The Cereza fight is because Bayonetta had entered the human realm instead of being in the same realm as the angels, which is why you had to use lamp posts. 
 
The enemies you are talking about are Gracious and Glorious and those are hyper versions of Grace and Glory and the only way to get witch time with them is by doing bat form.  Grace and Glory have different witch time dodging moments. Gracious and Glorious just flat out nullify witch time.

It's difficult to score large combos against Gracious and Glorious, and they tend to block most of your bullets, so maintaining a steady combo meter is a pain. To beat them though? You need to be dodging most of the time, and only attack when you know they aren't going to be able to retaliate (after they do the uppercut move and fly into the air, after they do the jumping lunge with both hands, after the spinny attack they do... etc). It's handy to use short combos that knock them down or launch them into the air, of course. You can chip away at them slowly, you just need to be on the ball when it comes to dodging and calling off your attacks into a dodge when the other one is about to hit you. When in doubt, dodge and panther-form away to get your footing, as this generally makes them use an attack that will leave them open.

Some attacks can activate witch powers and some can't.  Those guys and Braves come to mind as angels that do that.  It happens with specific attacks and specific enemies.

Try using the accessory that activates Witch Time when you get hit, it makes the game a lot easier, especially against G&G because they can't air combo you to death if you get hit with the uppercut slash. However, there are some fights that you can't activate Witch Time in because you're already technically in Witch Time, they usually have a timer at the top of the screen. Only one I can think of off the top of my head is in the prologue when you have to use torture attacks to progress but I know there are more. If that's the case, there's another accessory that creates magic orbs when you dodge instead of activating Witch Time that could help you out. Just hit Rodin's shop and grind easy levels for halos if need be.

If you have a really hard time vs Gracious and Glorious just drop a mega yellow lollipop.  It should last you long enough to kill them both.  You can probably make 3-4 of them from your collected items (if you haven't already.)