By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

DX vs. Miz & Morrison: This turned out just about as well as could be expected. Some were really hoping that WWE would put over John Morrison and The Miz, but nobody could honestly be expecting Triple H and Shawn Michaels to lose. The good news is that it was a competitive match, and Miz & Morrison came close to winning. They were not buried the way The Spirit Squad was back in the day. More good news is that the match itself was pretty good. It is always good to see Michaels do his come back routine early in a match which means it won't be too formulaic later. There was some nice wrestling action in the match. The ending was particularly strong with Morrison hitting Sweet Chin Music on Triple H and Miz going for the Pedigree only to have DX turn the table in the end.

Orton Punts DiBiase: There were a few surprises during Raw, and the first came when Ted DiBiase attacked CM Punk during his match against Randy Orton, leading to Orton punting him in the head. I didn't see that coming. Punk vs. Orton got off to a good start and was a nice tease for an eventual feud between the two sometime down the line. It was good to see Priceless wanting revenge on Punk for winning the Tag Titles with Kofi Kingston last week. It was also nice to see more interaction between Priceless and Orton. The punt itself was very effective. It helps rebuild Orton and remind the audience of all the damage he did with that kick before his injury. WWE did a good job of following up on the punt after the commercial. I really liked the confrontation between Orton and Cody Rhodes and Manu afterwards. It was all well done and an interesting development. I look forward to seeing where this goes from here.

Batista vs. Jericho: With the exception of one badly botched spot, the Steel Cage World Title match was a good main event. Batista and Chris Jericho worked hard to put on a good match. They worked well together. There were some very good cage spots, like when Batista caught Jericho in the door as he climbed out of the cage and when Jericho used the cage door as a weapon on Batista's already injured leg. It was good to hear the announcers acknowledge Batista's mistake for coming back into the ring to punish Jericho when he had a clear chance to escape through the door to get the win. The final few moments of the match were very good, especially the use of the cage with Jericho using part of the cage like brass knuckles. It was really cool how Batista reached through the cage to grab Jericho by the throat. The ending was a nice surprise as well. All in all it was a good main event, but I don't want to see another cage match this year.

Surprise Outcome: Speaking of that surprise ending, it was nice to see Raw have a big surprise like that. I really didn't see it coming. I thought for sure heading into the show that Batista would retain the World Title. That thought was strengthened by Shane McMahon's announcement that the winner would face John Cena at Survivor Series. I thought for sure it would be Batista and not Jericho. WWE got me on that one (although I have a feeling Stephanie McMahon will be changing that match to include Batista, and probably three others, like Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels and John Bradshaw Layfield for an Elimination Chamber match). I didn't have a problem with Batista as Champ. He and Jericho are both worthy. I just like being surprised on a big match outcome.

RAW MISSES

Over Celebration: WWE takes the opportunity to celebrate Raw too often. There doesn't have to be a three-hour Raw celebration every year. There was one a few years ago for the Raw Home Coming when they went back to USA. They had one last December (less than a year ago) for the 15th Anniversary. Now, they had another for the 800th episode celebration (which was actually quite awhile ago and it was nice at the time that they didn't make too big of a deal over it). I am a long time fan, and I do enjoy trips down memory lane. I like to see the old footage. But, they do that with their 24/7 spotlight of the week most weeks. In 2010 there will be the 900th episode. In 1012 there will be the 1000th episode. Then, one year later there will be the 20th anniversary. I hope they don't do this for each of those milestones. It means less each time it is done.

McMahons and Ademle: I wasn't thrilled with just about anything from Shane McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, or Mike Ademle. It started off fine with the tease from Randy Orton and then the McMahons showing up in their limo. But, it went downhill from there. This was definitely one of Ademle's worse performances. It looked like he totally forgot his lines. It was bad. At first he said he resigned because he was upset that the job had corrupted him into taking a side while he wanted to be neutral. But, later he told Stephanie that it was because he couldn't take her second guessing his decisions. There wasn't a basis for any of that. It just seemed to come out of nowhere, like the idea for this angle came up last week without the ground work having ben laid already. Then came the hints about tension between Shane and Stephanie. This storyline could work, but I didn't enjoy the start of it. I am not thrilled with the idea of the McMahon siblings becoming the focus of Raw (or any authority figure). The focus should be on the wresters as it has been with Ademle as General Manager. But judging from this show, if the McMahons are running things, they will take up much more t.v. time, which isn't good. Plus, in the end they acted like Vince McMahon was dead, which was just stupid. Is he dead? Where is he if he is alive? Give us some answers.

Mae Young: I hope WWE thinks long and hard the next time they even consider putting Mae Young in the ring. This was ugly. It hurts Beth Phoenix's credibility to a very high degree (and the other Divas as well) to be knocked over by this very old woman throwing very weak looking punches. It was scary to watch, especially when she just fell down. If she is that unbalanced, she shouldn't be anywhere near a ring. This was bad for her and bad for the other Divas. It was also bad for the announcers who sounded like idiots for bad mouthing Phoenix for pinning Young. What was she supposed to do? It was a match. She didn't put Young in the match. She didn't tag her in. Then she rolled her up from behind for a simple pin, not doing any physical damage to her, yet the announcers acted like she had committed a terrible act. It was bad. The only good part was Santino Marella's victory celebration (Santino was good during his guest commentary earlier in the night as well).

Dance Party: This was horrible. This is the type of segment we get from these 3 hour Raws to fill the extra hour that are so unnecessary. Aren't there more Raw wrestlers who could be featured in matches given the extra time? What ever happened to D-Lo Brown for instance? It was painful to watch this random group of current wrestlers, former wrestlers (not sure which group Goldust fits into at this point), and announcers dancing to Kung Fu Naki's music. Also, this was a total waste of Dusty Rhodes. He hasn't been on Raw in a long time, and he returns just for this? That doesn't seem right for someone if his stature. What does he think about his son Cody's recent behavior? What does he think about his other son dancing in a wig in the same ring (I didn't even think about that until I wrote about Cody). I always enjoyed Ron Simmons' one word promo, but this was too much crap just to get to that.

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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