By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Sheamus - Triple H: I would have liked to see Sheamus vs. Kofi Kingston go longer than 3 minutes, but it was good while it lasted. I have given up on the idea that Kingston will ever get back to where he was late last year. WWE seems to be focusing much more on elevating heels than babyfaces at this point, including continuing to elevate Sheamus. I really liked his promo about Triple H. WWE is getting some milage out of Shawn Michaels' retirement (Jack Swagger also brought it up on Smackdown) with Sheamus claiming Michaels wanted to retire so that he never had to face him which was a good line. He then transitioned well into putting Triple H in the same category as Michaels as a wrestler at the end of his career who should just retire instead of having Sheamus put him into retirement. Triple H's answer with the sledgehammer was predictable but still pretty good. Considering Sheamus got the better of him last week, I don't mind Triple H turning things around this week.

Otunga Video: Regular NXT viewers (yes, there are a few out there) have already seen this video package introducing David Otunga. However, Raw gets a much larger audience and it was smart of WWE to take advantage of that fact and get some hype for one of the NXT rookies. Since he was the guest host, it made sense to give the Raw audience a chance to see this good video to better connect with Otunga.

DiBiase vs. Christian: I wasn't thrilled with Ted DiBiase coming to the ring with the Million Dollar Championship (more later), but I was impressed with his match against Christian. It wasn't very long at only 4 minutes, but it was good while it lasted. He and Christian worked well together and put on a better match than their match from last week. With DiBiase getting the win to even up their record, a rubber match is in the future which has potential. Hopefully they can actually build this into a meaningful mid-card feud with some mic time for Christian and some story development.

Swagger vs. Orton: This was a good match. I want to call the ending a bad ending, but I will call it the wrong ending instead (more later). But, I want to give Jack Swagger and Randy Orton credit for putting on a good 11 minute match. Swagger looked like he belonged in the match with a superstar the stature of Orton. It went back and forth nicely with both guys delivering plenty of offense. There were some nice near falls like after the horizontal DDT. Swagger has some definite skills in the ring and it is unfortunate that he hasn't had much of a chance to show them off on Raw over the last year leading to becoming World Champion. More matches like this (even better if he won those matches) and his Title win last Friday wouldn't have felt like such a fluke (or really, his Money in the Bank win).

RAW MISSES

Opening Segment: The crowd seemed dead to me this week, but I can't really blame them, at least early on. The opening did nothing for me. I do appreciate that Jack Swagger is more serious now that he is the World Champion, and that the announcers made a big deal out of it. His promo was just ok. John Cena's was just ok too. I didn't like how he called Swagger lucky and said that he didn't earn the Title. That isn't a good endorsement for the new Champ. I understand the circumstances, but a strong Champion would have come back by saying he beat nine other top wrestlers in a brutal ladder match to earn that opportunity, so he did earn the Title. Then came Randy Orton, followed by ShowMiz and it all just seemed like a random mess. Then came David Otunga's first appearance as guest host. He did a decent job, but it didn't pump much excitement into the segment. I didn't really care about his announced matches, particularly the Tag Team Title match. The ending with Orton attempting to RKO Cena, only to RKO Swagger instead just seemed odd.

Dress to Impress Battle Royal: Last week I facetiously said that the Divas should be fired, and a few readers took my comment literally and sent me angry emails saying nasty things about me for suggesting that the Divas all be fired. They didn't realize that my Miss was actually directed at WWE creative for wasting the Divas and having no clue what to do with them. The biggest problem is that the Raw Divas are always used in a match like this, with at least six (this match had nine) Divas and they last 3 minutes at the most. It was once again the case here. I hate Divas battle royals where they can roll under the bottom rope and still be eliminated. That is just lame. The eliminations came too quickly. How can we see the talent of these women, when they are in the ring for such a short amount of time with all the other Divas on the roster? The one saving grace was that Maryse was entertaining on guest commentary. It is amazing what happens when you actually put a focus on one of the Divas instead of just lumping them all together. Maryse got a chance to shine and she delivered. None of the other Divas had the same opportunity.

Million Dollar Championship: Ted DiBiase debuted a few years ago trying to find a partner to take on Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Hardcore Holly. It turned out that Rhodes turned against Holly and joined with DiBiase as Priceless and they became the Tag Champs. DiBiase's WWE identity was as a tag team wrestler for a long time. It was Rhodes & DiBiase, or Priceless, and then Legacy. He was Orton's protégé. That was his identity for a long time. He (and Rhodes too) never had a lot of chances to really establish himself as an individual performer. He benefited in many ways from Legacy and working with Orton and made a name for himself, but not an identity. Now that Legacy has broken up and Rhodes is temporarily out of the picture, DiBiase finally has a chance to forge his own identity. And how does WWE do that? By reintroducing the Million Dollar Championship which was never relevant and hasn't been close in years (or decades). I understand that he is the Million Dollar Man's son, but he has that rub already. This doesn't add anything. It was almost comical to hear the announcers talk about the prestige of the Title being held by Ted DiBiase, Virgil and The Ringmaster Steve Austin (a gimmick that should have been forgotten many years ago). I don't get this at all.

Swagger Loses: I said above that I liked this match except for the ending. I also said that Swagger looked like he belonged in the ring with Orton. However, he didn't look like he belonged as the World Champion when he loses his first match as Champion. I know that Orton is a huge star and multiple time Champion, but this wasn't a good endorsement of the new Champ. Why not be bold and have him win? It didn't have to be a clean win, but even a tainted win would have given him a huge boost and some major momentum. I would have even taken a non-finish after a good match like they had than having him lose. This would have been fine if it were part of Swagger's build as Mr. Money in the Bank as it would have set him up as being competitive with Champion caliber wrestlers. However, he already cashed in that briefcase and should be treated better.

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.

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