Powell’s WWE Raw Hit List: Damian Priest vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus in a Triple Threat for the U.S. Championship, Randy Orton and Riddle vs. Bobby Lashley and MVP for the Raw Tag Titles, Raw Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair vs. Nia Jax in a non-title match

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

WWE Raw Hits

Damian Priest vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Sheamus in a Triple Threat for the U.S. Championship: A terrific match and the best Raw television match in quite some time. The wrestlers had over 20 minutes to fill and they came through with a match that had no dull moments. The thing that really put it over the top was Priest actually pinning McIntyre rather than getting his expected win over Sheamus. McIntyre doesn’t take many clean losses, so it really meant something when Priest pinned him clean.

Randy Orton and Riddle vs. Bobby Lashley and MVP for the Raw Tag Titles: A good main event with the expected outcome of MVP taking loss for his team. RKBro continues to be the hottest act on the Raw brand. I’m not sure how long it will last if only because they will run out of compelling opponents quickly, but WWE is doing a good job of showcasing them in the meantime.

Rhea Ripley vs. Shayna Baszler: It was frustrating that this match felt rather meaningless when you consider just how over both women were at their peaks in NXT. Putting that aside, they worked an entertaining match with Baszler targeting the hand of Ripley in a compelling manner. Ripley needs to get away from Nikki ASH soon. It’s been fine so far, but Ripley’s character is going to lose her edge if she continues to be paired with the kid friendly character.

The Viking Raiders vs. Jinder Mahal and Veer: A soft Hit for the right team going over and getting the surprising pin over Mahal rather than his henchmen tag partner. Mahal is in a bad place right now with this loss coming off of his surprisingly brief loss to Drew McIntyre at SummerSlam. Meanwhile, I want to like the Viking Raiders, but their fake voice promos and their jolly cartoon characters make it really difficult.

WWE Raw Misses

Raw Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair vs. Nia Jax in a non-title match: This was a poor match and it seemed like they wanted to convince viewers that there was legit tension between them. None of this made me want to see them meet again even though Jax pinning Flair means they will. The Raw women’s division has been so poorly booked that none of its wrestlers feel like they are anywhere close to being as over as they should be. They have done such a bad job with the babyfaces that now we’re getting this confusing feud between two heels.

AJ Styles vs. Xavier Woods: A Hit if we were only looking at match quality, but both characters feel cold. Woods got that upset win over Lashley that went nowhere and now he’s doing a tribute to Razor Ramon via his ring gear for no apparent reason. Styles is always a meaningful win away from heating up again. Here’s hoping that he’ll get another babyface run once his pairing with Omos runs its course.

Omos vs. John Morrison: I would complain about Morrison losing his first match as a babyface, but he lost me the moment he revealed that he wasn’t changing anything about his act. He’s still doing the moist and drip nonsense and even brought the bucket containing a drip stick to the ring with him. There are times when it’s wise not to change much about a wrestler when he turns babyface. In this case, Morrison desperately needs a shakeup, but they don’t appear to be changing anything about his act.

Karrion Kross vs. Humberto Carrillo: Gladiator Kross is winning forgettable matches and getting very little crowd response. His NXT act wasn’t perfect, but it was a hell of a lot better than this. Where is Scarlett?

Eva Marie vs. Doudrop: A feud that just needs to end. It’s hilarious that WWE finally advertised three matches a week in advance and this match that never officially started is as close as they came to delivering any of those matches.