By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: With a few exceptions, this was a good start to Raw. There was some lazy writing. After Vince McMahon said last week that he would not allow Bret Hart in WWE again, there wasn't a real reason why he would go out to address the fans this week. They wanted him to be there for Undertaker to interrupt, but there wasn't a reason for him to be there. But, it was nice to see Undertaker and McMahon in the ring at the same time. Undertaker's rare Raw appearance felt like a big deal. It seemed a bit out of character for Undertaker to comment on the Bret Hart situation, but he doesn't talk much meaning that when he does talk there is weight behind what he says (in addition to his general status in WWE). The real highlight of the segment was the verbal confrontation between him and Shawn Michaels. The highlight of that highlight was the final line when Michaels promised to take Undertaker's streak, Title and soul.

Sheamus: Sheamus looked good this week. Sure, he almost was pinned by Evan Bourne, but that was only after distraction from Randy Orton. After retaking control very quickly from Bourne, he squashed him and got the dominant win. The stare down between Champion and challenger was well done to create some tension between them and anticipation for eventual physical contact. That contact came after Orton's match against Chris Masters when Sheamus snuck up behind Orton and delivered the bicycle kick to knock out Orton. WWE is positioning Orton as the babyface for this match which makes sense. The hype for their Title match at The Royal Rumble was well done.

John "The Flame" Heder: I enjoyed Heder's performance on Raw. It was nice to see a heel guest host. He played the role very well. Don Johnson was good for his part too. Heder did a good job with the cheap heat talking about being a movie star and making fun of Knoxville. The Miz often talks about having Hollywood friends, and it was nice to actually see one of those friends in Heder. Heder did a good job of taking away the booking from Johnson in order to make Dx vs. Miz & Big Show. I liked how he got involved in the main event. His attempt to get Johnson to take his place was funny. It was interesting to see WWE take a dig at Ric Flair by having Heder wear that robe. I liked The Flame nick name and how Heder asked if they could get him pyro. The main event wasn't much of a match, but it was fairly entertaining. The show built to the moment where Johnson threw Heder back into the ring to take a punch from Triple H. Heder did a good job of making the fans want to see him punched out like that.

Cena & Kingston vs. Legacy: This was a good match. It was the best match of the show. At 11 minutes, it was a good length. Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase did a nice job of isolating Kofi Kingston. That sounds rudimentary, but keeping a long isolation of a babyface in a tag match interesting isn't always easy to do. The match was well booked to tease Kingston being able to tag John Cena, only to have him come up just a little short, making the fans all the more eager to see the eventual hot tag. After the hot tag, I loved that Rhodes was able to counter an AA attempt from Cena into a side Russian leg sweep. That was a good sequence and made Rhodes look credible. The ending was strong as Kingston came in on the blind tag with the flying body press on Rhodes after DiBiase ducked (setting up more Legacy tension) for the win.

RAW MISSES

Miz - MVP Follow-Up: After that great segment last week, I was disappointed in the follow-up between Miz and Montel Vontavious Porter this week. Having Miz compare MVP to Tubbs doesn't exactly resonate with much of the audience. It was lame. MVP was fine in his performance, but his threat to Miz wasn't anything special. Then Big Show showed up and knocked him out, ending his night. WWE had other plans for Miz this week, but after last week they really should have done a better job advancing their feud.

Maryse & Fox vs. Kim & Torres: I have been lobbying for a year for longer Divas matches on Raw, but maybe I should take that back after this ugly match. Things were fine when Gail Kim was in control, but I would not have had her taking the beating for Eve to make the save. Eve has shown some skill in the ring, but you can't miss a drop kick by six inches and expect to be taken seriously as a pro wrestler. The match was ugly in the second half. Hopefully the semifinals of the Divas Championship tournament will be better than this.

Orton vs. Masters: There is no way that Orton should have had this much trouble against Masters. Having him almost fade to the Masterlock (which has barely been able to beat the likes of Carlito) was not a good moment for the #1 contender. An argument could be made that WWE was trying to elevate a mid-card act in the process, but that mid-card act doesn't deserve to be elevated in this case, certainly not at the expense of Orton.

Hornswoggle: I realize we weren't supposed to take anything with John Heder seriously, but we can't take anything with DX seriously as long as Hornswoggle is in the picture. It is hard to imagine Shawn Michaels actually thinking seriously about the Bret Hart situation or challenging Undertaker when he has to act like an idiot around Hornswoggle. It is hard to take Triple H talking to McMahon about Hart seriously, when Hornswoggle shows up a few moments later and gets a piggie back ride from Hunter. DX was too silly as it was, but his presence makes things worse. There can be a place for him, but not when main event wrestlers are involved.

End of Raw: The end of Raw was that it was anticlimactic. After the "feel good" moment with Heder taking the loss, we got to hear what Triple H was trying to talk to Michaels about earlier in the show. They were interrupted by Cena and Big Show. Each of them just said that they were in the Royal Rumble. That led to Cena throwing Show out, DX dumping Cena out, then Triple H surprising Michaels by tossing him out and declaring that he was also in the Rumble and would win. The problem was that none of that was surprising. WWE presented it as if we were supposed to be shocked that Triple H would be in the Rumble, but who didn't assume that already? This was supposed to be a shock to Michaels, but Michaels would have to be an idiot to not expect his partner to be in it (the same can be said for the yawn-inducing announcements from Cena and Show). It was supposed to make the Rumble seem intriguing, but they could have done that without insulting the audience by pretending these were surprises.

Where's The Wrestling?: This may seem odd as I haven't been complaining about the lack of wrestling on Raw lately and I have no idea how this week's show compares to recent episodes in terms of the amount of in ring action. But, this week seemed worse to me. The first half was particularly bad. After a long opening talking segment, we finally got the first match and it barely went 2 minutes. I'm not counting the All American American challenge as a match, but even if it was, it was only about 30 seconds. That was followed by the long talking scene with the guest hosts, Miz, MVP and Show. We did eventually get a longer tag match, but it started after the hour, meaning there was almost no wrestling in the first hour. The second hour was better, starting with that tag match, but still not good. After that match, there was more talking, then the Divas tag match which was under 3 minutes. Again, this was followed by a lot more talking. That was followed by Masters vs. Orton, which was another match that came in at under 3 minutes. We finally get to the main event, which lasted less than 5 minutes. I'm not saying that particular match should have gone longer, but a Raw main event should be a fairly big deal, and fairly big deals should last longer than that.

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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