SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Opening Segment – HIT: WWE got to where it needed to go with Jey Uso officially challenging Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania. Now they can focus the Elimination Chamber on Cody Rhodes’ potential challengers. I’m not totally sure about Gunther’s plan to stop Uso from challenging him by beating him up. It backfired. The surprise attack during Jey’s Yeet celebration was well done. A quick statement on the mic from Gunther with a final warning to Jey about what he’ll do to him at WrestleMania would have made the segment a little stronger. A theme for this week’s Raw was “good, but not great.” I felt that way in this opening segment and throughout the show.
Rodriquez & Morgan vs. Sky & Kai – HIT: There were a few spots in this match when the wrestlers seemed to be a little off with their communication. But, overall it was a good match. It was nice to see Dakota Kai back after her recent injury. WWE has Iyo Sky as the next challenger for Rhea Ripley’s Women’s Title as a way to bridge the gap between the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. Sky unofficially earned the Title shot by getting the win over Liv Morgan here. Morgan will be in the EC, and she and Raquel Rodriguez are getting a Tag Team Title match soon. So, I’m not sure about having them lose this match. But, Sky needed the win to get momentum back after her loss to Morgan last week. That was an issue with this match happening at all. But, it was a good match, so it is a Hit.
Bayley vs. Valkyria – HIT: This was a good qualifying match for Bayley to get into the EC with the win over Lyra Valkyria. They worked well together to have a strong back and forth match. Bayley definitely seemed like the predictable winner. Valkyria hasn’t been well used since becoming the first ever Women’s Intercontinental Champion. Clearly they are setting up her first Title defense against Ivy Nile. But, they need to move that program along quicker. Is she ever going to defend the Title?
Penta Video – HIT: I enjoyed this video. Penta got to talk and present himself in a way that will get the fans behind him who weren’t as familiar with him before his Raw debut last month. WWE is getting behind him, but he won’t be shot to the top right away which is fine. This allowed him to explain his Zero Fear mentality while pointing to future matches against Pete Dunne and Ludwig Kaiser.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show covering the latest episode of Raw: CLICK HERE to stream (or search “wade Keller” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)
Three Long Talking Segments – HIT: I am lumping these three segments together as none of them were great. They were all just good enough. The first was AJ Styles coming out to talk about being back after his injury only to be interrupted by Dominik Mysterio. The mic work from Styles and Mysterio was good. Having Styles vs. Mysterio next week is a good first match on Raw for Styles before moving onto an IC Title program against Bron Breakker. But, the focus could have been more on Styles’ return, with Dirty Dom stealing the spotlight with Styles talking about Rey Mysterio in the end.
The second segment was Jackie Redmond’s interview with Seth Rollins which was ultimately interrupted by Finn Balor. Again, the mic work from both of them was strong, but it followed the same pattern. It was a fine way to hype their EC qualifying match next week. But, WWE has pivoted away from a heel Seth Rollins which seemed to be the direction they were going in at the Rumble.
The third of the segments was C.M. Punk’s promo about the EC when he was interrupted by Logan Paul. By the end of the segment, Punk was also talking about Rey Mysterio. The pattern was getting old at that point, even though once again the mic work was perfectly good from both Punk and Paul. WWE continues to tease potential WM matches which wont’ happen. But, you could see them going with Punk vs. Paul after this which makes the outcome of the EC more murky. I am still predicting Punk vs. Rhodes and Paul vs. Cena. But, they have multiple directions which they could go in which is good. Each of these segments worked, but they all could have been better.
War Raiders vs. Creed Brothers – HIT: I wish WWE had done more to build up The Creed Brothers as challengers for the War Raiders’ Tag Team Championship. I am a big fan of their team, so it would have been nice to see them winning a series of matches to earn this shot at the Titles. The crowd felt dead at the beginning of the match, but were certainly alive by the end, so kudos to both teams for their strong effort in having a very good match. I won’t complain about the likelihood of more matches between these teams. Having the babyface Champions winning the match via disqualification is much better than a heel Champion losing via DQ only to keep the Title. But, I don’t fully understand what Julius Creed’s motivation for choosing to cheat so blatantly at that moment.
Logan vs. Mysterio – HIT: The main event EC qualifier was a good match between Paul and Mysterio. Paul was the predictable winner, but it was still fun to watch. It started a little rough, but they quickly got things together. I appreciate that Paul got a clean win over Mysterio. He doesn’t need to cheat to win every match. Rey will be fine. WWE is still working on his feud against New Day as they attacked him after the match. It was a little odd how they ended the show at that point. It isn’t like when they were on USA Network and needed to end at a specific time. On Netflix, they can keep going. In fact, this episode was about 5 minutes shorter than the other recent Raws. But, I think WWE covered for this by having the attack take place after the credits started to roll. That makes it more believable that the show would end abruptly at that 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 him on BlueSky @jonmezzera.bsky.social.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.