By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: It is strange to me that this show was taped last week, before WWE had a chance to analyze what worked and what didn't from last week's show to come up with this week's script. I say that, because they seemed to fix some of the problems with last week's show. It got off to a good start with the strong promo from Edge talking about how he has to listen to his gut since he can't rely on his SummerSlam team. I like how he brought up his failed babyface turn earlier this year as a comparison to what happened last week when his team let him down (like the fans let him down before). It was interesting to see R-Truth come out to try to set Edge straight (pun intended). He did a good job on the mic and it was nice to see him getting some air time away from the lame tension he had with John Morrison last week (one of those apparent "fixes" I mentioned above). The opening segment also set up the big Edge vs. Wade Barrett match for after the first commercial, and the announcers talked about the Miz vs. Randy Orton main event as a hook for later in the show.

Nexus: Last week, I questioned how strong Nexus looked at the expense of a few Raw Superstars, most notably Evan Bourne and The Hart Dynasty. This week however, Nexus looked more clever than physically imposing, which I find more interesting. It was unbelievable how physically dominating they were in the seven-on-seven tag match last week. This week, it was perfectly believable that they would be able to stick to their game plan and out think the WWE Team causing more dissension. Barrett set a trap for Edge which ultimately led to Edge quitting the group. They did a nice job of following up on the angle from last week when they let The Great Khali go from an apparent attack by talking to him this week and planting the seeds for him possibly defecting. That continued later when they came out and distracted Ted DiBiase allowing Khali to pick up the win in their match. These tactics, getting members of Team WWE to quit make sense and make them a formidable opponent without making them look overly strong in the ring considering they are a bunch of rookies with little in ring experience. The mental side of their plan fits in well with much of their talk since debuting of having an over all larger purpose and plan in WWE.

Sheamus: Again, WWE "learned" from last week's mistakes when they gave Sheamus a strong squash win over Goldust who (unfortunately) isn't going anywhere on Raw at the moment, as opposed to Randy Orton's squash last week over Jey Uso who should be going somewhere with his brother early in his career (Goldust is established and can bounce back better than Uso who isn't established and is going to have a harder time bouncing back). I liked how they brought up their history from ECW last year to juxtapose Sheamus the young rookie trying to establish himself, and Sheamus the dominant WWE Champion. He looked strong as the Champion and gave a really good promo afterwards talking about not being lucky to be a third generation star like Orton or grabbing a briefcase like Miz.

Miz vs. Orton: This was a good main event. It wasn't great and Miz still hasn't had a stand out singles match to point to as a way of helping justify a main event push, but it was still a good match. Despite taking the loss, Miz looked strong in coming close on a number of occasions to beating Orton. He still has the Money in the Bank briefcase and great mic skills to get back any momentum that he lost this week. Orton needed a strong win over an established star like Miz to keep up his momentum going into SummerSlam. I liked how Sheamus' involvement was kept to a minimum as he simply watched from the stage and didn't interfere. There was a great moment during the match where the wrestlers in the ring came together with the announcers and Sheamus observing to tell a story. As Miz was working on Orton's leg, the announcers talked about how Orton can't afford an injury and how Sheamus was likely noting the possible injury, while the camera showed Sheamus watching from the ramp. You could almost read Sheamus' mind as the announcers practically narrated what he was thinking at that moment. It was an example of why this match worked well to continue to sell Sheamus vs. Orton.

RAW MISSES

Cena vs. Jericho: These two are such pros and have worked together so many times before that they should be able to sleep walk through a match and still deliver a good match. They seemed to be just going through the motions here and they weren't able to deliver much. It wasn't bad, but a decent-at-best match between these two; and when given 14 minute, it should have been much better. It is possible that this is a future PPV match, so I can sort of understand not wanting to go all out on Raw. However, if this match happens on an upcoming PPV, it won't be until September at the earliest. I don't really see why they should hold anything back. They covered for the slow pace by saying that neither wrestler has his heart in the match. That is ok. But, that doesn't exactly make for good quality wrestling action. Plus, they didn't really do a good job of addressing why Jericho tapped out when he did. I don't mind that they didn't overtly answer that question, but why would Cena come close to begging Jericho to stay on the team after he basically quit their match? I wouldn't want a quitter on my team. Cena should at last have addressed the situation in is post-match promo to Jericho.

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.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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