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RAW HITS

Miz & Morrison vs. Mysterio & Kingston: This was an entertaining tag match. The pre-match promo from The Miz and John Morrison was amusing as usual. The match itself featured plenty of good wrestling action. It went a good length which allowed for two hot tags, the first to Kofi Kingston, the second to Rey Mysterio. Kingston did a good job of selling his leg injury. There was a lot of high energy pacing during the match. It never got dull and had a very nice build to the end, as Miz distracted Mysterio long enough to allow Morrison time to recover and counter Mysterio's leaping move into a spinning kick for the win. It was good to see Miz & Morrison pick up a clean win. After last week's disappointment with Mike Knox getting pinned by Mysterio, it was nice to see him getting his heat back by beating up Mysterio after the match.

Cena - Michaels: This was a nice short backstage scene between Shawn Michaels and John Cena. It was very effective. It is a case where sometimes less is more. Nothing more needed to be said than when Michaels said he was nobody's puppet and told Cena to look at his history to know what type of a partner Cena was getting in the main event. Everyone who knows Michaels' history knows that that was a bad omen for Cena.

Stephanie Bans Rosie: Last year, TNA had a ridiculous storyline where a crazy fan of Robert Roode was able to constantly get tickets to Impact despite the fact that she had interfered in matches and attacked Roode's manager, Ms. Brooks. It made no sense that she would be let back in the building. I was afraid WWE was going the same route with Rosa Mendes, as she should not have been let back into a WWE event after last week. I was ready to give that a Miss until Stephanie McMahon banned her from future events. It came a week late, but better late than never. It will be interesting to see how the writers use her in the future to keep up her storyline, now that she can't just be sitting at ring side.

Main Event: There was a lot to like in Michaels & Cena vs. Jericho & Orton. There were little things to like, for instance the subtle way that Michaels left the ring at the beginning so that Cena would have to start the match. This match told a great story of whether or not Michaels would be there for his partner. Michaels played his conflicted part to perfection. There were some unexpected moments, like when Cena accidentally went for an FU on Michaels. They played up the tease for the eventual hot tag to Michaels very well. That was a clinic on how to build anticipation for a tag. After the tag, the match was even better as you didn't know who Michaels was going to beat up. His brief interaction with Jericho in the match was strong. It was nice how both countered each other's signature moves. Orton is great at selling the Superkick, perhaps the best in WWE right now. Cena's worried facial reactions after the match, showing he was pleased with his partner but still didn't totally trust him were very good.

Hyping Next Week's Raw: I might not be looking forward to all three of the big matches announced for next week's Raw, but I give WWE props for doing something that it seldom does, and that is announcing one match for next week's Raw, let alone three. Kane vs. Orton is odd as both are heels. William Regal vs. CM Punk has the chance to be a very good match, but after this week's debacle (more later), it is hard to get excited about it. The one to really look forward to is Michaels vs. Cena with John Bradshaw Layfield in Michaels' corner. That has a chance to be an excellent match. No matter how you look at these three matches, it is at the very least a good attempt on WWE's part to get the fans excited for next week.

RAW MISSES

Opening Segment: If I had to use on word to describe the opening segment of the first Raw of the New Year, that word would be "uninspired." That was a lot of uninspired work from Randy Orton and Chris Jericho. They seemed to be reading their lines, not delivering them with any convention. The writing wasn't very good, so perhaps they literally were uninspired by what they had to work with. Even Shawn Michael's line about making sure neither Orton nor Jericho got a chance at a Title shot fell flat. I did like when Jericho addressed Michaels directly and brought up the things he said from their great feud. But, that was about it for the segment. Stephanie McMahon's announcement of the main event was interesting as she didn't do the predictable Orton & Jericho vs. Michaels and JBL, but had John Cena in the match instead. But, I was still thoroughly not entertained.

Intercontinental Title Match: So much for the Intercontinental Championship being treated with prestige. After CM Punk's good backstage interview with Todd Grisham that put over the importance of the Title, the match was a total let down. This is a case where the Miss is 100% for the writers, not the wrestlers. It got off to a good start. Punk got in some stiff kicks to William Regal, and Regal was great in his use of Layla as a shield to protect himself. Then before the match really got started, it was over via a DQ. That was a big disappointment. I rightly assumed that Stephanie would say that the match couldn't end that way, but it did. She said it couldn't, but it did. That made no sense. Then she said there would be a rematch, but it wasn't until much later in the show that it was announced that the rematch would be next week. I don't know how I'm supposed to get excited about next week's match after this week's disappointment.

Formation of Legacy: For quite awhile, I was looking forward to Randy Orton's 2nd Generation Stable, but the formation of Legacy leaves a lot to be desired. For one thing, it seems to be taking forever to actually get a group. It seems like months ago that Orton punted Ted DiBiase. And there still isn't a group? Sim Snuka's involvement has been poorly written. I don't see much value in Manu as a singles star at this point in his career. He hasn't had a build up to be credible on his own. There is some speculation that DiBiase will return to form his own faction with Manu and Snuka to rival Orton's faction, but that would be silly. Nobody cares about Manu or Snuka. They barely cared about DiBiase before he was punted by Orton. The fans aren't calling to see any of those three as babyfaces, so why would they buy them as a babyface team going up against Orton who is a popular heel? I don't see it working. And as of now, Legacy is a two member group, which doesn't exactly make it a faction.

"Vintage" Moves: When Michael Cole was drafted to Raw last year, the only good thing I saw in the move was that we wouldn't have to hear Cole saying "Vintage Undertaker" every week. Unfortunately, Cole now says "Vintage ________" about multiple wrestlers. He said it at least three times during the main event. Randy Orton's stomps to John Cena were "Vintage Orton." He said that Cena's guillotine leg drop was "Vintage Cena." He called Michaels attempt at an elbow drop, "Vintage Michaels." I don't recall him saying "Vintage Jericho" but I wouldn't be surprised if he did. Come up with some new material, and don't repeat the same thing over and over again in the same match.

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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