By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
Oba Femi: The massive crowd reactions continued in Paris. Oba is a sensation who has quickly become the most over wrestler in the company. Only time will tell whether he has staying power, but he’s off to an amazing start. His latest promo was strong in terms of the dialogue and delivery. Dominik Mysterio’s interruption to set up their King of the Ring semifinal match was fun, especially when Dom asked, “How long you been here, rookie?” Oba all but guaranteed a King of the Ring win. Will it be that simple, or might Brock Lesnar’s character have other ideas?
Je’Von Evans vs. Seth Rollins vs. Talla Tonga vs. Ricky Saints in a King of the Ring match: A good main event with an upset winner. Here’s hoping Evans follows this up with a promo that makes his character look confident rather than just happy to be in the semifinals. The Vision members costing Rollins the match keeps that feud going. Talla had arguably his best in-ring performance since being called up to the main roster. I wondered for a moment if Saints was joining The Vision, who could really use a tag team partner for Austin Theory so that Bron Breakker can stick to being a singles wrestler.
Liv Morgan vs. Becky Lynch vs. Alexa Bliss vs. Chelsea Green in a Queen of the Ring match: The story of Morgan being the Women’s World Champion, yet still being allowed to enter the tournament, feels wonky, but there must be a storyline reason that will play out soon. The finishing sequence with all four wrestlers hitting big moves on one another was strong. On a side note, I got a kick out of the way Morgan shifted her focus to Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh to get out of responding to Roxanne Perez, who said that a Morgan vs. Raquel Rodriguez tournament final would be ideal for Judgment Day.
LA Knight and the Usos: Knight calling out the Usos for being Roman Reigns’ lackeys continues to be intriguing. The friction between Knight and Jey is a nice storyline hook for their King of the Ring four-way match on Smackdown. I also like that Jacob Fatu made it clear that he acknowledged Roman Reigns, yet he won’t take orders from the Usos.
Penta vs. Rey Mysterio for the Intercontinental Championship: A quality match from two lucha legends. The match was laid out in a way that made it feel like it could have gone either way. Mysterio wasn’t protected through a distraction or interference finish. He was protected by simply having a strong back-and-forth match before he was pinned.
Chad Gable: It’s refreshing to see Gable play a serious role rather than be comedic for a change. His apologies to the luchadores have come off as sincere, and his character backed up his words by saving Rey Mysterio from a post-match attack. Rey’s suggestion that Gable look back on some of the things he did before becoming El Grande Americano seemed to suggest that he’ll apologize to Otis, Akira Tozawa, and Maxxine Durpi. It will be interesting to see if this is tied to the apparent romance storyline involving Dupri and Austin Theory.
Sol Ruca vs. Lyra Valkyria for the Women’s Intercontinental Championship: A quality match with a good finish that gave Ruca a clean win, yet still protected Valkyria heading into her Queen of the Ring match on Friday. It was also encouraging to see Ruca hit the Sol Snatcher perfectly despite some of her recent struggles to perform her finisher.
WWE Raw Misses
None: There were high stakes in all four matches, along with good mic work and storytelling throughout the night. It felt like every segment had a purpose, meaning there was no filler. As with every television event during the European tour, the hot live crowd in Paris gave the show a nice boost.
(Jason Powell, founder and editor of ProWrestling.net, has covered pro wrestling full-time dating back to 1997. He hosts a weekly podcast, Pro Wrestling Boom, and also appears regularly on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast. Reach him via email at dotnetjason@gmail.com and on social media via @prowrestlingnet.bsky.social or x.com/prowrestlingnet. For his full bio and information on this website, click here.)
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