By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

Because Raw was so bad this week, but ended with a big exciting angle, I am doing things backwards, starting with the Misses and ending with the Hits (or in this case, Hit).

RAW MISSES

Opening Segment: This terrible Raw got off to a terrible start. There was no chemistry between Teddy Long and Bret Hart. It was like they were reading their lines off of cue cards as part of an audition for a bad high school play . That pause before Randy Orton's music finally played seemed to last forever with the two GMs looking like idiots in the ring. I don't care how handicapped Edge would be in a match against Orton with his hand tied behind his back, there is no way Orton would be medically cleared to wrestle with his arm in a sling. That started the night off on a bad note. They hinted at the lame choices (where one clear choice was going to win the vote in most of the votes during the show) that were to come where you knew which outcome the fans in the arena would choose. It was bad.

The Hart Dynasty vs. Khali & Hornswoggle: I will be giving the Viewer's Choice format a Miss in a bit, but I will give a few of my reasons for that Miss in this Miss. WWE always gives these lame choices where you know how the WWE Sheep, I mean Universe will vote exactly how WWE wants them to vote. It is sad to me that The Great Khali & Hornswoggle were among the choices to face The Hart Dynasty and even sadder that the WWE Universe voted for them. This set up The Hart Dynasty as heels as they had to get the pin over Hornswoggle, but then the Usos came out and attacked them, making them more like babyfaces. It did nothing for them as a team. It was thankfully short, which is all the good I can say about it. WWE got validation from the fans that they would rather see crappy humor than good wrestling.

The A-Team: Speaking of crappy humor, this was really bad. It was stupid to see two of the guest hosts playing their A-Team characters (where did the third disappear to?). The fact that WWE acknowledged that they were acting in character didn't help. They just looked like mental patients for not knowing their real identities. The horrible sequence of scenes with them trying to get Jerry "the King" Lawler's crown back just got weirder and weirder and worse and worse. They found a way to get Irwin R Shyster involved. I suppose they wanted him back on the show since his son debuts on NXT Season 2 tonight, but they changed both of their names from Rotundo, so who cares? The gas attack was ridiculously bad. They somehow got Mean Gene Okerlund involved. It kept getting more and more random. I will admit that the Rowdy Roddy Piper appearance wasn't random considering his past with Mr. T, but it was still very silly. Dusty Rhodes' appearance was random however. I was glad when it was over. Rampage Jackson looked like he belonged in a wrestling ring and has the background and charisma to transition from MMA to wrestling if he wants. I wonder how Sharlto Copley who was so good in District 9 felt about doing this lame crap. And did Bradley Cooper refuse to take part, but was contractually obligated to at least appear earlier in the show?

Dance Off: I don't want to talk too much about this, so I will just say that when I complained about the prospects of a three hour Raw, I said that there is always an hour of content that could easily be cut out of the shows to make it a normal 2 hour broadcast. A dance competition between Vladimir Kozlov and Santino Marella fits into that category.

Bourne Follow Up: WWE clearly set up Kane to win the voting to face Sheamus. That basically gave them the result that they wanted, that the fans would rather see the larger Kane than the smaller Evan Bourne. They set him up to lose the vote instead of positioning him to have a chance to be further elevated after last week. The scene later on with Bourne thanking John Cena for the opportunity last week made him look like a weenie. If Bourne was so thankful for what Cena did for him, where was he at the end when the NXT rookies were beating the crap out of Cena?

Sheamus Walks Away: I'm sorry, but not every heel in WWE has to be a chicken. Walking away from a match after being chokeslammed by Kane works perfectly fine for most of the heels on the roster, but not Sheamus. He is one of the exceptions to the chicken heel rule, and that is what makes him stand out. I liked the scene between him and Kane where Kane accused him of taking out The Undertaker. I liked how he stood up to Kane when Kane got in his face. I liked how he said he would love to take credit for destroying Undertaker if he had actually done it. I would have given that scene a Hit, if the good work hadn't been erased here with Sheamus turning chicken and walking away from the match to get counted out. That was very disappointing. The match was on its way to the Hit column also before the end.

Viewer's Choice: As I said earlier, I would hint at some of the problems with the concept of the show before getting to this actual Miss. I don't have a lot to add here. As I suspected, we were given mostly lame choices to vote on. People watching the west coast feed couldn't vote since the voting wasn't open before the show. There were a few exceptions to the rule that the choices were poor. I liked picking R-Truth and The Miz's partner, but what did it matter when the match ended up only lasting about 3 minutes? I was glad (for once) with the choice made by the voters. It was good to see John Morrison finally back on Raw. But, he lost in 3 minutes without doing much of what makes him so special in the ring. We also got one more good vote, the choices for Cena's opponents being Jack Swagger, Rey Myserio or CM Punk. Even then, the match was just a set up for the show closing angle, so it didn't matter. Two good votes among a barrage of crappy ones made for a bad gimmick theme for the show.

RAW HITS

NXT Attack: I will not go so far as to say that the ending of Raw saved the show. The show was terrible to sit through for the vast majority of it until the end, and that end wasn't good enough to save it (nothing could be). But, that ending was definitely Hit worthy and buzz worthy and news worthy and worthy of discussion. I had some problems with it. I am not thrilled with the idea that the NXT rookies would form a gang. How are they supposed to establish their own characters if they are all working as one unit (like taking four talented OVW wrestlers plus Mitch and putting them in the Spirit Squad. How do they form identities and stand out? Only one is left). It was a little odd to have Daniel Bryan set up last week as a babyface possibly breaking through on Raw in a feud against the Miz, and now he is in a heel faction. But, he did a great job in his role, as did the other rookies accept Justin Gabriel who just looks too babyface to be part of this. I was also confused as to why none of the Raw roster came out to help. Even if you don't want to help John Cena (or CM Punk), wouldn't you want to help the announcers, or the other innocent victims, or just take some pride in the Raw set that was getting destroyed? Clearly I had some problems with the angle.

However, it is a Hit because it woke me up. It caught my attention. It has me thinking and wanting to know where WWE is going with this faction. Will they show up on NXT or Smackdown? What's going to happen next? Also, the beat down was brutal and really stood out as being realistic and serious on a show that was the exact opposite for nearly 3 hours. The carnage of destroying the ring and the ringside area was visually stunning and something we never see in similar situations where it is usually just wrestlers who feel the brunt of these attacks. It will be very interesting to see how WWE follows up on this NXT Season 1 angle on NXT Season 2. I can't believe WWE actually has made me want to tune in tonight which I didn't think possible last week.

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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