Powell’s WWE Raw Hit List: Bron Breakker vs. Sami Zayn in a best of three falls match for the Intercontinental Title, Damage CTRL vs. Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark for a shot at the WWE Women’s Tag Titles

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

WWE Raw Hits

Bron Breakker vs. Sami Zayn in a best of three falls match for the Intercontinental Title: The show closed on a high note with Breakker beating Zayn two falls to one to retain his newly won championship. Ideally, the match would have had more time, but they did a good job of putting some space between the falls. More importantly, none of the falls felt as forced as they often do during televised best of three falls matches. The spot with Breakker lawn darting Zayn into the back wall of the timekeepers area was tremendous.

Rhea Ripley, Dominik Mysterio, and Liv Morgan opening segment: Ripley cut a believable promo while playing a bit of an unfamiliar soap opera style role as the jilted lover. Dom and Liv generated great heat with their promo from the crowd, and Damian Priest showing up behind the new couple made for a cool shot. The mixed tag match is a strong addition to the Bash in Berlin card.

Gunther and Randy Orton: Another quality verbal exchange between the champion and his first challenger. I love the way Gunther sings the praises of his adversaries before he sticks the proverbial knife in. Orton had a good comeback and his character kept his cool until Gunther insulted his father and grandfather. Drew McIntyre coming out only to be attacked by CM Punk in what seemed to a setup for a strap match was nicely done.

Damian Priest vs. Carlito: Priest is really clicking as a babyface. The fans have been hot for him and he appears more confident than ever. It was nice to see him get a win as opposed to having the Judgment Day members run in for another DQ finish. If the company plays this right, the occasional pairing of Priest and Ripley could be a draw for years to come.

Julius Creed and Brutus Creed vs. Akira Tozawa and Otis in a Texas Tornado tag match: This exceeded my expectations. Otis is arguably the most popular mid-card act in the company, so it was no surprise to see the crowd get behind him. Tozawa also got the crowd behind him with some good babyface work. Ivy Nile attacking Maxxine Durpi was easy to see coming and yet it was also the right move, as Nile adds something to the Creeds act.

Bronson Reed vs. The Miz: The actual match went a little longer and felt more competitive than necessary. Fortunately, the post match angle more than made it up for it with Reed destroying R-Truth with another series of Tsunami splashes. The attack on R-Truth made for a memorable follow-up to Reed destroying Seth Rollins last week.

Odyssey Jones, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods: The New Day act has been running on fumes for quite some time, but the story with Woods being annoyed by Kingston’s friendship with Jones is intriguing. It’s still hard to imagine Woods joining the Final Testament, but I’m curious to see where this goes.

Iyo Sky and Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark for a shot at the WWE Women’s Tag Titles: A soft Hit. There were a couple of rough moments, but the match was more good than bad. This was the most over Damage CTRL have been since they became babyfaces without any explanation. Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn causing the no-contest to make next week’s match a three-way was solid. It beat the usual approach of champions interfering in a No. 1 contenders match and then acting the only people in the world who think it will get them out of defending their titles. The Pure Fusion Collective? Yikes.

WWE Raw Misses

Recap video of Bronson Reed attacking Seth Rollins: I could have done without the silliness of the broadcast team comparing the impact of Reed’s six Tsunami splashes to being splashed by 50 kangaroos. It was a cute gag that fit McAfee’s on-air personality, but it felt really out of place to lighten the mood when the focus should have been entirely on putting over the severity of Reed’s attack on Rollins. Overall, though, this was an enjoyable show. WWE is doing a terrific job of filling all three hours of Raw without resorting to a bunch of filler. Every match and segment serve a purpose beyond just filling time.