up the pin. There were times when it seemed clear that the wrestler getting pinned would easily kick out in singles match, but they had the third wrestler break up the pin instead. To their credit, they also had a few spots where the wrestler getting pinned did kick out before the break up happened which is realistic. Becky shouldn’t just assume that Bayley is going to kick out, so a spot where she is coming to make a break up, but Bayley kicks out before hand makes perfect sense. There were also a few timing issues. But overall, it was a good enough match to get a Hit as a strong main event. The outcome was unpredictable. I thought that Becky winning was the most likely scenario, but I could easily see Bayley being added to EC instead, or Belair winning to keep them both out. That unpredictability added to my enjoyment of the match. It does raise the question about what Becky and Bayley will do at WM.

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: WWE SMACKDOWN HITS & MISSES 2/10: Heyman hits with Sami Zayn, women’s division misses, more