By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Kingston, Primo & MVP vs. Swagger, Carlito & Big Show: After a poor start to the show, things picked up nicely with this good six man tag. It went 10 minutes and had some very exciting action towards the end. It is hard for anyone to stand out in a match with six wrestlers, but they did their best to make the match exciting and to each have one good moment. We got to see Montel Vontavious Porter hit a big plauncha onto Jack Swagger (I don't recall seeing MVP do that in the past). We got to see Kofi Kingston take out the Big Show with a head scissors move. We got to see Primo actually treated like a star on the rise with him getting the hot tag and eventually the win. And of course, we got to see Big Show stand tall by destroying everyone in the end. The only drawback to the match was that Swagger was lost in the shuffle.

Jericho - Rhodes & DiBiase: This is a minor Hit as Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase did well with what they were given. I was happy to see WWE at least have some interaction between the three of them, since they will be in a match at the PPV. The problem is that they are all heels and Jericho was positioned to be the babyface. The three performed well. It was an entertaining verbal exchange. I liked how Jericho admitted to being condescending, then put Rhodes and DiBiase in their place. I also liked his suggestion that his partner at the PPV might be Randy Orton. It wasn't great, but good enough to get a Hit.

Triple H & Cena vs. Legacy: A bad episode of Raw at least had a good ending. The main event handicap tag match was basically a rematch of last week's main event minus Seth Green. That was a fun match, and this one was too. What really stood out about this match was the great way that the heels and Triple H built the anticipation for the eventual hot tag to John Cena. Cena still gets a mixed reaction from the crowds, but it doesn't seem nearly as negative recently as it used to. Maybe the Cena haters have been so turned off by the overall WWE product that they aren't showing up as much to live events? Getting back to the match, the explosion when Cena finally got the tag was huge. The match built nicely to that moment and then got exciting as the action sped up leading to the good ending as Cena rolled up Orton for the win after avoiding the punt.

RAW MISSES

Opening Segment: With the few exceptions listed above, this was a mind-numbingly bad episode of Raw. The opening segment wasn't that bad. There were a few nice moments during it, but it was still a Miss on the whole. Cena had a few nice lines, and I have to admit to finding it amusing that Cena was quick to come up with a Hobbit in reference to Seth Green, while Triple H didn't know what a Hobbit is. Beyond that though, there was plenty of crap. It had a really lame ending with Orton challenging Cena and Triple H to add himself to their main event tag match against the rest of Legacy. Cena's sarcasm at the "evil genius" move was horrible. It was like the fans at home were all supposed to be thinking what Cena was saying, that with Orton in the match, he and Triple H wouldn't be able to coexist. Unfortunately for the writers, I don't think that thought entered anyone's mind. That meant we were thinking, "what is Cena talking about?" You also had the odd statement from Triple H that he doesn't actually care if he wins the WWE Title at the PPV. I know he cleared that up later in the show, but in the moment it was an odd thing to say.

ZZ Top: This is the first time that the guest host experiment has gone very wrong. After Santino Marella's initial mispronunciation of the band's name, everything that the three of them were involved in the rest of the night pretty much sucked. It was very lame how they sort of pretended to play along with their music after each encounter with a wrestler. They were too understated in their interactions with the various wrestlers. That is their real personalities, but that didn't translate to making their show seem exciting. Hopefully, Shaquille O'Neal will be a better guest host next week (I assume he will be).

US Title Match Announcement: After building up a possible Kingston vs. Evan Bourne vs. Big Show triple threat for the US Title at Night of Champions, WWE instead went with this 6 Pack Challenge. Not that I was looking forward to the triple threat, but at least time and effort had been put into building towards it, instead of the random nature of this match. MVP lost to Swagger last week, so I don't see how he deserves to be in the match. The Miz hasn't had any interaction with these guys other than the brief match with Primo last week, but Primo isn't in the match. Carlito's presence is equally random. It is just thrown together.

Kendrick vs. Lawler: The Brian Kendrick's plea to be Chris Jericho's partner could have been done better than this, like with an actual promo. This whole deal left me with too many questions. Who was Kendrick supposed to wrestle? How does Jerry 'the King' Lawler get the power to put himself into the match? From a behind the scenes stand point, what was the point of this match? Why was Lawler wrestling on this particular show? Why feed Kendrick to Lawler? How will this effect Lawler's bid to become mayor of Memphis? Kendrick has so much talent that is being wasted.

Sharp Dressed Man Match: So, Chavo Guerrero tells ZZ Top that he is tired of being disrespected by having to wrestle a leprechaun, then acts very happy when they tell him that they are booking him in another match against Hornswoggle. Did that make any sense? Has anyone ever enjoyed a Tuxedo match? Has anyone ever gotten excited over the announcement of a Tuxedo match? Hearing Michael Cole force laughter at Chavo for having his pant legs sown together was horrible. Hearing him and Lawler give Chavo a hard time for actually trying to win the match was ridiculous. Chavo hasn't asked for any of these matches. Shouldn't he try to win? He didn't book the match, so blame ZZ Top, Seth Green and Vince McMahon if Hornswoggle gets hurt. Then it was silly to have Chavo play embarrassed at being seen in his boxers. The whole segment was the real embarrassment.

Legs Match: This was just another ugly Divas tag match on Raw. They need to get Gail Kim in some singles matches with some better opponents (although I would even take a decent length Kim vs. Alicia Fox match, as Fox has shown some signs of having talent in the ring) to show what she can do. This was just way too sloppy throughout.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and Superstars 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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