By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Lesnar - Cena: After a very poor start to Raw (more later), the opening segment got better once Brock Lesnar and John Cena were in the ring together. I loved the slap from Cena. I loved the tackle from Lesnar. I loved that it drew blood from Cena's mouth. I am not a big fan of pull apart brawls. There was a time when WWE was doing them all too often (and TNA too), but WWE doesn't do them as much any more (don't recall off the top of my head the last big one like this), so that makes it mean something more when they do it. I appreciate that WWE was trying to make this seem like a huge deal by having practically the entire locker room come out to stop this brawl, including World Champion Sheamus, but I guess it was a little too much for my tastes. Part of my problem with these brawls is that I do not buy the fact that either Cena or Lesnar could break free from so many people (including the World's Strongest Man) to keep fighting. That takes away from it a little, but it was pretty well done in that context, so it didn't bother me too much. It certainly was a buzz-worthy opening.

Lesnar - Cena Follow Up: WWE crammed replays of the opening brawls down our throats for the rest of the show. It got to be too much, but it did a nice job of underscoring how big a moment it was. I appreciated the sports feel that some of the replays had when they used them to analyze what happened, particularly when they showed the punch from Lesnar that appeared to give Cena the bloody mouth. The back stage follow up was also nicely done. Cena got in a parting shot to Rock, but more importantly acted serious. He didn't grin and no sell what happened. He took it seriously and asked for a match. The dried blood on his face was also a nice touch. I also liked Josh Mathews' interview with Lesnar. Lesnar was never a great talker, but he was pretty good here. I liked the script as he is playing up being cocky in being proud of everything he does and how he took sole credit for UFC's success (wonder how Dana White feels about that) and how he belongs at the top of WWE. His delivery was a bit off at first, but got better as he seemed to relax as the interview proceeded, and his last line about how the fans are even prouder to have him back and his wink was very well delivered. I enjoyed the end of the show too, when he snuck up behind Cena and gave him a low blow. WWE is really trying to turn him heel. This week it was a more typical split crowd in terms of how they felt about Cena, and that was represented in how they felt about Lesnar. I liked Lesnar acknowledging the "one more time!" chants with a wag of his finger after hitting Cena with the F5. But as I will talk about later, I am worried that the are rushing things with these two.

Punk - Jericho: CM Punk gave a good promo responding to what Chris Jericho did to him last week. He sold his emotions well. Jericho was good in his come back acting snarky and rubbing it in Punk's face. I didn't like how the WWE Title was treated as an after thought. I don't like it when a WWE Title match is not the main event (two weeks in a row). I understand that they didn't want this to end the show and the focus is going to be on Lesnar vs. Cena, but it still bothered me. I like the fact that despite claiming that Jericho has failed at getting under his skin, Punk let his emotions get the better of him in getting himself disqualified against Mark Henry. The aftermath was what worked to sell Henry as being angry over once again winning the match but not the Title, as well as continuing the Jericho and alcohol angle.

RAW MISSES

Laurinaitis Introduces Lesnar: After the groan inducing intro to this week's show with the announcement of The Three Stooges as the guest stars, things continued poorly with John Laurinaitis. I was disappointed on Smackdown as he now has entrance music which played again on Raw. I liked the idea that "Mr. Excitement" was so boring that he didn't have music. Having Laurinaitis introduce Lesnar as the face of WWE just didn't work for me. I guess they wanted to get heat on Lesnar by having him associated with Laurinaitis, but Laurinaitis seems too small to be part of this. He is terrible at making what should be big announcements feel big. Remember last year when he announced Alberto Del Rio vs. John Cena for a WWE Title match? That was the most anticlimactic WWE Title match announcement ever. Well, his announcement of Lesnar vs. Cena was just as bad. That should have been a moment, but Laurinaitis is totally incapable of creating a moment. Plus, it seems like they are rushing this match in order to pop what is usually a poor buy rate for the post-WrestleMania PPV. I said last week that I didn't want to see Lesnar vs. Cena strung out to next year's WM, but that doesn't mean that they had to go to it right away. I understand the reason behind it, but I'm not sure it is the best thing to do. And, I do have concerns over whether or not Lesnar will be in shape for a match so soon.

The Three Stooges: This was terrible. I understand having comedy on Raw. I'm fine with that as long as there isn't too much of it and it is actually funny. On this week's show, there was way too much "comedy" and none of it was funny. Before getting to the Stooges, I have to comment on Brodus Clay and Santino Marella. I said last week I was happy to see Clay move on to something other than just squash matches. Unfortunately, that something is more crappy comedy with Santino. Their tag match against Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger was ok at best, but the commentators spent most of the match making lame references to Dinosaurs. I'd like to see Funkasaurus fans defend that. That is the type of lame attempts at humor we are going to get from WWE as long as Clay is the Funkasaurus.

Getting back to the Stooges, it was not fun to watch Santino looking for them. The "Frageeeele" joke was a rip off from "A Christmas Story." And the Stooges themselves were not funny at all. As in I never laughed once at anything any of them did. I have never been a fan of Raw guest stars appearing in character (like the guys from The A-Team). These guys are not comic geniuses as we were told, they are three actors playing roles made famous by arguably three comic geniuses many many years ago (though I personally miss Shemp). If the movie is this bad, then it is going to suck really hard. The Hulk Hogan imitation was totally out of place. I understand wanting to use his skills as an impersonator, but it wasn't funny. The live crowd crapped all over them which was the only good thing about this. I kept wondering what was going on in their minds as they were getting booed. I didn't need to see Kane either in this role. It was all terrible.

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 photo credit Andrew Weber-US PRESSWIRE]

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