Opening Segment: This is a marginal Hit. There was good and bad in the opening segment, but the good outweighed the bad to land in the Hit column. John Cena’s opening promo was strong. It wasn’t great, but it served its purpose. The Big Show was good in his promo, particularly comparing his WrestleMania match to the iconic moment when Hulk Hogan slammed Andre the Giant. John Bradshaw Layfield seemed out of place. The hype for JBL vs. Finlay hasn’t been strong, and it hasn’t been held up as being as important as Big Show vs. Mayweather or the Main Event, so he had a less than convincing argument. Randy Orton was good in his role. It was interesting to see Umaga actually cut a promo. I am fine with the fact that he doesn’t speak English, but I find it hard to believe that he would have difficulty figuring out how to use a microphone. The Cena translation afterwards was stupid. The segment was going downhill at that point, particularly with Triple H’s lame joke about his t-shirt, but it picked up nicely as Triple H put the focus on the WWE Championship. The segment worked in the end, because it did a good job selling the importance of WrestleMania to these men. They got enough mic time to sell their match which was good. It also set up the big Main Event for Raw, yet I have to ask, what was William Regal planning to do for a Main Event on the last Raw before WrestleMania?
Flair Video: This was a great video on Ric Flair’s career. It was nice to see classic footage of Flair from the NWA, WCW and WWE. We saw some of his greatest opponents, and plenty of Flair being the Nature Boy. I somewhat question playing the video at this point, as it is strong evidence that his career will end at WrestleMania (especially coupled with the end of the Main Event). But, considering his Hall of Fame induction on Saturday, and I can accept the video at this point. Besides, it was so good, I can’t complain about seeing it. Really, WWE did a great job on Raw with their video packages. In addition to the Flair retrospective, there was also two good videos on Big Show vs. Mayweather and another one on the triple threat Main Event.
Flair - Michaels: This was the last on a list of great segments involving these two legends in the build to WrestleMania. Flair was great, as you would expect. His passion was unmatched by anyone else on the show. His opening promo was good, but he got even better after telling Shawn Michaels to shut up. His verbal tirade about not needing to be told who he is was strong and memorable. For his part, Michaels was understated, which was a good move. He didn’t need to be boisterous here as Flair was boisterous enough for the both of them. He gave a good contrast. His story about “Old Yeller” was a bit on the lame side, but it got the fans booing him which was the point. Flair’s slaps contrasted by Michael’s calm demeanor was great as well. After the great hype, I can only guess Flair vs. Michaels tops the list as the most anticipated WrestleMania match this year for most fans, and I’m not sure what would come in second.
Main Event: This was not a great match from a wrestling action point of view (not bad either). But from the view of selling the biggest matches at WrestleMania, this was a great match. The appearances by Finlay and Batista made sense and were nice teases of the brawls we will see in their matches. Randy Orton was great in his attempts at ordering Big Show around. In a way, Big Show looked the strongest of anyone in the match. It was interesting that he would turn on Orton and walk out of the ring, continuing his heel/face dynamic that has been going on the last few weeks. That left things four-on-one, but it broke down even further. The brawl between Triple H and Cena was a good reminder that it is a triple threat match on Sunday and they will be trying to hurt each other as much as trying to hurt Orton. The tension that was present earlier in the night between Flair and Michaels came to a head when Michaels tried to take Flair out, only to have Flair turn the table on him. I knew that Flair would get the fall in this match, as it is another sign that his career will be coming to an end. If that is indeed the case, then this was a fitting send off for him on Raw.
RAW MISSES
Use of Mr. Kennedy: This Miss is for everything Kennedy has been involved in for the last few weeks, ever since Raw ended with him standing tall after taking down John Cena. The next week, Cena easily defeated Kennedy. The next week, Finlay destroyed Kennedy. Last week he wasn’t on at all. And this week, he was barely on, only to have a short pre-taped promo about the Money in the Bank ladder match. Is he hurt? He didn’t have to do too much in getting beat on by Finlay and then the next two weeks he didn’t appear in the actual arena. This is one example of how the seven participants in Money in the Bank have been booked to look fairly weak going into WrestleMania. We’ve seen Chris Jericho get knocked out. We’ve seen just about all the participants lose clean matches. We’ve seen MVP get knocked off of a ladder. We’ve seen Kennedy take a beating from Finlay. It is like they are all limping to WrestleMania. Kennedy’s attempt to repeat should be treated as a big deal, but it hasn’t been.
Holly vs. Khali: WWE has made it very clear that The Great Khali is one of the 24 men in the Battle Royale at WrestleMania. We know he is in it, because he has been involved in all of the hype for it. We also know Kane, Chuck Palumbo, the Miz, Jamie Noble, Mark Henry, and Big Daddy V. Now we finally know one man from Raw, Hardcore Holly who will be in it as well. So this match served that purpose. I guess if there are no bigger names involved than the ones listed above, I can understand not wanting to announce any others, but I would have preferred to see Holly face someone else from Raw who will be a part of it. We never need to see another Khali squash. The hype for the Battle Royale has focused way too much on the big men.
Divas Mess: Candice Michelle isn’t very good in the ring, but she is solid and had improved quite a bit before her injury. It is unfortunate that she re-injured herself, because it means that she will be replaced by my least favorite diva, Ashley. She wasn’t in the ring very long, but she looked bad while she was in there. Of course, Maria isn’t good either, and Melina is just o.k. This is exposing the Divas division as the joke that it is. Even Santino Marella couldn’t save this mess, because he wasn’t given the chance to talk and nobody cares about seeing him wrestle. This was just a mess of a match, and BunnyMania has to be the last anticipated match at the PPV. WWE has talented women wrestlers (a few), but they split them onto two different rosters, and push ones like Maria and Ashley instead of one who can actually wrestle like Mickie James. Why even bother having a match? If it is just for sex appeal, then make it a BunnyMania Bikini contest and get it over with.
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.
