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RAW HITS

Cena and Miz: WWE did a good job of building to the just announced match of John Cena vs. The Miz for The not-so-great not-so-American Bash. I don't know that it is the best idea to wait until the last Raw before the PPV to announce this match, but it has been brewing for two months so it is probably fine. Cena's fans will really want to see him beat the crap out of Miz, while the Cena haters who worship Miz for his recent promos will want to see the big upset. It was a pretty pro-Cena crowd on Raw. He did a good job of finally answering Miz's statements (following the fun recap video). The sneak attack punch by Miz was fine, but I wasn't thrilled with how he ran away. But, he did get his revenge at the end of the show.

Trump Fires Santina: This was a cheesy scene, but I have not been a fan of the Santina Marella gimmick (or the Miss WrestleMania crown) so I am giving this a Hit. I don't care how it happened, I am just happy that Santina has been fired and Santino Marella can continue to do what he does best, make us laugh. Hopefully he will keep developing his latest gimmick of discovering mid-match that he actually has wrestling ability. It can definitely get old, but if done right can be a fun character.

Triple H vs. Orton: This was a very good Last Man Standing match. Triple H and Randy Orton worked hard to put on a very physical brawl. They were both intense. It was interesting in this type of match to see Orton focus on Triple H's knee, as opposed to just constantly hitting him with weapons (though there was plenty of that too). It was also good to see that all that work on the injured knee paid off at the end, when Triple H was unable to stand after knocking Orton out with the Pedigree on the stage. The draw made sense here and was well executed. There was plenty of brutal offense to enjoy. I don't know that I want to pay to see more of the same on Sunday, but it was still good for "in the moment" enjoyment.

Maryse and Miz: I have enjoyed the budding relationship between Maryse and Miz. As I have said many times, the Miz is awesome. Maryse has improved a lot as a character. Her English is much better than it was a year ago. Her acting is better. She is better in the ring and has been an all around good performer. I have also enjoyed the scenes between the two of them over the last few weeks of Raw. They seem to have a chemistry together. I like how Maryse is playing her role of trying to act annoyed and hide an attraction to Miz. I hope this continues.

RAW MISSES

No Commercials: After a long video recap of what happened on Raw last week, the Raw intro video, the announcers welcoming us to the show, and a long in ring segment between Miz and Cena, I was ready for a break. But, it never came. Some readers might think I'm crazy for saying this, but I missed the commercials. I really appreciated watching the matches for free without commercial interruption, but there were only 5 matches, and only one of those would likely have been interrupted on a normal Raw. Obviously PPVs are more than just matches. They have interviews and back stage segments, but not as many. I got a little tired of jumping from a short match to a filler backstage segment to a filler video package, etc. It was an interesting experiment and if there was more wrestling content I would have loved the concept. But, with so much filler material, I would have just as soon had commercials.

Countdown Clock: I was hoping the countdown clock was a one and done experiment last week. Unfortunately, it was back this week. I just don't think it is a good idea to emphasize the scripted nature of the show. That totally kills the "anything can happen" feel that made Raw so special during the height of its popularity.

Why is Smackdown on Raw?: Did I miss something? Was there an explanation as to why there was a 6 man Smackdown tag match on Raw? I seem to remember Todd Grisham saying something about having Donald Trump to thank for being there, but there should have been a better and more clear reason why this match took place. It makes even less sense with Trump owning Raw to feature wrestlers from another brand. WWE had done such a good job after the draft of keeping the brands separate. Smackdown has been far superior to Raw and I understand that Raw was expected to get a big rating with the Trump angle and the commercial free gimmick, so it does make some sense to have this match to hype two big PPV matches from Smackdown on this show. But, it still needs an explanation. Hopefully this will not become the norm on the last Raw before every PPV.

McMahon Buys Raw: I wasted a lot of time last week asking logistical questions about how this sale of Raw to Donald Trump would work considering that he only owned it for one week. I was intrigued by the notion of a celebrity guest host each week on Raw instead of a General Manager. I thought it sounded interesting and something totally different than what we have grown accustomed to. Then I got confused when Vince McMahon came out to complain about Trump giving away tickets and doing away with commercials. He said it would cost him a fortune and that he would go bankrupt in 6 months. Again, did I miss something? Didn't he sell the show to Trump? So, how would decisions made my Trump about Trump's asset affect McMahon's business? This all plays into the logistics that I brought up last week which I was criticized for in the comments (some readers said that I think too much, but I stand by the fact that pro wrestling doesn't have to be brain dead entertainment). At that point, I had a headache trying to figure it all out, but it didn't matter as McMahon promptly bought Raw back from Trump. I guess with the "physicality" at the end, they might be planting the seeds for a match between the two down the line, but I sincerely hope not. As it is now, the whole thing was just a big waste of time for a one week publicity stunt. Although I do have a theory as to why the angle was over so soon. My guess is that it was supposed to go longer, but Trump got a Wellness Policy violation and this is WWE's way of having him off tv for his 30 day suspension.

Big Show vs. Cena: I am so tired of these two facing and am really hoping that this is the end of their feud. Big Show gets the win to move on to something else, while Cena will have revenge on his mind going into his match against Miz at the PPV. So, I am fine with the end. But, the 10 minutes leading up to the end were rather dull. I have never hated the Five Knuckle Shuffle more than I did when Cena did his goofy overacting in setting it up on Show. I know he always does the same thing, but it just struck me as being worse than usual here. Big Show's spear was impressive, and I was glad to see him actually hit the Vader Bomb for a change, but most of the match was slow and boring.

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

Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.

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