By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Glamarella: Beth Phoenix is a great heel, but she has shown enough personality and sense of humor in her dealings with Santino Marella that she can be in time a great babyface too. Even the simple way she asked Santino what Rosie Mendez was doing there was well done. Of course, this scene will be most remembered for Santino asking, "Please, can we keep her?" in that way that only Santino can pull off. It was a nice next step in the Rosie angle, while also setting up dissension between Phoenix and Santino. It also set up what would happen later in the show between Rosie, Melina and Phoenix. WWE did a good job of hyping the Women's Title match at the Royal Rumble.

Punk vs. Regal: Well after two disappointing weeks, it was nice to see WWE give William Regal and CM Punk 10 minutes to put on a good, intense, hard hitting Intercontinental Title match. I would have loved to see the match go longer, but it was good while it lasted. It went back and forth nicely, and built to a strong ending. They did a good job with the No Disqualification stipulation. I was glad that they didn't turn it into a brawl and didn't use weapons. It was more interesting to watch them incorporate the stipulation like when Punk had Regal in a submission on the ropes and didn't have to break at a 5 count. I loved the ending, with Regal frantically and vainly trying to elbow his way out of a Go To Sleep. Punk's Title victory celebration in front of his home town fans was very well done too. I for one would love to see this feud continue. Perhaps Regal can eliminate Punk from the Rumble.

Contract Signing: I don't understand why John Cena couldn't have just called Shawn Michaels to the ring, only to have Michaels come out with John Bradshaw Layfield. That would have been a better set up to this very good in ring segment than the cheesy contract signing. But, as I said, I liked the segment. All three were strong on the mic. I liked what Cena had to say about Michaels, and his speculation that Michaels was hurt, or had lost a step leading to him working for JBL. I liked how JBL said he already knew that Michaels was still great which is why he hired him. Michaels was great in the way he first told JBL to shut up, then got the fans to boo him again quickly by saying he would still help JBL. The end was a bit awkward with the physicality, but it still worked. It was a good final sell for the WWE Title match at the PPV.

Mike Knox: Am I the only one who loved Todd Grisham's pre-match interview with Mike Knox? I liked the format. It was interesting how Grisham was trying to get a word in with Knox before his match. I loved Knox's understated tone. It worked well and might set him apart from other monster heels. He delivered his few lines well. I also liked what he was scripted to say, that he has no idea why he keeps attacking Rey Mysterio. I suddenly want to hear more from him. His match with Mysterio was a fine tease for more in the future, and he showed great intensity in the beating which led to the disqualification.

Royal Rumble Video: This was basically an updated version of the same video with statistics that WWE played before last year's Royal Rumble. I enjoyed it then, and I enjoyed it again this year. It is a nice trip down memory lane for long time fans. It makes the event feel more like a sporting event with the statistics. It also makes this year's Rumble feel important since the previous Rumbles were treated as important in the video. It was a strong way to hype the PPV.

Orton Punts McMahon: Until Randy Orton came out at the end of the show, the final segment was going nowhere (more later). But, things got better quickly once Orton arrived. His verbal confrontation with Stephanie and Vince McMahon was much more enjoyable than Chris Jericho's. Orton gave a great performance. He was supposed to be the heel, but clearly that idea backfired as the fans were clearly behind him. That is a testament to the work he is doing now, as opposed to four and a half years ago when WWE tried to cram him down the fans' throats as a babyface. Most fans would embrace him in that role now. In the end, it all came down to that punt to McMahon's head. I was thinking throughout that Orton might hit McMahon with a sudden RKO, but I never thought of the punt until McMahon was knocked to the mat. It was very effective. Orton's shocked-at-his-own-actions acting afterwards was very good. Having the rest of Legacy come out to support him was a nice touch. Am I the only one who thinks he was working with Stephanie to get Vince out of the way again, so that she can run the show by herself?

RAW MISSES

Short Matches: With the exception of the good IC Title match, the matches on Raw this week were painfully and ridiculously short. WWE had a chance with a six man over the top rope challenge to really show what makes the Royal Rumble so great, but instead put on a very short match which only set up the idea that Legacy would work together at the PPV. The result was good, but why make it so short? Next came Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix. Kelly was the most improved in the ring in 2008, yet here in early 2009 she is in a 1 minute match. I understand wanting to make Phoenix look dominant going into the Rumble, but a 1 minute match against a talented wrestler? Either make the match longer, or get a jobber for Kelly's role. Knox vs. Mysterio was only a few minutes before the disqualification. After a fun verbal exchange between The Miz & John Morrison and Cryme Tyme, they had a 1 minute tag match. By winning, Cryme Tyme earned a future Tag Team Championship match, but who wants to see it after this embarrassingly short match? Melina vs. Jillian Hall was another very short match.

Recap Videos: After the annual tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., Raw started with a recap video of what happened to Vince McMahon 6 months ago. That was the first of many recap videos during the show. That one I agree with. It made perfect sense given the circumstances. I can put up with some of the others, like showing the set up for the No DQ IC Title match, or the long video on Shawn Michaels and JBL, or the video package on the Mike Knox vs. Rey Mysterio feud, or the Smackdown Rebound, or Rosie Mendez attacking Melina last week (that is a lot to put up with). But, if I have to put up with all of those "reasonable" replays, then why do I have to put up with replays of events that happened on this show? I don't need to see a replay of Stephanie McMahon slapping Randy Orton not long after the original slap. I don't need to see a replay of the Michaels, JBL and Cena attack not long after the actual attack. What kind of attention span do they think I have? Maybe all of these recaps is why the show went so long, when the matches were so short.

Jericho's Apology: As I mentioned above, I wasn't enjoying the final segment of Raw until Orton came out. I just didn't buy into Chris Jericho apologizing. Part of it is that I don't buy into Stephanie McMahon as a babyface, so I actually find myself rooting for Jericho. I think I was supposed to love seeing him humiliated, but it didn't work. It was all pretty lame. It is good that WWE had a plan, because for awhile I was thinking that it was a total waste of Vince McMahon for him to return for what he was doing. It was actually rather boring and didn't seem like a good payoff to the surprising firing of Jericho last week.

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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