Powell’s WWE Raw Hit List: Finn Balor and JD McDonagh vs. The War Raiders for the World Tag Team Titles, Bron Breakker vs. Ludwig Kaiser for the Intercontinental Title

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

WWE Raw Hits

CM Punk and Seth Rollins: Good mic work from both men before a big pull apart brawl. This is one of the most interesting feuds in WWE. Both wrestlers are playing to the fans, and nothing has happened yet with the creative approach nudge fans to choose one wrestler over the other. They seem to be leaving it up to the fans to decide who to root for, at least heading into their first match. My guess is that Rollins is ultimately going to turn and perhaps even align with Drew McIntyre. Yes, McIntyre was shown walking quickly toward Rollins when Sami Zayn cut him off during a backstage segment, but that doesn’t mean the McIntyre character was going to attack Rollins.

Finn Balor and JD McDonagh vs. “The War Raiders” Erik and Ivar for the World Tag Team Titles: A feel good win for the War Raiders. I hope we see more of the Erik and Ivar that were featured in the promo video package. I also hope this leads to creative doing more with the tag team division on Raw. The fact that Balor and McDonagh defended the titles just three times in 175 days shows how low of a priority the division has been on Monday nights. The red hot heel turn of Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods may change things. In fact, one can’t help but wonder if the War Raiders are going to be transitional champions used to get the belts on the New Day duo in the near future.

Bron Breakker vs. Ludwig Kaiser for the Intercontinental Title: A good opening match that was given plenty of time. They spent a good portion of that time having Kaiser target Breakker’s shoulder. As much as Breakker sold the injury, there was no reason to buy into the possibility of Kaiser actually winning the match. Even so, the match was enjoyable both wrestlers should be meaningful players in WWE for years to come.

WWE Raw Misses

Zoey Stark vs. Kayden Carter vs. Raquel Rodriguez in a Women’s Intercontinental Title tournament: Stark’s Z360 finisher on Carter was completely botched to the point that I remain surprised they didn’t try the move again. Rodriguez was kept out of the finish and that’s fine, but her run as Liv Morgan’s muscle has been underwhelming. Rodriguez could have been positioned as a badass for an eventual showdown with Rhea Ripley. Rather, she’s been booked to be a threat to interfere in Morgan’s matches, but she hasn’t received the alpha female push.

Alpha Academy, R-Truth and Pete Dunne, and American Made backstage segment: This was a tough backstage segment to watch. Dunne continuing to take offense over being called Butch is basic nonsense. The most irritating part of this was the weekly reminder of American Made being a faction of goofballs. Chad Gable did a really nice job when he ditched most of the comedy while pursuing the Intercontinental Title. His departure from Alpha Academy was fun and I was excited when he joined forces with Julius Creed, Brutus Creed, and Ivy Nile. Sadly, Gable is back to playing Kurt Angle Lite and the men in the faction are presented as comedy goofballs.

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Readers Comments (2)

  1. “Alpha Academy, R-Truth and Pete Dunne, and American Made backstage segment”

    I hope everyone in that segment (except Truth) has their resume updated for 2025

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