-Out of everything CM Punk has done since returning to WWE nearly a year ago, his promo this week to kickoff Raw was the best and most impactful. After the Hell in a Cell victory over Drew McIntyre, Punk looked disheveled, injured, and broken down. Not only was that a perfect presentation to sell the totality of his story with Drew, but it put over the Hell in a Cell gimmick in a major way. WWE rarely follows up on matches in this way, but doing so milks the final drops of intrigue an interest out of the story.
The road to WrestleMania
-WWE continues to tease Seth Rollins vs. CM Punk. That’s your WrestleMania match for each those guys provided both can stay healthy.
-Good to see Rollins back in the fold. He’s a top Raw star and the show misses him when he isn’t around. Taking the time to further his story with Bronson Reed made sense and while Rollins surely is going to win the match whenever they wrestle, he did a nice job of talking about Reed as a real threat to be taken seriously.
-This was the first two-hour episode of Raw in 12 years and it seemed like Paul Levesque and team tried to cram as much of their three hour show as possible into two hours. The matches felt rushed across the board, but Xavier Woods vs. Jey Uso really could have used a couple extra minutes. Nothing special in that one aside from Woods continuing on to the dark side.
Raquel who?
-The Rhea Ripley/Liv Morgan/Raquel Rodriguez angle at Bad Blood was such a disaster that I was expecting a major correction on the show to fix the Rodriguez presentation and integration into the story. They didn’t run from what happened, but they didn’t really focus on it either. Rodriguez isn’t ready or over enough to be featured the way she is in this so far. The crowd reaction is all you need to look at.
-Did Bron Breakker turn babyface last week and then heel again this week? Huh???? Breakker came across better as a defeated, but respectful former champion last week. He showed a character with depth, but dropped it all this week in favor of the same vicious attack we’ve seen him put on people for months. Not sure what changed, but something did. Breakker is too important to the future of WWE to be messing around with his booking.
-Sheamus vs. Pete Dunne was a blast of a TV match. White Noise through the tables was a fun spot. If Pete Dunne didn’t know where he stood within the roster hierarchy in WWE, he certainly does now.
-What can you say about that 10-woman tag team match? Hodge-podge teams and a hodge-podge finish that made the big, bad, heel Pure Fusion Collective team look like a bunch of suckers. Look, the Raw women’s division needs depth, so that eventually a babyface Rhea Ripley can defend her championship against new heels. If built properly, all of the Pure Fusion Collective members could be opponents for her, but not while going 50/50 with acts like Chance and Karter.
Sami Zayn the artist
-Gunther vs. Sami Zayn for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship was excellent. Zayn is so over as a babyface that he is able to make you believe he could win the world title even when deep down you know he won’t. That’s art. The hope spots for Zayn were well thought out and well executed. Gunther continues to dominate.
What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw? Let us know in the comments!
Subscribe to the Brass Ring Media YouTube channel HERE.
Become a Brass Ring Media member HERE.