By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: What a difference a week makes. Last week's show was one of the worst Raw's ever (until the newsworthy ending which wasn't enough to save the show). This week's was much better. It got off to a good start with the segment featuring the NXT Rebels (That's the name I'm going with. It's better than Radicals which the announcers used a few times). WWE actually featured some logic in this scene. Wade Barrett was allowed back into a WWE ring so that he could apologize for what happened last week. He didn't just show up and gain access to the ring. Bret Hart invited him. I like how the Rebels refused to apologize. Of course, I agree with much of what they said. It was interesting that they don't have a problem with the WWE wrestlers (with a few unnamed exceptions) or the WWE Universe. They have a problem with WWE management for their treatment on NXT, and who can blame them? Hart was far from his best on the mic in this segment as he stumbled over his words a few times and said WWF by mistake at one point. But, as disappointed as I am with Daniel Bryan's firing, it was good that they addressed why he is no longer with the Rebels. I expected WWE just to ignore him and pretend he never existed so they get credit for that. It was also good that Hart fired Barrett so that his actions had a consequence. However, I didn't like the fact that the Rebels just left during the commercial break. It was still good enough to get a Hit.

Truth vs. Morrison vs. Ryder vs. Miz: This was a good fatal 4-way for the United States Championship. It was pretty predictable that The Miz would win to become the new US Champ. WWE is pounding us with the fact that the Champions at the Fatal 4-Way PPV will have just a 25% chance to win and to reinforce that notion, this preview match had to end with a new Champion. It was very unlikely that either John Morrison or Zack Ryder would win, so Miz was by far the most likely winner. But despite the predictability, this was a good match. It featured good fast paced wrestling action. There were some really nice high-impact spots, like when Morrison did the sunset flip on Miz to the outside knocking over Ryder in the process. It was good to see Ryder in a high profile match, and more of Morrison doing what makes him special than we've seen in the last month on Raw. But, Morrison needs to work on his aim for Starship Pain.

Cena & Orton vs. Edge & Sheamus: I wasn't expecting to give this match a Hit for the first half of it. It wasn't bad. I wasn't expecting to give it a Miss either. But, it just seemed like the wrestlers were going through the motions. Considering the non-finish and wanting to save something for the PPV, who could blame them? But, things really picked up nicely as the match progressed. It turned into a pretty good tag team main event. It was a nice tease for the PPV when they will all be facing each other, not working together. It is always nice when WWE plays around with the typical tag team formula, in this case adding a second hot tag. I liked how Sheamus was ultimately able to cut off Randy Orton's offense after he got the first big tag from John Cena. I didn't mind the non-finish considering the show ending angle.

RAW MISSES

25% Chance: I don't mind WWE saying that a Champion only has a 25% chance of winning in a fatal 4-way as much as some others do. But, it got particularly annoying this week as the announcers seemed to mention that stat with much more frequency than they have been. They kept saying it over and over again and it got really old. The worst part about it was when Jerry Lawler said that The Big Show was the odds-on-favorite to win the Smackdown brand fatal 4-way at the PPV. If one wrestler is the odds-on-favorite to win a match, then not all wrestlers in that match have an equal (in this case 25%) chance to win.

Mid-Card Wrestling: The opening match was pretty good. The main event was too. The rest of the wrestling was just ok. None of the other matches were bad enough to get individual Misses, but they didn't add up to much as a whole. Chris Jericho vs. Evan Bourne was not what it could have been. It felt like a throw away match which is not good for a star the stature of Jericho, or for a star on the rise (at least as he appeared to be two weeks ago) in Bourne. This continued Jericho's losing streak and it will be interesting to see where they go with him (I did notice he didn't come to Cena's aid with the rest of the locker and he wasn't standing guard against the NXT Rebels at the end. He was Wade Barrett's pro and they got along well. I'm just saying.). Next came a Divas tag match that was only 3 minutes like all Raw Divas matches. It set up the Divas Title fatal 4-way for the PPV, but does anyone really care at this point? Then came the comedy guest host match. Again, this wasn't bad enough to get a Miss. WWE has done much worse with many of the guest hosts, so I didn't mind this. But, it wasn't a good match. It didn't really help promote Big Show's upcoming PPV match. It didn't do much for Ted DiBiase whose career has stalled. Then came a 1 minute "match" between Santino Marella and William Regal with guest referee Vladimir Kozlov. I believe that is the very definition of "filler." Part of the problem with the middle of the show (other than the big brawl) is that it felt like filler. A problem with invasion angles is that often the other content of the show feels like filler. I remember many a Nitro where the nWo would appear at the start, then you would wait for two hours for them to show up again, while sitting through random eight-man luchador tag matches. You don't want to turn Raw into the NXT Rebel Invasion show, otherwise everything else will feel inconsequential.

NXT Follow-Up: This is a very marginal Miss. I clearly liked how the follow-up started with the opening segment, but as I said above, I wasn't thrilled with the NXT Rebels just leaving the ring after being threatened by Hart. The brawl later in the show was well done to show solidarity among the Raw roster and to reinforce the idea that the Rebels won't back down from authority (in how they had been kicked out of the arena, but came back). The worst part was the ending. I'm fine with them coming back and attacking the back stage area considering the roster was on the stage for the main event. Attacking Hart was ok. The limo demolition derby was just a bit too much for my tastes. Clearly WWE wants the fans to buy the PPV to see how this plays out with Barrett demanding an answer about their contracts by Sunday. However, this angle just seems rushed to me at this point. Three appearances on the show was one too many. They made a statement last week. This week they made a demand, then the Raw roster made a statement, then they made another statement and reinforced that demand. That is a lot of content for one storyline in one week. You don't want to rush something that could be a very special angle. That's what it felt like at the end of the show.

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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