By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

Here is part 2 of my Hits & Misses of 2009. I will reiterate what I said about the Hits, that while I may point out an individual moment or two, the majority of the list is for performers, angles, feuds and trends that were poor this year. And just as with the Hits, it was a long year and there were probably some bad things that I overlooked. I hope you enjoy this negative look back on 2009.

2009 MISSES

Michael Cole: I believe this was the first year with Michael Cole on Raw for an entire year. It wasn't good. I am really tired of him. His chemistry with Jerry "The King" Lawler has never been very good. He had better chemistry in the past with some of the color commentators on Smackdown like Taz. His "vintage" lines are terrible. It has become a joke on Raw. He is force-feeding his "wannabe" catch phrase on us and it isn't working. With Jim Ross' health status up in the air, a change is unlikely in the near future which is a shame.

Fat Jokes: WWE didn't wait very long in 2009 to start making fun of Vickie Guerrero for being overweight. It started the second week of the year with Triple H showing "nude" photos of Vickie while farm animal noises played. It got worse from there throughout the year. Edge dumped Vickie and cut a babyface promo on her making fun of her looks. I say "babyface" just because it was meant to get a positive crowd reaction even though it was very mean spirited. WWE replayed the scene several months later when Eric Escobar broke up with Vickie and became a face just because he makes fun of her looks. Throw in the terrible Piggie James storyline currently on Smackdown at the end of the year, plus many other instances inbetween, and we got a full year of this crap.

Short Raw Matches: One of the themes of Raw in 2009 was short matches. We saw many of them throughout the year. Sure, there were some long matches and some very good ones as well. Yet, I found myself complaining about the short matches on Raw numerous times during the year. WWE fans looking to see good quality wrestling action in matches that lasted longer than 4 or 5 minutes (especially if you wanted to see two-segment matches) had a much better chance of being happy by watching ECW, Smackdown and even Superstars than Raw in 2009.

Worst Week Ever?: January 26 - 30 2009 was a terrible week in WWE. It was so bad that in my weekly Hits & Misses for the newsletter, I had zero Hits for the week and eleven Misses. All three shows were very poor that week. There was very little (if any) content to enjoy. The week was filled with short and bad matches, tons of replay video filler, the introduction of Randy Orton's IED gimmick, Triple H vs. Vladimir Kozlov vs. The Great Khali, and the start of the Super Shane McMahon show that would dominate Raw for the next few weeks. Worst week ever? Possibly.

Super Shane O'Mac: Speaking of Super Shane, despite giving Randy Orton a Hit for his performance throughout the year, there were some bad times for Orton in 2009. The worst was his involvement with Shane McMahon who was consistently booked to dominate Orton. If that wasn't bad enough, he was booked to dominate the rest of Legacy as well. He always looked stronger than the top heel in the company, as well as two stars of the future in Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes. It made Legacy look weak and for what? So that an executive non-full time wrestler could stroke his ego?

Punk vs. Regal: 2009 started off with a very promising feud over the Intercontinental Championship between William Regal and CM Punk. These two were poised to have a good series of matches for the Title. WWE did a good job in building anticipation for the eventual first Title match. However, for the most part WWE failed to deliver a long enough match. I was amazed as I looked back on my Hits & Misses how many times I complained about a short match between these two early in the year. There was one exception, but they had several matches that were too short. It ended up being a disappointing feud.

Jericho - Rourke: This angle was bungled from the start when it appeared that Mickey Rourke jumped the gun in mentioning Chris Jericho's name on the red carpet for no reason. It seems like Rourke was originally supposed to wrestle Jericho at WrestleMania, but changed his mind and was just a guest instead. What led up to the biggest PPV of the year was pretty bad with a series of uninspired promos from Jericho on Rourke and "The Wrestler", an awkward "interview" with the two on Larry King Live, and a disappointing pay off. There were some good moments too. Jericho's promo work on specific WWE legends (most notably Rowdy Roddy Piper) was quite good. As I talked about in my Hits for the year, it was great to see Ricky Steamboat getting back in the ring. But, the match at WrestleMania against the Legends with Rourke's post-match punch out of Jericho was a poor ending to a poorly executed angle after all of the main stream hype.

