WWE RAW HITS & MISSES (8/8): Miz verbal exchange with LA Knight, Baszler vs. Stark, New Day still annoying, McDonagh returns, Cody-Seth-Judgment Day

Opening Segment – HIT: The post-Summerslam Raw got off to a nice start with Cody Rhodes talking about what is next for him after beating Brock Lesnar. We got interruptions from Seth Rollins, Judgement Day and Sami Zayn which all set up the main event six man tag match. Everyone played their parts well. But, it does seem like we’ve seen a lot of these six-man tag main events on Raw lately, so I wasn’t necessarily super-excited about it. But, it was still a good enough opening segment to get a Hit.

Ricochet vs. Ciampa vs. Riddle vs. Gable – HIT: The commercial-free first hour of Raw gave us an uninterrupted match with this fatal four way to determine Gunther’s next opponent for the Intercontinental Championship. It was nice to see 10 minutes of uninterrupted wrestling on Raw. This was interesting in that it was all four babyfaces, all of whom are talented workers. They put on a good match. I wish Chad Gable hadn’t wrestled and lost to Gunther last week. He could have done something else to start to position himself as more of a threat to Gunther last week, to make this more exciting this week. I didn’t like the five minute challenge last week, and I like it less now. But, Gunther vs. Gable will be good for sure. Plus, this was a good match.

Nakamura vs. Reed – HIT: I assumed Bronson Reed would beat Shinsuke Nakamura, but as the show played out, it became obvious why Nakamura won in this good match. I’d like to see Reed getting more victories. Hopefully, he gets back on a winning streak next week. But, this was a good match and I don’t mind them positioning Nakamura as a challenger for Rollins’s World Championship.

J.D. McDonagh – MISS: In general, I like J.D. McDonagh being involved with Judgment Day in some way. Will he join the group? Will he be part of a new faction that forms if Finn Balor leaves? There are some intriguing possibilities. The problem is that WWE didn’t lay the groundwork for his appearance this week. They started to tease some type of connection several weeks ago, but then he disappeared. Where has he been? Then, he made his return at SS to get eliminated from the battle royal near the beginning of the match. If you planned on doing this angle this week, then why not drop some teasers for it on Raw the last few weeks? If you want him to be taken seriously, then keep him out of that battle royal, or have him in it and be one of the last two or three in the match with multiple eliminations. I can’t imagine much of a worse way to set up what happened this week with an otherwise good backstage encounter followed by the intriguing angle with him attacking Sami Zayn which took him out of the main event.

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Stark vs. Baszler – HIT: The segment that set up this match was just ok. It was a good way to build to next week’s Becky Lynch vs. Trish Stratus match as Becky was interrupted by Zoey Stark. Baszler’s interruption was too random. Her character came across as a babyface which makes sense coming out of her match against Ronda Rousey, but later she was acting like a heel. So, her presentation certainly wasn’t Hit-worthy. However, her match against Stark was good. It was far better than her match against Rousey at SS. Stark continues to show good skill in the ring. I look forward to seeing her matches. Baszler had a little trouble picking up Stark for her finisher in the end, but it didn’t look too bad. What will happen with Stark and Baszler moving forward? What will happen in Stratus vs. Lynch? Will Baszler make an appearance?

Miz – LA Knight – HIT: I don’t know why WWE has such trouble keeping the band split up. I understand why they want to go to LA Knight vs. The Miz. They had a good verbal back and forth here which is why this is a Hit. I was certainly entertained. Miz is a solid foil for Knight to get a win against to keep his fans happy. They don’t want to push Knight into a main event spot yet for whatever reason, so in the meantime they can have him get a series of wins over mid carders like Miz. But, can’t they find someone similar on Smackdown?

New Day – MISS: I haven’t missed The New Day despite their in-ring ability and their usually good tag matches. They are just so annoying. Their backstage interview after their match against The Viking Raiders was particularly bad.

Main Event – MISS: As I said above, WWE has done a lot of these six man tag matches with Judgement Day lately. This one suffered from the fact that half of the match was on the two commercial breaks. While it was nice to see a ten minute match without a commercial in the first hour, watching a 14 minute one with two commercials wasn’t nice to see. The interference from Rhea Ripley in these matches and the use of the briefcase as a weapon are also starting to get repetitive. I did like how Raquel Rodriguez jumped Ripley before the match, and Zayn showing up at the end was fun. The turn from Nakamura after the match worked well. So, I will call this a marginal Miss as it wasn’t that bad, but wasn’t as good as it should have been.

Cole & Barrett – HIT: It was much better to hear Michael Cole and Wade Barrett for the three hours of Raw than it has been listing to Nick Patrick and Corey Graves. We still have to hear them, but at least it is only for two hours on Smackdown instead of three. Plus, Cole will also be there to help, you know actually do play-by-play for the matches since Patrick doesn’t really do that at all (I can’t believe that I am actually happy to see more of Cole at this point).

(Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com’s WWE Raw Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw each week. Email him at jmezz_torch@yahoo.com. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonMezzera.)

RECOMMENDED NEXT: WWE Raw Results (8/7): Keller’s report on Summerslam fallout including Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch

OR CHECK OUT JASON POWELL’S HITLIST AT PROWRESTLING.NET: Powell’s WWE Raw Hit List: Cody, Seth, and Nakamura vs. Judgment Day, Gable vs. Ricochet vs. Ciampa vs. Riddle for a shot at the IC Title, New Day vs. Viking Raiders

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