Powell’s WWE Raw Hit List: Jey Uso and Gunther, Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley, plus CM Punk vs. Sami Zayn, and Iyo Sky vs. Liv Morgan in Elimination Chamber qualifying matches

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

WWE Raw Hits

Jey Uso and Gunther: Jey’s first appearance since winning the Royal Rumble was truly memorable. The enthusiastic live crowd’s reaction to him was superb, and seeing Jey’s emotional reaction made for a really nice moment. Gunther crashing the party was perfect. I love that Gunther said he doesn’t want Jey to challenge at WrestleMania because beating Jey again does nothing for his legacy. Jey getting the last word and stating that no matter who he chooses, he’s walking out of WrestleMania as world champion was a good way to show that his character is brimming with confidence.

CM Punk vs. Sami Zayn in an Elimination Chamber qualifying match: A hot main event with some really good back and forth action. It was hard to imagine Punk not qualifying for the Chamber match, but I couldn’t rule out anything after watching Jey win the Rumble two nights earlier. I didn’t see the post match angle coming. Zayn mistakenly hit Seth Rollins and Cody Rhodes with Helluva Kicks, and then he took an inadvertent superkick from Jey that ended up eliminating him from the Royal Rumble. I was ready for Zayn to be hypocritical about the situation while en route to a heel turn. In fact, even Jey explained himself and Sami shrugged it off, I was still waiting for Zayn to show some sign that he was more annoyed than he was letting on. Rather, Kevin Owens attacked Zayn and then put him down with a package piledriver. Some rivalries never die. I’ve heard a lot of grumbling from fans who don’t want to see another Owens vs. Zayn match. To each their own, but I feel like enough time has passed to revisit the feud. And no one should be the least bit surprised if their excellent mic work ends up winning over a lot of people who are currently sour on the idea of another Owens vs. Zayn feud.

Iyo Sky vs. Liv Morgan in an Elimination Chamber qualifying match: A well worked match and a DQ finish that felt like it served a storyline purpose. Rhea Ripley going after Raquel Rodriguez at ringside was set up by Morgan and Rodriguez attacking Ripley and Sky backstage. Ripley getting worked up and impulsively striking Morgan for the DQ creates an interesting dynamic between the Women’s World Champion and Sky. I could have done without Sky’s child-like reaction when Ripley tried to explain herself, but I am curious to see what comes next between the two of them.

Penta vs. Ludwig Kaiser: A nice match with the expected outcome of Penta going over clean. I would really like to see Kaiser get a meaningful singles push, but the company is clearly behind Penta. It will be interesting to see if Pete Dunne’s post match distraction that allowed Kaiser hit Penta from behind was a sign of an alliance between the two heels or if they are just temporarily bonding over their mutual dislike of Penta.

“New Day” Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods vs. Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee: Thumbs up for New Day’s fresh entrance. Kingston and Woods took singles losses to Rey, but they were wisely given the win in this tag team match. The New Day duo have great heat and should be positioned as one of the top teams on Raw. The interference by Logan Paul softened the blow for Mysterio and Lee taking the loss while also adding a little juice to next week’s Elimination Chamber match qualifier between Paul vs. Mysterio.

WWE Raw Misses

Charlotte Flair’s post Royal Rumble win appearance: Charlotte returns after a long layoff, is thrust right back into the world title picture, and the fans resent her for it. We’ve seen this happen before and yet for some reason the company just keeps repeating the same mistake. Coming off a long layoff from major knee surgery, this felt like the right time to humanize Charlotte. And maybe that was the idea given that she spoke about how tough the last year has been for her. But the damage had already been done. First, they showed her living the good life on a yacht in those video packages that set up her return, and then she immediately won the Rumble and returned to prominence, skipping right past any of the obstacles or setbacks that make great comeback stories so compelling. Ultimately, Flair is going to be fine. She’s a good heel, a tremendous wrestler, and company officials will always push her to the moon. It’s just a shame that the approach they took will probably lead to the return of the robotic royalty version of The Queen as opposed to something fresh. On the bright side, the showdown with Rhea Ripley was intense and left me looking forward to their potential WrestleMania rubber match.