WWE Raw Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades for March 13

TJ Perkins & Akira Tozawa vs. The Brian Kendrick & Tony Nese

Result: The Brian Kendrick & Tony Nese defeated TJ Perkins & Akira Tozawa via pinfall

Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

The cruiserweight renaissance continues in the first purple rope segment. Tozawa has been the top performer of the division in recent weeks. Kendrick has been doing solid work as a foil for Tozawa. Perkins has the clout of winning the CWC last summer working for him. And, uh, Tony Nese has lots of abs?

Snark aside, this tag match was pretty good. It wasn’t a Match of the Year type segment, but it was the kind of action that this episode sorely needed by this point. After a Heyman/Lesnar opener that was so short we had time to cut to the McMahon-Foley hour, then a women’s match that lasted all of three minutes, the dial needed to go to 11.

It was a good showcase for all four superstars ahead of their match tomorrow night on 205 Live. There, of course, they’ll lose in the fatal five way to Austin Aries, so getting time to shine tonight is a bonus.

The great thing about the recent 205 Live segments on Raw is that you can start to hear the crowd wanting to care about the action. This match skewed a bit more towards typical WWE-style than Swann/Neville last week, but it had enough “flippy stuff” to discern it. If this pattern continues, by SummerSlam the cruiserweights will be on fire.

Gallows & Anderson Address Their “Competition”

Spoiler Alert: They don’t think they have any competition. Shocking!