-Be careful, WWE. Gunther felt pretty likable in his opening promo with Finn Balor, but the money isn’t with him as a babyface right now. Fans weren’t even cheering him ahead of this tweener pivot that we’ve seen throughout the last month with that character. As a heel, Gunther makes you feel something. As a babyface, he will do the same thing. The middle ground is a needlessly silly place to be with him and WWE put themselves there on purpose.
Triple Threat
-Now, Adam Pearce making Gunther’s title defense at Saturday Night’s Main Event a triple threat match leaves the door open for a lot of finishes. We’ll see what Triple H has in store, but it smells like they’ve got a special finish planned. Do we see Gunther lose the title without taking a pin?
-Final Testament vs. The Wyatt Sicks wasn’t a great match or anything, but the booking effectively gave the Wyatt act some depth. We’ve seen what happened to that act when it never lost and was presented as a superhero villain. Part of the story with Bo Dallas and his group is that he isn’t Bray Wyatt. He can and should show weakness and losing to Final Testament provided that. It also gave Final Testament some juice to move forward with.
-CM Punk and Seth Rollins added a lot of context to their feud this week. Punk’s sit-down interview with Jackie Redmond showed his perspective, which was “hey, I don’t hate Seth, I think he’s entitled, and I’m back and better than him.” Rollins during an in-ring promo gave his side of the story and called Punk a con-man. He also said Punk failed at everything, which was why he had to come back to WWE. They went hard on one another. Especially Rollins on Punk, but the feud needed this. Fans had to be officially brought into the loop as to why there is disdain between these two and they got it this week. Now, WWE can build the program on top of this foundation.
-Good to see Liv Morgan get a win heading into her title match on Saturday night. Not sure Dakota Kai was the one to beat, but putting her out there allowed Pure Fusion Collective to get involved. Kai has to be on a short list to win the Women’s Intercontinental Championship, so keeping her strong would have been frugal. This feud with PFC could be the out WWE uses for her to lose, though.
Guess who’s back?
-Such a strong video promo from Drew McIntyre this week. In a short, three minute piece, McIntyre gave a reason for him being away from WWE and painted a picture of what his return to WWE will look like moving forward. All of it made sense. Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn on Saturday should be fun. Look for Drew to stay hot and win.
-Lyra Valyria advances in the Women’s IC title tournament. Makes perfect sense. What was with the bird wing flapping, though? Is that her thing now?
-Tremendous follow-up to the Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods heel turn on Big E from last week. Tremendous, but very little only because the audience wouldn’t let the two speak! The heat was intense for them, which tells you WWE hit a home run with the turn last week. I loved this. The best part of the show.
Ripley wins
-Rhea Ripley and Raquel Rodriguez held down the main event slot with a solid Anything Goes Match. It was violent and Ripley got the definitive win thanks to a Riptide on Rodriquez through a table. As usual, the audience was hot for Ripley. Overall, it was a chapter in the Morgan vs. Ripley story. I can see why WWE would want to hold that final match until WrestleMania, but I don’t know that it has the legs to last that long.
What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw? Let us know in the comments!
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