By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
Oba Femi and Bron Breakker: Breakker picked up where he left off last week by obsessing over people saying that Oba is the future of the company. Oba coming out for another confrontation was fairly surprising, as it seemed possible that last week’s angle may have been about planting a seed for something down the road. The back-to-back weeks of segments between the two seemed to indicate that the company is actively working toward a match sooner rather than later. Paul Heyman’s role in the storyline is interesting. Heyman plays it calm and cool while talking with Breakker, but the exhale after he walked away shows that Heyman was worried about saying something that might set off his short-tempered pledge.
Stephanie Vaquer, Becky Lynch, and Liv Morgan: Let’s get the disappointing part out of the way. Lynch made an abrupt shift from heel to babyface last week without explanation. Surely, that explanation would come this week, right? Nope. The fans are behind Lynch, but it’s still frustrating to see a character change direction without explanation. At the very least, shouldn’t her adversaries be calling her on it? Anyway, the positives of the segment outweigh that negative. Vaquer and Lynch had a good verbal exchange as the tension between them continues to build over their mutual interest in Morgan’s Women’s World Championship. It’s all likely leading to a Triple Threat for the title, which looks really good on paper.
Penta vs. Laredo Kid in a first-round tournament match: They got the tournament off to a nice start with a quality match. Penta strikes me as the favorite to win the tournament, so it was no surprise to see him win.
Sol Ruca and Iyo Sky vs. Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez: A good match capped off with Ruca hitting her awesome finisher for a crowd-pleasing win for the babyfaces. Perez took the loss, so Rodriguez wasn’t affected, but it would be nice to see her rack up some wins now that she holds the Women’s Intercontinental Championship. It was encouraging to see Ruca hit her finisher smoothly and have a good outing. Hopefully, this is the first step toward her rediscovering the mojo she had in NXT.
Austin Theory vs. Akira Tozawa: The match was entertaining, and Bron Breakker standing at ringside while obsessing over Oba Femi made for an interesting secondary story. Theory’s new Off Switch finisher looks great, and Michael Cole and Corey Graves did an effective job of making it seem impressive. Maxxine Dupri didn’t do much for me as a babyface, but she’s been really good as a sadistic heel who has instructed her boyfriend to violently attack her former allies Otis and Tozawa. The Vision still doesn’t feel whole with Logan Paul and Bronson Reed sidelined by injuries, but it looks like there could be some life in this cursed faction after all if everyone can just stay healthy.
WWE Raw Misses
Jey Uso vs. Solo Sikoa: The shades of gray nonsense continues. Solo was a babyface when he spoofed Jey’s entrance early in the show. The Bloodline members have been acting heelish more often than not, yet Jey still made his crowd-pleasing entrance and even pumped his arms with a young fan. Why are they making this so difficult? The fans were very quiet at one point in the match, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the issue is that they were confused about who they should cheer. I was also confused by the stipulation, as I initially thought the idea was that Jey winning meant that Solo had to rejoin The Bloodline. Rather, Solo merely has to let Jey present him to Roman Reigns next week.
Dragon Lee vs. AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio in a non-title match: The match was entertaining, and this should have been a big win for Lee. Unfortunately, Dom loses so routinely on Raw that beating him no longer means anything. Worse yet for Lee, his rare singles match win was overshadowed immediately when Big Cass attacked him afterward. It was good to see Je’Von Evans run out and try to get a measure of revenge after Cass attacked him last week. I like what they are doing with Cass, who should get every opportunity to be a high-level heel given the company’s need for monster heels to work with Oba Femi.
(Jason Powell, founder and editor of ProWrestling.net, has covered pro wrestling full-time since 1997. He hosts the 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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