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By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: Apparently, while I was gone on vacation for a week, someone at WWE creative learned how to write a good opening segment. As opposed to a few weeks back when the three WWE shows (plus TNA Impact) all had bad openings, hopefully this is a sign of things to come. I liked the cold opening with Mr. Kennedy in the ring. His political themed promo was strong. Jeff Hardy is never going to win “Promo of the Year” awards, but his back and forth with Kennedy was as good as you can expect from him. Their brawl was good, as was the subsequent run ins from Randy Orton and Shawn Michaels. It was the type of opening that not only entertained, but made me want to stay tuned in, while hyping the Main Event.

Cody Rhodes - Hardcore Holly: The Rhodes - Holly storyline progressed nicely this week. Rhodes had a nice interchange in the back with Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas. In fact, it was nice to hear Benjamin get some mic time, and he delivered. Rhodes vs. Benjamin was too short to amount to much, but it set up the continuation of the feud, and gave Holly a reason to come to Rhodes’ aid. Without a Raw only PPV, Raw needs to continue to develop these types of mid-card feuds that will play out and ultimately pay off on Raw. This one is so far being handled well.

Pullapart Brawl: A few months back, I complained that WWE and TNA were using these brawls way too often. But it has been a while since they’ve done it, and this one was done really well. Neither Umaga nor Triple H would back down. Triple H looked strong in continuing to attack Umaga, without Umaga looking weak. Two top wrestlers both looked strong heading into their big PPV match at Cyber Sunday. That is how you hype a match. Also, when anything like a pullapart brawl is done too often, it gets watered down. WWE should take note that this one felt special since we haven’t seen it in a while. Now they should resist the urge to do one for at least a few months.

Santino Marella: I know I must sound like a broken mp3 player, but Santino Marella continues to be a major highlight on Raw. He is so funny every time he is on. He has become WWE’s go to guy to hype merchandise without specifically hyping it. First it was “The Condemned” dvd, now it is the special 500th Issue of WWE Magazine. And the tactic works. He had several funny lines, but the best was when he promised to “open up a can of ass whip” on Stone Cold Steve Austin. His match against Ron Simmons was short and nothing special, but it played into his weasely character well.

Women’s Title Hype: It was great to see WWE hyping the Women’s Championship match. Not only did they announce the match last week, but they announced it again at the beginning of the show, and had several reminders throughout. They even had a face to face back stage vignette between Candice Michelle and Beth Phoenix. The fact that the match was 2 out of 3 falls gave it a very special feel to it. The match itself was delivering very nicely until Candice’s unfortunate fall. Luckily she didn’t hurt her neck, because that fall looked very scary.

Main Event: It was only fitting that after a hot opening segment involving Kennedy, Orton, Hardy, and Michaels, that Raw would conclude with a hot segment involving the same wrestlers. The Main Event delivered 10 minutes of uninterrupted tag team action. Other than the botched neck breaker spot, it was very solid in terms of in ring action. All four guys got in a good amount of offense. The dynamic of tension between the teams had been very well established earlier in the show with the two good back stage segments, and helped add to the match as the fans anticipated both teams possibly imploding. The fans were very hot for the match (for the entire show really) and the wrestlers delivered a very good Main Event. The aftermath with Orton attempting to RKO Hardy, only to get Sweet Chin Music was a strong way to end the final Raw before Cyber Sunday.

RAW MISSES

Diva Search: This year’s Diva Search has been better than in previous years just because there has been less of it (or at least it seems that way). I don’t like the fact that they called it a wwe.com exclusive, but still showed so much of it on Raw, ECW, and Smackdown. But it could have been a lot worse. Exhibit A in defense of my previous statement is the two final contestants trying to say in 30 seconds why they should be the next WWE Diva. The first could not pronounce WWE. In fact, she was just terrible. The second, the brunette, was better, but not very good. I believe she said something like, “I have the physicality, the sexuality, and the mental to be a WWE Diva.” Nice try, but not very good. That makes me happy that we didn’t have to hear more of the contestants live, because it was really bad.

Regal and Coach: William Regal doesn’t like Jonathan Coachman. So why did he go along with his proposed match of Umaga vs. Hornswoggle? They needed a reason to have Umaga in the ring for Triple H to come out, and they felt this makes Coach look like a jerk. Well, it did. But it also set up Regal as an evil GM, while they have been playing him more neutral. If decisions like this are a sign of things to come, his run as GM is going to be the same as we’ve seen with Eric Bischoff and Coachman running the show.

D.H. Smith Introduction: I was underwhelmed by the introduction of Harry Smith. First of all, having him on with no build up and no real introduction was a mistake. There are way too many newer fans who don’t know anything about The British Bulldog to care that his son is around. He needs more than that. And the choice of D.H. instead of just Harry is bad as it is very awkward to say. He looks solid in the ring, but clearly still green. He didn’t really flow. And doing the running power bomb like his dad also seems like a mistake to me. He needs to forge his own identity, and develop in the ring before he will get over with the fans.

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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