Heydorn's Raw Receipt 11/18/24
The good, bad, and ugly from this week's episode of WWE Raw.
-I don’t have a problem with WWE doing women’s War Games matches at Survivor Series. None at all. In fact, they should do those matches, just like they do for the men each year. Here’s the thing, though. They need the same attention that the men’s match gets in order for the War Games stipulation to make sense. This week on Raw, we finally got confirmation that War Games was happening for the women after a parade of stars walked to the ring to officially show-off their alignment and teams before brawling. Does Rhea Ripley, Iyo Sky, Jade Cargill, Bianca Belair, and Naomi vs. Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez, Nia Jax, Tiffany Stratton, and Candice LeRae really feel like a War Games match? That’s a house show match. The women’s division deserves more meaning behind major gimmick matches and this feels like someone said, “oh crap, we need a women’s War Games, let’s do this” before throwing a bunch of “you know what” at a wall.
Mami’s home
-Now, with the above stated, the match needed Rhea Ripley back and she’s back. She got a big audience reaction and looks like an absolute bad ass with the protective face mask on.
-I liked Rey Mysterio and Zelina Vegas vs. American Made just fine, it was the post-match stuff within American Made that made me confused. So, they needed to show Chad Gable re-flexing his muscle as the authority in the group after taking a loss? I think that’s what all that was and there are better ways to accomplish that goal. Winning matches would be a good start.
-The Miz and Karrion Kross on the same side is a WWE fever dream that I’d like to wake up from right away. It’s not that I’m not curious about what a partnership between the two looks like long term, it’s just that they don’t seem to be a good fit. One of them is glitz, glamour, and Hollywood, while the other is darkness, clocks, and a bunch of other mumbo jumbo. I mean there was a Marine movie reference by Miz for goodness sake. Yep, this is bizarro world.
-Wow, it was really jarring to see Gunther get taken out the way he did backstage by Damian Priest. One kick to the gut dropped him like that? This was by far the weakest we’ve seen Gunther presented since joining the main roster. It fit the narrative of Gunther losing confidence since losing to Cody Rhodes, but c’mon, the execution has to be better. Gunther is an important enough star where he needs protection even when he’s selling for his babyfaces.
Good match, bad finish
-Thumbs up to Bron Breakker vs. Sheamus. Thumbs way down on the match finish. The bout itself was hard-hitting and very entertaining as expected. Ludwig Kaiser getting involved and taking out not just babyface Sheamus, but the heel Breakker was a bad call. Breakker is a babyface now, right? I mean, how could he not be since he presumably will be going after Kaiser? Breakker is the most poorly defined character in WWE and stuff like what happened here is why.
-Now, as for Kaiser, I like him in a singles role. It’s time to finish whatever this is with Sheamus, though. As Karrion Kross would say … tick tock. I guess now The Miz might say that too.
-The War Raiders got a nice little win over Dominik Mysterio and Carlito this week. A fine match, but nothing special. The post-match attack was a good reminder that hey, Finn Balor and JD McDonagh are the tag team champions.
Does it mean anything?
-The Wyatt Sicks stuff is hanging on by thread. Don’t get me wrong, I liked Bo Dallas this week and the video that played from him and the faction. We’ve heard it all before, though. It’s the same thing week in and week out. Does it actually mean anything? That question has been the central issue to all things “Wyatt” and it doesn’t feel like the Triple H led creative machine has an answer.
-Holy moly! A hype vignette for Lyra Valkyria??! Hallelujah! Valkyria has been in desperate need of something like this. Something that officially introduces her to the audience. More of this, WWE. Way more. She needs it.
Yeah, Seth, you need The Bloodline
-Well, it seems as if Seth Rollins does need Roman Reigns and The Bloodline. At least, that was the takeaway from the main event this week. Rollins put up a fight against Bronson Reed, but because of Reed’s alignment with the new Bloodline, Rollins lost the match. This is setting up to go exactly as you think it’ll go. Rollins joins Reigns on the Survivor Series team for War Games in an effort to not help Reigns, but get at Reed. Look, I don’t think the match needed anyone outside of either official Bloodline faction. Period. However, now that they’ve went down that road, this storytelling works and both Reed and Rollins have played their parts smoothly.
What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE Raw? Let us know in the comments!
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