By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Santino’s Promo: On a very bad Raw, I am trying to find something to like as my initial reaction was that there was only one Hit worthy moment on the show, and Santino’s promo wasn’t it. After thinking about it, I did remember finding Santino to be amusing, which is normal. I particularly liked his 80’s references of Hulk Hogan, Ronald Reagan, and Michael J Fox going back in time to turn into a werewolf. Even on a bad show, Santino can be counted on for at least some good comic relief.

Beth Destroys Melina: This was the first time watching Raw live that I said to myself, “now that is a Hit!” Beth Phoenix and Melina had a nice moment going, with Phoenix accusing Melina of trying to cost her the Women’s Championship because Melina wants to get the title herself. I’ve been complaining lately that the Divas shouldn’t just be two blocks of women, but should have individual storylines, and now we are getting one. The segment really picked up with Phoenix destroying Melina. That was a great visual beating. It helped to further Phoenix as a dominant Diva. I am definitely curious to see where WWE goes with this from here.

RAW MISSES

Opening Segment: Raw started off o.k. with William Regal having Lillian Garcia sing “God Save the Queen.” I like the notion that he would threaten to have security remove fans from the audience, but it was not believable that he would actually have the power to do so. The threat was fine, carrying through with the threat had no credibility. And then, in a packed arena, Regal just happened to randomly pick two people who just happen to be Mickie James’ brother and his girlfriend. It would have worked better if Regal had recognized them from seeing them backstage with James and purposefully picked them to make an example of. I was intrigued by James’ involvement here, but her involvement wasn’t strong before John Cena arrived. Regal has been so good in his part, but here he looked like a sick puppy being verbally abused by Cena. In the end, he got the last laugh, but he looked bad in the opening. The crowd seemed into it, but I wasn’t. Cena was o.k., but what turned the segment into a definite Miss was when he had Garcia sing “Respect.” That was stupid, and didn’t get me excited to see the rest of the show.

Tag Championship Match: After a solid build to Santino Marella & Carlito getting a title shot vs. Hardcore Holly & Cody Rhodes, WWE delivered a 3 minute Championship match. Oh goodie! I can’t even say what happened in the match, as the focus was on Rowdy Roddy Piper and the announcers talking about rumors that the Champs were going to lose, which was totally out of place. If WWE has no faith in the Tag Champs or the #1 contenders to go more than 3 minutes, why even bother with the tag team division?

Use of Kennedy: After two weeks of intriguing build up of a possible Mr. Kennedy vs. Regal feud, this week Kennedy is on to face Snitsky. Oh goodie. It was a boring match that only served the purpose of showing the fans that Kennedy is a babyface. O.k. We get it. But what about his challenge to Regal for a match? What happened to that? Is that feud already over? He didn’t mention Regal in his brief promo. Regal focused his power trip on Cena and Jeff Hardy, but not on Kennedy. WWE can go back to it, but the angle lost momentum this week.

Jericho - Michaels: This is a marginal Miss, as I enjoyed the segment up to a point. Chris Jericho’s performance was strong. I liked his initial promo. I liked how he kept cutting Shawn Michaels off and not letting him finish. I loved his reaction to Michael’s admission that he faked the knee injury. I found it intriguing that the storyline got turned 180º. So, why am I giving it a Miss? For one thing, I don’t recall WWE announcing on t.v. that Michaels vs. Jericho was taking place at Judgment Day before Jericho gave Michaels a chance to back out. I could be wrong, but I don’t think they had announced that match. WWE needed to do a better job of setting it up before Jericho gave Michaels a chance to back out. Also, Michaels has been hell bent on keeping up the appearance of having a knee injury, but now he just admits to faking it. If he only faked it to win his match vs. Batista, then why keep up the charade for a few weeks? And if keeping up the charade was so important, why stop now? I would have liked this better if we still didn’t know the answer. If Michaels said he was faking, Jericho refused to believe him, and we didn’t know for sure, it would still have that same intrigue that it has had the last few weeks. As it is, I am disappointed to know the truth so soon. WWE screwed up this storyline.

Return of Hardy: I am thrilled that Jeff Hardy is back from his suspension, and I honestly hope he stays clean. But, WWE didn’t do a great job with his return. The timing, the last Raw before a PPV, could have been better. I have mixed feelings about not specifically mentioning his suspension. I am glad that he somewhat apologized for making a mistake, but Regal cut off his mic before he could say much. The announcers did a nice job saying that Hardy was going to explain his absence, but they could have at least acknowledged his suspension. Surely they know why he was gone for two months. Why have Regal now feuding with Hardy? It was good to see Hardy back in the ring, and getting a win on his return, but his match with Umaga was o.k. at best. Umaga clearly kicked out before the three count, which was a big mistake. WWE showed a replay which was a bigger mistake. I am glad that he’s back, but I think it could have waited until after the PPV, when you could have kick started something with Hardy other than a feud with Regal which sidelined Regal’s previous feud with Kennedy.

End of Cade & Murdoch: WWE reminded me of TNA with its booking at times on Raw. The Cade & Murdoch break up angle was moving along nicely, but it ended abruptly this week. Jerry Lawler gets the “Stupidest Comment” award for saying that since Trevor Murdoch started singing, the team started winning. This was their first televised match since he first sang two weeks ago. Maybe they’ve been winning at house shows, but WWE does a poor job hyping those events and making them feel important, so most fans are sitting at home thinking, “this is their first match since he started singing.” The angle needed to be drawn out a few more weeks. Murdoch should have sang on his own afterwards. Do that a few times, and Cade could then turn on him for taking the credit for their wins. He would be upset that after a winning streak, fans still focused on Murdoch’s singing. Instead, it is just over which is disappointing.

Orton’s New Music: Randy Orton had one of the most easily recognizable and best entrance musics in WWE. For some reason, WWE decided to change that and gave him new, very generic sounding music. His old music was worth a pop from the audience in anticipation of him coming out to the arena. His new music may catch on eventually, but it sounded pretty bland. Why change music? To this day, Hogan can come out and people get excited just hearing the music he used for years and years. Michaels has used the same music for the vast majority of his singles career. If a wrestler has a change in persona, or a major change in attitude, or a huge push from the mid card to the Main Event level (Triple H for instance), then a change in music can make sense. But, Orton is well established as the top heel in WWE, so why change music now?

End of the Show: This is a marginal Miss. Cena vs. Orton was a decent Main Event. It wasn’t very good and I don’t really need to see more matches between these two. Regal’s appointment of John Bradshaw Layfield was predictable from the moment during the opening segment when Regal assured Cena that anyone not involved in the match who interfered would be suspended. Right then you knew that JBL would be involved. I am fine with that, but having it happen in the middle of the match was cheesy. Did Regal just come up with the plan? If he planned on doing that all along, he was really stupid for waiting as Cena could have already won the match before he brought JBL out. If wrestling were unscripted that would be a possibility, and wrestling should ALWAYS be scripted as if it wasn’t scripted. Along those same lines, who decided to have a steel cage above the ring? I saw it several times during the show and questioned why it was there. Did someone say, “well, just in case Orton and Triple H end up fighting alone in the ring, we better have a steel cage ready to come down.” That made no sense at all. Triple H’s closing image on top of the cage was so reminiscent of Jeff Hardy from earlier this year that it had no power. I was much more excited when Hardy did it. I am calling this marginal as it was pretty solid PPV hype, but still a bad segment on the whole.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, ECW, and TNA Impact 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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