By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
WWE Raw Hits
Jey Uso vs. Sheamus vs. Rusev vs. Bronson Reed in a four-way King of the Ring match: As much WWE has gone overboard with outside interference during Triple Threats and four-way matches, the wave of wrestlers showing up during the closing moments and after the match more than made up for it and surely sent the live crowd home happy. With two heel world champions, I like that all four semifinalists are babyfaces. I don’t think fans would have bought into most heels being a threat to win the tournament to set up a heel vs. heel match at SummerSlam, so this approach makes the outcome of the semifinal matches feel less predictable. I just hope it’s not as simple as Jey’s injured ribs costing him the match against Cody Rhodes, and Karrion Kross interfering to cost Sami Zayn his match against Randy Orton.
Asuka vs. Stephanie Vaquer vs. Ivy Nile vs. Raquel Rodriguez in a four-way Queen of the Ring match: It was great to see Asuka back after a long layoff. It was fun to see her exchanges with Vaquer, and having two stars in the match created a bit of mystery regarding which one of them would advance in the tournament. As down as I am on having four-way opening round tournament matches, the semifinals for both tournaments look strong and will provide some good television matches. Here’s hoping for clean finishes as opposed to the usual approach of overprotecting the stars.
Gunther and Goldberg: A soft Hit. I’m cool with Goldberg getting a retirement match, but the idea of him returning to the ring for the first time since 2022 and getting an immediate World Heavyweight Championship match is a bit much. Sure, it beats the alternative of going with a low stakes non-title match, but it was disappointing that the creative forces didn’t put the work in to come up with an explanation for Goldberg getting the title match. Either an overconfident Gunther volunteering to put his title on the line or Goldberg putting his career on the line to get the title show would have been sufficient. It will be interesting to see how they get to announcing this as Goldberg’s retirement match, as there was surprisingly no mention of that during the angle.
AJ Styles vs. JD McDonagh: More of an in the middle than a Hit or a Miss. Styles got the expected win, and they set up his Intercontinental Title match for Night of Champions. Perhaps the most interesting part of the segment was Finn Balor saving Dom from Styles hitting him with a top rope move after the match.
Liv Morgan vs. Kairi Sane: Obviously, this is neither a Hit nor a Miss, as Morgan suffered a fluke injury during the opening seconds of the match. But it was good to see the match called off quickly because the focus should be on the injured wrestler, not on the injured wrestler finishing a match. It may seem rather trivial, but I appreciated Corey Graves stating that Sane won the match, as opposed to just moving on without declaring an actual winner.
WWE Raw Misses
Liv Morgan and Iyo Sky opening segment: A minor Miss. While it was nice to see some different faces in the opening segment, I came away wondering what the point of it was. Obviously, the Morgan injury derailed some things, including whatever the plan was that Finn Balor mentioned to Roxanne Perez. Regardless, this was a notch below a typical Raw opening segment.
So they’re probably going with Raquel/Roxannevs.The Bellas with Liv at ringside now at Evolution.
For the love of God can we put an end to the outside interference
In fact I think a great angle would be to have HHH come out and decree all match’s would now have two ref one inside the ring and one outside. It could be a whole big thing and then when interference does take place is would have to be more creative and impactful
Poor Liv.
And poor Gunther. I hope they don’t feed him to Goldberg, like they did the great Kevin Owens, a few years back.
If Goldberg *must* compete, can Gunther just defeat him?
Suspension of disbelief regarding Goldberg’s age and already limited wrestling ability, shouldn’t the Ring General character be able to outwit the power guy character? Shouldn’t that be what the championship is about?
And when Goldberg loses, HE should be the one to offer to shake Gunther’s hand – who should refuse, then eat a final jackhammer. Let the heels be heels, for god’s sakes.
There’s no need to “hot potato” the championship.
petition to get Corey back on commentary over Pat!
After Goldberg said “You’re next” I so very much wanted Gunther to just say “What was your name again?”, then drop the mic and walk away smirking.