By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
Sami Zayn vs. Chad Gable for the Intercontinental Title: A very good main event with the expected outcome of Zayn retaining in his home area. My only knock against the match was for the dangerous suplex that resulted in Gable taking a bump on his head. I really wish all pro wrestlers would pull back on the high risk suplex spots. Putting that aside, this was another match that benefitted from the performance of Zayn’s wife Khadijah, who always displays believable emotions whenever she is shown watching her husband’s matches from ringside. The post match angle was a gem. Gable was emotional after coming up short and yet he still shook Zayn’s hand and raised his arm. But the scene with Zayn celebrating with his family members was too much for Gable, who snapped and attacked Zayn. It’s a shame they didn’t have more time to show the crowd’s reaction to Gable’s turn, but it still came off well. It’s also worth mentioning that Gable was shown working out with Julius Creed and Brutus Creed earlier in the show. Little things like that tend to matter these days, and it’s led to a lot of speculation that Gable and the Creeds could form a new heel alliance.
Rhea Ripley forfeits the Women’s World Championship: No, that’s not the Hit. It’s a shame that Ripley is injured. The Hit is for the way it was handled with Ripley blaming Liv Morgan, who became a heel for injuring the most popular woman on the roster and then laughing about it. They turned a negative into a positive by setting up Morgan as the primary target for Ripley upon her return. As much as it sucks that Ripley has to miss time, the silver lining could be that this will give the company time to elevate a variety of fresh opponents while she’s away. There are times when a star suffers an injury and the fear is that the time away will cool them off. There should be no such concern for Ripley, who should be hotter than ever once she’s ready to return. On a side note, Damian Priest did a fine job of stepping up as the leader of Judgment Day in Ripley’s absence.
Jey Uso vs. Finn Balor: A solid win for Jey, who then escaped a Judgment Day attack by exiting through the concourse. It set up a contrived moment where Jey exited the arena and just so happened to find Sami Zayn standing outside staring at the building. Although this was way too convenient, I loved the production work and the great entrance that it set up for Zayn in his home market.
Sheamus vs. Ivar: It was great to see Sheamus back in the ring following a long injury layoff. It’s a shame that Sheamus’s return win came at the expense of Ivar, who is on the verge of challenging Oba Femi for the NXT North American Championship. I get that the main roster will always be more important than NXT, but it feels like the company has more than enough talent that they could have used someone else put over Sheamus.
Andrade vs. Dominik Mysterio: A soft Hit for a solid match, which served as further evidence that Andrade still has a weak connection with the fans. The Montreal crowd was fairly tame for Andrade’s offense despite the fact that he was working with the guy the fans love to hate. It doesn’t help that Andrade’s black mask entrance always seems to mean more to him than the average viewer.
Maxxine Dupri and Ivy Nile vs. Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell: This match achieved “in the middle” status simply because it forwarded their storyline. Admittedly, it doesn’t take much to make one of Raw’s random women’s tag team matches stand out. In this case, we learned that Hartwell is now following LeRae down the heel path. Shockingly, I assume this development will lead to more random women’s tag team matches on Raw.
WWE Raw Misses
Paul “Triple H” Levesque presents Awesome Truth the new World Tag Team Title belts: Did you know that it’s a new era in WWE? Just in case you missed all those times they mentioned it during WrestleMania and on last week’s television, Levesque was back on Raw to let you know. Let me guess, he’ll appear on Friday’s Smackdown for another title belt presentation and will then be at both nights of the draft? Levesque is doing a great job of heading up the creative team, but even as someone who is excited about the new era, his television appearances feel like overkill. But the real reason this segment fell in the Miss section was that it was a rare night when R-Truth’s comedy fell flat. I’m sure people will be quick to point out that it played in front of a predominantly French speaking crowd, but those fans didn’t seem to have any trouble following along with the other talking segments. On the bright side, the new tag team title belts look good and I like that the new names mesh with the other Raw championships. Now here’s hoping they don’t screw this up via the WWE Draft.
“DIY” Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa vs. Julius Creed and Brutus Creed vs. “New Day” Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods in a Triple Threat to become No. 1 contenders to the World Tag Team Titles: WWE has gone multi-person match crazy. They went with a four-way match to determine the first challenger for the World Heavyweight Championship. And then they had two Triple Threat matches on Smackdown to establish the No. 1 contender to the Undisputed WWE Championship. And they capped it off by holding this Triple Threat match involving three babyface tag teams to determine which team will challenge Awesome Truth for the tag team titles. Awesome Truth winning the tag titles was a cute moment at WrestleMania and yet they can’t get the belts off Miz and Truth soon enough. Gargano and Ciampa playing Regeneration X was barely cute for a week and really needs to stop.
Chelsea Green and Piper Niven vs. Kayden Carter and Katana Chance: This should have been the better of the two women’s tag team matches, but it received even less time than the first match and turned out to be forgettable. I wonder how many of these teams will survive the draft.
I disagree with the Ripley segment being a Hit, mainly because it’s a sign that they are still trying to make Liv Morgan a thing. I could imagine Vince and Johnny Ace getting a kick out of her “Naughty wittle girl” act, but I was hoping the new era would see her make away for someone more deserving.