By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
Asuka vs. Rhea Ripley: A hot main event that really should have been advertised before the show. They could have told the same story by simply placing an “earlier today” graphic ahead of the backstage segment that set up the match. Anyway, the match was a pleasant surprise. Unadvertised matches between stars typically have unsatisfying finishes or even no finish whatsoever. In this case, they had Ripley beat Asuka clean, knowing that Asuka would get her heat back after the match. The big post-match angle was great. Asuka was ruthless in attacking Ripley and then Iyo Sky, and Sane did a great job of acting reluctantly subservient to Asuka. As much as this will likely be about building to Asuka vs. Sky, it also solves the problem of creative seemingly struggling to find interesting things for Ripley to do.
Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins: Let’s get this out of the way. I can’t stand the idea of booking champion vs. champion matches annually at Crown Jewel. And I couldn’t care less about the Crown Jewel rings or even the absurdly expensive championship belts that the Saudis made for these counterproductive matches. Despite all that, I can still enjoy watching Cody vs. Seth. Their verbal exchange was strong, as they wisely made this more about their personal rivalry than being about the expensive trinkets or which champion is better.
LA Knight vs. Jey Uso: Jey won the match when he appeared to take advantage of LA Knight fighting off Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed. Afterward, Jey ignored his brother’s plea to return to the ring to save Knight from being attacked by Breakker and Reed. Jey also gave the WWE Championship belt a long look while Cody Rhodes spoke to him during a backstage segment. It’s wild to see Jey show all these signs of turning heel, yet also see him get unanimously cheered by everyone in the arena while he does his entrance routine, which includes pumping his arms with children. It’s hard to say where this darker version of Jey is going, but the ride has been fun thus far.
Bayley vs. Roxanne Perez: As much as I disliked the vignettes where viewers could hear Bayley’s inner dialogue, the character has been entertaining since then. It’s fun to see Bayley being over-the-top happy to start, only to snap into her Karen persona.
Rusev vs. JD McDonagh: A soft Hit. The match was entertaining and went longer than I anticipated, but the fans seemed confused by which heel to side with. It will be interesting to see if the fans pick sides next week when popular heel Rusev challenges popular heel Dominik Mysterio for the Intercontinental Title.
WWE Raw Misses
World Tag Team Titles: Finn Balor and JD McDonagh won these titles on June 30. Their first title defense was on July 28. Their last title defense was also on July 28. Meanwhile, Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed have wrestled eight tag team matches since the last time the World Tag Team Titles were defended. During this time, Breakker and Reed wrestled against Roman Reigns and Jey Uso, CM Punk and LA Knight, The War Raiders, Jey Uso and LA Knight, Jimmy Uso and LA Knight, Axiom and Nathan Frazer, and Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso. Reigns and Jey are the only team that beat them by pinfall or submission. So why didn’t the creative forces just have Breakker and Reed win the World Tag Team Titles after SummerSlam?
Penta, Erik, and Ivar vs. Kofi Kingston, Xavier Woods, and Grayson Waller in a No DQ match: While I’m not a fan of most WWE hardcore matches because they often feel tame and formulaic, the addition of the sponsored tables eliminates any sense of grittiness that this type of match should have. I’m not calling for gratuitous violence, which isn’t going to happen on a WWE show, but there’s just something about seeing advertising on a table that makes these matches feel corporate and soft.
(ProWrestling.net Editor Jason Powell has worked in journalism for 27 years, including as the Assistant Editor of PWTorch.com and as a Senior Editor at Fanball.com before launching ProWrestling.net on Feb. 11, 2008.)
While I get the business aspect of things and get why they try to sign up as much adverting as they can just like any other “sport” I completely agree with the sponsorship on tables. It makes it look almost like a cartoon and like you said, soft.
Re: Finn/JD/Dom; the post match heat between Finn and Dom also leads to interesting possibilities. I have really enjoyed Evil Finn and I hope he stays that way; i think Dom’s Judgement Day character has gotten stale and I’m also still intrigued about what happens when Liv gets back