-It’s kinda fun watching the new Judgment Day find their footing. They don’t have it yet, but they’re actively working out there to find it. The promo to open the show this week was a team effort with some members succeeding better than others. Finn Balor and Dominik Mysterio led the way, while Liv Morgan very much struggled. The silly laugh was weird and the content wasn’t great, but worst of all was that she felt like a background player. Even compared to guys like JD McDonagh. As world champion, she needs to be featured more prominently and stand out.
High energy tag
-The tag match between Judgment Day and the LWO to open the show was excellent. The audience bought in right away and both teams delivered lots of action to further that investment. The spot where the LWO slingshot Joaquin Wilde off the top rope and onto Judgment Day was tremendous. Serious pace in this one and it kept the energy of the audience really high.
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-Man, pop of the night to both Rhea Ripley and Damian Priest. The Terror Twin nickname for the duo is lame, but their presence isn’t. Big time star vibes for them and once again, the angle this week left fans wanting to see Dom and Liv destroyed. Now, that story can payoff on PPV Saturday afternoon.
-The Pure Fusion Collective have a strange name and took an odd loss this week to Damage CNTRL. The match was what it was — fine — but, Zoey Stark eating the pin sure doesn’t give the new team much momentum.
-It’s nice to see Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston work out their issues. I get that a turn is coming, but until it happens, you want to see two friends like them be able to talk through their issues. They were likable and that’s important and this juncture of the story.
History repeating itself
-With Uncle Howdy wrestling a key selling point for the show this week, it was smart to feature Bo Dallas in another vignette. Overall, I liked it. That said, it felt too much like what we saw with Bray Wyatt and the vignettes that he’d do. Ones that were fun to watch, but ultimately didn’t mean anything even if you had time to decode the messaging. Dallas spoke well and the piece was intriguing, but at the end, the only thing I thought to myself was, “what the heck was he talking about?” WWE has to clean that up with this act in order to make these video pieces work better for the gimmick moving forward.
-So, Drew McIntyre kind of lit up CM Punk this week on the microphone. Goodness. Drew took shots at everything Punk said in his promo last week and was pretty darn on point for nearly all of them. I know CM Punk doesn’t want to rock the boat in WWE, but he needed to push back on two creative elements to this. First, Punk should have come out and confronted Drew for talking the way he did. The audience needed to see babyface CM Punk stand up for what his thoughts were on the situation with Drew. Second, Punk needed to attack Drew head on instead of from behind — especially since attacking from behind was one of the things that Drew ragged on him for. McIntyre was great out there and Punk got a nice reaction when his music hit. To what end, though? For another week in a row, there are mixed messages being sent on Punk and what his status and place really is on Raw week to week.
-Jey Uso advancing in the WWE Intercontinental Championship tournament was largely predictable, but smart. If Bron Breakker is going to be a heel, Uso is a perfect opponent due to how much love the fans have for him. If Breakker is slotted as a babyface, it’s not nearly as good of match. Diluting fan reaction for Breakker because of Jey’s involvement will only stunt Breakker’s momentum.
Randy Orton did what???
-Wow. Just when you thought you’ve seen it all. A go-home babyface promo from …. Randy Orton? Crazy. You don’t even need a full hand of fingers to count the times Orton has done this throughout his career. It very much worked this week. Orton connected with the audience because he owned his mistakes. In doing so, he alleviated the ability of Gunther to use those against him. He very much cultivated fan investment by harkening back to his history with the audience and now has that audience on his side for his match against Gunther. Orton isn’t beating Gunther for the world championship on Saturday, but this promo helped suspend disbelief. Could it maybe happen? Orton made you ask that question. Mission accomplished.
-Braun Strowman vs Bronson Reed delivered exactly as advertised and then some. Not only was the match good, the post-match backstage brawl was tremendous. Reed crashing through Strowman on top of a car and blowing the windows out of it looked great and didn’t feel as contrived as other backstage spots in WWE. Reed looked like a total bad ass. WWE needs to continue feeding the Tsunami finisher and gets more over each week. Strowman got as over as he did because of similar stunt spots like we saw here with Reed. It can work when done right and so far, they are hitting all the right notes. Reed will be in a position to challenge for championships very soon if they keep moving at this clip.
-Hey! A television win for Pete Dunne. Unexpected, but when you look at the fatal four-way match they are setting up as the IC tournament final. It looks to me like this win gets Dunne in the match only so he can job to whoever wins in two weeks.
-The best part about Bron Breakker right now is that he’s hiding the scripting of his promos effectively. He’s able to come across as genuine while speaking and it allows for his intensity to shine through. Because that’s a signature part of his character, that is important and he needs more time on the mic to keep it up.
Get rid of the mask!
-Uncle Howdy wrestling in the main event was a success. Unlike Bray Wyatt, Howdy didn’t come across as indestructible out there and that will help him have better matches against key opponents long term. That said, like the other members of the Wyatt Sicks, he should drop the mask while wrestling. In the dark the mask is menacing and cool to look at, but with the lights on it in the ring, it loses it’s special luster and aura. The fact that the Wyatt Sicks material still hasn’t infiltrated any championship pictures makes it all easier to take in and accept on television — this match included.
What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw? Let us know in the comments!
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