By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

After taking a week off fighting the flu, I'm back with the first Hits & Misses of the Week.

RAW HITS

Rhodes vs. Triple H: After a solid promo to start the show (one that wasn't their typical "are you ready" speech) from DX, Triple H and Cody Rhodes put on a good match. It went only 9 minutes, but it was good while it lasted. Rhodes got in a good amount of offense. The real highlight was what happened as the match broke down and ultimately came to an end. Legacy did a great job in first taking out Shawn Michaels at ring side, then destroying Triple H in the ring, with a chair and then their finishers which all looked brutal. They also got to tease the dangerous spot where they put his neck in a chair, only to be chased off by Michaels and The Game's sledgehammer. It was all well done.

Bourne vs. Miz: This was a good 5 minute match. Evan Bourne deserves a push, but that isn't going to happen right now. At least he was in an actual match with an actual opponent in the Miz this week. Miz looked very aggressive in his defeat of Bourne. Bourne got in a few of his signature high flying moves, but Miz controlled most of the match. He is getting a push and is part of the US Title picture, with a Title match at Hell in a Cell, so the strong win at this point made the most sense.

Farewell to Lillian Garcia: Every once in awhile, WWE shows that it can do classy. In allowing Lillian Garcia to say goodbye to her fans, WWE gave her a very classy send off. They didn't try to humiliate her like Lita or Vickie Guerrero. They just let her give a short speech thanking the fans and recalling some of her favorite moments in her 10 year career. I'm happy WWE let her leave like that.

Main Event: Wow, the crowd was super hot into the action as John Cena, Montel Vontavious Porter and Mark Henry faced off against Randy Orton, Chris Jericho and The Big Show. They did a great job of building the anticipation for Cena to get the tag to MVP. This might have been the best response MVP has gotten since turning babyface. It was good to see him and Henry involved in the main event. The wrestling action was all solid, but it was all exciting to watch as it was very well put together. Even a hot tag to Henry was exciting. The ending was strong as Orton picked up the win meaning Cena has to run the gauntlet against all three next week.

RAW MISSES

Wrestling or Stand Up?: There is room for humor and comedy in professional wrestling. One of the aspects of WWE that has always attracted me as a viewer is the fact that it has a little bit of everything. It is a true variety show. However, when something like comedy becomes the focus of the show, and when that comedy isn't funny, it really drags down the quality and that is what happened with Cedric the Entertainer as the guest host. The opening limo bit was stupid. His graphics with the "second generation" superstars was lame. Santino Marella couldn't save the bit, neither could Chavo Guerrero. The Guerrero vs. The Entertainer "match" made me long for the Guerrero vs. Hornswoggle feud. Ok, that's not really true and I was very disappointed when Hornswoggle made his appearance after Chavo gave up in their feud last week. This was all painful to watch.

Contract Signing: I have never been a fan of contract signings. This didn't change my mind. The whole no physicality thing was random and not well explained. Randy Orton was ok in his promo after signing the contract, but things went down hill when John Cena started talking. He has been finding a better voice on the mic lately without the crappy humor. He has been more serious and intense and it had been working for him. Unfortunately, the crappy comedy came back with his goofy faces and his underwear references. He then got serious, but it was too late. With the appearances by Big Show, Chris Jericho, MVP and Mark Henry, it did a nice job of setting up the main event. However, the segment on the whole was still crappy.

US Title Picture: I was happy early on Raw when Kofi Kingston man upped and took his US Title belt back from Miz who stole it last week. It was good that it didn't drag on like in TNA awhile back. I was also looking forward to seeing Kingston vs. Jack Swagger, but was disappointed when that only when about a minute or two. WWE just keeps insisting on having every US Title defense for Kingston be some type of three way or four way or scramble, etc. Why can't they build a US Title singles feud? They now will have a triple threat at the PPV. Can't they just focus on Kingston vs. Swagger? Or Kingston vs. Miz? And they don't give any of them enough air time to have the fans care about the triple threat anyway.

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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