By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Selling Effects of Ladder Match: Fans who bought No Mercy largely due to the desire to see the ladder match between Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho probably got their money's worth. For those who didn't see it, they certainly had a chance to see the effects of the brutal match. Chris Jericho started the show with another strong heel promo. The visual effect of the beating was quite striking, including his chipped tooth. That was a nice touch. It was good to hear him talk about he brutality of the match, while putting his victory at the forefront. Later in the show, Michaels did a good job of selling the effects of the match in his interview with Todd "why am I still doing interviews on Raw" Grisham and in his match with Lance Cade. It is good to see WWE treating this gimmick match with this type of respect afterwards.

Punk & Kingston vs. Priceless: I am enjoying this solid mid card feud between CM Punk & Kofi Kingston vs. Team Priceless. Punk and Kingston make a good team and Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase & Manu have been impressive as well. The tag team champions need a good team to face, and having them face someone the caliber of Punk is a good idea. I would have liked to see Kingston vs. DiBiase go longer, but it was good while it lasted. This is the type of feud that can really bolster the mid card. It will be interesting to see how this plays out as WWE waits for the return of Randy Orton, both to Raw and to this angle as well.

Mysterio & Hardy vs. Kane & Henry: This Hit is largely for the end of the match. The action was solid throughout, but really picked up nicely as it built towards the end. I loved when Mark Henry threw Rey Mysterio from the floor up to the top rope to knock Matt Hardy off balance, allowing Kane to hit the chokeslam for the pin. That was a really nice spot. All four wrestlers worked hard and put on a good match with the theme of the two huge dominating monsters taking on the smaller and quicker underdogs. I was also thrilled to see a match go longer than 3 minutes.

Michaels Snaps: Michaels vs. Cade in a no disqualification match was o.k. It was short and didn't do much to add to Cade's less than stellar credibility. But, I really enjoyed how Michaels snapped on Cade. He showed off a brutal side that we don't often get to see from the Heart Break Kid. It was also good how he got the advantage because the younger inexperienced Cade took too much time (although the announcers could have pointed that out). I particularly liked how he attacked Cade after the match. Michaels played his part to perfection. With Jericho now moving on to a feud with Batista, it will be interesting to see where Michaels goes from here. He might be the special referee at Cyber Sunday, but Steve Austin has a good chance as well.

RAW MISSES

Santino Marella: This Miss is for the writing for Santino as his delivery was great as usual. My problem is that Santino is so great, he shouldn't be reduced to getting regional cheap heel heat like when he brought up the former Seattle Sonics. Generally, I don't have a big problem with that type of heel heat. It is a good way to get the local fans to boo you even though it doesn't really upset fans watching at home. It just seemed beneath Santino to do it. He got in some classic lines, like when he told Mickie Noble that he would rain down thunder on them. But, he doesn't need the cheap local heat.

The Great Khali: Did I miss something? Isn't' The Great Khali a Smackdown Superstar? I know he was on Raw last week to beat up The Great Charli, but I was hoping that was a one time type deal. I don't think he is on ECW's roster, where he could come to Raw as part of the talent exchange agreement (which is stupid). Besides his mere presence, I don't care about a feud between Khali and Johnny Knoxville. I don't care to see him host the kiss cam and force himself on Lillian Garcia (first Big Vis, now Khali? She only seems to attract very large men). I don't want to see him at all.

Cryme Tyme and Miz & Morrison: The constant bickering that these two teams did during Kelly Kelly vs. Jillian Hall got very annoying very quickly. Some of their lines were pretty funny, but they talked over themselves so much and yelled so much that most of what they were saying was very difficult if not impossible to understand. Not that Kelly vs. Hall is Flair vs. Steamboat, but the two were working hard in the ring to put on what was actually a solid match (until Kelly got gassed and didn't quite have enough left in the tank to pull of the ending), and none of that mattered because of the two teams bickering. It is disrespectful to the women (or anyone) in the ring.

Jericho Stacks the Deck: I guess I've just seen this type of thing before so many times in WWE. How many times did Vince McMahon stack the deck against Austin? We saw the same thing with Eric Bischoff, William Regal, Paul Hayman, and Vickie Guerrero. It is nice to not have a heel General Manager on Raw (although Mike Ademle still stinks), but for one night we unfortunately had to watch the typical heel authority figure stack the deck against the strong babyface who overcomes all the odds in the end to win the match. I didn't understand what William Regal had to do with this storyline, considering he has been feuding with Jamie Noble. I liked some of what Randy Orton said as guest commentator, but he didn't get involved, so what was the point? It just didn't work and we've seen it too many times before.

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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