WWE RAW HITS & MISSES (9/23): Jey Uso’s win over Breakker, oddly placed merchandise table, Cody-Reigns overproduced cinematic video replay, Reed-Strowman, McIntyre promo, Creeds vs. New Day, more

Start of Raw – MISS: I liked how Raw started up to a point with the fans and the arrivals of wrestlers from earlier in the day. When they lost me was when Dominik Mysterio and Liv Morgan showed up. The way Braun Strowman and Bronson Reed brawled past them through what appeared to be a merchandise stand didn’t work. Do they have merchandise stands in the garage? That didn’t make sense. Then, I realized as Mysterio and Morgan made their way to the ring, that this was live unlike the other arrivals that they had shown. They were the start of the show, and they showed up after the show went on the air? It felt overly scripted that they would arrive and walk right into the building to start the show. If this had been another “earlier today” arrival, and if Strowman and Reed had brawled past them but not gone through the oddly placed merchandise stand, this would have been fine.

Opening Segment – HIT: The rest of the opening segment was good as Mysterio and Morgan bragged about what Judgment Day did last week only to be interrupted by Rhea Ripley. The verbal encounter followed by that devastating head butt from Ripley was all good. The performances worked from everyone. It was a nice way to hype their Women’s Title match at Bad Blood with the shark cage stipulation added.

Zayn vs. Kaiser – HIT: This was a very good match as you’d expect from these two. Obviously, Sami Zayn was going to beat Ludwig Kaiser, but it was still fun to watch. Matches like this are often criticized in AEW for being 50-50 despite a very obvious outcome. Part of the difference here is that the match was about 5 minutes shorter than the typical similar Dynamite matches. Also, under other circumstances, you could see Kaiser getting a win over Zayn, so having it be competitive made sense. Of course, Gunther still refuses to give Zayn a World Title match. How and when will Zayn ultimately get that shot?

Reed – Strowman – HIT: I liked the idea of having Reed and Strowman brawling in the back as wrestlers made their entrance at the start of the show, but as I said, I didn’t like the specifics of how it was done. However, I can’t complain about the brawl that they had later in the show when Strowman attacked Reed before his scheduled match against The Miz. I mean, any time I don’t have to see Miz wrestle is a Hit in my books. This led to Adam Pearce making the big Last Monster Standing match which makes sense, although the name is cheesy. And it was also a bit suspect how quickly the very produced video package on the match was put together so quickly during this show.

McIntyre Promo – HIT: The tone of this feud between Drew McIntyre and CM Punk has been spot on since their strap match at the last PLE. They are ramping up the seriousness and intensity of the issue between these two who absolutely hate each other. McIntyre was perfect in his tone as he addressed their Hell in a Cell match. That match has to go on last right? I know Roman Reigns is on the show, but still.

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Unholy Union vs. Damage CTRL – HIT: This was a good tag match as Damage CTRL continued its winning ways as Kairi Sane & Iyo Sky build to an eventual Tag Team Title match against Bianca Bel Air & Jade Cargill. WWE needs to do better with their women, particularly their women’s tag division. A match like this helps, as a potential champion challenger gets a strong win over former champions in a good match.

Rhodes-Reigns Video Replay – MISS: I understand wanting to hype a big match from Smackdown, but I prefer keeping the two brands totally separate. But, my bigger issue is that I wasn’t a fan of the video to begin with. I know it has gotten a lot of praise, but I fall into the category of fans who felt that it was over produced, over scripted, and didn’t feel like it fit in on a pro wrestling show. I want WWE to present its shows as if they are 100 percent real and happening in the moment. Post-produced segments like this can work, if they are presented in a way that is at least realistic, as if they had happened in the real world. That wasn’t the case with this video with so many different camera angles, and edits, and drone shots where you can’t see any of the cameras which were supposedly filming the encounter while it happened. If I was covering Smackdown, this would have gotten a Miss from me, so I get to give it one now for the replay.

Creeds vs. New Day – HIT: This was another good tag match. It felt like both The New Day and The Creed Brothers needed the win, as New Day is trying to re-establish themselves as title contenders after a frustrating few months, while the entire American Made faction is trying to move past their recent losses to the Wyatt Sicks. These are two talented teams who had a good match which fit in with the story that WWE is telling as Xavier Woods’ frustrations got the better of himself and he snapped on Chad Gable who wasn’t even in the match, allowing the Creeds to get the better of him for the win. This worked in the context of the scene we had seen earlier in the show between Kofi Kingston and Woods, and the follow up involving the LWO later.

Uso vs. Breakker – HIT: I was not expecting Bron Breakker to lose the Intercontinental Championship to Jey Uso here. I am fine with the decision to put the Title on Uso as he has been very over with the fans for a long time and it feels like he deserved it. Breakker will get the Title back. This was not a burial or a shift in WWE’s attitude towards him as a performer or his value on the roster. He will be fine. This was a very good main event. WWE did a great job of hyping it throughout the show. The match went over 20 minutes and was fun to watch from start to finish. There were some very believable near falls, including when Uso almost won with his first splash. That type of near fall usually isn’t followed up by a win, so that made it seem like Breakker was going to defend the Title until the very end of the match.

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 me on Twitter @JonMezzera (pretty clever handle right?). Just be aware that I don’t live tweet Raw, I don’t tweet much about wrestling, and I don’t tweet much at all.

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