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RAW HITS

Jericho & Edge vs. Primo & Carlito: After a poor first few segments of Raw, the quality picked up with the good Tag Team Title match between Chris Jericho & Edge vs. Primo & Carlito. The Unified Tag Champs have been set up as being able to jump between brands to defend their Titles, so I am fine with this. However, I don't want to see too much of Edge and Jericho on Raw. Special occasional appearances like this are fine. They did some strong mic work before the match, and then were entertaining in the match itself. I continue to like Primo's development in the ring. It will be interesting to watch the chemistry between Edge and Jericho as a team. I hope they don't rush to split Primo & Carlito up though.

Cena vs. Miz: It seems to me that this was more of what their PPV match should have been. It was longer and Miz seemed like a more credible opponent. It went 14 minutes and was a good match. There were a few too many sleeper holds which kept the match in the "good" category as opposed to "very good" or "great". However, I will take good matches like this all the time. John Cena did a nice job of selling for the Miz. The Miz showed that he can work a good match that goes longer than just 4 or 5 minutes. I was worried that this was going to be a relative squash, but was pleasantly surprised with how it was booked.

Maryse: Maryse has been more and more impressive on the mic lately. She has really improved. Her guest commentary added to the fatal four way #1 contender Divas match. The match itself was solid. There were some good moments, but also some sloppy spots and a few times when the wrestlers were standing around waiting for something to happen. So, I can't quite give the match a Hit, but Maryse's guest commentary was good. I like how she keeps getting upset at Michael Cole for mispronouncing her name. I also liked her analysis of the women involved in the match and who she would like to face, particularly when asked about Kelly Kelly and she said that Kelly was pretty, but not as pretty as herself. That was great.

Orton Runs the Gauntlet: While I wasn't thrilled with the fact that there was a trade (more later), the idea of Randy Orton having to run a gauntlet against three mystery opponents was intriguing. It made sense from Batista's stand point to book the match as he took a three on one beating from Orton, so he made Orton wrestle three different opponents. I wish it had been fun to learn the identities of the opponents, but I kept saying "who is going to be left on ECW?" (more later). But, it was fun to watch Evan Bourne mix it up with Orton. It wasn't a long match and Orton won, but it was good to see Bourne take it to the WWE Champion as well as he did. The writing for Jack Swagger's appearance was very good. This was a great way to get him some heat on his first night on a new show. I figured he would have a chance to shine on one of the two big shows after next year's draft. I guess it came earlier. Will he be the #2 heel soon behind Orton? Mark Henry's appearance was also well written. He did a great job of selling the idea that he was going to let Orton win like Swagger had, only to laugh and shake his finger. That was a very good moment. I have been impressed with Henry's work over the last year or so on ECW. He isn't great in the ring, but he can have good matches and brings the charisma that he showed here. A babyface run has some potential as we haven't seen him in that role in a long time.

RAW MISSES

McMahon's Opening Announcement: Raw got off to a bad start. Vince McMahon seems to be bipolar. Last week, he was acting like a heel towards the fans when he bought Raw, but then he acted like a babyface when he booked Three Stages of Hell. He was an ass on Smackdown. Here, he started out like an ass, fooling the fans into thinking he was going to give them a refund. Then, he appointed a babyface Batista as the guest host with unlimited power for the night, which is far from a heelish act. So, what is McMahon? Even looking past that, it made zero sense that a week before, Donald Trump had made a 15 person trade with Smackdown and ECW and that WWE was just now announcing it? If the trade happened a week ago, why were the roster moves just made? Also, wasn't there just a draft? Why are we getting a big trade only a few months later? I don't understand that at all. Raw has sucked lately, but don't screw up ECW and Smackdown trying to make up for lousy booking on Raw. Speaking of lousy booking on Raw, McMahon bad mouths Trump, but then goes on with Trump's plan for weekly guest hosts. I am fine with the concept of the a weekly guest host, but why would McMahon still have to go with Trump's plan? McMahon picked Batista, so it isn't like Trump already had the guest hosts signed to contracts or anything like that.

Triple H vs. MVP: This gets a Miss because Montel Vontavious Porter deserves better than this. He spent four minutes working on Triple H's previously injured leg, took one move from Triple H (it was the Pedigree, but seriously, one move?!) and took the pin. I am not a Triple H hater, but it is ridiculous that he is positioned as such a bad ass that he can easily defeat his opponent on one leg with one move.

Big Show vs. Kingston: This match-up doesn't do anything for me. Kofi Kingston looked good and wasn't squashed by the Big Show which is good. But, I don't care about seeing a feud between these two. The double count out was boring. Big Show was supposed to be angry after not winning, but he didn't sell his anger well. Then again, it wasn't an important match, so maybe his level of anger was fine. It was just sort of a blah match.

Why Should I Watch ECW?: I meant to wait and see who got traded to what shows until after writing my Hits & Misses as this should be a column focusing on the good and bad from Raw. However, the idea of the trade ticked me off. The three names that ECW lost ticked me off. In the end, curiosity got the better of me. This belongs in a different article, but it is on my mind so I am saying it now. I have enjoyed ECW lately (not as much as Smackdown, but it has been a fun show). Why should I watch it after ECW lost Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne, Mark Henry, Finlay, and the entire Hart Dynasty? They lost 7 wrestlers, and only got back 5, Shelton Benjamin (a good pick), Goldust (we will see what they do with him, but he can be entertaining), William Regal (a good pick) and the Bella twins (horrible, who cares? They only have one other woman wrestler!). Tiffany is the worst General Manager ever to agree to trade six of her best wrestlers and Natalya, for three solid to good wrestlers and two women who have no opponents on her show. It makes no sense. Christian, Tommy Dreamer, Benjamin, Regal, Goldust, Paul Burchill and Zack Ryder? Am I forgetting someone? That is a thin roster right there.

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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