By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

Well, I’m back. After a train ride, three flights, two layovers, and a car ride (a trip totaling about 25 hours!) I have returned from Italy to resume my Hits & Misses duties. I want to thank Mike Roe for filling in for me while I was gone. Thanks a lot Mike!

RAW HITS

Jericho vs. MVP: This was one of the few good matches during the King of the Ring Tournament, and a nice way to start the show. I would love to see a prolonged feud between these two, but they have now had a couple of matches which may water down the potential feud. That being said, it was a good 6 minute match that I would have liked to see go longer. One of the problems with the tournament format is that it leads to shorter matches. Unfortunately, after the good start, the tournament went downhill for the most part.

European Tour Video: WWE always does a great job of promoting their international tours with exceptional video packages afterwards. This was true here. They made the trip feel special, for both the fans and the wrestlers themselves. I have said it before, but WWE could do these videos to promote American house shows more often as well.

Michaels - Batista: I have been catching up with this storyline (and everything else) in a very short amount of time, and I have to say that I liked what I saw. I have enjoyed the verbal confrontations between Shawn Michaels and Batista. I have enjoyed Chris Jericho’s involvement as well. He has played the instigator and agitator very well. It has been good to see Batista involved in something more important than his lame WrestleMania match vs. Umaga. I liked in this particular segment how Michaels teased the Superkick at the end. It was another good confrontation between them, in a series of good confrontations. Michaels vs. Batista has a chance to be a very good match.

Jericho vs. Punk: After the opening match of the tournament, WWE finally put on another good match after a decent match (CM Punk vs. Matt Hardy) and two ridiculous matches (Finlay vs. Khali and Hornswoggle vs. William Regal). This was arguably the best match of the night. It went 7 minutes which was long for the tournament and had some good back and forth action. It would have been nice if the announcers had mentioned the brief history between Punk and Jericho in Money in the Bank and the night after on Raw, but that is my only complaint about this match. Again, I would have liked to see it go longer, but it was good while it lasted.

King Regal: Of all the choices to become King of the Ring, William Regal is probably the best. If the winner is to go the Booker T route and play up the King persona, then Regal is the only one who can really pull it off. If not, Regal is still a suitable person to hold the title. If he remains mostly just an authority figure, he can use the title to lord over the Raw roster. If he is to have more of an in ring presence (I would love to see it), then this is a good jump start to his in ring push. Either way, Regal makes the most sense to win the tournament.

Elimination Announcement: I was thrilled when the announcers said that the Fatal 4 Way Main Event at Backlash will be an elimination match. WWE is billing this as the four biggest stars on Raw trying to prove that each one is the best, so it makes perfect sense to do it as an elimination match, so that there can’t be a fluke victory. The winner will have to earn the Title and the fans should benefit from a better match.

End of the Show: Raw finished strong with a fun Main Event and an even better post-match fight. The 8 man tag was a nice way to get all the men from the Backlash title matches on the show at the same time. It allowed most of them time to hit some signature moves, which the fans really responded to. After the match, things really picked up with the series of finishers starting with John Cena FUing Edge. Randy Orton has become such a great heel, and his surprise RKOs are to be looked forward to. The show has a very strong ending with Undertaker standing tall after the double chokeslam. The match was a good tease for the three matches at the PPV.

RAW MISSES

King of the Ring Tournament: This was a pretty lame tournament, thrown out there with very little build and no real consequence for the winner. WWE did a poor job of explaining to the fans why a wrestler would want to become King of the Ring. Little history of the tournament or its prestige was stated. The idea that the wrestlers didn’t know their opponents was o.k., but WWE does that gimmick fairly often (for instance, the nearly annual Beat the Clock sprint on Smackdown). The upper half of the bracket was impressive with three solid matches, but the lower half was a joke. The Great Khali’s presence immediately brought the bottom bracket down at least a peg or two. The same can be said of Hornswoggle. There was no reason not to fill the tournament with eight legitimate wrestlers. Clearly, WWE wanted to give Regal an advantage in the final round against CM Punk, but in doing so they really hurt the tournament. Raw could have easily been two hours this week, taking away the horrible political mess (more later) and waiting to have the finals of King of the Ring and Backlash. That would have given a little more time to the matches in the tournament, and given another big match to the PPV.

Political Presence: I am totally in favor of WWE’s Smackdown the Vote campaign. I am all in favor of WWE encouraging the fans to vote and make their voices heard on election day. I thought it was cool to have the three remaining candidates address the fans. Unfortunately, the three addresses were so forced and cheesy with the multiple wrestling references. Wrestling fans often feel like we are being treated like children. We feel that our intelligence is not respected. That feeling is underscored when you have politicians talking to us like we only care about wrestling and aren’t normal Americans. None of them watch wrestling, so why not just address the fans, encourage them to vote and make a brief statement why they are the best candidate? That would have been much better. Plus, the debacle with the fake Hilary (and Bill) Clinton and the fake Barack Obama was embarrassing to watch. I mean really really embarrassing. Here Clinton and Obama actually agreed to pre tape a message for WWE’s fans, and WWE responds by making fun of them. Very classy. I could go on, but I don’t want to waste any more of my time on this stupid segment.

Divas Confrontation: I for one was not thrilled when I saw Mickie James beat Beth Phoenix for the Women’s Championship with absolutely no build at all. WWE went back to a storyline from several months ago of James being frustrated over her losing streak to Phoenix without reestablishing the angle and had James win in a very random way. Now we get the cheesy congratulations from the other babyface Divas. It was all very forced. Then we get the confrontation with the heel Divas which was also forced. The real problem here is that in treating the Divas as two big blocks of wrestlers, none of them stand out. None of them have distinct characters or personalities. Wouldn’t the other heels be upset that Beth Phoenix is the only one among them to claim a Women’s Championship match? Why would Melina for instance back up Phoenix? Shouldn’t se want her own shot at the Title?

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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