SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
Cena – Rhodes – HIT: In my marginal Hit for the encounter between John Cena and Cody Rhodes last week, I wrote “What is The Rock’s role in all of this? He hasn’t been a part of the story since the turn at Elimination Chamber. There also doesn’t seem to be anything personal between the two of them. Cena could include those aspects into his character and into this story. They have time to heat it up, but the next encounter has to be better.” While Rock’s involvement was only briefly mentioned this week, it was good that he was finally talked about. The other aspect of my criticism was definitely addressed by Cena this week when he went after Rhodes and made it clear why he has a problem with him as the WWE Champion. Rhodes was very good in his comebacks to what Cena said about him. The veiled references to Vince McMahon and Tony Khan were interesting. They had their first physical encounter since Cena turned at the end of Elimination Chamber. It made sense that Rhodes would get the better of Cena here since he was left in his own blood the last time. This definitely heated up the feud in a big way. “But the next encounter has to be better.” Check.
New Day vs. New Catch Republic – HIT: New Catch Republic is a silly name for a team, but I was a fan of the team of Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate, and have missed Bate since his injury last summer. It was good to see him back. They could tell a little story of Bate getting Dunne back on track to ignore the whole Butch nickname and get back to kicking ass as a team. But, I can overlook that. The match against The New Day was a good one. New Day needed the win, so it was good to see them get one even against a returning team. It is nice that Adam Pearce made them win some matches to get a Tag Team Championship match instead of just giving them one. But while I am a fan of The War Raiders and New Day, and expect them to have a good Title match at some point, neither of the teams, nor the Tag Titles are hot enough to actually deserve a spot on the WrestleMania card.
Uso vs. Gunther – HIT: Jimmy Uso’s plan to build up his brother’s confidence by proving that Gunther is beatable backfired miserably. This was a solid match, but the prolonged post-match beating is what really stood out. Gunther was a bully during and after the match which caused Jey Uso to come out to try to help his brother. Gunther’s attack from behind was very well done at that point. He tied up Jey in the ropes so he couldn’t help his brother while Gunther beat the crap out of him. I could have done without the blood. WWE doesn’t use blood as much as AEW, so it does mean a little more when they do it, but this amount of blood, and the way that Gunther smeared it on himself and tasted it was too much for me.
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Penta & Breakker vs. Mysterio & Balor – HIT: This was a good tag match to continue the build towards what will be a fatal four way Intercontinental Title match at WM. I am not a fan of all of these multi-person matches to get everyone on the card that WWE is doing this year. But, this story is being told well. The Judgment Day duo needed the win, to finally get Dominik Mysterio and Finn Balor back on the same page after all of the tension recently between them. But, we know that Liv Morgan is going to convince Dom to go after the IC Title instead of Balor. The miscommunication between Bron Breakker and Penta which led to their defeat will push them to fight each other, adding another personal layer to this story and the eventual four way.
Sky vs. Ripley – MISS: We knew that a screwy finish was coming with Bianca Bel Air as the guest referee for this main event Women’s Title match between Iyo Sky and Rhea Ripley. It was hard to enjoy the match while it lasted, as I was waiting to see how Bel Air would end up screwing Ripley again. There were also some sloppy spots in the match like the poison rana on the outside where Sky slipped, didn’t hit the move, yet Ripley sold it like she did. There were also moves where it was hard to tell which wrestler was doing the move and which was taking it, like the attempted avalanche samoan drop. There was plenty of good wrestling action too, but it wasn’t great before the predictable non-ending. Bel Air acted like a regular referee when she got accidentally kicked in the face by Ripley. It was unbelievable how long she was out of the ring after that. She is tougher than that. The story with her as the ref never made sense to begin with. Ripley looked like a petulant child in complaining about Bel Air throughout the match (before the kick to the face). Bel Air didn’t look very good for throwing the match out. Ripley stood tall over them both in the end, which worked well enough. But, this story has been so bad since the start that I still feel that damage is being done to all of them, particularly Ripley and Bel Air.
(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.)
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