By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: This is a marginal Hit. I was expecting to give it a Miss for awhile. I wasn't thrilled with the confrontation between Randy Orton and John Cena. Maybe I've seen it too many times before. Maybe it had to do with the fact that Cena was trying to act incredibly serious and intense, but I kept waiting for him to say "poopy". That's probably not fair, but it was how I felt. I was not liking what I was seeing, then Jeri-Show showed up and things changed. It was something unexpected and different. It was interesting that there were two heels coming out to challenge one babyface and another heel. The brief promos from Big Show and Chris Jericho were well delivered. It set up two main events for Raw to get fans interested in the rest of the show. It started off poorly, but finished strong enough to get a Hit.

Kelly vs. Fox vs. Kim vs. Phoenix: This match was only 4 minutes which is disappointing. It should have easily been 6 or 7, but I am still giving it a Hit as it was very enjoyable while it lasted. Also, I have recent memories of six diva tag matches that were shorter than this, so I am a bit forgiving in this case. Kelly Kelly, Alicia Fox, Gail Kim and Beth Phoenix all looked good in this match. I would like to see more singles matches in the division to really see what these ladies can do in the ring. They all showed they are at least skilled enough to get that opportunity. We all know what Kim and Phoenix can do, and I want to see more of the other two as well. This match had more high flying moves than we usually see from the Divas and not just from Kim. Phoenix looked very impressive in her attempt to slam both Kelly and Kim at the same time. And in the end, the right woman won.

Sgt. Slaughter: This is another marginal Hit. Sgt. Slaughter wasn't great as the guest host, but I appreciated WWE doing something different with the role. We only saw him as an authority figure once, but we were at least told he was making decisions behind the scenes. Mostly, he just came out to stick it to the Canadian fans. None of the three segments were particularly good, but it was nice to see a guest host in a clear cut heel role, making fun of the audience instead of pandering to them.

MVP - Swagger: While I wasn't thrilled with the short length of Jack Swagger vs. Evan Bourne (more later), I liked what WWE did with Swagger and Montel Vontavious Porter. MVP gave a good promo challenging Swagger to a match. Swagger was good in his response. The crowd was definitely fully behind MVP which was nice to hear. Later, after the nice strong win for MVP over Chris Masters, Swagger got some revenge by distracting MVP long enough for Masters to put on the Masterlock, feeding him to Swagger for the gut wrench powerbomb.

End of Raw: There was both good and bad in the final segment of Raw, and like the opening segment, the good outweighed the bad. Cena vs. Jericho was solid. There was one blown spot when it looked like Jericho went too early to grab Cena during the "you can't see me" routine, but otherwise the match had good action. It was only 7 minutes which was ok under the circumstances. I wasn't thrilled with the way Orton came into the ring at the end and didn't do anything. He had a chance to attack Cena, but instead just stood there. That was odd. The physicality with Jericho and then Show getting the upper hand on Orton and Cena worked well. I liked the announcement from Sgt. Slaughter for the tag match next week, although that does call into question how much power a guest host has if a previous guest host can book matches for your show. In the end, the tease for next week put the segment over the top into the Hit column.

RAW MISSES

Length of Bourne vs. Swagger: I am disappointed that the "feud" between Swagger and Bourne was just a set up to a Swagger vs. MVP feud. As I said above, I like what they did with that feud this week. However, it could have waited until this feud played itself out. Bourne has too much talent to be a stepping stone like this. After he got his surprise win, he has been beaten quickly by Swagger two weeks in a row. I enjoyed this match while it lasted, but it was 3 minutes long. That made Swagger look strong, but Bourne look weak. There is a way for a feud to end with one wrestler coming out on top, while making the eventual loser look better than he did when the feud started. It is about elevating both wrestlers with a meaningful series of longer competitive matches. WWE hasn't been doing much of that lately. Hopefully they will do a better job with Swagger vs. MVP because it is a definite candidate for this type of feud.

Miz Back Already?: What was that all about? Could WWE be more apathetic for an angle? Last week, they barely made any type of a deal out of the fact that in losing to John Cena, the Miz was banned from Raw. This week, instead of starting a program that would eventually lead him back, WWE had the anticlimactic end to the angle with Miz winning a new contract by wearing a mask and beating the returning Eugene in a Contract on a Poll match. Why bother with the stipulation if you are going to treat it this way and put an end to it in one week? It was so random with Eugene and this masked new comer (who was obviously the Miz). It didn't work.

Triple H Looks for Michaels: I will admit that there were some funny gags in these videos of Triple H trying to find and convince Shawn Michaels to come back to Raw to team with him against Legacy. But on the whole, the jokes were not funny. The first video had the obvious gag about Hunter mistaking the waiter for Michaels, which might have been funny if the guy's wig looked anything like Michaels' hair. We got the reveal that Michaels is working as a chef, which came too early in the "search." In the second video, we got the amusing line when the girl threw the tator tots in Michaels face and called him monkey (made me think about the glory days of Y2J). But, we also got this whole business about Michaels not needing wrestling any more and about WrestleMania being his final match and it struck me as trying to cram a storyline into two weeks of tv. I doubt WWE had this in mind when Michaels went on hiatus. They probably had no clue how they were going to bring him back. The fire at the end of the scene was silly with Michaels forced into over acting. Then came the final scene where Michaels agreed to come back. His Sweet Chin Music on his boss was fun, but the rest was filled with silly humor, a random old woman saying "suck it" and child abuse. I was bothered by the fact that Michaels kicked the annoying girl in the face. Sure, we didn't see it and we aren't supposed to take it seriously, but it didn't belong in the scene. They crossed the line. Put that together with a multitude of lame jokes, and how this angle was too crammed into one series of videos, and it all adds up to a very disappointing first appearance for HBK since WrestleMania.

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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