pummel

To hit or strike heavily and repeatedly.

Rain pummeled the roof.

The boxer pummeled his opponent.

To scornfully criticize someone or something.

The politician was pummeled by the media for his controversial statements.

“There are theorists who have claimed that the movie is getting pummeled especially hard by male film critics who weren’t fans of the show in the first place (though that’s hardly true of the Post’s Smith, who boasted on his blog that he’d watched every episode of the TV show).”

Alternative form of pommel.