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By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Highlight Reel: Raw started off well with the Highlight Reel, and Chris Jericho’s special guest, The Big Show. It worked as there was some entertaining banter between Show and Jericho, it helped hype two WrestleMania matches, and it set up a big match for later on Raw. I was entertained, but I was confused as well. Both Jericho and Show came off as babyfaces in parts of the interview, and as heels in other parts. A case can be made for turning Jericho heel, but his reactions are getting more positive from the crowds. He got strong cheers this week. If Mayweather was turned heel last week, that should make Big Show a face, but he isn’t. So there is some heel/face confusion with both guys on this show, which was a theme for others as well.

Punk vs. Carlito: This was a good short match. I would have liked to see it go longer, but it was fun while it lasted. There was good back and forth action, and some nice nearfalls at the end. I wouldn’t mind seeing a Carlito vs. CM Punk feud in the future, which may or may not be difficult depending on how strictly WWE enforces the brand split. Considering Punk was on Raw and it wasn’t treated as a big deal, a feud between the two is very possible. On a down note, it is not a good idea to have an announcer debunk the reason a match is happening even if he is correct in his analysis.

Snoop Dogg Promo: When Snoop Dogg’s taped message started, I assumed it would be a standard WWE celebrity endorsement. The standard video turned to greatness when he said that Maria shouldn’t have shown the world her “boobies”. Hearing Snoop say “boobies” would have been enough to give this a Hit, but it just got better with the hilarious appearance by Santino Marella. Who puts a smile on WWE fans’ faces better than Santino? This was a great surprise and genuinely made me laugh out loud. Santino was fun on guest commentary later in the show also, particularly when he stole Jerry “stupid” Lawler’s sandwich.

Backstage Encounters: Raw featured very good back stage encounters this week. The first was between William Regal and Triple H. Regal did a better job than the announcers of drawing attention to the fact that Brian Kendrick left Paul London during their match vs. Umaga (hopefully that leads to something meaningful for Kendrick and London). It also served as a good segue to talking about the Main Event. Triple H’s added stipulations made sense. It was good to hear Regal raise questions that many fans wanted to ask, and for Triple H to give logical answers to those questions. This fit in with the storyline perfectly, and Regal and Triple H played their parts well. The second encounter was between Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels. Flair did all of the talking, and it worked well. He showed good fire in telling Michaels to not interfere in his match vs. Vince McMahon. This was a good tease for what would happen later in the show. The final encounter was between Randy Orton and John Cena. Again, both guys played their parts very well. The exchange was well written and fit both characters perfectly. It also made sense. Orton made sense when suggesting he and Cena take a dive. It made sense given his character that he would expect it to be Cena taking the dive. Cena made sense in not listening to Orton. His intense outburst at Orton was some of his best mic work since returning from injury. Triple H’s cameo at the end was good too. All in all, these three encounters added a lot to the show.

ECW Hype: WWE did a solid job hyping ECW on Raw. There were appearances by two ECW wrestlers, Punk and Colin Delaney. Punk is clearly over with any live WWE crowd, but the crowd was mostly silent for Delaney. It was still good to see him on Raw, and his appearance worked given John Bradshaw Layfield’s character and storyline. I like that he still doesn’t have entrance music. The big hype for ECW was announcing that the next Hall of Fame inductee will be named on ECW. It is good to see WWE try to increase ECW’s audience.

RAW MISSES

Flair vs. McMahon: This was a mess. There wasn’t a good explanation as to why McMahon would be back involved in Flair’s storyline at this point. His brief announcement early on wasn’t enough. Having Flair sell for McMahon for the vast majority of the match was not a great tribute to his career. Watching Flair bleed heavily would have had more impact if he hadn’t bled as heavily on Smackdown three days ago. The unprotected chair shot was totally unnecessary. They showed in this match how to have that level of violence while doing more to protect the wrestlers, yet they still used one. Why did Flair need help beating McMahon? The added dimension of Michaels interfering despite Flair’s request will be interesting going forward, but that is all that came out of the match. The crowd popped for Flair leaping onto McMahon (and I use the term “leaping” loosely), but the match was ugly and didn’t work.

Jericho vs. The Big Show: This match started off well with potential under other circumstances of being a good match. As it turned out, it seemed like a waste of Jericho and The Big Show. This continued the heel/face dynamic that was off during Raw. Jericho getting himself purposefully DQ’d is a heel act. This hurts his credibility as the Intercontinental Champion. Big Show looked strong at the end with the knock out punch, but he really wasn’t helped that much. I question the decision to have this match if this was the only way to book it.

Main Event: There were some enjoyable moments during Cena & Orton vs. Raw, but not enough to overcome the downside of the match. The enjoyable moments included Santino Marella’s brief appearance, and some of the fun rapid fire pins that Orton & Cena were able to get. I have to admit to getting excited watching some of the quick FU’s, RKO’s, and the great spot where Cena threw Cody Rhodes in the air to Orton for an RKO. Cena and Orton worked hard in the match to make it entertaining. However, it is still a Miss. It hurt the credibility of the majority of the Raw Roster. Sure, most who got eliminated were lower card wrestlers, but how is there ever supposed to be advancement for those guys when they are treated like this? And if these are the guys who are going to be in the 24 man Battle Royale at WrestleMania, then that Battle Royale is looking pretty weak right now. Plus we had more heel/face confusion. Why would lower card babyfaces try to destroy Cena and Orton? Why would legendary Hacksaw Jim Duggan participate in the many-on-two beating? I found myself cheering for Randy Orton, the biggest heel in the company, and that isn’t a good thing. I cheered for Triple H early on, but in the end I couldn’t cheer him any more. There was also confusion with the rules. If Cena or Orton were to be beaten until they couldn’t continue as Triple H said, then why were guys trying to pin them? Why did the referee call for the bell? In the end, it was just too confusing, to much of a mess, and too harmful to the overall product to give it anything but a Miss.

Unprotected Chair Shots: I already mentioned Flair taking an unprotected chair shot to the head. That was bad enough without having Cena hit multiple guys with unprotected chair shots rapid fire style. It happened so quickly that I couldn’t tell if they were all unprotected or not. Carlito put his hands up to block, but I know that most of the others did not. Umaga didn’t when he took the accidental chair shot from JBL. It is so unnecessary and disturbing. Carlito protecting his head didn’t take away from the spot. WWE wrestlers should be instructed to protect themselves if asked to take these shots to the head. If they choose not to, then they should be fined. It happened so quickly that I can’t even remember how many or who took the chair shots. That means that they were taking them and getting absolutely nothing in return. They were not individually memorable, and those guys got their brains scrambled for no reason.

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.

For another view from the original Hitlist author, compare Jason Powell's views to mine by visiting prowrestling.NET's "Hitlist" section here.

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