Powell’s WWE Raw Hit List: Braun Strowman vs. Big Show in a cage match, Roman Reigns and John Cena, The Miz vs. Jeff Hardy for the Intercontinental Title, Finn Balor and Bray Wyatt

By Jason Powell

WWE Raw Hits

Braun Strowman vs. Big Show in a cage match: The super heavyweights delivered again. The match was entertaining even though the outcome felt obvious from the start given that Strowman will be challenging for the WWE Universal Championship at No Mercy. Even so, they more than held the crowd’s interest and delivered the big crowd pleasing spot after the match with Strowman throwing Show through one of the cage panels. If the time is ever right, it would be cool to see Show get a win over Strowman with the plan of doing more between these two.

Roman Reigns and John Cena: This felt like the greatest hits version of their verbal exchange from last week. They fired off their best insults the week before and really didn’t have much new ammunition to work with. Even so, it felt like must see television and the most important segment of the night.

The Miz vs. Jeff Hardy for the Intercontinental Title: A fresh and fun match with Jeff getting the title shot following his battle royal win last week. This felt like a big win for Miz. It was nice to see him pin someone of Jeff’s stature with only minimal outside interference (Maryse shaking his arm, leading to Miz rolling out of the way of the Swanton). Miz slipped back into “he’ll only win if he cheats” mode since returning to Raw, but this was a step toward him regaining some of the credibility he established in the ring on Smackdown. Meanwhile, Jeff loses nothing here and simply slides back into the tag team scene with Matt Hardy.

John Cena vs. Jason Jordan: A minor Hit for the match quality. Jordan benefitted from the match to some degree, but there’s still no indication the fans actually care about his character. He does well in the ring, but his nice guy babyface persona is just too vanilla. And while I liked the attempt to tie in Cena’s match with Jordan’s storyline father, I don’t get the sense that anyone really buys into the idea that he’s Kurt Angle’s long lost son. Here’s hoping that creative will find a way to give Jordan an edge or are working toward a heel turn.

Alexa Bliss and Sasha Banks vs. Nia Jax and Emma: A minor Hit for the move to a four-way match rather than the previously advertised Bliss vs. Banks rematch. It’s hard not to feel bad for Banks in that her character can’t successfully defend the Raw Women’s Championship, and she followed up her title loss last week with another loss in this match. Is Emma in the four-way to do the job or will she be the latest wrestler to essentially come out of nowhere from a storyline standpoint to take the title? My guess is the former given that they have played hot potato with the title lately.

WWE Raw Misses

No hype for next week’s Raw: Raw has done a better job in recent months of advertising matches a week out. However, it was downright baffling that the company didn’t bother to advertise anything for next week’s show given that it will be opposed by the annual ESPN Monday Night Football doubleheader. Granted, they can always advertise matches online this week, but surely it’s more effective to promote directly to the Raw viewing audience and then follow up with a strong online push. Is this a product of the creative team simply not having anything planned for next week yet or a sign that WWE intends to roll over and play dead while opposed by the NFL’s return?

Finn Balor and Bray Wyatt: It continues to feel backwards that we saw Balor’s Demon persona emerge and defeat Wyatt at SummerSlam, yet that was not the feud ending match. Balor actually summed it up too well when he described Wyatt as a guy you never truly beat. In other words, even if a babyface beats Wyatt, his feuds always feel like they drag on.

Enzo Amore, Gran Metalik, and Cedric Alexander vs. Noam Dar, Tony Nese, and Drew Gulak: Enzo’s mic work felt like it went on forever and it’s very hard to take the heel trio seriously, as Nese and Gulak have played the role of enhancement wrestlers in the cruiserweight division for too long. And why are fans supposed to enjoy Enzo cheating to win matches? It worked for Eddie Guerrero back in the day, but one can only hope that there will be more creativity shown with Enzo’s cheating than we’ve seen so far. On a positive note, I liked the announcement of the five-way elimination match for tonight’s 205 Live show. The previous five-way elimination matches stand out as some of the better 205 Live main events.

Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose vs. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson: Not a bad match, but it’s sad to see Gallows and Anderson be cemented as glorified enhancement wrestlers by losing to the tag champs and then being manhandled by Sheamus and Cesaro afterward.

Sheamus and Cesaro vs. Rhyno and Heath Slater: More of an in the middle moment for the showcase win for Sheamus and Cesaro heading into their tag title match with Ambrose and Rollins. There was nothing really wrong with it, yet nothing particularly memorable about it either.