Jericho’s Promo: Chris Jericho is clearly the MVP (sorry Montel) of this show. And, I don’t just mean this week’s episode of Raw. I mean Jericho is the MVP of Raw in 2008 (at least since after WrestleMania). I would not have started Raw off with Jericho (more later), but I enjoyed his promo. Jericho’s greatness was seen after the video recap in how long it took him to start talking again. He soaked up those boos and the H-B-K chant for the perfect amount of time. That seems like such a small thing, but it really adds to the overall effectiveness of the scene. Jericho once again delivered a great promo. He is making a strong case for getting at least three end of the year awards (Heel, Promos, and Feud).
Hall & Burchill vs. Kelly & James: I enjoyed this Women’s tag match. At 5 minutes it actually went a decent length for a change. It had some sloppy spots, and Kelly Kelly isn’t quite there yet, but she has improved in the ring. The match featured some nice action. There is definitely talent among the WWE Divas. All four of these women are solid to good workers. There are plenty of others in the company as well. I was glad WWE showed them the faith to put on a 5 minute match. As some of the Divas like Kelly continue to improve, hopefully WWE will build a legitimate Women’s Division.
Punk vs. Jericho: It was a mistake to have this match (more later), but it was a good match. CM Punk and Jericho worked well together and put on an enjoyable match. It was good to see Punk bring back the submission hold in the ropes that he used to do when he first debuted on ECW. He needs a deeper repertoire of moves. He should bring back the Anaconda Vice too to give him a second finisher, the way John Cena added the STFU, or how The Rock added the Sharpshooter. I liked how they played around with some of their usual moves with counters and reversals. I also liked how Punk hit the knee and bulldog from the second rope. It is fun to watch two talented workers like this. The problem is that there wasn’t anything at stake in the match. We know that Punk is going to defend his World Title at Vengeance in the Championship Scramble, so there wasn’t anything on the line for him. We know that Jericho isn’t going to be in the Scramble, so there wasn’t anything at stake for him either. That made the near falls and tension when Punk was in the Walls of Jericho seem less thrilling. But, it was still a good match.
RAW MISSES
Hype for Raw (this week and next): As I said above, I would not have started Raw off with Jericho simply because it did nothing to hook viewers to stick around for the rest of the show. It was the start of a bad night of me wanting to change the channel either because WWE did nothing to make me want to keep watching, or they did something to make me want to not keep watching. It took way too long to announce the Main Event. There was very little in terms of announcing matches for later in the show. They did announce that Cena would be taking on the Tag Team Champs in a handicap match, but I didn’t want to watch that. I wasn’t excited about what I was seeing and they weren’t trying to get me excited about the rest of the show. They also did nothing to get me excited about next week’s show. They made a big deal about how it will air on SciFi instead of USA, but they didn’t announce anything for that show. They seldom announce anything ahead of time, but this is a clear case where they should have done so. Give the fans a good reason to make sure to check out Raw next week on a different channel.
Referee Stops the Match: John Bradshaw Layfield played his part well in his angry destruction of Jamie Noble. But, the end of the match made no sense. I assumed they were heading towards the ref stopping the match as Noble couldn’t continue, or the ref disqualifying JBL for refusing to pin Noble to continue to inflict punishment. I would have been fine if the ref had done either after the third clothesline. Instead, he waited to stop the match until he was one third of the way through counting the pin fall. What was that about? That ruined anything that JBL accomplished in the match, as all I could think about was the baffling ending.
Ademle or Cornette?: Mike Ademle’s descent into Jim Cornette (the character, not the performer) continued this week, which is bad. I will admit to laughing when he brushed aside the newest member of the Raw roster, Primo Colon, in order to talk to Cena. If he had stayed a backstage announcer and had been scripted to do things like that, it may have worked. Anyway, before coming out to make two big announcements, he made Cena vs. DiBiase & Rhodes which made no sense. Why would he book that match? It seemed random like many of Cornette’s booking decisions on Impact. Then came the two big announcements. The first was that Jericho would wrestle CM Punk in the Main Event. I have more to say on that later, but it seemed like a TNA move. Then he announced the TNA inspired Championship Scramble, a silly complicated mess of a concept match with a silly name. Vince Russo and Jeff Jarrett would be proud. What bothers me about this concept is that we are likely to get multiple new World Champions in one night, rendering championship wins and title reigns meaningless. It is a terrible idea. Also, JBL just lost to Punk, so why is he in the match? Jericho is good enough to face Punk one on one, but not be in this match? Cena lost at SummerSlam, and hasn’t been winning much lately, so what has he done to deserve the shot? Or Kane? Batista is the only challenger who seems worthy.
Cena Beats the Champs: This match was pretty good. Rhodes & DiBiase are starting to impress me with their in ring skills. It is good to see more of Ted DiBiase since he hasn’t been around as long as Cody Rhodes. There were some nice sequences during the match. However, none of that matters, because in the end Cena was able to easily defeat the Tag Team Champions. I guess the excuse is that their youth and inexperience cost them the match in how Rhodes was too cocky allowing Cena time to recover. However, Cena still showed too much fire after taking that beating for so long. He didn’t sell the long term effects of taking that beating. He just acted like he hadn’t been touched, and easily defeated two men. It isn’t anything new, but it is disappointing that WWE continues to make these mistakes again and again.
Kane’s Explanation: None of this makes sense. Kane doesn’t like Rey Mysterio. That is fine. He beat him up in the parking lot about six weeks ago and started carrying his mask around. That is fine, I guess. But, the big question that remains unanswered is “where is Mysterio?” Doesn’t anyone care? Does Kane have him locked up somewhere? Shouldn’t the police get involved? Didn’t anyone in WWE want to know why their employee had disappeared? What is even worse is that it still makes no sense. Why was Kane asking “is he alive or dead?” It makes no sense in regards to Mysterio. This seems like a clear case of WWE creative having one thing in mind, then switching it at the last minute without totally thinking about the consequences of the switch, and whether or not the new outcome makes total sense.
Giving Away Punk vs. Jericho: I don’t understand giving this match away for free for no reason and with no build or hype. It isn’t the first time that they’ve wrestled each other, so it could have been worse. But, it is the first time that they’ve wrestled in their current roles, Punk as the World Champion and Jericho as the top heel of the brand. That is a PPV Main Event waiting to happen. Now it was a good match, and fans might want to pay to see it again down the line. However, there should at least be a reason why two top stars are put into a match against each other. The match should be announced at least a week in advance if it is going to be given away on free t.v. I don’t understand this decision at all.
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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