By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

JeriShow - DX: This was an overly long segment, and not all of it worked. But, the good outweighed the bad for a marginal Hit. I liked how Chris Jericho and Big Show gave their facts to differentiate between themselves and DX. The videos and images on the Titantron behind them was a nice touch as well. It was something different which helped keep the long promo more interesting. Big Show using Jericho's word "sycophant" alone was probably enough to give this segment a Hit. DX interrupted and continued the nice mic work. It was more serious than we've seen from DX lately, building on the good promo from Jericho last week. I also liked how this set up the theme that if JeriShow loses at TLC, Jericho will be off of Raw (although with the brand split being weakened as of late after being so strong for much of the year, that threat didn't carry as much weight as it could have). It also set up the main event.

Sheamus "vs." Santino: This was a very interesting segment. It was a strange juxtaposition between the ultra goofy Santino Marella and the ultra serious and intense Sheamus. Sheamus gave a solid promo. I laughed at Santino's antics. But, the real point of the segment was another strong beat down handed out by Sheamus. This one worked particularly well as Sheamus destroyed Santino, then put him through a table. It is Booking 101, but sometimes the simplest and most basic booking can be the most effective.

Orton Makes a Statement: I don't like the fact that in order to make a statement, Randy Orton had to have Legacy do his dirty work before his match against Kofi Kingston. However, it was a very strong statement. Orton needed to make a statement after having Kingston constantly get the better of him over the last month or so. Mission accomplished. You knew WWE wasn't stupid enough to really give this match away for free like this (at least you'd hope). So, the Legacy attack at the start was a bit predictable, but it still worked well. And the real statement came after their short match with Orton doing the spiked ddt on Kingston from the top turnbuckle which was devastating.

John Cena: I am glad to see John Cena in serious mode. Working with Sheamus on ECW lit a fire under Goldust's ass. Sheamus seemed to have the same effect on Shelton Benjamin before coming to Raw. Maybe he's having the same effect on Cena. Not that Cena doesn't have this potential all the time, it is just that too often he goes for silly poopy humor when he can deliver these types of intense promos which actually make you want to cheer for him instead of vomit. He still needs to improve a bit, but I will take this over making jokes every week. It was also nice to see Carlito even if it was mostly just to get beat up by Cena. He actually did some of his best mic work in talking about how the locker room is tired of Cena.

Jericho vs. Triple H: This was a good main event. I enjoyed listening to Shawn Michaels and Big Show on guest commentary banter back and forth. The ending sequence was the best part of the match as Big Show got up, only to be confronted by Michaels, only to shove Michaels down. That distracted the referee allowing him to knock out Triple H, selling the KO punch, but he got kicked out by the ref. That allowed Michaels to Super Kick Jericho, and get kicked out himself. That led to the ending as both men came to, and Triple H was able to get the leverage pin. I assumed that Triple H would be in jeopardy next week in a handicap match against JeriShow, so this was a surprise ending for me.

RAW MISSES

Troyer - Miz - Henry - MVP: When I listed my Hits and Misses, I was surprised that I had five Hits, but only two Misses, as I didn't enjoy the show that much. Don't get me wrong, it was a solid show, but it had some major issues. I guess the problem is that four of those issues (or scenes) revolved around the guest host Verne Troyer, the Miz, Mark Henry and Montel Vontavious Porter. Troyer was ok, but I didn't enjoy what he was involved in. The Miz was ok in his performance, but the lame Austin Powers jokes were lame (I said that already, but it was really lame!). I wasn't into the angle where Henry was trying to prove that he can be entertaining. I did laugh when he squished Jillian Hall, but that was the only good moment in a string of bad ones. The worst part of the angle was Henry's "rap." It was a terrible segment, one of the worst on Raw in a long time. Henry does have a personality, but you don't need to try to prove that by having him do something like rap which he clearly can't do. This isn't a Jillian Hall persona where he is supposed to suck at it. That made it even worse. I hated seeing Miz get squashed. I like Henry, but it was a mistake to see him easily defeat the US Champion. Then the dancing celebration with the random Divas became the proverbial icing on this really bad cake.

DX - Hornswoggle: Late in the show as it appeared the main event was all that was left, I thought to myself that WWE had decided to drop the Mini-People's Court that they talked about last week. It hadn't been mentioned and I had assumed it would unfortunately play a prominent role on the show. I am glad that it wasn't prominent, but I was disappointed that it wasn't totally dropped. I would have over looked that inconsistency in the joy that I would have felt if they had ignored it. Then came the short scene backstage with Hornswoggle and DX. You can throw Hornswoggle talking with subtitles to the list of worst moments in Raw history and one of the production techniques (along with p.o.v. shots and dream sequences) that should never, ever be seen in WWE again.

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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