Powell’s WWE Raw Hit List: Seth Rollins vs. Jey Uso for the World Heavyweight Championship, Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn, The Creeds vs. Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh

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

WWE Raw Hits

Seth Rollins vs. Jey Uso for the World Heavyweight Championship: A strong main event even though there was no real mystery regarding the outcome. That said, the wrestlers were still able to make the live crowd believe for a moment when Jey performed a late top rope splash for a good near fall. I also enjoyed the pre-match mic work from both wrestlers. Rollins telling Adam Pearce to let him do his thing once CM Punk shows his true colors set the table without taking too much away from the television main event. And Jey’s video package was a great idea, as he was able to deliver his message far better than he would have in a standard promo.

Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn: The previous edition of Raw was all about the big stars talking while the matches felt trivial. WWE took the opposite approach this week by featuring a lot of in-ring action starting with this PLE length opening match. McIntyre continues to be one of the most compelling characters in the business and his heel run is off to a tremendous start. It will be interesting to learn if there is more to McIntyre taking out Zayn’s knee. Here’s hoping that it wasn’t an angle designed to write out Zayn due to a legit injury.

Cody Rhodes and Shinsuke Nakamura: Nakamura’s latest subtitled video was effective in explaining that he and Cody both won Royal Rumble matches and then failed in their attempts to win a world championship at WrestleMania. It’s great that the company has breathed new life into the Nakamura character. It’s hard to imagine that Nakamura will win this feud, so hopefully there’s a plan in place for him to get his heat back once Cody eventually comes out on top.

Julius Creed and Brutus Creed vs. Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonagh: The Creeds beating the Judgment Day’s junior varsity tag team was a logical approach heading into their eventual tag team title match with Damian Priest and Finn Balor. It was a nice touch to have Dom and McDonagh tell Priest that the Creeds are the real deal during a backstage conversation after the match. On a side note, it feels like it’s time for Dom to be put in a position to add to his heat. Sure, the fans still boo Dom when he tries to talk because it’s the thing to do now, but he’s taken some high profile losses lately and is starting to feel like a background player in the Judgment Day faction.

Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa vs. Ludwig Kaiser and Giovanni Vinci in a best of three falls match: The teams made good use of the best of three falls approach and yet I still came away wondering why they felt the need to add that stipulation. The low point of the match for me was watching Gargano and Ciampa lose the first fall, only to sit on the broadcast table moments later and do cutesy self-applause and back patting before a commercial break. Putting that aside, these teams work well together and the outcome gives Gunther another reason to be upset with Kaiser, which is always fun.

Nia Jax vs. Shayna Baszler: A pleasant surprise. They filled the 12 minutes nicely and there would have been a sense of mystery regarding the outcome had they not opted to tease Jax vs. Becky Lynch beforehand. It’s interesting that they are going with that match next week. One would think that they would want Jax to be as strong as ever going into the Royal Rumble match, so I wonder if the plan is for her to get the better of Lynch now (without beating her clean) with the idea being that Lynch will get her revenge in the Rumble match.

WWE Raw Misses

Kayden Carter and Katana Chance vs. Tegan Nox and Natalya: The live crowd was flat for the match as the company continues to struggle to make fans care about the women’s tag team division. On the bright side, they went with the right outcome. Carter and Chance are a solid team and strike me as the right challengers to chase Chelsea Green and Piper Niven for the tag team titles. It would help the cause if the creative forces tried to put real heat on Green and Niven rather than always going for tongue-in-cheek humor with Green being obnoxious. Green’s Karen gimmick is a gem, but she doesn’t get sustained heat because her character is put in her place too often.