Powell’s WWE Raw Hit List: The Shield vs. AOP and Baron Corbin, Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler vs. The Revival for the Raw Tag Titles, The Bella Twins and Natalya vs. Riott Squad

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

WWE Raw Hits

The Shield vs. AOP and Baron Corbin: Creative did a really nice job of giving viewers hooks continue watching throughout the show to see which wrestlers would team with Corbin, and whether Dean Ambrose would remain loyal to Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins. It was encouraging to see the AOP featured prominently and, more importantly, protected in this main event. Will Corbin be punished by Stephanie McMahon for being pinned in this main event or will that be forgotten next week?

Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler vs. The Revival for the Raw Tag Titles: A good tag match that managed to get the live crowd to care despite it being a battle of two heel tag teams. Here’s hoping the underutilized Revival will benefit from their strong performance. Sure, Dash Wilder fell during the Fameasser spot, but they have consistently proven that they are an elite team and hopefully this wasn’t a one and done for them in the tag title picture. Kudos to the way McIntyre continues to be showcased and protected while Ziggler is taking the near falls for his team.

Nia Jax vs. Alicia Fox: A minor Hit for a dominant, showcase win for Jax.

Bobby Lashley vs. Elias: A minor Hit for the work of Lashley and Elias. The match was entertaining despite the weak DQ finish. I continue to keep an open mind about the Lashley and Lio Rush pairing even though I can’t help but feel like it would work better if they were cast as heels. Perhaps Rush will win over the fans with his acrobatic offense when the time comes for him to get in the ring.

WWE Raw Misses

Natalya, Brie Bella, and Nikki Bella vs. Riott Squad: The Miss is all about the kicks that injured Liv Morgan and the fact that she was allowed to take part in the triple suplex spot before they got her out of the ring. This has been run into the ground already so I’m not going to pile on here aside from noting that the company obviously needs to make sure their talent doesn’t continue matches when they are in no position to do so medically, and Brie needs to improve or stop performing her husband’s moves if she can’t pull them off safely. On the plus side, Ruby Riott checked in for Morgan and did a nice job of getting the match back on track rather than let it spiral out of control.

Finn Balor vs. Jinder Mahal: There was nothing wrong with the match in general, but there’s a huge gap between The Shield, Braun Strowman, Drew McIntyre, and Dolph Ziggler and the rest of the male singles wrestlers. All the titles tied up with the two groups and every other male singles act is spinning their wheels in what feel like pointless feuds.

Chad Gable vs. Konnor: Gable was showing some signs of momentum in recent weeks despite his oddball gimmick of being more excited by Bobby Roode’s tired Glorious act than perhaps anyone else in the world. Creative stopped it in its tracks by having him lose to one half of a team that never wins.