By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
Cody Rhodes and Jey Uso vs. Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn for the Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles: I didn’t expect to see this match on Raw let alone have a clean finish. My only concern is that with Cody and Jey defending the tag titles against Damian Priest and Finn Balor next week, they could plow through their top competition less than two weeks after winning the titles. Of course, we’ll wait to see what they have in mind for next week’s match. We were also made to wait to hear Cody’s response to Michael Cole hitting him with tough questions about finishing his story. I am curious to see what this loss means for Owens and Zayn and their future as a team. I don’t think anyone is ready for another breakup and feud between the two, but I wonder if they will stick together or start doing more singles work.
Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre: It was nice to see a different approach to setting up a championship match with McIntyre acknowledging that he wanted the match, Rollins giving it to him, and not having any physicality between the two. This will be the biggest title defense that Rollins has had yet and I’m very intrigued by the evolving McIntyre character. It was an interesting development to show him talking with Rhea Ripley in the background and I’m curious to see where that goes.
Bronson Reed vs. Ricochet vs. Chad Gable in a Triple Threat for a shot at the Intercontinental Championship: A strong win for Reed to set up a surprising television match with Gunther. The battle of the big men is really appealing on paper and I’m surprised they didn’t save it for a PLE. I have been all for creative doing more with Gable, but it’s just so hard to take him seriously when he’s still doing the Alpha Academy schtick. Does he have it in him to become a more serious character without the silly catchphrases?
Ludwig Kaiser’s vignette: I’m all for the company doing more with the talented Kaiser. But I’m not sure if this was actually meant to be the start of a singles push given that he and Giovanni Vinci attacked Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa backstage to presumably spark a feud between the two teams. Either way, I wonder how the Gunther character will respond to Kaiser putting himself in the spotlight.
Ivar vs. Kofi Kingston in a Viking Rules match: Another enjoyable match from these two. It seems like the creative forces figured out it was a bad idea to have Kingston kick out of Ivar’s top rope moonsault, as they’ve positioned it as being a devastating finisher ever since then.
Nia Jax vs. Raquel Rodriguez: More of an in the middle. The match was nothing special and ended with interference, but the post match angle reestablished the ongoing issues between Jax, Rodriguez, Rhea Ripley, and Shayna Baszler. Is this leading to a four-way match? Where does Zoey Stark fit into this?
WWE Raw Misses
Becky Lynch vs. Tegan Nox for the NXT Women’s Championship: A Hit from a match quality standpoint, but Nox’s character is ice cold as proven by the non-reaction that her entrances are getting from live crowds. The video package was decent and established that she’s battled back from a pair of ACL surgeries, but they just haven’t established who Nox is beyond that. While I don’t mind Lynch bring her NXT Women’s Championship to Raw, I wonder if the company would be better off saving her actual title matches for NXT television. After all, her title defenses feel less special if she’s defending the championship on both shows.
Drew McIntyre vs. JD McDonagh: I’m not really sure what the point of the match was. Obviously, McIntyre picked up a win heading into his title match, but he really could have beaten a number of other wrestlers. In fact, when Rhea Ripley ordered McDonagh to take care of McIntyre, I assumed it was going to lead to a backstage attack rather than him being destroyed in a singles match. McDonagh strikes me as the type of heel whose clean losses should be infrequent. Much like Dominik Mysterio, some of the heat should come from fans being made to wait to see the character be put in his place as opposed to it being a regular occurrence. As it stands, it doesn’t actually do anything for a guy in McIntyre’s position to beat McDonagh.
>>This will be the biggest title defense that Rollins has had yet….<<|
Ummm…you're totally kidding, right?
AND PLEASE stop the autoplay. I've seen a ton of people complaining, so if you're not going to stop it, just say you're not going to disable it.
I already addressed it, Angry Mike. Pay better attention. And, yes, I feel confident that Drew McIntyre is stronger in the challenger role than Finn Balor or Shinsuke Nakamura. BTW, the staff and I really miss your weird ass fanatical emails.
Addressed it where? I know I have complained about it two weeks ago and the only response I witnessed were you stated and I am paraphrasing ” the webpage guy is looking into it”. This is an issue that could have been resolved within a week. It is very annoying, especially when one has scrolled halfway through an artice and then the crap starts playing. Auto-delay for the audio on purpose?
As annoying as the auto play is for the audio player I have seen in the comments threads multiple times where Jason has addressed this and it’s here to stay. Simply hit the play button three times to get it to stop once it starts. At least the pop ups on the mobile device is gone.
Click mute and it stops it.
CM Punk is coming right? We’re getting more and more White Rabbit-style Easter Eggs. While I am totally over Punk and his tired shtick, I am willing to see what HHH has in mind (and to see Punk soundly beaten by the Tribal Chief).
If I knew for sure it would be all over the main page. But my hunch (for whatever that’s worth) is that we will see him in WWE again. He has a relationship with the folks at Endeavor and he’s still a draw. Plus, he tried to mend fences when he briefly visited backstage in Chicago. Time heals all wounds. But I don’t think we’ll see him tonight with Connor Bedard debuting for his beloved Blackhawks!