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By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: The post Backlash Raw got off to a good start. Triple H and Randy Orton played their parts well. They had a nice verbal exchange over whether or not Triple H should be proud of his victory over Orton. It was well written as it fit in with both characters. We have seen Orton vs. Triple H many times, so I was pleased that Orton challenged Triple H on Raw, not wanting to wait for Judgment Day. I figured at the time that would lead to a different PPV Main Event, although now I’m not sure. I also like the touch of having Jim Ross announce that they would try to find out during the commercial break whether or not Orton vs. Triple H was official for tonight. That gives a little cliff hanger to tune in after the commercial.

JBL’s Promo: This is an example of how effective a wrestler can be giving a short, to the point promo. John Bradshaw Layfield didn’t need a lot of words to get over how angry he is at losing in the Backlash Main Event, how he blames John Cena for that loss, how he will get revenge on Cena, and how he still wants his WWE Championship. It was well written and well delivered. I still love JBL’s line about wanting his torch back. The end, when he told the announcers to “commentate on that” was great.

Murdoch Serenade’s Cade: This is usually something that I would give a Miss to, but I was so thoroughly confused by what I was seeing as Trevor Murdoch sang Garth Brooks to Lance Cade that I have to give it a Hit. I don’t often give Hits to moments that confuse me, but this was a good type of confusion. I was baffled, but I want to see more. It was also one of the most unpredictable moments in Raw history. Seriously, if you had told me that after his next loss, Murdoch would sing to Cade, I would have called you nuts. I am pleased to be surprised and confused, and I do want to see where they go from here. Plus, Murdoch sang pretty well.

Kennedy Besmirches Regal: WWE wants William Regal to be taken seriously, so they didn’t use his old silly line about being besmirched, but I couldn’t help myself. After sitting through four meaningless matches, it was nice to see WWE finally doing something meaningful on Raw. Regal played his part very well as the King who demands respect and is obviously power hungry. It was nice to see Mr. Kennedy back on Raw. It is interesting to see him as a babyface. The crowd seemed to respond positively to him. I enjoyed the brief verbal interchange between them, and I enjoyed the brief brawl as well. Kennedy got bloodied in a few places which added to the intensity of the moment. I am intrigued to see where WWE goes from here with not only the Regal on a rampage character, but also the Regal vs. Kennedy feud.

Main Event: This is a marginal Hit for me as the match was only good before the horrible ending. Orton vs. Triple H is just not a match that I get excited about. They did have a good match going, but it was far from great. It started out very slowly before the commercial break, although I enjoyed the action right before the commercial as Orton kicked Triple H in the head as he tried to get back in the ring, then delivered his patented spiked DDT. That was an example of some of the good exchanges that happened during the match, in between the chin locks and the methodical Orton beating. The match did pick up nicely towards the end with some good back and forth action and nice near falls. It wasn’t great and it wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen before (until Triple H locked in the cross face), so I would have been upset at paying to see this as a PPV Main Event, but it was a good t.v. Main Event while it lasted.

RAW MISSES

Undercard: The undercard of Raw was weak. None of the matches stood out as being so bad as deserving individual Misses, but they were all far from Hits. The first was the twelve Diva tag rematch from Backlash. I didn’t want to see it on the PPV, and I didn’t want to see it on Raw. Most of the Divas didn’t even get into the match, so what was the point? JBL vs. Robbie McAllister was fine as it was just a short squash to set up JBL’s anger and post match promo. London & Kendrick vs. Cade & Murdoch was fine while it lasted, but way too short. It was just to set up the post match singing, but couldn’t it have gone longer? WWE seems like they are attempting to use the tag teams recently, but it is less than half hearted when they give the teams so little time to have a match. We aren’t going to see it on a PPV, so there isn’t a reason not to give longer tag matches away for free. Super Crazy vs. Burchill & Katie Lea was interesting. I sort of like the concept of getting Lea involved like this, but the match was still short and decent at best. Santino Marella vs. Cody Rhodes was another short match that only served to set up a post match angle. And neither worked particularly well. These five matches reminded me of Impact at its worse, when there would be four or five short matches that only were on the show to set up whatever happened after the match. Impact was good last week, largely because it got away from that pattern. Raw suffered from that pattern this week.

Use of Piper: That seemed like a major waste of Rowdy Roddy Piper. They brought him to Raw, just for a brief backstage encounter with Santino Marella. It was an o.k. segment, but an appearance by any legend like Piper should be treated as a bigger deal.

Regal Pulls the Plug: As I said above, I am intrigued by the Regal on a rampage character. I like the idea of Regal being so power hungry, almost to a crazed point, that he would make questionable decisions. Having him pull the plug on the show is different and in a way, creative. It was also very unpredictable, something that Raw had in abundance back in they day, but not so much any more. The problem is that fans sat through over 20 minutes of a solid Main Event, a PPV caliber (not quality) Main Event between the top heel on Raw and the top babyface over the top Championship in WWE, and they got screwed out of seeing a finish for the match. Will some fans make sure to tune in next week (or on ECW or Smackdown) to find out what happened? Perhaps. Will some fans be so turned off that they turn off WWE for a while? Perhaps. The latter seems a more likely scenario to me than the former. After the screen went black, we could still hear Ross and Lawler calling the match (it seemed cheesy that they wouldn’t be aware of what was happening on the screen). This ending would have been better if we had at least heard Ross call the end of the match. That would have served the purpose of Regal punishing the fans by not showing them the finish, without pissing off the fans because at least we would get to know what the finish was.

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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