By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Mark Cuban: Cuban did a good job as the guest host for Raw. I like that they presented him the way he would likely have presented himself if this was all unscripted. For instance, he sat at ringside the way he sits court side during Mavericks games instead of having an office in the back like the other guest hosts. The writers seemed to know how to write for him like when he compared the WWE and NBA referees as opposed to some other hosts (ie Al Sharpton). He did a good job in his performance, even though I believe he referred to The Legacy as "The Legends" at one point.

Shaemus Videos: It was a nice touch to have these videos of Shaemus' path of destruction in his short Raw run throughout the show. They were well produced and effectively reminded the audience of Shaemus' dominance thus far leading to his WWE Title match at TLC.

Kingston vs. Orton: WWE has done a good job of building towards this eventual PPV match. It was odd to give it away for free less than a week before hand, but they actually handled it well. At about 5 minutes, it was a nice tease for what these two can do against each other in a longer match. There was good action and it made me want to see more. Plus, the ending was well done as the special referee Mark Cuban did a fast count on Orton to give Kingston the win. He then acknowledged afterwards that this match up is tied at one win apiece with unusual circumstances which makes the rubber match at TLC the big show down between them. WWE hasn't given away too much so fans should still want to see the culmination of the feud at the PPV.

Miz's Clean Win: I felt for sure that Miz would retain the US Title against Mark Henry. I was happy to be correct. However, I was equally sure that he would lose the match by getting himself intentionally disqualified or counted out. I was even happier to be incorrect on that assumption as Miz got a clean win with a one-two-three on Henry. It was nice to see a heel Champion picking up a clean win without having to cheat.

JeriShow vs. DX Build: This would be much stronger without any involvement from Hornswoggle (more later), but WWE is doing a much better job building to this TLC Tag Title match than they did for the triple threat WWE Title match involving DX at Survivor Series. Part of it is that they are at least keeping the Hornswoggle stuff separate from this, as opposed to having John Cena involved with Hornswoggle last month. Getting to this week, Chris Jericho once again delivered a great promo before his handicap match against DX. The match was predictably short before Big Show got involved. The beat down of Shawn Michaels and Triple H was very well done. JeriShow stood tall going into TLC, making the fans question whether or not DX will be able to pull of the win, and making them want to see it all the more.

Championship Showdown: I really enjoyed the end of Raw. A few weeks ago, I wrote that Shaemus needed to be given a chance to talk more on the mic in the build to his Title match against John Cena. Here he was given that opportunity and I was impressed with how well he did with it. The segment was well scripted to give Shaemus all of the talking power in the first half, only to have Cena shift things in his direction in the second. Cena gave another strong serious promo (the type that would actually get him more cheers from the male fans if he went this route more often). The verbal exchange was very well written and well delivered by Shaemus and Cena. Cuban played his part well as the moderator. I liked how Shaemus got the jump on Cena by first getting a cheap shot on Cuban. Shaemus' reaction to Cuban pushing him down was classic. It was a great reaction shot. I also liked how he picked up Cuban to put him through the table, then turned around as if he had second thoughts, only to turn around and put him through anyway in a moment that probably gets a lot of play time in ESPN. It was a very good final sell for this match at TLC.

RAW MISSES

Short Matches: This is the second week in a row (at least) where Raw has had very little in ring action. This week there were a good number of matches (seven), but they were all short with the longest being under 6 minutes with none being two-segment. Not all of the matches needed to be longer than they were, but some of them did. I understand giving the Champion Cena a strong win over Carlito, but at 3 minutes (some of which was taken up by Shaemus at ringside being escorted out by security), it was too short. Maryse vs. Gail Kim was painfully too short at under 2 minutes! I don't understand why WWE doesn't have faith in the Divas to have longer matches, even say 4 minutes. As I said, some of the matches were long enough, but there still needs to be more wrestling on a wrestling show.

DX - Hornswoggle X-Mas Skit: This was terrible. Every week you think WWE can't get any worse with these segments involving DX and Hornswoggle, yet somehow they always prove you wrong. There was so much to dislike about this segment (like the fact that this angle is continuing, or the very tired DX tongue-in-cheek merchandise plug gimmick), but I will focus on the fact that Triple H and Shawn Michaels pulled out scripts and acknowledged that this is all scripted. This isn't the first time they've done something like this, but hopefully it will be the last. It is like they know that the material is bad, and this is their way of saving face with their fans. Maybe if the material is that bad to begin with, they should complain to the writers before the show, and not in a silly way on camera. If they acknowledged that their Star Wars argument was fake, then why should we care about them being upset at Hornswoggle moments later?

Chris Masters the Babyface: It is utterly ridiculous that WWE is turning Masters into a face based solely on the fact that he can dance his pecs. It is even more ridiculous that the fans this week bought into it with what sounded like a "Master Lock!" chant. That entire segment with the "match" of Hornswoggle & Eve vs. Chavo Guerrero & Jillian followed by Masters' involvement was really bad.

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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