By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: The post SummerSlam Raw got off to a good start with Randy Orton’s strong promo. Orton was better than usual here with his demand for a WWE Title rematch. Just as I was starting to think, “wait, he had his shot, why should he get another one?” John Cena came out and basically said what I was thinking. Cena was strong here as well as he was intense and serious and left the silly jokes to Triple H later in the show (more later). The idea that Orton had to earn that title shot was a nice way to go instead of having the heel GM do the typical heel GM thing and just give him the shot. That was backed up nicely later in the show by Vince McMahon. The segment was not perfect as John Cena’s kissing of Triple H’s ass was a bit much and Triple H’s one victory certainly isn’t enough to earn a Title shot. But Orton and Cena were very good here. And William Regal was good in his brief appearance. It would have been much better if the announcers (at least) had acknowledged the history between Regal and King Booker. But it was still a good way to start the show.

Kennedy vs. Jeff Hardy: This was another good match between these two. The last time we saw Jeff Hardy was when he defeated Kennedy and then later attacked Umaga to set up what was supposed to be an Intercontinental Title feud. I certainly would not complain to see a Hardy vs. Kennedy feud down the line, but for now they are going back to Hardy vs. Umaga which if done right, has a lot of potential. It was certainly off to a good start before being aborted. As for the match itself, it was a fun match with some nice athleticism. There were a few sloppy spots, but you somewhat expect that in a Hardy match. It was a physical match too and the post match beat down worked very well.

Main Event: Cena vs. King Booker was a good physical Main Event. They are not going for a Cena vs. Booker feud, as they are still going with Orton vs. Cena, but like the match above, this match makes me hope they go to that feud down the line at some point. Obviously, there can be some fun interactions between them, but until this match, I was not convinced that I would want to see a match between the two. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the match. It was not great, but it was very good. It was very physical. Booker’s kick to Cena’s face (and the subsequent replay) was almost worth giving the match a Hit alone. Unfortunately, like Kennedy vs. Hardy, the match had a non-finish. Considering there were only four matches (more later) and two of them had non-finishes, and one of them had a non-start, I would have preferred to see a real finish, but it is understandable why they went the route that they did.

Orton Punts Cena’s Daddy: And if the Main Event wasn’t good enough, the post match attack by Randy Orton was a great way to end the show. Orton’s attack was well done and the tease of the punt to Cena’s head was very good. Unfortunately the attack on Cena’s dad was a bit predictable, after all, we saw Edge do the same thing last year (only that was in the Cena home). But it was still very well executed. I hope Cena Sr. is o.k. because he took a nasty bump on the head when Orton pulled him over the guard rail. And he really took that punt! That looked viscous.

RAW MISSES

Carlito’s Cabana: This segment had its ups and downs, but the downs out weighed the ups. For one thing, it was just too long. It was the segment that wouldn’t end. It was like Triple H had 8 months of DX vs. McMahon jokes built up and he was trying to get as many of them in as possible. Some of them were funny but it just kept going. Carlito in particular was strong here kissing McMahon’s ass and in his interaction with Triple H (including the apple spit). The bit with the four women had a few laughs (mostly with Carlito’s sister) but most of the jokes fell flat and were not very funny at all. In a way it sort of reminded me of Jay Leno’s monologues from the Tonight Show (stay with me for a moment). I always feel that Leno’s monologues are too long and that half the jokes don’t work. So if I ever meet Leno, I will tell him to cut out the half of the jokes that aren’t funny and go with a shorter monologue. The same was true here. If they had cut out the bad jokes here the segment would have been the right length and had enough laughs in that time to land itself in the Hit column. But as it was it was a Miss.

Not Enough Wrestling: Take away some time from Carlito’s Cabana, and give it to another match. As I said above, there were only four matches, and one really didn’t happen, so that means there were only three matches. Now, two of those matches did go over 10 minutes, which is good, but the other was only 3 and it had six talented workers. It was good while it lasted, but should have been at least twice as long (what I like to call the Impact Effect). I enjoyed Raw this week, but would have rather seen more time given to the six man tag match, and one more match in general. Take away 5 minutes from Carlito’s Cabana and you have the longer tag match. There certainly is enough other talking segments (for instance the Candice Michelle / Snitsky interview) that they could have taken a few of them, and given the combined time to another match.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hitlist Specialist, providing his point of view in the Torch's hitlist format for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.

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