By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: This is a marginal Hit. I enjoyed the opening segment, but there were some definite draw backs to it as well. It started off very well with Chris Jericho's opening promo from the top of the ladder. It was good to hear him run down his own strong history in ladder matches. He continues to deliver on the mic each week. It was interesting to see Randy Orton confront Jericho and to hear the crowd reactions to Orton. He gets cheered one moment and booed the next. His interaction with Jericho was strong. It was a bit of a let down that Jericho would walk out in the middle of the segment, but it fits his character. The segment picked up again with CM Punk. Punk looked good for ignoring Mike Ademle's edict to slap the hell out of Orton twice. The real problem came with Ademle's appearance, followed by Shane McMahon's. Why would Shane overrule Ademle's suspension of Punk, but then enforce any further suspensions the rest of the night for the same action? That made no sense. It was amusing to see him "read Ademle's mind" to make the Main Event, and it was a good way to get the fans at home wanting to stay tuned in for the rest of the show. However, it made me feel that there was little reason to have a General Manager if Shane is just going to over turn his decisions.

Punk vs. Rhodes: I am not the biggest fan of Cody Rhodes. His in ring work has yet to impress me much, but it did in this match. It was a good match. It went over 10 minutes, and despite being interrupted by a commercial break, we got to see a good amount of wrestling action. Rhodes held his own against Punk, which is good considering he is a Tag Team Champion. They worked well together. The dueling Ankle locks after the commercial were well done. I have been saying for awhile now that Punk needs to add more moves to his repertoire, and should bring back the Anaconda Vice that he did when he first debuted on ECW. The Ankle lock would be a good submission hold too as it is well established among WWE fans (at least ones who remember Kurt Angle). The end was very good as Punk made his comeback on one good leg. He did a great job of selling his injury, while still pulling off some of the kicks and knees that he always uses.

Glamarella: Another great week for Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix. Their backstage confrontation with Kelly Kelly Kelly was very amusing. I love how Santino found a way to mess up such a simple name like Kelly Kelly. Phoenix continues to put in good performances on the mic. Santino's impression of Batista's pyro dance with the lasers shooting out of his hands was hilarious, as was his shriek at Batista's presence and Phoenix's shove of Santino into Batista's chest. They are a really fun pairing. They do so many nice little things, like when Beth kissed Santino and he recoiled as it hurt his injured nose (the face guard was pure comic gold).

Kane vs. Bourne: This was a nice short match. It only went about 5 minutes, but they were a good 5 minutes. Evan Bourne continues to impress with his incredible athleticism. Kane can have good matches with the right opponent, and I would rather see him in the ring with someone like Bourne than someone like Batista. Kane performed well in the match. They accomplished the goal of making Bourne look strong against the big man, while keeping Kane strong in his feud with Rey Mysterio.

Miz & Morrison vs. Cryme Tyme: WWE did a smart thing in introducing this match with clips from The Dirt Sheet and Word Up. For one thing, they were amusing. For another, it was a good advertisement for the wwe.com videos. For another, it helped explain why the teams were facing. The match itself was a good tag team match that went over 10 minutes. Cryme Tyme has been getting good reactions from the live crowds as of late, and this was no exception. Miz & Morrison showed off why they have become such a good heel tag team with some of their double teams, distractions, and other heel tactics. Shad showed off his great power once he took the hot tag. The match had a very nice final few minutes with some good action, near falls, and a solid ending with Miz getting the pin on Shad after he was kicked from behind by Morrison.

RAW MISSES

Ademle: I already mentioned above that I don't understand the need for a GM if he is just going to be overruled by a McMahon. Ademle didn't mess up like he did last week, so this Miss is for his character, not his performance. His character is that he is a bad decision maker and is learning on the job. There is no way that a corporation would put someone so unqualified in a position of power like this in the real world (if you ignore government cronyism). Shane is trying to look good by coming out and overruling Ademle, but he is the one who hired Ademle in the first place, making him look like an idiot. I am not looking forward to seeing Ademle trying to stand up to Shane, which is the apparent direction that Raw is headed in.

The Main Event: The three on two handicap Main Event featured quite a bit of good wrestling action with some of the top stars in WWE today. But, I was disappointed in it and am giving it a marginal Miss. I was disappointed in the length of the match. It was actually shorter than Punk vs. Rhodes and Miz & Morrison vs. Cryme Tyme. They didn't interrupt it with a commercial which was good, but it was still a shorter match. It seemed like more than half of the match was Shawn Michaels taking the three on one beating from the heels. He hasn't wrestled on Raw in a long time, and when he finally does, he sells for most of the match. His selling ability is part of what makes him so strong as a wrestler, but I still wanted to see more from him on offense. He was also involved in two sloppy spots, when he turned a John Bradshaw Layfield fallaway slam into a DDT (which looked ugly) and when he blocked a Jericho Code Breaker (which looks funny). Batista got in his signature spots and looked good in taking out JBL (although JBL's backdrop on Batista to get him out of the ring was another ugly move). Michaels showed great fire in his comeback and his strong desire to kick the head off of Jericho. It was also a surprise ending with Lance Cade picking up the win. I liked that ending, but would like it more if I had any faith that it would lead to anything for Cade in the future. There was a lot of nice action, but the three sloppy moves, the fact that the match was the third longest of the night, and the fact that Michaels took such a prolonged beating, all made for a disappointing match.

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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