WWE RAW HITS & MISSES (4/29): WWE Draft, Lynch-Morgan exchange, Pat Mahomes and Logan Paul, Gunther vs. Xavier, McIntyre-Punk exchange,

Lynch – Morgan – HIT: Raw got off to a good start with the big show feel and the hype for the draft with the recap from Smackdown. The real show got started with Becky Lynch coming out to talk about becoming the new Women’s Champion last week. She got a strong reaction which is hopeful that she will continue to get better reactions than she did going up against Rhea Ripley in the build to WrestleMania. Liv Morgan interrupted. Their back and forth was strong with Morgan leaning into being a heel which was good. Becky had a great comeback line when Morgan took credit for Becky becoming the Champion because she injured Ripley, but Becky said that she was the Champion because she eliminated Morgan. This should be a good first feud over the Title for Becky. But unfortunately, the segment went downhill when Nia Jax came out. This isn’t anything about her or her performance, but why would you have the newly turned Morgan going for babyface reactions going up against a hated heel in Jax? I didn’t understand that at all. The match itself later in the show was fine, but a bit muddy with the heel vs. heel aspect and the distraction from the random appearance by Tiffany Stratton and Naomi.

WWE Draft – HIT: I had some problems with the Draft. The Smackdown version was pretty boring and ho-hum especially when it came to any sense of a shake up. Fortunately, there was more movement between the brands during the Raw portion. I also appreciate the way the presentation was done, with various wrestlers and legends presenting the picks on behalf of the brands. It was nice to see them getting some camera time. They did a nice job of playing into stories, particularly with the way that Drew McIntyre was upset about being selected after CM Punk, or Judgment Day being upset about falling as low as they did. It seems like the women’s division was shaken up more than the men, which is smart as that needed to happen. I’m already looking forward to the Damage CTRL / Becky Lynch feud. She could have great matches with all four of them. I also liked how the Champions were not part of the draft.

But, I would not have had NXT part of the draft at all. I didn’t like how they were seemingly out of character watching the draft and cheering on their fellow roster mates when they got picked. Why would Lexis King cheer for Lyra Valkyria getting drafted? I also didn’t understand why Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley were not part of the draft. Yes, they are injured, but so are Seth Rollins and CM Punk, yet they were both drafted. So, there were some inconsistencies. So, I will call the Draft a marginal Hit, but with some reservations.

Gunther vs. Woods – HIT: An argument can be made that 16 minutes was too long for Gunther to beat Xavier Woods, but this was a show light on wrestling, so I won’t complain. With two commercial breaks, we probably only saw half of the match anyway. What we saw was good which isn’t surprising. I’m not a fan of the “throw in the towel” gimmick, so I didn’t love the part where Kofi Kingston teased doing that. However, I appreciate the fact that Woods convinced him not to, only to tap out a minute later. I continue to love how Gunther beats his opponents with a variety of finishing moves. He is clearly being set up as the obvious King of the Ring winner. He either wins, or they give someone a big rub by beating him in the finals.

Pat Mahomes – MISS: I get why WWE would feature Patrick Mahomes, but I question having him playing a heel, helping Logan Paul, particularly in his hometown. If this had been in another city, say San Francisco where Mahomes is going to get booed, it would have made sense. The rest of the segment was ok, and I got a kick out of Paul using the Super Bowl rings in place of his brass knuckles. That was clever. They nicely played into the unraveling of Judgment Day. JD McDonagh selling the punch from Paul was great. It was nice to see Braun Strowman back from his injury. The verbal exchange between Paul and Jey Uso was fine. Uso didn’t have a great go-home presentation going into the World Title match against Damian Priest. So, while I did like some of this segment, it wasn’t great, plus the use of Mahomes was head scratching.

Zayn vs. Reed – MISS: Last week, I wrote that I liked the potential of a Sami Zayn vs. Bronson Reed feud over the Intercontinental Championship. However, I also wrote that Reed shouldn’t get a Title match right away. He should get a series of wins while Zayn’s feud against Gable came to a resolution. Instead, WWE went right to the Title match this week. The match was good while it lasted, but at only 8 minutes with a commercial break and a non-finish, it has to be a Miss, even if Reed and Zayn worked hard while the match lasted. This was just a lame set up for a lazy triple threat. I’d rather see them finish one feud, while hinting at the next, before actually moving on to that next one.

McIntyre – Punk – HIT: WWE continues to do a great job of building to this eventual match once Punk is healthy. I don’t know when that match will be, but it will be a big draw when it does. However, McIntyre needs to get some heat in the meantime. Punk keeps getting the better of him, as he did here in playing mind games by appearing in the luxury box during McIntyre’s promo, only to disappear back to the ring when McIntyre got to the box to confront him. I liked how he promised to talk for a shorter period of time than McIntyre’s World Title reign lasted at WM. The mic work from both throughout the show was good. But, when we get closer to the actual match, McIntyre will need to come out on top in some of these encounters.

Awesome Truth vs. Alpha Academy – MISS: A four minute Tag Team Title match joined in progress? No thank you. The way this match was set up with a goofy comedy bit in the back with Chad Gable tricking R-Truth into giving them the match wasn’t a great way to start. Having the match so short and joined in progress doesn’t sent a good message about the importance of the Titles or either of these teams.

Main Event – HIT: This is a marginal Hit, for a solid main event six-man tag. Jey Uso was clearly going to win the match over either Finn Balor or JD McDonagh to build momentum for his World Title match at Backlash, while protecting the Champion Damian Priest. It had pretty good wrestling action throughout. Ricochet and Andrade got a rub from working with Uso and appearing in the main event, but neither of them is very hot at the moment. We’ll see how both are used after the draft. Backlash certainly feels like an also ran type PLE. While this was good enough to get a Hit, it wasn’t a hot go-home type show closing segment that you’d like to see.

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.