Powell’s WWE Raw Hit List: Bianca Belair vs. Nia Jax in a WarGames advantage match, Finn Balor and JD McDonagh vs. “War Raiders” Erik and Ivar for the World Tag Team Titles

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

WWE Raw Hits

Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods: Festivus came early with a spectacular airing of grievances between Kingston and Woods. It was a long and hard hitting verbal spat that set the table for whatever is going to happen at next week’s ten-year anniversary of New Day celebration. I’m anxious to see how it all plays out.

Bianca Belair vs. Nia Jax in a WarGames advantage match: A quality main event that also set up Bayley as Jade Cargill’s replacement in the WarGames match. With Cargill sidelined, Belair should be working more singles matches, and this win over the WWE Women’s Champion may have also been booked to set her up for a future title match.

Gunther and Damian Priest: They wisely stayed the course by having Priest remain ultra confident while Gunther continues to be rattled coming off his loss to Cody Rhodes at Crown Jewel. It’s an interesting layer that they’ve added to the Gunther character. He’ll surely get his mojo back soon, but they can always go back to his confidence struggles after he takes future losses. It’s a clever way to make the dominant champion seem vulnerable.

Intercontinental Champion Bron Breakker vs. Ludwig Kaiser in a non-title match: I’m still amazed that Breakker was able to stand up again after running full speed into the edge of the broadcast table. Sheamus attacking Kaiser made for a weak finish, but at least it served a purpose in that it set up the Triple Threat match for the Intercontinental Title for Saturday.

Julius Creed and Brutus Creed vs. Rey Mysterio and Dragon Lee in a tornado tag match: A pretty good tornado style tag team match. The Creeds are improving, which can’t be easy these days due to the lack of reps wrestlers get now that the company has reduced its house show schedule. It’s still hard to get excited about the American Made faction. Chad Gable and Brutus are positioned as comedic hambones and all four members just trade trivial wins and losses.

WWE Raw Misses

Finn Balor and JD McDonagh vs. “War Raiders” Erik and Ivar for the World Tag Team Titles: The latest Judgment Day finish ruined an otherwise enjoyable tag team match. Balor and McDonagh have no credibility because they rarely defend their titles. And when they do actually have title matches, they never seem to be booked to win without outside interference. It feels like the creative team is just going through the motions when it comes to how they book the champions and the entire Raw tag team division.