By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: Freddy Prinze Jr. did a good job as the guest host of Raw. It was nice to hear a celebrity who is a legit big fan of WWE who wasn't plugging anything. He seemed genuinely excited to be hosting and that made the show seem like it would be fun to watch right from the beginning. In fact, this was the best first half to a Raw in quite some time (too bad the second half didn't hold up). It got off to a good start with the opening segment. Prinze was good. Santino Marella was funny as only Santino can be. His audition for Prinze was amusing even if it did go on a bit too long. Randy Orton's appearance was the key. After trying to bully former guest hosts, it was good to see him actually assault one. It was a very memorable moment that fit in well with Orton's character. All in all, the opening made me want to keep watching.

Kingston vs. Carlito: The good first half continued with the opening match, Kofi Kingston vs. Carlito for the US Championship. It was nice to see these two given 9 minutes in the ring for their match. They delivered well. There was one sloppy spot where it looked like Kingston was going to lift Carlito up for a flapjack or something, but they covered it very well. That was the only problem with this match that featured good high energy and high flying offense. Carlito continues to show more intensity in the ring. I was looking forward to seeing this match after their mixed tag from Superstars last week, and it did not disappoint.

Miz vs. Bourne: This was only 4 minutes or so, but it was quite good while it lasted. It was very interesting to see the Miz in new wrestling attire. He actually looked like a wrestler. It might help his image among fans who still see him as a reality tv star instead of a pro wrestler (if there are still fans like that out there). His pre-match promo was good. The match itself went back and forth nicely. Evan Bourne deserves better than to keep losing, but Miz needed the win too. Bourne looked great in his high flying offense including a beautiful standing moonsault (Smackdown announcers should take note of the difference between that and John Morrison's always mislabeled standing shooting star press). Miz had some impressive and hard hitting offense as well. His double arm hook camel clutch like submission actually looked painful which is often not the case with submissions. It was a good match.

Legacy Jumps DX: The return of DX was a Hit or Miss affair. The video package of classic DX moments was good, especially the older footage. I didn't need to see the video replay of the ultra lame scenes from last week. Their arrival to the arena was ok. I still don't get Shawn Michaels' reluctance to return, or in this case his reluctance to exit the limo. The Jillian Hall and Santino bits were fine. I did laugh when Triple H told Michaels that Santino didn't mean them any harm and Michaels said that he knew that. Then came the DX entrance. I kept hoping Michaels would Super Kick Triple H and tell him that he's back, but he's back on his own terms, not part of the silly DX. He will be Triple H's partner at SummerSlam, but after that he is going his own way (or something like that). But, it didn't happen. At least they couldn't get through their "are you ready?" routine as they were attacked by Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. I wasn't thrilled with how quickly Triple H recovered from being thrown into the steps, but I was thrilled with how Legacy stood tall in the end and dominated DX. The beating was well done. Of course, this means DX wins at the PPV, but at least they made Legacy look strong here.

RAW MISSES

James vs. Kim: After the good first half, things went downhill in hour two starting with this Divas Championship match. This should have been a Hit. Mickie James and Gail Kim in a singles match is something I've looked forward to seeing. It's unfortunate that this happened on Raw instead of SummerSlam where they may have been given more time. There is plenty of blame to go around for the bad match. Part of it is the time, where they tried to do too much in under 4 minutes. Part was the writers, for never reintroducing Gail Kim to the WWE fans. We don't know anything about her. The crowd was silent, in part because of the face vs. face nature of the match, and in part because of the lack of a character connection with Kim. The announcers spent more time talking about DX than about this match. The match was well booked early on as James and Kim had a battle of "whatever you can do..." going, but the announcers didn't call attention to it. They each went for the same move multiple times, but it didn't get the crowd or the announcers involved. James and Kim deserve blame as well for the really ugly and botched ending sequence. I'm not fully sure what was supposed to happen, but it looked really bad.

Chavo vs. Hornswoggle: Why won't this end? It just keeps going and going. Now, not only is it ruining Chavo Guerrero's chances of ever being taken seriously again, it is also getting Mark Henry away from the momentum he had when he first came to Raw and defeated Randy Orton. The chase through the hallways was dull. The paint can in the face was silly. The Macaulay Culkin appearance was very random.

Lumberjack Stipulation: The ending to Raw was not good. Prinze gave a short and good promo making the main event a lumberjack match to stick it to Orton. I liked his delivery. However, the stipulation was a let down as there was a lumberjack match on Raw two weeks ago. I know this was supposed to mirror that where those lumberjacks were anti-Cena, and these were anti-Orton, but it was still the same gimmick. The real problem with the stipulation is that the lumberjacks beat up on Chris Jericho more than Orton. They got one chance to get physical with him, but all the did was have Mark Henry throw Orton back in the ring. It was impressive how he did it, but shouldn't the lumberjacks at least put the boots to Orton first? Then after the match, Orton got away and the lumberjacks got beat up by Big Show and Jericho. They were impotent lumberjacks to say the least. The rest of the ending was weak too, as Jericho looked bad for taking the quick loss to Cena. At least Cena got RKOd before the end of the show.

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.

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