Hardy Family Saga: I was not a fan of Matt Hardy turning on Jeff Hardy at The Royal Rumble. That was the start of a bad year for these two in terms of their storyline together. The reveal of Matt as the one who had tried to end Jeff's career at the end of 2008 was disappointing. I didn't enjoy much of the build to their big match at WrestleMania. Talk of Jeff's dead dog hit a little too close to home for my tastes. The match itself was good, but not particularly special in any way as it should have been. After being away with an injury, Matt came back only to end up making peace with Jeff. That didn't work either and was never well explained why Jeff would forgive Matt after what he did to him. It was all poorly written. Since Jeff's departure, Matt has been in the role of having to defend him to CM Punk and plug his dvd which hasn't made for good tv.

Triple H's Home Invasion: I am trying to stay focused on feuds, performers, storylines and trends in this list, but I have to point out a few individual moments along the way that are note worthy. This is one of them, when Triple H came to Randy Orton's house in the build to their WrestleMania match. It was way too cartoonish with random people running around as The Game searched for Orton. It was supposed to be serious and intense, but it came off as goofy. A babyface shouldn't terrorize another wrestler's family like this. It was one of the worst moments of the year.

Vickie, Edge, Big Show and Cena: The love triangle between Vickie Guerrero, her then husband Edge, and her secret lover Big Show did not make for good tv leading up to an eventual World Title match at WrestleMania 25. John Cena's involvement turning it into a triple threat match wasn't good either. The whole way he black mailed Vickie into letting him in the match was bad, as was the ultimate betrayal by having him reveal the security footage of Vickie kissing Show. The biggest problem was that none of the three wrestlers in the match came off as cheer-worthy in the hype, and neither did Vickie.

Divas on Raw: This was a bad year for the Divas on Raw. The year started off well enough with the continuation of the Glamarella team with the addition of Rosa Mendes. However, things went down hill with Santina Marella's debut. I was never a big fan of Santino's alter ego even though it did provide for some amusing moments. Early in the year, there was a very short 18 Divas battle royale that was part of the hype for a 25 Divas battle royale at WrestleMania. It also served as a precursor for much of Raw's problems with the women wrestlers in 2009. It was a short match that featured too many Divas at the same time. That became a theme for this year in my Hits & Misses. I complained about it so many times that I can't even count the number. There were way too many 6 Divas tag matches that lasted 3 minutes or less. None of the Divas stood out. WWE gave more time to a man in drag during the first half of the year than to any other Diva on the brand. I should probably give Santina vs. Beth Phoenix a Miss in and of itself.

Gail Kim: I was really looking forward to the return of Gail Kim. However, she has not had a good year in WWE after spending the last few years carrying the good Knockouts Division in TNA. This isn't really her fault as she hasn't been given a chance to stand out. Her talent has been totally underutilized this year. She has shown flashes of what makes her such a good in ring performer, but has been totally lost in the shuffle which is a shame.

Eve vs. Layla: I've been picking on the Raw Divas, so now I have to pick some on some Smackdown Divas as well. The feud in May between Eve Torres and Layla was lame. We saw them in a series of competitions like dance contests and arm wrestling matches. These segments were boring and predictable. There was plenty of lazy writing to go around. Eve showed improvement in the ring as the year has progressed and Layla has had some nice moments with Michelle McCool. But working together was not good.

Cena vs. Big Show: As I read through my Hits & Misses for the year, I found myself pondering the fact that I didn't remember this feud. I gave the build to a PPV match between the two a Miss several weeks in a row. I was able to remind myself about the feud and I see why I forgot about it as I was obviously trying to erase it from my memory. It was a boring feud. Their verbal interaction was never good. Their matches were not good either. They made such a big deal about how Cena could never apply the STF on Big Show only to have him do so with the help of the ropes. That was sort of clever (emphasis on "sort of"), but then a few weeks later Cena applied the STF on Show by himself. It was totally anticlimactic at that point.

