By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
Sami Zayn, Jey Uso, and Jimmy Uso: The highlight of the night. They didn’t forward the storyline in any major way, but they provided a strong hook for Friday’s Smackdown. They also played up the question of whether Zayn intentionally hit Roman Reigns with a Helluva Kick at Crown Jewel, which led to Zayn saying he’d been put on trial by the OG Bloodline before and wouldn’t go through that again. Something is going to get these four back on the same page in time for WarGames. While I’m anxious to see it all play out, they are taking us on an enjoyable ride.
Damian Priest vs. Seth Rollins vs. Sheamus vs. Dominik Mysterio in a four-way for a shot World Heavyweight Championship: I’m no fan of holding yet another four-way to determine a No. 1 contender, but more on that later. The match was well worked and they did a nice tease for Dom winning. Speaking of Dom, I was baffled by the need for this match given last week’s story of Dom needing to beat a former world champion to earn a title shot. Even if the idea was that Dom needed to win in order to merely be considered for a title match, shouldn’t Dom’s win have eliminated Priest from being in this match? Putting the logic questions aside, the actual match was entertaining. The idea of going back to Gunther vs. Priest feels a little flat at the moment, but let’s see what they do to build up the match between now and whenever it’s going to take place.
“War Raiders” Erik and Ivar vs. “New Day” Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods: The tension between Kingston and Woods continues to build. Woods tagged himself in when Kingston was on the verge of hitting his finisher and then went on to lose the match for their team. Will this end with Big E getting them back on the same page in time for the trio’s ten-year anniversary or with Woods officially turning heel on Kingston on their anniversary show?
Dragon Lee vs. Chad Gable: A soft Hit. It reminded me of a lot of some AEW matches just in terms of the big moves and minimal selling. Whatever Lee would have gained from beating Gable (which sadly isn’t much right now) was wiped away Rey Mysterio’s involvement in the finish. So while the match was entertaining even if it wasn’t my preferred style, nothing was really accomplished beyond filling some time.
WWE Raw Misses
Battle Royal for a shot at the Women’s World Championship: As much as the booking in WWE has improved since Paul Levesque took over, the creative team still relies on too many gimmick matches to determine the next challengers. It feels cheap to go with a battle royal or a four-way match to determine the next challenger rather than actually putting in the work to build up future challengers by having them climb the proverbial ladder by winning a series of matches. In this case, the fans were fully invested in the match until the weak eliminations of Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair. WWE is really pushing it with the no disqualification stipulations in these matches, and it was a groaner to watch Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez watch from ringside and then eliminate Cargill and Belair right in front of the referee. This raises the obvious question of why the general managers wouldn’t come up with a rule to ban non-participants from being at ringside in battle royals and four-way matches, but then the creative forces wouldn’t have their cheap finish crutch to lean on.
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