By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
Jey Uso vs. Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship: It’s a rare treat to get a world championship match on Raw or Smackdown these days, let alone one that concluded with a clean finish and a title change. Gunther avenged his loss to Jey at WrestleMania by beating him with the same sleeper hold that Jey used to win the title. The big question is what comes next for both wrestlers. Will Jey maintain his popularity, or was this title reign the peak of his singles run? Will Seth Rollins target the World Heavyweight Championship with his Money in the Bank contract? If so, will that lead to a Gunther babyface turn? My guess is that a turn is coming soon, which might explain why Gunther beat Jey clean as opposed to cheating to take back the title.
Roxanne Perez vs. Rhea Ripley vs. Liv Morgan vs. Kairi Sane in a four-way Queen of the Ring match: This match would have landed in the Miss section had it been held after the King of the Ring match. Booking outside interference protected Ripley, but doubling down on the protection interference in the men’s match was a groaner (more on that later). Finn Balor bringing Perez into the Judgment Day saga is paying off. It’s added new drama to the Judgment Day act. It’s also been great for Perez, who was floundering after an awkward main roster start.
Ron Killings: The fan backlash led to WWE rehiring Killings, but not to play the R-Truth role that endeared him to the masses. Only time will tell whether this persona will click, but I love seeing such a bold move from a 53-year-old wrestler who easily could have closed out his career while playing the greatest hits.
Nikki Bella and Liv Morgan: I agree with the point that Jonny Fairplay raised during our audio review about it being a disappointing call for Nikki to return in her “Fearless” gear as opposed to shaking things up. Even so, this was a good exchange that saw both wrestlers connect with some strong verbal jabs.
AJ Styles vs. Chad Gable: A soft Hit for a solid opening match win for Styles in clean fashion. Gable had the out that he was nursing elbow and shoulder injuries.
WWE Raw Misses
Sami Zayn vs. Dominik Mysterio vs. Bron Breakker vs. Penta in a four-way King of the Ring match: This was certainly Hit-worthy from a match quality standpoint. The reason it landed in this section is that it was the second tournament match of the night that had outside interference. It’s bad enough that there are four-way matches in the King and Queen of the Ring tournaments, but what’s most frustrating is that WWE creative can’t stop taking the chickenshit booking approach that these matches allow due to the No DQ aspect. We sat through outside interference during several of the Triple Threat Money in the Bank qualifiers, and now the first two four-way tournament matches also had outside interference. The main event shows that the creative team is capable of delivering a clean finish to a meaningful match. It would be nice if they took that approach more often, as opposed to playing it safe while trying to needlessly protect too many wrestlers.
I’ll bet $10k that Killings was never fired/let go and that this whole thing has been a work.
Well hopefully it’s a work for Carlito too!
I could use $10K! No one could have predicted a typical firing would have resulted in such fan backlash. WWE trying to play it off like it was planned is just them trying to save face – whereas it would be more endearing just to say We screwed up, like the cola execs did after rolling out New Coke.