Gimmick PPVs: No Way Out has become the Elimination Chamber Show (presumably with a name change coming in 2010). With that now entrenched as the February PPV gimmick, WWE has added or changed several other PPVs to having gimmicks too. This isn't anything new as Extreme Rules and Night of Champions have been around for at least a year. However, WWE changed others too, making several PPVs this year have some sort of gimmick or another — Breaking Point where the main events are all some sort of submission match, Hell in a Cell where the main events were held in Hell in a Cell (so it's not just a clever name), Bragging Rights with the Raw vs. Smackdown theme (which was immediately destroyed when wrestlers from these supposedly feuding rosters were teamed up together at Survivor Series), and TLC with the Table, Ladder, Chair and TLC matches. Some worked (TLC) better than others (Breaking Point), but it was too much. They were too gimmicky and often didn't deliver quality wrestling. The writing was poor too as the writers were hamstrung forcing new feuds into gimmick matches too soon and in totally inorganic ways.

McMahon vs. Denver Nuggets: May 25 saw a terrible episode of Raw, focusing on Vince McMahon's anger at E. Stan Kroenke, the Denver Nuggets owner who canceled Raw in Denver for a Nuggets playoff game. I agreed with WWE in the dispute, but McMahon made me regret those feelings with his horrible display starting the show with Kroenke and David Stern look alikes and really lame childish humor making fun of the man's name. It was all lame and not entertaining at all. It was one of the worst episodes of Raw in 2009. Later came an embarrassing scene where the Bellas were scripted to be idiots in actually thinking the Jack Nicholson fake was the real thing. There was an NBA themed tag match which was bad. The whole thing was bad.

Trump Buys Raw: This was a doomed storyline from the start. It was presented in a way that made absolutely no sense. The particulars of the deal with Donald Trump purchasing Raw from Vince McMahon were never sufficiently presented to the fans. I had many questions about the logistics of the deal which were never brought up and probably never addressed among the writers. Here are a few of those questions: If Raw is no longer part of WWE, then will matches from Raw be on WWE PPVs, or Superstars? If the Raw wrestlers are no longer WWE employees, will they be eligible for the 2010 draft? Will WWE show Raw Rebounds on the other shows? Then, after spending so much time pondering those and other questions, how long did the sale last? One whole week! McMahon bought Raw back from Trump the next week on Raw. WWE clearly didn't know what they were doing and did a total about face right at the start of the angle. This was a terrible mess. After McMahon bought Raw back, he was somehow still obligated to do some of Trump's ideas which made no sense. Trump somehow magically initiated a trade with ECW and Smackdown after selling Raw which made no sense either.

15 Wrestler Trade: I just mentioned this in the previous Miss, but it deserves a Miss itself. The logistics of Trump's involvement in the trade were bad. It was also bad because it followed so closely from the big draft. WWE really should have been able to get the three rosters settled in the draft. The fact that they didn't shows that they don't put enough thought into these things. They don't plan ahead nearly enough. Also, this really made ECW GM Tiffany look like a fool. The reason for the trade was to get promising young ECW wrestlers off the show onto the bigger shows to make more room for new young talent like Sheamus and Yoshi Tatsu. However, in doing so they made Tiffany look like a chump for getting rid of some of her best wrestlers for barely anything in return. Her goal as GM should be to have the best roster possible, not the youngest and most inexperienced.

The Abraham Washington Show: Don't get me wrong. At the end of 2009, this new talk show is further away from a Miss than it was when it debuted in June. However, the improvement in the show, particularly Tony Atlas' involvement and laugh hasn't been enough to save it from the first few months when it was so bad. The lame jokes. The bad acting. The pointless segment after pointless segment. It's headed in the right direction with its improvement over the last few months, and if it keeps improving it might end up a Hit for 2010. But, it was still a Miss for 2009.

