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Hits & Misses
3/26 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Teddy vs. Johnny, Punk - Christian, Cody Rhodes, Rock - Cena

Mar 27, 2012 - 3:52:19 PM
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By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Sheamus & Orton vs. Bryan & Kane: This was a good opening tag match to start off Raw. It was nice to see a match start things off and go a good length of time. I always expect very little wrestling on the final Raw before WrestleMania, so it was good to see the show start off with this match (though I was right in that all the other matches were very short). They booked it well to limit the amount of time that Sheamus was in the ring against Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton was in the ring with Kane so that you still want to see them wrestle at the PPV (at least Bryan and Sheamus). The hype for the World Title match has been well done and this fit in well with it as Sheamus has been on a role lately, plowing through opponents, but lost to Bryan here (although with distraction from AJ). The hype for Orton vs. Kane hasn't been as good, largely because the reason that they are wrestling has been so vague with this stupid notion of Kane feeling like a human and wanting to feel like a monster. This is truly a "leftovers" match which is unfortunate, but it should at least be a solid lower card match.
HunterVsTaker_180.jpg

Undertaker - Triple H Video: WWE certainly can put together a video package, can't they? They have sort of been shifting focus one Raw to the next, with last week clearly focused on selling Undertaker vs. Triple H, while this week was focused on Rock vs. John Cena. After last week, what more needed to be said between Undertaker, Triple H and Shawn Michaels? This video was very effective and all that was needed in the final Raw before Mania to give this match its proper context and an epic feel. It was very well done.

Punk - Christian: I'm not happy about Christian being out of WM, but the angle knocking him out of the match with CM Punk destroying him was well done. It showed Punk as being more intense and aggressive than we've seen from him. Chris Jericho has clearly gotten under his skin. What I like about the beating is that is showed how dominating Punk can be, but it also hinted that Jericho is getting into his mind and might have the advantage on Sunday. They did a good job here of continuing to make the audience want to see Punk get his hands on Jericho as we can imagine what he will do after seeing what he did to the Jericho surrogate, Christian.

Cody Rhodes: Some of the WM hype has been good, some bad. The good side includes the build up towards the Intercontinental Championship between Cody Rhodes and The Big Show. Rhodes is playing his part very well right now. I have enjoyed the angle with him showing how Big Show always chokes at WM. His promo on Raw was well done and funny. I am enjoying his work so much more since removing the stupid mask. He is finding himself more as a heel which is good to see, and is making the fans want to see Show get his revenge.

Rock - Cena: The final confrontation between The Rock and John Cena wasn't great, but it was good enough to get a Hit. I liked that they let their actions speak louder than their words last week, to take a break from all the talking, before this final encounter. Rock was good, but not great in his opening promo. I enjoyed some of the lines, but the one about Betty White fell flat. Cena was good in his interruption. I think he really hit the nail on the head in terms of why so many fans keep booing him, that he rises above and wins. He put the focus on winning and how the fans might hate it, but they know he will win. I like that Rock kept the focus on winning also, trying to cement his legacy as the greatest Superstar in WWE history by being the only man with WM victories over Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin and John Cena. That is an interesting late addition development to this feud. The crowd wasn't as into the big moments as they should have been, not that I'm blaming the fans, but WWE has dropped the ball with these two. This was good, but if the previous weeks had been what they should have been, the pops for some of the big lines would have been better. And keep in mind, good enough to just get a Hit, really isn't good enough for this situation.

RAW MISSES

Team Teddy vs. Team Johnny: Of all the WrestleMania matches, I'm interested in this the least (yes, that counts the lame Divas tag match). Part of it is that I don't want to see one general manager for both brands. I don't like this storyline and it makes no sense that John Laurinaitis was doing such a bad job on Raw that the board of directors was about to fire him, and now they are giving him a chance to gain even more power. It makes no sense. It also makes no sense to have a match determine anything like this. How does picking a winning team make you better suited to run both shows? I don't get it. And neither of them did a good job when it comes to picking a team captain. Why would you pick Santino Marella who is a total goof or David Otunga who hasn't done anything in his career. Santino vs. Otunga was a comedy match that was supposed to sell me on what should be a very serious match. It should be serious who runs both shows as that person will have a huge amount of power over the wrestlers careers and all the championships, yet it is treated as a joke with goofy t-shirts, goofy wrestlers, goofy flag bearers, etc. I'm not a fan of throwing 12 wrestlers together for one tag match at WM. I don't want to see that. I felt that 8 or 9 wrestlers in Money in the Bank was too many, but that would be better than this and you could eliminate guys who really shouldn't be wrestling at the biggest show of the year. I was also disappointed that Christian won't be wrestling in it after all. And, after weeks of lobbying, it was anticlimactic how The Miz got into the match. And then Teddy Long after putting together a pretty bad team, adds a retired wrestler to be the final member. Seriously? That's the best team he could field? Top to bottom, this has been a big bust.

Brodus Clay: This Miss is for having Clay on the final Raw before WM. Everything on this show should be dedicated to hyping the event. I would be fine with having Clay on if there was still an open spot on Team Teddy and he could be a surprise final team mate. That would make sense given his size and how he has dominated so far. I would take him on my team. But, Long's team is full. So, what was the point? I'm not a fan of the gimmick, but it is getting over pretty well. I don't understand having him knocked off his feet two matches in a row, this time by Kurt Hawkins. Sure, it was still a squash, but you should save that moment like when they made a big deal about Hacksaw Jim Duggan being the first to knock Hall of Fame inductee Yokozuna off his feet. They built an angle around that. It might work better if Clay were a heel, but it could still work. He should not have been on at all, when you could have used the same time to either hype WM, or give more time to one of the other short matches. Come to think of it, considering the other matches on the show, maybe that wouldn't have been a good idea.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw and Smackdown 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 Travis Beaven (c) PWTorch.com]


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