By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
Sami Zayn vs. CM Punk for the WWE Championship: A strong match in front of a hot crowd with a major title change. What’s not to like? Actually, a couple of things. I wish the timing of Zayn’s title reign were different. Ideally, the company would have taken advantage of him as a vulnerable champion. Fans would have bought into the possibility of several wrestlers as a threat to beat him for the championship. Rather, Zayn was used as a transitional champion to get the belt to Punk to set up whatever they have in mind for SummerSlam. And while Punk winning in Chicago was fun, winning the title on his first night back also deprived fans of watching him chase the title and eventually seeing him beat long-reigning champion Cody Rhodes. So while the match was very good and this was all fun in the moment, which is why it landed in the Hit section, the company also sacrificed some interesting scenarios to get here. We’ll find out soon enough whether it was worth it.
Oba Femi and Paul Heyman: A good exchange. Oba did a nice job of making it seem like Heyman framing Brock Lesnar as an unstoppable force was getting to him, only to turn the tables by confidently stating that he would beat Lesnar in his adopted hometown in front of Brock’s friends, family, wife, and children
Sol Ruca vs. Raquel Rodriguez for the Women’s Intercontinental Title: A soft Hit for a decent match that concluded with the latest protection finish. In this case, Rodriguez was distracted by Iyo Sky working over Liv Morgan and Roxanne Perez on the floor when Ruca hit her with the Sol Snatcher and got the win. By the way, am I the only one who feels that there’s something about Ruca’s entrance theme that is a little too similar to Danhausen’s?
WWE Raw Misses
Seth Rollins and LA Knight segment: The Miss has nothing to do with Knight, who more than held up his end. Rollins’ mic work was a mess. The crowd bombarded him with CM Punk chants, and then things just kept getting worse. The fans chanted “OTC” after he mentioned Roman Reigns, and they also seemed more into Knight. Rollins went into worked shoot mode by positioning Reigns as the chosen one. Sure, it’s factual given how aggressively Vince McMahon pushed “The Big Dog” babyface version of Reigns down our throats, but it was never presented that way in the storylines. Rather, Seth’s character was propped up by The Authority. And whether you take the worked shoot view that Rollins presented or look at the reality of the situation, Reigns ultimately made the most of his opportunities and became the face of the company. The insider talk was ineffective and unnecessary. Rollins should want the fans caught up in the storyline world because it’s the only place where he has gotten the better of Roman. WWE officials should be worried about this segment, particularly how fans cheered and nodded along when Knight labeled Reigns vs. Rollins as the same old crap. If they weren’t already thinking about adding Knight to their SummerSlam match, perhaps they should start.
“The Street Profits” Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins vs. Bron Breakker and Austin Theory for the World Tag Team Titles: A minor Miss. It was good to see the creative team finally pull the trigger on Maxxine Dupri’s heel turn. But right when things seemed to be looking up for Ford and Dawkins, we find out that their tag team title win was more about creating storyline issues within The Vision faction than it was about them. I was happy when Breakker and Theory lost to the Profits because Breakker working tag team matches feels like a step down. So this move was good for Theory and Dupri, but I don’t know if it helped the others involved. That said, I do enjoy seeing Paul Heyman give tough love to The Vision because it’s such a dramatic shift away from the role he’s played when aligned with Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar.
Chad Gable: His tag team loss with Dragon Lee to Ethan Page and Rusev was fine. This Miss is all about how quickly Gable has cooled off. This guy was getting great reactions after he ditched the Original El Grande Americano gimmick and apologized to the luchadores, yet the red-hot Chicago crowd was downright apathetic when he made his entrance last night. It looks like he’s trying to get his campy entrance theme over by rocking out to it, which makes him look uncool. They didn’t show the awful clapping bit that he’s been doing this week, which is a start. It also didn’t help to have him work a needlessly long and overly competitive match with JD McDonagh last week. I suspect that he will win the gauntlet match to earn the Intercontinental Title match in his home state at SummerSlam. I’m sure he’ll get a great reaction from the Minneapolis fans, but the company needs to make some quick changes to his presentation if he has any hope of getting over outside his hometown market.
Michael Cole and Corey Graves: This was one of those nights where the announcers were made to look more oblivious than the referees. The live crowd chanted loudly and repeatedly for CM Punk, yet the announcers had to play dumb by ignoring the fans. I didn’t expect them to confirm that it was Punk, but having Cole or Graves say something along the lines of, “It’s probably wishful thinking, but we can all hear who the Chicago fans want it to be,” would have helped them maintain their credibility.
(Jason Powell, founder and editor of ProWrestling.net, has covered pro wrestling full-time dating back to 1997. He hosts a 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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