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By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Santino Marella: Although not as good as usual, Santino was still funny this week. The highlights of his night were his quick statement that Maria would be o.k. before moving on to talk about Stone Cold Steve Austin, and when he told Jerry “The King” Lawler that he would not be easy like the guy from “Taxi” but instead would beat him up. First it was Ron Simmons. Then it was Austin. Now it is Lawler. Is Santino ever going to feud with someone other than a former Superstar? I would love it, but as long as he is funny like this, I will enjoy watching him.

Michaels - Orton Video: The only good hype for Survivor Series was the hype of the Raw Main Event of Shawn Michaels vs. Randy Orton. That hype started with the very nice video with the history of their feud. It was a good way to remind the audience of the events from the past five weeks, as well as the events from several months ago that set up Michaels’ desire for revenge on Orton. That was a great way to set up their face to face encounter.

Michaels - Orton Face Off: Speaking of their face to face encounter, it was good too. I have some reservations about it. In general, I am not a fan of these types of segments. They always seem so forced and scripted, kind of like contract signings. Also, the final hype for this match should have been at the end of the show. But looking past that, there was plenty to like here. It got off to a slow start with the unnecessary recapping of the stipulations for the match, as if the fans are idiots who don’t get it yet. It got better quickly as the verbal banter between the two was strong. Michaels’ long solo promo about not being able to use the Super Kick, his history of using it, his options for what else to do, culminating in laying out his motivation for wanting to beat Orton for the WWE Title was very strong. Orton had a short but good come back. It was also good to see Orton get the upper hand on Michaels in the end. He’s been left on his back too often, and as Champion he needs to be strong going into the PPV, and he was here.

William Regal: I want to give the Hornswoggle training clip a Miss, as it was mostly a waste of time. But I have to admit to finding quite a bit of it amusing, particularly William Regal. In fact, Regal’s performance and one liners were so funny that I am giving him a Hit and keeping the segment as a whole out of the Miss column. Regal’s interaction with Coach was funny. His line telling Coach to pull up his pants because his mother watches the show was very funny. I can think of many things I would rather see on Raw than this segment, but Regal did make me laugh.

RAW MISSES

Opening Segment: Raw got off to a bad start this week. I understand WWE wanting to have Batista and Undertaker on Raw to help hype their Hell in a Cell match at the PPV. But, it didn’t do a good job of hyping the PPV, so it was a total waste of time, and it watered down future chances for inner-brand moments. Batista’s promo was poor. He said a few times that he was confused or something, and it definitely showed. Batista & Undertaker vs. Cade & Murdoch effectively killed off the Tag Team Division. It was a boring squash that accomplished nothing. Showing them work together doesn’t make me want to see them fight more than before. This was the first instance of bad Survivor Series Hype, which unfortunately would continue.

6 Man Tag Match: Matt Hardy & Rey Mysterio & Jeff Hardy vs. Finlay & Kennedy & MVP was another instance of bad PPV hype, because it was a bad match and did not make me want to see more action between these wrestlers. Now I know given the level of talent in that ring that the quality of this match was a fluke. The match should have been much better and should have made me really want to see more in the classic Survivor Series elimination tag match. But, Matt Hardy was a step off. He hit three clumsy looking moves. Luckily he wasn’t in the ring that much. The rest of the match was boring until the end. With six guys, it should have been nonstop back and forth action, instead of the usual formulaic long beat down leading to a hot tag. Here we got two hot tags, one to Mysterio, the other to Jeff Hardy. It had a good ending, but it was too formulaic, too sloppy, and ultimately too disappointing.

6 Woman Tag Match: The only difference between that match and this one is that this one was luckily kept very short. Until Mickie James got the hot tag, it was clumsy and sloppy. Kelly and Layla don’t belong in the ring. Michelle McCool and Jillian Hall only belong in limited circumstances. Each has improved and shown competency, but don’t we deserve more than competent wrestlers? The ending with the Kiss of Death and crazy kick to the head was cool, but up until that point it was a bad match. And it did not make me want to watch more of the same at Survivor Series.

Survivor Series Hype: You may have noticed a pattern in my complaints about Raw. They all have to do at least a bit with the poor hype for the PPV. WWE got a hit with the build to Michaels vs. Orton, but they struck out with the rest of the show. I probably shouldn’t be using a baseball metaphor in November. How about they got a big gain on first down, but got stopped for a loss on second and third, before having to punt? Anyway, the hype for Hell in a Cell was poor. The hype for the 10 Diva tag match was bad. The hype for the elimination tag would have been fine if it had been kept to the Main Event. The Main Event was o.k. Definitely not good enough to get a Hit, but not bad enough to get a Miss. The one thing it did well was get Triple H’s team mates at ring side with Umaga’s team mates. The interaction at ring side and ultimate brawl would have been a good way to build anticipation for that match. But, we also got the match mentioned above. It was too much. We know there will be more hype for this match on ECW and Smackdown, so it didn’t need as much on Raw. And the first attempt at hype was a bad match. The Classic Survivor Series moments were a nice touch, but why wait until now to show them? And why include the clip of Lawler and the midgets? That was a bad choice. Luckily, WWE still has two shows to do a better job selling the PPV.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hitlist Specialist, providing his point of view in the Torch's hitlist format for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.

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