By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: A much better Raw than last week got off to a much better start. This wasn’t a great opening segment, but a good one. I expected it to be a Miss early on with the cheesy in ring photo opportunity, but it got better. The promos were kept short and were well delivered. It was good to see John Cena more upset with Triple H than Randy Orton after what happened last week. I’m not sure why Triple H was upset at the start of Raw last week about a possible triple threat match, but this week says he wanted Cena in the match. That seems to be contradictory. Randy Orton was good in his reminder that Triple H and Cena aren’t the only two in the match. The physicality worked well. It was good to see Orton standing tall at the end after the two RKOs. There were some problems, but it still had enough good points to get a Hit.

Orton-Kennedy: This is the type of short backstage segment that should be used more often instead of long drawn out talking ones. This was a short scene between Orton and Mr. Kennedy that allowed each guy to have a nice moment on the mic. This helped sell Money in the Bank, as Kennedy promised to cash in the briefcase at WrestleMania. It furthered his cocky heel character. Orton looked good in his comeback and in disrespectfully calling him “Ken.” Kennedy was great in correcting him that it is “Mr. Kennedy.” It was short, enjoyable to watch, help set up the Main Event, sell Money in the Bank, and made both guys look good.

Hardy vs. Jericho: Jeff Hardy continues to show that he is capable of having very good performances in singles matches, not just in spot fests like ladder matches. Of course, working with talented wrestlers like Chris Jericho helps. But, Hardy is performing at a level that justifies the push that his fans really want to see him continue to get. This match had good back and forth action. I liked that the commercial break came at a different moment in the match than usual. WWE has to be more creative when it comes to commercials interrupting matches. Both Hardy and Jericho brought a lot of energy to this match. They did a nice job of teasing several of Hardy’s signature spots, some of which he would ultimately hit. It was good to see him actually connect with the Whisper in the Wind as opposed to last week when it looked like he totally missed Snitsky. The final few minutes of the match were great. There were several close and believable nearfalls, and the final finishing sequence was very unique. WWE should be happy that despite wrestling Hardy and playing a heel role, there were still plenty of cheers for Jericho. That surprised me as I thought Hardy would be the clear fan favorite.

McMahon-JBL: I have enjoyed a lot of the Vince McMahon - Hornswoggle saga. There has been plenty to not like as well. The storyline is starting to drag so it makes sense to move it in a new direction. McMahon seemed genuinely sorry for what happened last week. He even explained that JBL was just supposed to keep Finlay from interfering, making him sound sincere. A lot of people have been predicting that Finlay would be revealed as Hornswoggle’s real father. Time will tell if that is indeed where WWE is going. This adds a new twist to the story and it will be interesting to see JBL trying to prove his claim. I hope there is something more at work here. Perhaps Finlay raised Hornswoggle as his son, since his biological father wasn’t in the picture. That would explain Finlay’s connection with Hornswoggle, but keep McMahon as the father. Either way, I am at least intrigued to see where this goes.

Michaels-Flair: I was sure that Trevor Murdoch was going to attack Michaels during his match vs. Lance Cade and that Ric Flair would save Michaels, setting up a tag match. Then there would be tension between Flair and Michaels leading to their match at WrestleMania. I was worried when it looked to be coming true, but was relieved when Michaels took care of Cade & Murdoch. That would have been the wrong way to build to Flair vs. Michaels. Instead, WWE is doing in the right way. The genuine respect shown by Flair for Michaels and by Michaels for Flair was nice to see. I liked Michaels’ lines about being ashamed of past actions and not wanting to be known as the man who ended Flair’s career. Flair was great in his almost angry response that just because they face doesn’t mean Michaels would end his career. The lines about all the respect meaning nothing if Michaels doesn’t accept his challenge were spot on. I am curious to see how WWE builds this match going forward, as it got off to a good start.

RAW MISSES

Tag Match: Santino Marella & Carlito vs. Cody Rhodes & Hardcore Holly was a bad match on a number of levels. For one, a few weeks back Santino and Carlito announced that they had been named the #1 Contenders for the Tag Team Championship, and yet here they are facing the Champs, and that was never mentioned. This was a non-title match, as WWE totally ignored that angle. Second of all, it wasn’t a good match. None of these guys are great workers, and Rhodes and Santino are not very good at all. The match was short, which was good considering the quality of wrestling involved. It suffered from the fact that it was booked to just have Jerry Lawler trying to get Maria’s attention the entire time. I know that was the whole point of the match, but I found it very distracting and very annoying that instead of watching the match he kept yelling at Maria the entire time. Santino and Maria have enough issues between them with that they don’t need tension in their relationship added because of Lawler. It was unnecessary and totally disrespectful to the Tag Team Champions. It was just bad from top to bottom.

Lots of Talk, Little Action: You may notice that in my Hit column, only one of my five Hits is for a match. The others are all for talking segments. WWE spent way more time this week with talking and way less time with wrestling. Raw has had six matches most weeks, but only five this week. I hate to give this a Miss, as the talking segments were good. There were just too many of them at the expense of in ring action. In addition to the Hits above, you had a Big Show - Floyd Mayweather video which was followed by a WrestleMania press conference video which was followed by a scene with Todd Grisham, William Regal and Chris Jericho. Later you had a scene with Triple H and Cena. Then a scene with Regal and the Burchills. You had a video of Shaquille O’Neal talking about Big Show vs. Mayweather. Mike Ademle introduced the video of Peter Maivia and Rocky Johnson being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. That was followed by a video of Maria’s Playboy shoot. Meanwhile, we are getting only five matches, three of which were very short. Hardy vs. Jericho was very good and went about 13 minutes, but I would have loved to see more of it. The Main Event went only about 10 minutes with a commercial interruption, meaning we only saw 6 or 7 of those minutes. There wasn’t much total in ring action, which is disappointing. A better balance should be found.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.

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