By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Sheamus' Promo: Sheamus gave a good performance on the mic in addressing his WrestleMania match against Triple H. I did not like Triple H's promo last week as I felt he totally made up his history at WrestleMania. This week, Sheamus said what Triple H was getting at last week without the BS history. What he said was true. Triple H was the guy who would do anything to get to the top and stay there. He said that from the moment he arrived on Raw, he hoped to face Triple H at WM to catapult himself to superstar status. A win over Triple H certainly could do that. If The Game had simply put it in those terms last week instead of making stuff up about WM, I would have given that segment a Hit for making this mid card match feel like a big deal. Sheamus accomplished that goal in this promo.

Triple H vs. Orton: This was the best match of the night, although that isn't saying much as the in ring action was mostly just decent. This was far from a great match, but we've seen worse from these two as Triple H and Randy Orton put on a good match. It was interesting to see them in the ring as they are both babyfaces. I liked that Orton said in his interview that he doesn't like Triple H. They should never be friends even if they have to work together (like next week). They know each other well and were able to have a good 9 minute match together. The ending made sense, but as the third non-clean finish in as many WrestleMania rewind matches, it was disappointing. It set up a big handicap tag match for next week.

Contract Signing: This was a marginal Hit. I enjoyed much of the mic work from Stone Cold Steve Austin. I wasn't thrilled with him forcing Vince McMahon to put Stu Hart into the Hall of Fame. That seemed to come out of nowhere for Austin to care. I also didn't like how USA kept bleeping Austin for saying "ass." I didn't like Bret Hart's long winded explanation of what he and John Cena did to trick McMahon as it was too wordy. This was a case where actions spoke louder than words and all we needed was to see Hart without the cast and the crutch, simply saying that he had tricked McMahon and now that the contract was signed, McMahon better not back out or he will be sued. All of those things happened. The reveal of the cast off his leg was well done. Having McMahon threaten to sue Hart early in the segment and Hart turn the table (figuratively) on McMahon with the same saying moments later worked very well. He then turned the table (literally) on McMahon by beating him up and knocking him over the table. The segment did exactly what it needed to do which is why it is a Hit. I'm calling it a marginal Hit since I didn't need to hear some of what Hart said like when he talked about John Cena knowing some stunt men.

RAW MISSES

Opening Segment: The Raw opening felt totally uninspired to me. It was like WWE felt that just having Stone Cold Steve Austin go out and do some of his catch phrases and drink a few beers was enough. He didn't really say anything of importance or relevance. He himself seemed uninspired as if he was just going through the motions. I enjoyed his performance later in the show, both in the back with Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho and during the contract signing much more than I enjoyed his performance in the opening segment. I was intrigued when Cena's music hit to see some interaction between him and Austin. Instead I was disappointed to find out that he was just coming out for his match against the Big Show. With his music, then Austin's, then Show's, the end of the segment was ridiculous.

Sheamus Destroys Bourne: Was this necessary? Isn't Sheamus fully established as a top heel who can run through mid card wrestlers? Did Evan Bourne need to be sacrificed in this way? Couldn't Sheamus just come out and cut a promo? Why did he have to kick Bourne's ass? Bourne is in Money in the Bank. We can't take him seriously as a Title contender when he is treated like the local jobber whom Drew McIntyre destroyed on last week's Smackdown.

Divas: I remember once upon a time when WWE would actually build to a good Women's Title match at WrestleMania, like WrestleMania 22 when they did a nice job of building towards Mickie James vs. Trish Stratus then let them have a decent amount of time to have a good match and a showcase for how good the Divas can be in the ring on the biggest stage of them all. Those days are gone. WWE likes to throw a bunch of Divas in a match, usually an inter-brand match with nothing on the line. They did it last year with the horrible Divas Miss WrestleMania battle royale won by a man in drag. This year nothing has been announced, but instead of building to a Women's Title match between Beth Phoenix and Michelle McCool, they appear to be once again going with some type of big inter-brand match, likely a tag. Maryse vs. Kelly Kelly was way too short. WWE seemed to be building up Eve for a Title match, but she wasn't focused on. She and Gail Kim made the save only to have Team LayCool (or Simply Flawless) from Smackdown randomly show up to attack them. I didn't like any of this. WWE is once again throwing several Divas into a match which nobody will care about. It is nice for them to get pay days, but not at the expense of having something meaningful at WrestleMania.

Legacy Announcement: Several weeks ago, most of us were assuming this was the direction they were headed in, a Legacy triple threat match at WrestleMania. We were right. However in the intervening weeks, WWE has not done a good job of building to this match. With Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase on the same page (after plenty of hints that they would not be at this point around The Royal Rumble), why would they be trying to beat each other? Obviously WWE wants the viewers to think that their egos will get in the way of double teaming Orton, but I'm not a big fan of that approach. WWE had plenty of opportunity to have tension between them so that a triple threat would make more sense, but they didn't do it. Each of the last two weeks, I speculated that Kofi Kingston might somehow get involved teaming with Orton. I didn't think that was a great idea, but it would have been better than this. As of now, Kingston isn't booked at WrestleMania which astounds me. I suspect that on Raw next week he will win some type of Last Chance Battle Royale (along with guys like Mark Henry, Chris Masters, Chavo Guerrero and Yoshi Tatsu) to become the tenth man in Money in the Bank. He deserves to be there, but I already complained about nine wrestlers in the match, and ten is just too many.

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

We suggest these recent related articles...

10/5 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Natalya vs. Paige, Owens vs. Cara, Stephanie McMahon, Sasha Banks, Xavier Woods

COLLECTIBLES COLUMN: The History of Foam Hands in Pro Wrestling

9/28 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Kane's Split Personality, Divas Revolution, Heyman & Big Show, Reigns vs. Wyatt