By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar promos: The guy who the company seemed afraid to give a WrestleMania go-home promo to as a babyface delivered a great WrestleMania go-home promo as a heel. It really is astonishing in retrospect that WWE officials worked so hard to protect Reigns by scripting his promos or by limiting his mic time throughout his babyface run. Reigns has proven to be a terrific talker throughout his heel run and this was no exception. Meanwhile, Lesnar has done great work throughout the build to the WrestleMania main event, but his promo left something to be desired. As much fun as playful Brock has been, it felt like he needed to flip the switch into serious mode. That said, I got a kick out of the way he leaned into the “What?” chants that have thrown off many others, and it was a decent promo overall.
Kevin Owens: There was just no way that Owens could top the “Stone Cold” spoof from last week, but he delivered a top notch heel promo. With the exception of a brief video from Steve Austin, Owens has done a brilliant job of setting the table for their KO Show segment all by himself. How can you not want to see Austin open a can of whoop-ass on the Owens character?
Bianca Belair cuts Becky Lynch’s hair: This angle felt backwards in that the heel champion cutting the hair of the babyface challenger would have put strong heat on Lynch heading into the match. The less conventional approach didn’t make me want to see Belair win the championship any more than I did going into last night’s Raw, but it still left me anxious to see how Lynch will react and what comes next between the two.
Raw Tag Champions Randy Orton and Riddle vs. Smackdown Tag Champions Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso: An enjoyable match that you had to know would conclude with a cheap finish. The Street Profits interfering to end the match was better than having Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs get involved after watching the entire match at ringside. Unfortunately, the post match angle with Orton and Riddle destroying Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins left me feeling numb about the Triple Threat for the Raw Tag Titles. The match looks really good on paper, but the build to it has made both challenging teams look weak.
Edge and AJ Styles: As rushed as the Edge turn has been, both men delivered quality final promos ahead of their WrestleMania match.
WWE Raw Misses
Sasha Banks, Naomi, Rhea Ripley, and Liv Morgan vs. Queen Zelina, Carmella, Natalya, and Shayna Baszler: A rough match built around the pettiness of Zelina and Carmella. I assume the four-way tag team match at WrestleMania will be better than this, but the build to the match hasn’t done anything to make me care about which team walks away with the tag titles.
Intercontinental Champion Ricochet vs. Austin Theory in a non-title match: That’s three losses on the last two television shows for the new Intercontinental Champion. Ricochet is such a weak champion that pinning him clean didn’t even give Theory a boost.
Omos vs. The Viking Raiders in a handicap match: It’s hard not to wonder if we’ll be seeing the return of War Machine outside of WWE at some point in the near future. On the bright side, Bobby Lashley’s return went well and it was interesting that he was not accompanied by MVP, who was shown in the WrestleMania match graphic. I continue to wonder if Lashley will be a babyface going forward, freeing up MVP to become the mouthpiece for Omos.
Drew McIntyre vs. Happy Corbin and Madcap Moss in a handicap match: McIntyre can’t beat Happy Corbin quickly enough this weekend. There is some hope in that Moss’s latest jokes have upset Corbin, so hopefully that will lead to the end of “Happy” and “Madcap” and we’ll get a Baron Corbin vs. Riddick Moss feud coming out of WrestleMania. More than anything, I hope McIntyre ends up in something more meaningful post Mania and has a better spot on next year’s card.
Rey Mysterio vs. The Miz: The bulk of the heat in this feud has been placed on Miz, and yet we strangely saw the Mysterios get their revenge on him with the double 619 and back to back frog splashes. Rey even took his mask back just a week after Miz stole it. It’s clear that the payoff will be Rey and Dominik hitting the double 619 on Logan Paul, who just hasn’t generated any more heat though the storytelling than he had when this feud first started.
Brock’s promo was decent? He leaned into the What chants, and the moment he told the crowd that was enough they stopped.
This show, which was a B/B+ caliber show, and has 2/3 of the poll votes between A and C, has as many misses as hits? The bias here is unbelievable sometimes. Even the obviously pro AEW/Japan/Indie voters here liked the show quite a bit.
That Omos segment, where he beat up the fat indie jobbers and then Lashley took him down, was excellent. The Mysterios vs Miz and Logan Paul stuff has been classic pro wrestling heat building and the payoff is Logan Paul getting the double 619, not the Miz.
This is just ridiculously out of touch with real pro wrestling fans and not dirtsheet smarks.
Always a bias. It’s never “he liked something more or less than I did.” Are you ever going to grow up and realize that your opinion isn’t gospel? The show was solid. I’ve said/written a million times that the Hit List isn’t always a good barometer of whether a show was good on not. The big stuff mostly worked. The little stuff didn’t do it for me. The big ticket items are obviously more important and tend to determine the success of a show. But keep crying because I didn’t see things exactly the way you did.
He is clearly biased Jason, but I do think the point about AEW is valid. I don’t think there has ever been an episode of Dynamite where you gave more misses than hits. This in spite of the fact that most Dynamite shows have 3 or 4 segments that are dreadful by most standards wrestling has ever been judged on.
WWE has a far worse product than AEW on the whole, but is it really true that almost every episode of Dynamite ever has contained more good than bad?
I call each show as I see it regardless of the banner. I don’t count hits and misses with the goal of balancing everything out to please tribalistic fans. If I did, then you wouldn’t be getting my honest takes on the shows. So if a show gets more hits from me than you would give it, then that simply means I enjoyed that episode more than you did.
We all have different tastes and I couldn’t care less about which company is producing a show. I have to review them all so I hope they are all great. Meanwhile, I also have a member of the site who is on my case about being too kind to WWE and being too critical of AEW. I’ve told him the same thing I’m telling you. Long story short, I’m true to myself. I can’t please everyone, nor do I try.
I can’t figure it out with the Viking Raiders. I get it that Vince hasn’t featured tag teams in a meaningful manner in almost 20 years aside from when the belts first got unified in 2010 or so with Jericho and Big Show, but the Viking Raiders are just the whole package Vince would like with their size and look, it is just disappointing.
Vince was never not going to look at those guys and turn them into comedy viking parodies. Big beards are funny, pal!
Here’s something the so called “Greatest One” can chew one. I used to be a devoted fan. I would be so excited for this time of year. I would absorb both Raw and SD. Now? I couldn’t care less. I (that’s me – my opinion) am NOT excited for this year’s WM in the least. Their product is boring. We have been watching almost the same show since before the Elimination Chamber. Same people in the same feuds slowly burning to get to this elaborate show.
This will be the year I tape WM and forward through the fluff. I simply don’t care for what they are putting out no matter who tries to shove their opinion down my throat.
Know what I look forward to? Wednesday nights. Why? They are keeping ME entertained.
And no, I’m not going to respond to any of his BS and his cries for bias after posting this. They have lost ME as a viewer because I (again, this is ME…and individual that can make up my own mind) find their product to be absolutely boring now.
Here’s a tip: Like what you like, but quit jumping down other’s throats because they don’t have the same OPINION as you.
Ruddiger – Agreed! I have not watched one second of WWE programming in 3 years. I follow along via this website. I don’t watch the shows then trash the product. I just don’t watch it. But he is angry, and mentally ill.