By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Legacy Wins: Half way through a bad Raw, we get our first Hit (I'm amazed that I actually have four Hits, but seven Misses makes up for it). Triple H lost to Legacy. Perhaps having one man lose to two shouldn't be a Hit, but given the history between them, it is. What I liked about it in addition to the outcome is that Legacy got the upper hand by outwrestling Triple H. They took the advantage when Ted DiBiase hit a wrestling move, not by cheating or by distraction or by a double team. And, it was Cody Rhodes' inexperience (which fits in with his character being young) in going for a moonsault that led to Triple H regaining control. And, did I mention that Triple H lost in the end? Clean? Taking a three count in the middle of the ring after Rhodes hit him with his apparent finisher?

Chavo vs. Henry: I'm giving this a Hit just because it wasn't Chavo Guerrero vs. Hornswoggle again. But, then we had to see Hornswoggle beat up Chavo afterwards. Ok. So, it is a generous Hit.

Jericho: Chris Jericho was entertaining on guest commentary during the US Title match between Kofi Kingston and The Big Show. I loved how he immediately ripped the audience for voting that Shaq would win in a match vs. Show. He is so great on the mic and knows his character so well. The match itself was ok. Show was dominant, Kingston got in a few high flying moves to wake up the crowd (his top rope Boom Boom leg drop could be a new finisher), and the DQ finish allowed Kingston to keep the US Title which was good. But, all of that was secondary to Jericho's commentary and the way he gloated over Kingston afterwards.

Slaughter Next Week: I'm not sure that Sergeant Slaughter will be a great guest host for Raw next week. His "that's an order" line had a chance to wear thin. But, I am thrilled with the fact that after several weeks of non-wrestlers in the guest host position, that there is a former wrestler hosting next week. WWE needs to change things up week to week more than they've done. Some of the celebrities have been good, like Shaq or Seth Green. But, others have been bad. This week was very bad and I am happy there won't be another one like it next week.

RAW MISSES

Opening Segment: This was one of the worst openings to a Raw ever. It was the very definition of lame. As I said above, I can't wait for a retired wrestler to be guest host to shake things up, especially after the disaster that was Jeremy Piven and Dr. Ken. I have to start by saying I don't watch Entourage and I haven't seen The Hangover (although I look forward to seeing it), so I don't have any connection to Piven or Dr. Ken. Nothing about what they did during the opening (or the rest of the show for that matter) made me want to see either of them, actor or character, in a tv show or movie ever. Dr. Ken was particularly annoying. The Miz had been so great for quite awhile on Raw after the draft, but now he needs a reality check. He hasn't done anything to make me think he has a chance against Cena, so it was hard to get excited about the prospect of seeing him lose to Cena in 2 minutes again. The Lumberjack stipulation failed to get me interested. Piven proved he isn't a real WWE fan when he messed up the name SummerSlam. SummerFest? Give me a break. SummerSlam is one of the three biggest PPVs of the year (I put RoyalRumble ahead) and has been for 20 years. It just all sucked.

MVP: I don't understand going right to a rematch of Evan Bourne vs. Jack Swagger. After Bourne got the upset win over Swagger last week, I would have rather seen Swagger cost Bourne in a match to set up the rematch, you know, to let the story build. I was disappointed in how short the match was. Last week's was 3 1/2 minutes. This week's was 2. I did like how Swagger aggressively beat up Bourne after the match, but I was underwhelmed by the save by Montel Vontavious Porter. Ever since that star making promo he cut on the VIP Lounge, MVP has been wasted. He lost clean in a relatively easy manner to Swagger the next week (again, without a proper build to the match). Then, last week he couldn't beat Chris Masters and was dominated by the Master Lock, presumably setting up a feud between those two. This week, he was back to a feud with Swagger. The writers don't seem to know what to do with MVP.

Shaq Video: I thought this was going to be a video showing the media's coverage of Shaq on Raw last week. While they showed a very few very brief clips of that, it was almost entirely just a Raw Rebound, the same Raw Rebound they showed last week on ECW, Superstars, and Smackdown. Did I need to see it again? If it had had more media reaction to Shaq then maybe it would have been interesting. But, it didn't and it wasn't.

Michaels Tease: I will start by saying that the way Triple H's post-match promo started was amusing. But, I didn't like the digs he took at Batista or Ric Flair. He could have simply said that Batista is hurt and that Flair is retired. That would have been better. The initial Shawn Michaels tease was fine, but the more I thought about it, the more I didn't like it. HBK has been gone since WrestleMania, and I have been looking forward to his return since. However, I don't look forward to another DX reunion. It will be interesting to see how they build to it, as Hunter's phone call didn't go so well (but seriously, we couldn't hear Michaels' voice, but we could hear the dial tone, which wouldn't actually happen when one person hangs up. Also, it was odd for Triple H to talk to him like he's announced his retirement when we haven't had any type of hint that he retired). So, there is some possibility of some interesting tv in the mean time. But DX vs. Legacy doesn't make me want to pay for SummerFest, I mean Slam.

The Goods: I like how Piven sits in his dressing room watching highlights from his latest movie. It addition to that and to the constant verbal plugs for the movie throughout the show, we got two full scenes from it. The first was particularly annoying as it came after Mickie James and Gail Kim had made their ring entrances. Then they had to stand in the ring and watch the video and pretend to laugh. It's not that the movie doesn't look funny. Some of what I've seen of it looks funny, some doesn't. But, I don't need it crammed down my throat during Raw.

Miz Loses Again: Not that we should be surprised, but it sucks that The Miz still can't beat John Cena even with the deck being stacked against him. After all that interference, one quick FU and the match was over as well as Miz's career on Raw. They didn't make a big deal about the fact that he lost and therefor should be banned from Raw forever.

End of Raw: This Miss includes the above mentioned lumberjack match. I hated that and the rest of the ending. You have to love the celebrity heel turn. Who is running this show? Vince Russo? Everything about it was so bad. It is sad to see Jack Swagger lumped with Chris Masters like this. Watching Cena feebly hit heels with Jeremy Piven and having them flop around like he hit them with chairs was embarrassing. I was so tired of Piven and Dr. Ken at this point, I just wanted the show to end. And, what was up with Masters, Swagger and Carlito not catching Dr. Ken? Either they did that on purpose which would be a total ass move considering he hit his head pretty hard, or they did it on accident in which case they should be ashamed of themselves for doing a piss poor job. Either way, it was all bad.

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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