By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

The Ladder Match: Carlito looked like he had something to prove in his ladder match vs. Jeff Hardy. You know what to expect from Hardy in a ladder match, but Carlito was very good. They had some nice teases of big ladder spots early on, and then gave the fans many good spots as the match progressed. Carlito was very impressive in hitting Shelton Benjamin’s spring board onto the ladder from Money in the Bank a few years ago which the cameras didn’t quite catch. Luckily, that wasn’t the case here. That was followed by the huge sunset flip. The match actually told a story in Carlito’s focus on Hardy’s leg and the questions of whether Hardy would be able to climb a ladder with a bad leg, and what the consequences of the match would be for his big PPV match vs. Triple H on Sunday. All in all, it was a very good match.

HBK’s Promo: Shawn Michaels gave a good promo that accomplished multiple goals. It played into the nostalgia of the show. It set up a match for later in the show. And, it hyped Armageddon. The end was great as Michaels spoofed Mr. Kennedy’s name echo.

RVD: When Santino started to request a star of the past to come out, I was expecting more of a verbal interchange, so I was thinking Mick Foley. I was shocked when Rob Van Dam’s music played, and I thought it was just Santino pulling a fast one on the fans. But, Mr. Monday Night was back and the crowd went crazy. WWE could use him back full time. RVD seemed to enjoy the crowd response. His “match” with Carlito was short, but fun as he hit the 5 Star Frog Splash and did the R-V-D pose. This Hit is mostly just for getting to see RVD again.

Evolution Reunion: The video of Evolution, followed by seeing Ric Flair, Triple H, and Batista in the ring together was a nice moment. It was also great that Randy Orton refused to join them in the ring. The verbal sparing was strong, as was his introduction of Edge as being the teammate that he was proud to have been involved with. The match was short, which is to be expected. It had some great teases of possible future matches, particularly Orton vs. Batista. It was also good to hear them acknowledge the Flair storyline and specify that the lose and you are fired stipulation only is in regards to singles matches.

Hogan: This was a nice moment, given the history of Hulk Hogan. The crowd ate it up. It was a shameless plug for “American Gladiators” but it also gave Hogan a chance to put the WWE over, along with putting over the younger wrestlers (at least verbally). His confrontation with The Great Khali was a nice way to plant the seeds for a possible WrestleMania match.

Ted DiBiase: When the Battle Royale wrestlers had been introduced, I was upset that “The Million Dollar Man” Ted DiBiase wasn’t among them. So, I was very happy when he made his appearance at the end to buy the victory from his old tag team partner Irwin R. Shyster. For newer fans, the match was probably a waste of time. But, for long time fans like me, it was a nice trip down memory lane. I thought WWE could have done better picking the participants for the Battle Royale itself (more later), but I was pleased with the end. I wish DiBiase had given a fan a chance to win $100 like in the old days, but hearing his old catch phrase was good enough.

Bischoff and Jericho: Eric Bischoff is a guy who could contribute if he came back full time (maybe not as a general manager at this point, but just a manager, or an announcer, etc.). His promo was fun, and his interaction with Chris Jericho was as well. This was a good example of how WWE used stars of today with stars of the past, in the same segment to great effect. It played off their past very well, and got Jericho in the ring to actually have some interaction with Randy Orton in order to hype their Main Event match at Armageddon.

Jillian, Trish and Lita: This was another example of stars of the past working well with stars of today. Of course, Trish and Lita are not far removed from their prime work in WWE. Jillian Hall was great in her horrible singing character as usual. Neither Trish, nor Lita were great here, but they played off of each other well and delivered a memorable segment.

End of the Show: With a few reservations, the end of the special Raw was very good.
Steve Austin saved the segment after a bad start (more later). His attempts to get McMahon up to have a toast and share a beer was a lot of fun. He was very funny, particularly when he got on the ground next to Vince. The Stunner was predictable, but that is to be expected on a show like this. It was nice to see the wrestlers acknowledge the fans in the end which is a nice tribute to us.

Flashbacks: The many flashbacks during Raw were very special. Having seen every clip shown during the night, I can say that I am pleased with the selection. It was nice to see them broken into various categories. The highlights were Austin driving the zamboni to the ring (for my money, a much better moment than the more famous beer truck incident), and of course the birth of Mr. Socko followed by Dr. Austin attacking McMahon in the hospital. WWE did a great job of making this anniversary feel special and giving the long time fans lots of things to fondly look back on. It is unfortunate that WWE refuses to acknowledge the life of Chris Benoit at this point, as the Radicalz first appearance on Raw, when he, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko jumped from WCW was a huge moment in Raw history.

RAW MISSES

Opening Segment: Unfortunately, not all of the trips down memory lane were good. Raw got off to a good start with the McMahon family portrait interrupted by Triple H. Triple H’s initial introduction of Melina, Sunny (who looked like she had lost a ton of weight since I last saw her - WWE should think about hiring her, if they want to actually ever have good managers again), and Mae Young. Mae Young should have been the end of the parade of former stars at this point. If Shane and Stephanie had stormed off at that point (after the kiss), and Triple H had brought out The Godfather, it would have been much better. The men brought out as supposedly having been mistaken for women by McMahon was stupid. It went too far. It wasn’t funny. It brought the opening down many pegs. It made it too long, and none of them were particularly worthy of being on this show (other than The Fink who was on later anyway).

Battle Royale Participants: I like that WWE tried to mix stars of the distant past, with stars of the recent past. But, they could have done a better job. When I think of stars of Raw, I don’t think of Bob Backlund, Skinner, or The Repo Man. The Goon was on for about a month and very few people even remember him. Replace those four with some more recent stars, and the balance would have been better between early Raw stars like IRS and Sergeant Slaughter, with mid Raw stars like Bart Gunn and Pete Gas (Mean Street Posse in the house!), and later Raw stars like Al Snow and Scotty Too Hotty.

New Tag Team Champions: This seemed like one of the weakest Title changes in WWE history. The old Tag Team Champions haven’t been on much lately, and neither had the challengers. There was no build to this match, and no program at all involving either team. The match was over almost as soon as it started. Clearly, WWE was going for a feel good moment with Dusty and Cody Rhodes, but it was a bad Title switch.

Kennedy vs. Jannety: The last major appearance for Marty Jannety (at least in a match) was when Kurt Angle brought him back during the build to his match vs. Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania 21. Angle vs. Jannety from Smackdown was a great match and nearly got Jannety a job with WWE (if memory serves he had some legal issues and got released). That was two and a half years ago, and the time showed for Jannety. He looked great then, but looked bad now. I like the idea for the match, but the match itself wasn’t very good. It was just sloppy and Jannety was a few steps slow.

Waste of Foley: I mentioned earlier that I had some reservations about the end of Raw, and my main problem was that it was a major waste of Mick Foley. He came out, didn’t say a word, and gave McMahon the Mandible Claw. Then he disappeared as Undertaker was coming out. That was it. He had very little screen time (other than in the flashbacks). Couldn’t they come up with something more for him to do?

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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