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By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Randy Orton: Raw got off to a good start with a good opening segment, largely due to the great work by Randy Orton. Orton made a nice surprise return (for those who don't go to wwe.com) and did some nice mic work. His early statements about the current Raw Champions was right on, making Orton look like a babyface. It was good to see him swerve the fans who were cheering for him by turning his attention on CM Punk. His mic work was very strong, as was Punk's when he came out to confront Orton. The rest of the opening was good with John Bradshaw Layfield and Kane's solid mic work (the red lighting on Kane looked sick), and Batista's three spears. Luckily, Orton's night wasn’t through. I greatly enjoyed his backstage encounter with Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase. It recalled a nice moment from the past when Orton slapped Dusty Rhodes. This was a very good moment and was followed by a second simpler but also effective moment later in the show. When DiBiase first debuted, there were some rumors that he would be part of some type of second generation faction. Could that still be in the works?

Charlie Haas: Haas is a solid in ring worker who has never been very good on the mic, or shown much charisma or character development. He seems to be finding a little bit of what had been missing with these two weeks of impersonations. Coming out as John Cena was a good way to get some cheap heat. He did a pretty good Cena. This Hit is because this persona has potential. I like that so far he is only impersonating current WWE superstars. A little more of an explanation needs to be given down the line as to why he is doing this. Last week, it was clear that he was trying to get inside Primo Colon's head by impersonating his brother. But why Cena this week? They don't have to answer that question right away, but they can't let it wait so long that people start to ask the question and get frustrated at the lack of an answer (does Jay Lethal actually think he is Randy Savage?). So far though, I am enjoying it.

Honk-O-Meter: Santino Marella continues to do things to keep him being one of the best reasons to tune into Raw each week. This week he introduced his Honk-O-Meter to keep track of the number of weeks that he has been Intercontinental Champion and how many weeks he has to go to break Honky Tonk Man's record for longest Title reign. Time will tell how long his reign lasts, but I look forward to seeing him keep track each week.

Contract Signing: I was confused during the show as to why Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho were having a contract signing for a unsanctioned match. If it is unsanctioned, do they need a contract? I also have more questions about why WWE would air a match that it hadn't sanctioned. But, those questions have nothing to do with the final verbal confrontation between these two MVPs before their big show down at Unforgiven. I don't want to repeat myself too much from several Hits & Misses of the past, but this has been the best feud of 2008. Jericho continued his great string of promos. Michaels was great as well. They were intense, without going over the top. Michaels' talk of "an eye for an eye" last week, or hoping that God forgives him this week, is a fine line to walk. He could easily go too far in his Biblical talk, but he doesn't and it fits his character (real life) very well. It will be very unfortunate if an injury to Michaels ruins what could be a match of the year contender.

RAW MISSES

Candice Michelle’s Return: I am fine with having Michelle back. She certainly had improved in the ring before her injury, although there was still a lot of room for further improvement. However, WWE didn't handle her return very well. I am glad that it was a surprise return, but the way they did it was very awkward. Why did the first two heels come out, then two babyfaces, then Beth Phoenix, then Michelle? It made no sense. She looked to have quite a bit of ring rust. She did one particularly ugly and sloppy looking move on Phoenix. She ended up winning on an inside cradle, which is the same way the previous match ended. That distracted me from her return. This just didn't get me excited about her return.

ECW on RAW: I suppose I should accept the fact that WWE will never even try to keep the three brands separate. For quite awhile, they made a big deal about how Smackdown and ECW had a talent exchange agreement. They continue to feature guys from each show on the other show, but haven't made a big deal about it being a special arrangement like they used to. Now there seems to be a new agreement between ECW and Raw. When they announced the Championship Scramble Battle Royale, my wife joked that they would have a Scramble Battle Royale on ECW and Smackdown too. Little did we know that a few minutes later, they would announce the ECW Scramble and that it would take place on Raw! It is just ridiculous that they keep doing this week in and week out. If that wasn't bad enough, later there was a scheduled match between Raw team Cryme Tyme and ECW team Miz & Morrison. That was a result of the fact that WWE needed a team for Cryme Tyme to face to have Rhodes & DiBiase attack them, but there aren't any other teams on Raw.

Use of Mysterio: Up until Rey Mysterio's actual appearance, I was expecting to give this a Hit. I liked that Kane addressed the questions from last week, saying that Mike Ademle can make all the announcements he wants, but Mysterio won't be on Raw or at the PPV. I liked his scene with Ademle. The announcers did a nice job during the show of speculating whether or not he would be in the Battle Royale. The problem came when Mysterio came out looking like nothing was wrong. I was confused as to why he wouldn't be in the match if he was there. That made no sense. A little doubt going into the PPV would have been a good thing, as people would want to know whether or not he was going to show up. Now we all know and the mystery is over. Mysterio looked good, and I hope he is healthy and ready to return. But, this does seem to ignore all of Kane's claims over the past few weeks.

Wrestling Action: There wasn't a lot of good wrestling action (or any at all) on Raw this week. Haas vs. Kofi Kingston was only 2 minutes, and was a bit sloppy. The ECW Battle Royale was too short to amount to much. It was good to see Mark Henry look so strong, but it didn't make for a good match. Jamie Noble vs. William Regal was another short 2 minute match that looked good while it lasted, but was just too short. The 6 Divas Tag match was sloppy and didn't look very good. Santino vs. D-Lo Brown was good while it lasted, but was over in another 2 minutes. Miz & Morrison vs. Cryme Tyme was over before it started. The Raw Battle Royale was o.k., went a little longer than the ECW one, but wasn't anything special. The best wrestling action was actually Mysterio's attack on Kane afterwards, but that shouldn't have even happened.

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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