Glamarella: Whoever decided to pair Santino Marella with Beth Phoenix deserves a raise. This duo has been consistently one of the best acts in WWE since they started flirting a few weeks ago. Santino was great on guest commentary during Phoenix vs. Kelly Kelly. He was even better after the match, first in telling Phoenix to do the move he likes where she picks her up and smashes her, and then in challenging Mickie James because he needs to learn where he can touch a woman in a match before the inter-gender tag match at SummerSlam. Phoenix plays a great straight-woman. Her facial reactions to Santino’s antics are great. Santino’s over exuberant victory celebrations are hilarious. I loved when he jumped into Phoenix’s arms. I love these two.
Ademle’s Performance: I will admit that Mike Ademle has been solid as the Raw General Manager so far. He is being scripted to be a fair GM which is good. He hasn’t made any huge mistakes yet. He doesn’t have the charisma that most GMs of the past have had, but he is at least doing a solid job. He sounds like he knows what he is talking about, as opposed to when he is announcing. I haven’t liked his booking decisions, as they remind me of Jim Cornette’s on TNA, but that is the writers’ fault.
JBL - Punk: The in ring confrontation between John Bradshaw Layfield and CM Punk was the highlight of the night, which is usually reserved for Chris Jericho segments. This was one of JBL’s best performances on the mic since returning to the ring. This was a very good performance by Punk as well. It started off very well with Punk interrupting JBL. That made him look strong. He held his own and got in his points about being a worthy World Heavyweight Champion. I like what he said about John Cena and Batista, and how despite what they said earlier in the show, he is the man. I loved JBL’s attempts to tempt Punk with the alcohol. This would have worked better if WWE had done a better job in recent months of playing up Punk’s straight edge lifestyle like they once did. But, that is a minor complaint. It is very interesting to see a babyface with actual morals and ethics. In the past in WWE if someone refused to drink, he (or she) would be likely to receive a Stone Cold Stunner. Now, Punk is getting cheered for standing my his convictions. The physicality at then end worked well also.
New (Old) Tag Team Champs: Despite the fact that Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase had a good showing in their match last week, losing the Tag Titles made them look weak and was a mistake. It was not a good way to build their credibility. They should be the Tag Team Champions, so I was glad that they recaptured the Titles this week. I’m not thrilled with the fact that they only won because John Cena and Batista couldn’t get along as Champs, but at least Rhodes & DiBiase regained the gold. Also, that fit in with their good promo from earlier in the show when they talked about being a good team. I like the emphasis on their teamwork.
RAW MISSES
Cena vs. Batista at SummerSlam: I am not excited about SummerSlam this year. A big part of that is that the show is being built around two non-title matches (and I care very little about the three title matches themselves), Edge vs. Undertaker which for me is the only reason to get the PPV, and Cena vs. Batista which isn’t working for me. John Cena was right in a way during the overly long opening segment when he said WWE doesn’t have to do much to hype this match. The problem is that they have to do something, and I haven’t enjoyed what they’ve done. The biggest issue is that this confrontation came out of nowhere and hasn’t had enough time to build. They should have saved it for WrestleMania and built up to the match for a few months, not just a few weeks. The opening segment had some nice moments and Batista was particularly strong on the mic, but it is hard to get excited about a match when the opponents hardly have anything bad to say about each other. Cena once again did a long lame non-funny list of potential ways to hype the match. He needs to stop doing those. Later in the show, the hype continued during the Main Event. This was better. There were some nice moments between the two during their match against Rhodes & DiBiase. Their brawl at then end was good too. The problem is that it still feels rushed. I don’t buy these two having a pull apart brawl so early in their “feud” when they really don’t have an issue with each other. It comes down to the fact that the match is being fast tracked for SummerSlam before it is ready to happen.
Kane Storyline: Let me get this straight. Ademle wanted to get Kane’s burlap bag, since he is worried that school kids would imitate Kane by carrying around a similar bag? I think he is overestimating Kane’s star power. Seriously, what was he talking about? I didn’t really understand his reasoning for booking Kane against Chris Jericho. There are too many matches at SummerSlam, so he makes one for Raw? His entire reasoning behind wanting to see what is in the bag was confusing. The actual confrontation with Ademle finally getting Kane to reveal the contents of the bag left me with mixed feelings. I like that Ademle actually posed the theory that many fans have had. It is nice to hear anyone on a wrestling show these days say what the fans are thinking. I also liked the fact that the reveal was unexpected. I can’t imagine too many fans were thinking that Kane has been carrying around Rey Mysterio’s mask. But that is also part of the problem, as the surprise was a bit too surprising. It came out of nowhere. I like that this seems to show that they have a plan for Mysterio and an explanation as to why he hasn’t been on Raw much since being drafted. There is also time to fill in the gaps in the upcoming weeks. However, I don’t see how Mysterio can be the one Kane was asking about. Why would he be asking about if Mysterio is alive or dead? That doesn’t make any sense. Maybe it will all be explained in the future, but I doubt it. For now, I’m just left more confused than anything else.
Match Quality: This was one of the weaker episodes of Raw in terms of wrestling, which is saying something. Phoenix vs. Kelly was a short squash which is fine as it kept Phoenix strong, but the match itself was too sloppy. Also, a short squash makes Phoenix look impressive in the context of longer matches. But when all the matches are short, being able to finish off Kelly in that amount of time becomes less impressive. Santino vs. James was fun, but also very short. Cryme Tyme vs. The Highlanders was another short squash. It was a bit sloppy and not particularly enjoyable to watch. Jericho vs. Kane was also short, but a bit longer at 5 minutes. It was sloppy and clunky. Jericho and Kane did not work well together. It was also a waste of Jericho’s talents. There was another very short squash in Jamie Noble vs. William Regal. What is upsetting about that is that Noble was treated as an equal to Regal last week in their brawl, but this week he was quickly and decisively defeated. How do you make any issue seem important when it is over before it gets started? Regal vs. Noble could be a very good match, but Regal dominated Noble and killed the feud. The Main Event rematch of Cena & Batista vs. Rhodes & DiBiase wasn’t very good. It only went 8 minutes and was interrupted by a commercial break. That is very little wrestling action, and most of that was just Cena and Batista taunting each other. Last week’s Tag Team Title match was very good. This week’s wasn’t.
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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