By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: This was a better Raw than WWE has been putting on as of late. It got off to a good start with Chris Jericho's promo complaining about being screwed out of the World Championship by a long list of conspirators. Jericho was very good on the mic. He also addressed the main event for this week, his tag match with John Bradshaw Layfield against Batista and Shawn Michaels. He also announced his rematch with Batista for next week. Mike Ademle was better than in recent weeks in his part. Just when you thought the segment was over, Randy Orton came out to address Ademle, as well as Shane and Stephanie McMahon. He was very good on the mic also. Everyone played their parts well, and they hyped not only this week's main event, but also next week's big 3 hour Raw.

Tag Title Match: CM Punk & Kofi Kingston vs. Priceless was a good Tag Team Title match. It was nice to see a secondary Title match on t.v. go longer than 3 minutes (I'm talking to you TNA). This one in fact went about 13 minutes and featured plenty of good wrestling action. It told a story of the two very good singles wrestlers trying to over come their lack of tag team experience against a much more experienced team. The announcers did a good job of praising Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase for their tag work. They did a good job of isolating Kingston until he finally got the hot tag to Punk. The final few minutes of the match were very good with Punk entering the ring and clearing house. Kingston got a chance to show off his great athleticism when he jumped over Punk's back to take Rhodes out of the match. I am not thrilled with Priceless losing the Titles at this point, but it will be interesting to see where both teams go from here.

JBL - Michaels: A feud between JBL and Shawn Michaels has a lot of potential. As much as we have loved the Michaels vs. Jericho feud of the year, it couldn't go on forever, and they needed to move Michaels onto another feud. Jericho floundered somewhat since his return to WWE before this great feud with Michaels. JBL has floundered as well since his return late last year. Hopefully, feuding with Michaels will do for JBL what it did for Jericho. It at least gives him an opponent to have good promos with and an opponent who can elevate his in ring game, unlike say a Batista. The feud has gotten off to a good start with JBL attacking Michaels at Cyber Sunday, followed by a short but good explanatory promo from JBL, and his viscous backstage attack before the main event.

Mysterio vs. Bourne: What can I say about this match? It seems like an Evan Bourne match shows up in the Hit column every week. Put him in the ring with Rey Mysterio, either as a team or in this case as opponents, and it is almost a guarantee. This match was very fun to watch. It featured a ton of high flying, high energy action. They really worked well together and put on a good match with plenty of counters and reversals. They both can do great things in the ring that nobody else in WWE can do. I am actually looking forward to seeing a tag match between these two and Kane and Mark Henry in the near future.

Hyping Next Week: WWE did a good job of hyping next week's Raw. It is unfortunate that they only seem to put that type of effort into hyping special Raw's like the 800th episode celebration (wasn't the 800th episode like 2 months ago?). They announced two big matches for the show, plus teased an appearance by the McMahons and the possible resignation from WWE of Randy Orton. Now, I am not thrilled with what was announced for next week (more later). I still wish they did this more often. But, it was good that they did what they did.

RAW MISSES

Steel Cage Announcement: Ademle's announcement that next week's Batista vs. Jericho rematch will be a Steel Cage match failed to get me excited. Didn't he do the same exact thing recently between Chris Jericho and CM Punk? He gave the same exact reason, to keep away outside interference. It hasn't been long enough since that Raw match to make this Raw match seem special. You can't do a Steel Cage match (or any other gimmick match) every two months and expect to keep popping a rating or make the fans excited. They get watered down. Who knows? Next week's match might turn out to be very good. But for now, I was left thinking, "another Cage match? Why?"

Degeneration X Announcement: Just as I wasn't thrilled about the Steel Cage announcement for next week, I wasn't thrilled with the announcement that once again (presumably for one night only), DX will reunite to face John Morrison and The Miz. Now, I enjoyed Miz & Morrison's promo about the match. I like that they plugged a special Dirt Sheet for ECW. Michaels & Triple H vs. Miz & Morrison has a chance to be a good tag match (assuming DX doesn't squash Miz & Morrison, thus burying them, which is a big assumption). That is a fair amount of positive in a Miss. The problem is that we've seen DX reunite so many times for special occasions that like the Steel Cage, it doesn't feel special at this point. We just saw it a few weeks back when Triple H was Michaels' surprise partner in a Raw main event. And, I am worried about the outcome of the 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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