By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
Seth Rollins: A great promo. Rollins established that he understands why Cody Rhodes opted to face Roman Reigns at WrestleMania while also making it clear that he has Cody’s back. Rollins also did a fantastic job of laying out why Reigns is more dangerous than ever now that he is aligned with The Rock. The over the top Rollins act is fun and is over with the fans, but it really packs a punch when he drops the schtick and delivers straight forward promos.
Becky Lynch, Nia Jax, and Rhea Ripley: The husband and wife team of Rollins and Lynch stole the show with their mic work. Lynch’s promos have me anxious to see her challenge Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania before the match has even been made official. The “Bottoms Up” closing line was topped only by the gem about having to explain to her daughter why daddy wants to beat up Maui. Jax condescendingly acting moved by Lynch’s promo was solid, and I like that she once again got the better of Ripley heading into their match at the Elimination Chamber.
Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura: A desperately needed win for Nakamura while the distraction caused by Drew McIntyre gave Zayn an out for losing while also adding to their ongoing issues with one another. The post match angle with Cody Rhodes making the save served as good hype for his match with McIntyre.
Jey Uso, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods vs. “Imperium” Gunther, Ludwig Kaiser, and Giovanni Vinci: It’s rare to see Raw open with a lengthy match as opposed to a long promo segment. While I enjoy a good promo as much I enjoy a good match, it’s good to shake up the formula from time to time. I’m not sure why pinning Vinci in six-man tag team matches is enough to earn an Intercontinental Championship match these days. That said, I am looking forward to Uso challenging Gunther next week. Their title match didn’t get as much hype as past televised Gunther title matches despite Jey being one of his more high profile challengers. This left wondering if they went light on the hype because we’ll see more of an angle than actual match next week.
JD McDonagh vs. R-Truth: A soft Hit for McDonagh getting a rare clean win and Damian Priest putting his foot down when it comes to Truth’s antics. Truth acting like he is a member of Judgment Day was a lot of fun, but I like that they turned the page before the joke stopped being funny.
WWE Raw Misses
Cody Rhodes promo: There was nothing wrong with Cody’s delivery or even with what he said. The problem is what Cody didn’t say. I looked forward to this promo because I expected the creative forces to try to make sense of Cody originally telling Roman Reigns that he was coming for him, only not at WrestleMania. There was no explanation for why Cody originally chose to step aside for The Rock. Rather, Cody thanked the fans for saving his title shot, which makes no sense within the storyline universe because he won the Royal Rumble match and had the power to choose which title to challenge for. Zero effort was put in to make sense of this from a storyline perspective. The direction they chose won’t damage WrestleMania, but this is the type of lazy booking that I would have expected from Vince McMahon. I have come to expect more from Paul Levesque and his crew, so this was really disappointing.
Elimination Chamber qualifiers: Each qualifying matches was Hit worthy from a match quality standpoint. They landed in the Miss section because all three matches suffered greatly from predictability and that made the show drag.
Cody changing his mind isn’t complicated. He sai he talked to the Rock and he stepped aside. Then he talked to more people and he changed his mind. Hopefully this is dumbed down enough
Why did he change his mind? What happened? What did Rock say to make him think he should step aside? Did Rock’s character make a power play? There’s a lot they could have done with it.
If, say, in a week or two, people start hammering Cody about what exactly Rock whispered to him — that takes this from “plot hole miss” to “long-term genius.”
There is still time.
The Rock (whispers in Cody’s ear): “The Aristocrats”
The whole thing will wind up being a swerve with Rock and Rhodes in cahoots to take down the Roman empire once and for alllll…
I don’t think men qualify matches are predictable when it’s possible that Kross’ faction cost Lashley since Reed is Australian and may compete in his home country, AJ Styles may interfere and cost LA Knight after Knight cost him last week on Smackdown