By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
CM Punk and Seth Rollins: The show closed with an excellent verbal exchange that gave a final push for next week’s showdown match. It was interesting to hear Punk go from making comments that felt personal to working in storyline points such as Rollins turning on Roman Reigns. Punk delivered arguably his best mic work since returning to WWE and hit hard in response to being accused of taking his ball and going home. Rollins’ getting so worked up over being ghosted a decade ago feels rather petty, but his zinger about Punk working for the competition was one of the most memorable lines of the segment.
Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods: The New Day duo continues to draw great heat. They may have actually surpassed Dominik Mysterio as the act the fans love to hate.
Lyra Valkyria vs. Iyo Sky in a Women’s Intercontinental Title tournament semifinal match: The best match of the night. Joe Tessitore did a really nice job of positioning this as an upset even though Valkyria actually beat Sky in the Queen of the Ring tournament back in May.
Chad Gable vs. Otis: Gable did a fine job of carrying Otis to one of his better matches. It’s a shame they didn’t hold this match before fan interest in the feud waned.
Damian Priest, Ivar, and Erik vs. Finn Balor, Dominik Mysterio, and JD McDonagh: A fine six-man tag with a crowd pleasing win for the babyface trio. Balor attacking Priest after the match was a groaner. They really need to get to the blowoff match of this tired feud. In fact, I’m all for this version of Judgment Day being split up via the transfer window. Speaking of which, it’s odd that the broadcast team has pulled way back on pushing the transfer window period. I guess it’s hard to find time to promote anything when you have to plug Raw moving to Netflix repeatedly. Hey, did you know that Smackdown is staying on USA Network or did you miss what felt like 700 plugs?
WWE Raw Misses
Dakota Kai vs. Zoey Stark in a Women’s Intercontinental Title tournament semifinal match: A soft Miss. The match was fine until the clunky finish. The Women’s Intercontinental Title tournament has had some good matches, but it doesn’t feel like fans are rallying behind anyone in particular like they did Chelsea Green in the Women’s U.S. Title tournament.
I didn’t realize AEW was competition.
“And then you took a big chunk of change to go join the competition. How’d that work out for you?” – Seth Rollins
Seems like part of the point is that AEW literally isn’t competition and is a dysfunctional wasteland.
And my point in running the quote was don’t shoot the messenger when it was literally said on WWE television.
They are the number two promotion in the country, so by definition that makes them ‘the’ competition. Whether they are a good competitor is a completely different question altogether.
The UFL is the #2 professional football league in the country, too. /jk
The NCAA is the #2 pro football league. And only by a slim margin.
AEW is competition I suppose,but they’re the weakest of all competitors..