Opening Segment: Raw started strong with the interaction between Chris Jericho and Randy Orton. Clearly, Jericho has been getting less than stellar reactions from the live crowds, and that was the case here (but in this case, the crowd was dead for most of the show so it is hard to judge). Therefore, it was good to see Jericho in a more serious attitude this week. He still got in some funny lines, and got in a classic “play it monkeys” type line that I was always a big fan of in the old days, but he was more serious. The segment was particularly good during the face to face confrontation. It was more intense as it should be than their previous interactions. The opening also set up the two big matches for later in the show.
Kennedy and the Impostors: This is a minor Hit for me. I liked seeing the impostors of Marty Jannety, Razor Ramon, Big Daddy Cool Diesel and Shawn Michaels. WWE did the little things to make the impersonations fun, like Razor Ramon’s pyro. The Michaels impostor was particularly good and carrying a sparkler with him was a great touch. However, the bit fell flat after the introductions. It was not as interesting as I thought it was going to be. The real Michaels had a nice appearance to help at the end. So while it wasn’t great, it was fun and it did just enough to land itself in the Hit column. Kennedy’s line to the fake Scott Hall referencing his no show at the TNA PPV was hilarious and shocking that WWE would slyly reference TNA.
Triple H: Triple H gave a great performance in two appearances on Raw. The first was with William Regal in the back, when Regal told him that his match against Jeff Hardy at Armageddon would be a #1 Contenders Match. He had a great line about pedigreeing his mom, grandmother, or his father-in-law. Regal’s reaction to that line was great too as it took him a moment to catch on to the implication. Triple H also delivered when he came to the ring as Snitsky was threatening Hardy with a chair. His tease of smashing Hardy with the sledgehammer was awesome. He then helped Hardy up, only to bring him in close in a threatening way. That moment got me excited to see where this storyline is going, and to see their match at the PPV.
A.P.A.: I enjoyed seeing a reunion of the A.P.A. It was great to see John Bradshaw Layfield play both his classic Bradshaw wrestler character at first, then get on the mic and play his current JBL announcer character second. Their appearance was a bit random, but made sense given that Hornswoggle was told by Vince McMahon to be resourceful. I was assuming it was a special one time only appearance, but JBL said that anyone with enough money could hire them, so maybe not. His plugs and refusal to allow Ron “Farooq” Simmons to talk was good, as was Simmons’ eventual “Damn!”
Main Event: This was not one of the better matches between Michaels and Orton, but it was a good t.v. Main Event. The match went 12 minutes and had some nice action. It suffered from the fact that nothing was on the line, and the fans were just waiting for Kennedy to interfere. It is interesting to see Michaels using the Ankle Lock, not so much because it is Kurt Angle’s move, but because Michaels hasn’t added a move to his repertoire in years. I am thrilled to see him shake things up and not rest on his laurels at this point in his career. The sequence on the outside with the missed Super Kick, followed by the viscous DDT, and Orton’s realization about how close he was to getting knocked out was very strong. If this were a PPV match I would have been upset in the length and lack of drama, but for a t.v. match it was pretty good.
RAW MISSES
Women’s Tag Match: The match started out strong, as Mickie James got in some good offense against Beth Phoenix. Then, it was over before it really got started. This Miss isn’t for the effort by the Divas. It is for how little time the match was given, and how Phoenix easily defeated her Armageddon opponent. It is good to keep her strong as the Women’s Champion. But, her opponent at a PPV has to be more credible going into the match. Plus, I am sick of Phoenix using a Fisherman’s Suplex as a finisher. It is no more devastating in general than a normal suplex, so why is it finishing women off? It worked as a finisher for Mr. Perfect since he actually hooked the leg and kept it as a leverage pin. But when she does it, it is just a suplex.
Lack of Quality Wrestling: None of the other matches were Miss worthy, but they weren’t Hit worthy either. Other than the Hit worthy Main Event and the Miss worthy tag match, there were three other matches. The first was Jericho vs. Umaga. This match was o.k., but short and never really got going. It had some nice action, but nothing to get excited about. Obviously, Hornswoggle vs. Coach & Carlito was a short comedy match. It was fun to see the A.P.A., but it really shouldn’t even be counted as a match. Jeff Hardy vs. Snitsky was also very short and never really got going. Hardy did his best to get the crowd into the action with his high flying moves at the end, but it didn’t work. The match was too short, and too dominated by the boring Snitsky to be worth while And, can someone explain to me exactly why Snitsky’s double underarm hook submission move is supposed to hurt? It doesn’t look painful at all.
No Flair: After the huge week for Ric Flair last week, where was he this week? I don’t think he has to be, or should be the center piece of Raw from now until he retires, but he should at least be on most weeks. And, he definitely should have been on the first week after his return last week. Technically he is on the Smackdown roster, so maybe he will be on Friday night, but even if that is the case, he should have at least been mentioned and an explanation as to why he wasn’t there should have been given.
End of the Show: I have no problem with the scene between Stephanie and Vince McMahon. In fact, it was very funny when Stephanie listed the people coming to Raw next week who despise Vince and she muttered “mom” under her breath. My problem is putting this scene last. I know they want to really push the 15th Anniversary of Raw, but they had done that very well already throughout the show. They still have ECW and Smackdown to do it also. The show should have ended with the physical confrontation between Jericho and Orton.
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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