Powell’s WWE Raw Hit List: Bronson Reed vs. Braun Strowman in a Last Monster Standing match, Gunther and Sami Zayn, CM Punk and Drew McIntyre, Kofi Kingston vs. Chad Gable

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

WWE Raw Hits

Bronson Reed vs. Braun Strowman in a Last Monster Standing match: WWE did a terrific job with the presentation of this match. There were some contrived spots, but the match was built up to be a spectacle and it delivered. Strowman going over was surprising, but the Seth Rollins interference was more than enough to give Reed an out for losing. Plus, they can run this back at some point when they are ready to go with a clean finish.

Gunther and Sami Zayn: A top notch verbal exchange. Zayn finally got to Gunther by getting him to talk about his father’s disappointment in seeing him lose at WrestleMania. It was surprising when the title match announced for Raw rather than Bad Blood. They are giving away some big matches on television lately and yet they can afford to with the five-match premium live event approach. The only negative was the backstage segment with Bron Breakker eyeing up Gunther’s championship and seemingly foreshadowing a title match between the two of them. Is there a storyline reason why that segment couldn’t have waited until after Gunther vs. Zayn?

CM Punk and Drew McIntyre: The usual strong intensity from both men heading into the Hell in a Cell match. Punk and McIntyre have done a terrific job of getting over their disdain for one another while also building up HIAC to be a brutal feud ending match. The previous creative regime lost their way with HIAC matches. It feels like the Paul Levesque led crew is committed to rebuilding HIAC as the ultimate blowoff match that it should be.

Kofi Kingston vs. Chad Gable: An enjoyable match with a clever finish that saw Xavier Woods attempt to trip Gable, causing Kingston to crash and burn when he went for his Trouble In Paradise finisher. I’m not sure what kind of audibles they’ve had to call creatively due to Odyssey Jones being released, but they seem to be on course now with Woods doing heelish things while maintaining plausible deniability.

Dominik Mysterio, JD McDonagh, and Carlito vs. Dragon Lee, Joaquin Wilde, and Cruz Del Toro: The crowd didn’t seem all that excited to see the LWO trio during the entrances, but the match eventually won over the crowd. The angle that followed involving Finn Balor, Damian Priest, and Rhea Ripley was solid in terms of adding more heat to the heels heading into Bad Blood.

“AOP” Akam and Rezar vs. The Miz and R-Truth: A soft Hit for Miz turning on Truth. AOP continue to feel wasted. Then again, so do most of the Raw tag teams.

WWE Raw Misses

Zoey Stark vs. Lyra Valkyria: A pointless match. It concluded with the usual Pure Fusion Collective distraction and interference. As tired as that finish has already become, it would have been fine if they would have left it alone and simply put heat on the heels. Rather, they had Kayden Carter and Katana Chance run out and help Valkyrie get the better of the heels, which eliminated the heat and left me wondering why the Carter and Chance characters weren’t in Valkyria’s corner in the first place. I’m tough on the Raw women’s matches because I simply want the division to be booked better. The Liv Morgan and Rhea Ripley feud won’t last forever and yet it doesn’t seem like the creative team is building up the next challenger for the Women’s World Championship.

Rey Mysterio vs. Xavier Woods: A minor Miss. There have been plenty of times when I’ve noted that a match was Hit worthy and it landed in the Miss section due to a bad finish. This is a rare case of the finish working and the match not living up to expectations. Rey dropkicked the ropes when he was aiming for Woods at ringside, and then there was the late stumble when they were setting up the finish. But the actual finish of Woods snatching the mask of Mysterio, showing remorse for a second, and then rolling him up and pinning him was perfect for this incarnation of the Woods character.