WWE RAW HITS & MISSES (3/17): Cena-Cody a hit but with some caveats, Jey-Gunther latest angle, Balor vs. Breaker, Seth promo, Belair-Sky contract signing with Rhea

Cena – Rhodes – HIT: I still disagree with the plan to have John Cena face Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania. I also believe if the plan is to have Cena turn heel, do it at WM, joining The Rock because he’s desperate to win that 17th World Championship. This story doesn’t make sense. What if Cena lost in the Elimination Chamber? What if Cody had said yes to Rock? Why would Cena turn on the fans after they finally started loving him and not 10 years ago? So, the scripting doesn’t work for me at all. I am giving this opening segment a Hit, because I did like the performances from both Cena and Rhodes. When I look past the story, Cena’s performance was very good. Rhodes was even better. It was long, but it didn’t feel overly long. The crowd ate it up from start to finish. So it worked in the moment.

Kaiser vs. Penta – HIT: This was a good hardcore match between Ludwig Kaiser and Penta, to culminate their feud. Penta obviously was going to win, but that’s ok. He needed the win and he got it. The action was good throughout. I liked how Kaiser taunted Penta during the match, trying to force him to admit that he does have fear. They played into Penta’s Zero Miedo mentality as he fought back to win. I wasn’t a big fan of the Destroyer on the steel chair. That should end Kaiser’s career based on what they’ve done with Kevin Owen’s pile driver lately. At least Penta didn’t go for a pin at that point, so that Kaiser couldn’t kick out like I thought he would. Otherwise, I enjoyed the match. The interview afterwards with Penta declaring he would be going after the Intercontinental Title was very good too. Although apparently Dirty Dominic Mysterio doesn’t watch the show to know that happened (that line from Carlito was hilarious).

Nile vs. Kai – MISS: WWE announced this match ahead of time and talked up how it was a big rematch between Ivy Nile and Dakota Kai. They have a good match in them, but at 3 minutes long, this match didn’t have the time to add up to anything which was disappointing. It wasn’t bad, but it should have been given more time to develop before American Made and the LWO got involved to distract Nile and allow Kai to pick up the win.

Contract Signing – MISS: WWE has totally dropped the ball with Bianca Bel Air as the Royal Rumble winner. Everyone wanted to see the two big stars face each other at WM. Why does WWE keep making triple threat matches when singles matches would be better? I am a fan of Iyo Sky, but she doesn’t belong in the Title match at WM. What makes it even worse, is how bad Bel Air and particularly Rhea Ripley have been made to look. When the authority figure is telling Ripley that she’s a child, and he’s right, you have problems. The idea of her just adding her name to the contract is idiotic. At least that didn’t make her part of the match officially, but the fact that she thinks it should makes her stupid. Bel Air looks like a jerk, but maybe they are planning on her turning heel. I hope so, as she isn’t worthy of cheers now. Her story is already complicated due to the Jade Cargill vs. Naomi feud. Why muddy things up even more with Sky?

ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…

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Jey Uso – Gunther – HIT: I’m not sure that Jay Uso beating Austin Theory in 30 seconds was the best idea. But, Theory hasn’t been presented as a big deal, so I guess it is ok. The physicality afterwards was scary. Luckily Jay was ok after almost killing himself on the dive to the outside. The reason I’m giving this a Hit is that at some point, Uso had to get the better physically of Gunther, which finally happened here to make it look like he actually has a chance against him at WM. My other question is how does Cody feel when he hears the announcers questioning Jay’s decision to challenge Gunther at WM? If that was a mistake, that means they think he’d have an easier time beating Cody instead.

Mysterio & Lee vs. The Creeds – MISS: These two teams could have a great match together. They got 6 minutes, half of which was on the commercial, so we only saw 3 minutes of action. The Creeds continue to constantly lose. WWE could have had the American Luchador cost the LWO duo the match to give the Creeds at least a tainted victory. Instead, the attack came after the match which did nothing for the Creeds. I enjoy the gimmick, but Nile lost too. Give American Made some credibility at some point.

Rollins – MISS: This was one of the biggest nothing burgers in WWE history. Seth Rollins used a lot of words and said absolutely nothing. I don’t know how long the promo lasted, but it was far too long for him to basically say that he would be on Smackdown since Roman Reigns and CM Punk would both be there. Yay? Like the Women’s Title match, this is a match that should be a singles match, not a triple threat. Rollins should have been positioned as a heel after his actions at the Rumble, but he is still playing the same character, without any hint at being a heel. There was nothing to this promo to advance his character or the story.

Balor vs. Breakker – HIT: The Intercontinental Title match was a good main event. The wrestling action between Finn Balor and Bron Breakker was fun to watch. The attempts at interference from the rest of the Judgment Day worked to continue to build the tension between Mysterio and Balor. The attack on Breakker afterwards from Mysterio and Carlito worked well leading to the save from Penta. Where does this all go from here? Penta wants Breakker’s IC Title, but he helped him here. Dom wants Penta to join Judgment Day, but Balor doesn’t, and I’m assuming Penta has no interest either. We will likely get a tag match next week or the week after with Penta & Breakker vs. Balor & Mysterio which should be good. But, how will they pivot to Breakker vs. Penta, or will we get another multi-man Title 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 him on BlueSky @jonmezzera.bsky.social.)