SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Opening Segment – MISS: WWE is really forcing the Women’s War Games match this year. I’m all for equal opportunity but it has to make sense. This year’s women’s match doesn’t rise to the level of War Games. It would make much more sense as a traditional Survivor Series elimination tag match. The participants are too random. This opening segment was boring until Rhea Ripley made her surprise return from injury. Her presence saved this from being a total dud of a segment, but it didn’t save it from being a Miss. I would rather see one War Games a year. Shift back and forth between men and women if you want. Either way, any War Games match should be a bigger deal as they require better thought leading to them than this.
Gable & Nile vs. Rey Mysterio & Vega – HIT: This was a solid to good mixed tag, but nothing more. It was good enough to get a Hit. I would rather see more time and effort put into getting American Made over than the LWO at this point. But, I guess we are supposed to take the post-loss pump up session as a sign that American Made is going to bounce back strong from this.
Breakker vs. Sheamus – MISS: The wrestling action during this match was certainly Hit worthy, but when you throw in the totally crappy ending to the match, I have to give it a Miss. Clearly until that finish, Bron Brakker and Sheamus were putting on a very good Intercontinental Championship match. They worked hard and it was fun to watch them match each other’s intensity. Having Ludwig Kaiser cause a disqualification was a big disappointment. I understand that they were trying to follow up on his scene earlier in the show with Gunther (that whole segment was just ok, not a Hit nor a Miss) by making a statement. But, find a better way. Have a winner and have him attack the winner to try to establish himself as a contender for the Title. This screamed cop out to me. It also paints Breakker as more of a babyface, which continues his non-stop flip flopping since getting called up from NXT. Pick a lane. Now we will get a triple threat which doesn’t interest me.
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War Raiders vs. Dominik & Carlito – HIT: This was a solid to good tag match, but nothing more. It was good enough to get a Hit. There’s something familiar about that. It was smart to have The War Raiders getting another win as they build towards their eventual Tag Team Title match against Finn Balor & J.D. McDonagh. Having them beat their Judgment Day teammates made sense too.
Lyra Valkyria Video – HIT: WWE did something similar to this a few weeks ago with a very well produced video package on Dragon Lee. Here, they did it with Lyra Valkyria. But, in both cases the problem is that it might be too little, too late. Why aren’t they doing these to build up new call ups? Instead, they have a call up debut cold, don’t do anything to introduce them to the larger tv audience who aren’t watching NXT, don’t give them particularly strong pushes, and then act surprised when they aren’t getting over. I am giving the video a Hit for being well done. Hopefully, it will give Valkyria a boost. But while she is good in the ring, I don’t feel like she’s ever been very good at connecting with the audience. Time will tell if this video and her upcoming performances do the trick.
Reed vs. Rollins – HIT: WWE did a nice job of building up to the main event which should have been eagerly anticipated as it was the rematch between Seth Rollins and Bronson Reed. Rollins won their first match at Crown Jewel, so it made sense to have Reed getting the win here. The match was very good. I liked that they got the New Bloodline interference out of the way early, which pointed to the fact that we might actually get a clean finish here. But, I had a sinking suspicion that they would return. At least Solo Sikoa only distracted Rollins. It would have been worse if he had gotten physically involved. This also played into the Bloodline War Games match. Will this lead to Rollins finally agreeing to team up with the Original Bloodline despite his strong objections to working with Roman Reigns ever again? I hope not. We’ll 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.
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