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By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Beth Phoenix Promo: It was good to see WWE giving Beth Phoenix promo time. It was also good that she delivered the well-written promo very nicely. Her comments on the other Divas wanting to play dress up and pretend to be what they are not was spot on. Of course, most of the male fans prefer that the Divas play dress up so this was a heel comment, though it was true. With Candice Michelle out for 2 months, and Mickie James apparently involved in this Cade & Murdoch situation, who will WWE go to to face Phoenix? They need to continue to develop her as the top heel Diva, but also build up a credible challenger as well.

Foley Appearance: Mick Foley is capable of being involved in something more important than being a guest referee for a comedy match on Raw. Also, his appearance was not explained as it made no sense that Vince McMahon would name him the ref in the match. But, it is clear that WWE does not plan on using Foley for anything important any more. Plus, he did add a lot of humor to the show, which was good. His awkward checking of Coach’s private area for illegal objects was very funny. He did a good job of hooking the fans with Mr. Socko, only to confuse them by throwing it away, and then give them the satisfying payoff by giving a mini-socko to Hornswoggle. Foley could be used better than this, but it was fun so it gets a Hit.

Santino Marella: Once again, we find Santino in the Hit column. He was very funny as usual. His line about being lucky that “The Condemned” was not the in flight movie was hilarious. I am a bit hesitant about the bait and switch with Steve Austin’s music playing, only for it to turn out to be Santino on the screen doing his Austin impression. However, his Austin impression was great. As usual when Santino is on the air, I laughed out loud multiple times.

Mid-Card Development: It was nice to see Raw continue to develop the mid-card storylines that we’ve seen in the works the last few weeks. They continued the Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly storyline with their match against The Worlds Greatest Tag Team. The match was not particularly good, but the interaction between Rhodes who expected respect from Holly, and Holly who did not give him what he wanted was strong. The backstage encounter between Trevor Murdoch and Mickie James was good, as was the interruption by Lance Cade. Early on during Paul London vs. Lance Cade, I was thinking about how they were dropping the Highlanders who had been pushing for a tag title shot a few weeks back. But they came back this week. I’m not a fan of the Highlanders, and think London & Kendrick should be getting the big tag team push. But at least this was consistent with what they’ve been doing lately. Finally, they followed up nicely on DH Smith’s win over Carlito last week, by focusing on how Carlito was upset over losing last week. Carlito did seem fired up in the match. But, this was mostly the announcers doing a good job of selling Carlito’s state of mind since he got no mic time. It wasn’t great, but the mid-card stories did continue to develop, which needs to continue.

RAW MISSES

Halloween Battle Royale: After a PPV, this is not how I would have started off Raw. It was just a waste of time. There were some good exchanges between Melina and Mickie James, but other than that, there was no wrestling here. It wasn’t funny or amusing in any way. It wasn’t anything new as the Divas had the same costumes as the night before. It gave an excuse to have Beth Phoenix come out and beat up another Diva, but they could have found a much better way to do that. It did not get me excited to see the rest of Raw, nor did the other part of the show’s opening, when they announced the Main Event. During the first commercial, I was worried that Raw was going right back to where it was before last week, and I was right.

Mid-Card Matches: As nice as it was to see WWE giving some time and thought to the mid-card storylines, it would have been nice to also see them give some time and thought to the mid-card matches. Holly & Rhodes vs. T.W.G.T.T. was very short, and had a very weak ending when Rhodes finished off Charlie Haas with a DDT. That hasn’t been a credible finisher in years. Coach vs. Hornswoggle was fun, but not really a match. London vs. Cade was also too short to mean anything. If you blinked you might have missed it. Hardy & Smith vs. Carlito & Kennedy was the longest match of the night, and probably the best. But it wasn’t good enough to get a Hit. Once again in a WWE tag team match, the prolonged two on one beating of one of the babyfaces just lasted too long. There were a few nice moments during that beating, but for the most part, nothing exciting or interesting happened. The match just never got going until the very end, and by then it was too little too late.

Main Event: Who was looking forward to this match? Not me, so I can’t rightfully say that it was a disappointment. What I can say is that it was a mistake to put Triple H in another position of playing Superman. He was able to fend off the two on one attack for most of the match. And even though Randy Orton and Umaga did get in some offense, it wasn’t nearly enough to be credible. Then the match ended very quickly with the interference from Shawn Michaels. This was probably the best way to book the match, to keep it short, and have a Michaels run-in give the match a non-clean finish. But when you have to book your Main Event that way, it might be a sign that having the match as the Main Event was a mistake to begin with.

Where Was Jericho?: Clearly the fans were expecting the return of Chris Jericho, and clearly WWE failed to deliver. It is true that WWE never promised that Jericho would be there, but they clearly knew that the implication was there, and that the fans would connect the dots. So, they can say all they want that they never promised his presence, but they knew good and well that the fans were fully expecting to see him, so they have to take some of the blame here. Also, Shawn Michaels asked for a rematch on Raw, and McMahon gave him his rematch at Survivor Series. Steve Austin’s music played, but it was Santino Marella on the screen instead. And the fans chanted “Y2J” multiple times without getting something in return. No Michaels vs. Orton. No Austin. No Jericho. I would be very upset if I were in that audience.

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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