By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
Roman Reigns vs. Penta for the World Heavyweight Championship: An outstanding and truly memorable main event. The Mexican fans were great for all three shows this weekend, and they saved the best for last with their raucous support of Penta. I love seeing fans get so caught up in the moment that they are hanging on every near fall as if it were life and death. It was wild tos ee the fans go from being so vocal in their support of Penta to being so dejected when he lost. I compared it last night in my live review to watching sports fans cheer passionately for their team during a playoff elimination game, only to be devastated when the hometown team loses in the final seconds (my fandom of men’s Minnesota sports teams makes me an expert on this subject). A strong case can be made for having Penta win this match. I’m okay with him losing, but I hope they’ll eventually give these fans the payoff of seeing Penta win the championship during a future show in Mexico.
Chad Gable vs. Dragon Lee for the Intercontinental Championship: This match looked really good on paper and somehow exceeded my high expectations. It was crazy to see the Mexican fans actually sing along with Gable’s corny entrance theme. It says a lot about Gable’s popularity in Mexico that while the fans pulled for Lee to win in his home country, they never turned on Gable, even after he got the clean win. That said, I’m surprised they didn’t go with the feel-good ending of Lee going over since they knew they weren’t taking that approach with the main event. By the way, I’m still baffled by WWE holding Lee’s entrance in Mexico during a commercial break on Netflix in the United States.
Je’Von Evans vs. Big Cass vs. Austin Theory in a Triple Threat men’s Money in the Bank qualifier: The high-flying Evans winning a spot in the men’s MITB match isn’t all that surprising. Conversely, Evans pinning Cass to earn that spot did catch me by surprise. I don’t mind Evans getting his win back, but I hope this isn’t a sign of creative already souring on Cass. The Theory and Maxxine Dupri pairing hasn’t moved Theory up the card, but it has improved his act and helped make him feel like he actually belongs in the spot that he has. I didn’t see much in Dupri as a babyface, but she’s been really good as a heel.
Lola Vice vs. Women’s Intercontinental Champion Raquel Rodriguez vs. NXT Women’s Champion Kelani Jordan in a Triple Threat women’s Money in the Bank qualifier: A soft Hit for a good match that had some rough moments, particularly when Vice and Rodriguez worked together. One can only assume the issue is simply a lack of familiarity, and that shouldn’t be a problem for long, as Vice pinning Rodriguez to win this match should lead to her challenging Rodriguez for the Women’s Intercontinental Title. The flat crowd reaction to Jordan was disappointing, and left me wondering if the fans in Mexico don’t pay much attention to NXT. Jordan has been killing it in NXT. I was surprised that she didn’t get called up with the last batch of NXT wrestlers who moved to the main roster, so I assume that her time is coming soon.
The 946 teases: A minor Hit for it being a pleasant surprise that the brief backstage segments involving the 916 and Bloodline members Jacob Fatu, Jimmy Uso, and Jey Uso didn’t lead to interference during the main event. The segments were more than just good swerves, as they also played up the threat posed by Royce Keys, Bronco Nima, and Lucien Price on a night when they were not featured prominently.
WWE Raw Misses
AAA Mega Champion El Grande Americano and Women’s World Champion Stephanie Vaquer vs. Dominik Mysterio and Liv Morgan in a mixed tag: The build to the match was fun, with Americano coming out to take the spot in the tag match that the heels wanted the injured (storyline) Rey Mysterio to be in. The match was also entertaining until the lousy Judgment Day interference finish, which is why this landed in the Miss section. I suspect the idea is to keep them both relatively strong for rematches, but there’s always a way to protect a wrestler with the right finish.
(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.)
Lee going over would’ve made the main event even more predictable.
A MAJOR miss for the Joe Hendry segment!
He’s worse than Danhausen at this point..