By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
World Tag Team Champions Bron Breakker and Austin Theory vs. Je’Von Evans and Dragon Lee in a non-title match: They saved the best for, um, first? This was the match of the night, and one of the best tag team matches on Raw this year. The fans responded well to Otis and Akira Tozawa during the post-match angle. I suspect that next week’s non-title match will somehow lead to Breakker and Theory defending their titles against Otis and Tozawa at SummerSlam.
Big Cass vignettes: The first two have been brief, yet compelling. Cass was impressive while working for TNA and AEW. I’m looking forward to seeing him return to WWE. I just hope he’s flying solo because I’m far more interested in seeing him as a singles wrestler than putting the band back together with Enzo Amore.
Penta and Chad Gable vs. Ethan Page and Rusev: This wasn’t as hot as the opening tag team match, but it was still a quality match. Kudos to WWE for finally trying to reestablish the ankle lock as a submission finisher rather than something that everyone rolls out of after selling for a few seconds. Here’s hoping that Page will be a priority for the creative team coming out of SummerSlam. He’s too good to cast as a mid-card wrestler who loses more than he wins.
Paul Heyman promo video: Terrific work. Heyman did as good a job as anyone could of making a case for Brock Lesnar beating Oba Femi in the Hell in a Cell match.
Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins history videos: Regular viewers have seen the footage before, but I liked the added touch of including brief voiceovers from Reigns and Rollins. I suppose this was one way to guarantee that Rollins wouldn’t shit the bed during another live promo segment.
Oba Femi vs. JD McDonagh: A crowd-pleasing squash win for Oba, who continues to be the most over guy on the roster.
Joe Hendry vs. Dominik Mysterio: A soft Hit for Hendry being so over with the live crowd, even though the match featured a lot of outside interference.
WWE Raw Misses
Jacob Fatu and The Usos vs. LA Knight, Royce Keys, and Solo Sikoa build: The Fatu vs. Knight match was entertaining despite all of the outside interference. There was clearly a lot of thought put into the post-match sequence, which the wrestlers pulled off nicely despite there being so many moving parts. But I have no idea who the creative forces want the fans to cheer. The creative approach of having fans choose between shades of gray characters is confusing and counterproductive. Forget the new age bullshit and get back to the tried and true booking approach of babyfaces vs. heels far more often than not. With that in mind, Knight deserves a lot of credit for the way he’s responded to boos when he takes verbal jabs at Roman Reigns. He’s been really good about telling the fans that he understands without burying them for pushing back
Fanatics Fest hype: WWE television has felt like an infomercial for Fanatics Fest. WWE pushes this event so aggressively that it’s right behind political and tax season on my list of the most annoying advertising campaigns. Make it stop.
Danhausen: A minor Miss. We didn’t get any lab silliness or Miz and Kit Wilson acting like zombies after being electrified, but we saw too much of him during this episode. Danhausen is good comedy relief at times, but he’s best in small doses.
(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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