Guerrero vs. Hornswoggle: As I referenced in a Hits & Misses for Raw recently, this was the worst WWE feud of the year. Period. Easily. It went on and on and on, week after week after week. Each week, the Raw guest host came up with a new and silly way to keep the feud going and make Chavo Guerrero look like a total fool. The "matches" were never funny or in any other way entertaining. At one point, they made it seem like the feud was FINALLY over, yet it continues to this day which is unbelievable. I could go on and on, but I don't want to relive so many horrible moments.

Raw Guest Hosts: There have been some good guest hosts since WWE started doing this in July (Seth Green, Shaquille O'Neal, Freddy Prinze Jr., Ben Roethlisberger). But, there have also been some bad guest hosts as well (Al Sharpton, ZZ Top, Jeremy Piven, Johnny Damon). I like the concept of the guest hosts. But, I haven't liked the execution for the most part. The writing was poor for many of the hosts, especially the ones who were clearly unfamiliar with WWE. The writers seemed just as unfamiliar with these hosts (thus not knowing how to write for them) as the hosts seemed unfamiliar with the product. So often the writing consisted of Chris Jericho complaining to the host about being disrespected while the host thought of ways to humiliate Chavo Guerrero at the hands of Hornswoggle. It is often way too redundant week to week. There is so much potential for the host concept. There have been hosts who have been entertaining and have given good performances. If WWE keeps this going, I hope they have better results on the whole in 2010 than in 2009. But if things continue on as they have, they should drop the concept all together.

Pretty Ricky: This was something else that I had totally forgotten about until I was doing my research for this recap. It is likely that I forgot since this horrible alter ego for R-Truth was only around for a few weeks. Luckily, the WWE writers apparently realized how bad it was in terms of how quickly they thankfully dropped it.

Michaels Returns to DX: After taking several months off after WrestleMania, it was very disappointing to have Shawn Michaels return to WWE as part of DX once again. The series of videos of Triple H trying to find Michaels and convince him to come back were some of the worst moments in WWE all year long. I have not enjoyed most of DX's antics since reforming. Michaels has really looked bad and it is hard to take him seriously now at the end of the year when talking about Undertaker or Bret Hart when he is wearing the silly DX gear reminding the audience of the silly DX antics week after week. Their ongoing storyline with Hornswoggle has made for more horrible tv. The Little People's Court was even worse (if that's possible) than the cafeteria scenes with Triple H recruiting Michaels. They spent more time and energy on Hornswoggle than focusing on a triple threat WWE Title match against John Cena or a Unified Tag Title match against JeriShow. It has been very very bad.

Hornswoggle: I mentioned his horrible feud with Chavo Guerrero. I mentioned his horrible angle with DX. He has consistently been involved in some of the worst segments on Raw all year long, so I have to lift him up as a singular Miss.

Return of Chris Masters: Was anybody out there hoping for a Chris Masters return to WWE in 2009? I didn't think so. Of all the castoffs to bring back, I can't believe they rehired this guy. To make things worse, he is now a babyface doing the stupid dancing peck routine.

Swagger on Raw: I gave Jack Swagger a Hit for his work on ECW in the first half of the year. However, I have to give him a Miss for his work on Raw in the second half. This isn't really a Miss for Swagger himself, but for the way that he has been used on Raw since coming from ECW. His talent has been largely wasted. He has had a few small midcard feuds like one against MVP. That was pretty good, but inconsequential. He has been overlooked and under utilized on Monday nights which is a shame. I still see him having better skills, more potential and being better developed that Sheamus.

Undertaker vs. Punk: As much as I enjoyed the feud between CM Punk and Jeff Hardy, I was less enthusiastic about what came next on Smackdown, as Undertaker returned to challenge Punk for the World Championship. I am a fan of Undertaker, but this feud never worked well. Undertaker came after Punk in an unprovoked attack to spark the feud which was not a good start. Punk's straight-edge promos worked better on Hardy than on Undertaker. Smackdown was great in the summer, but as summer turned to fall, the quality of the show went down and a large part of it was the focus on this feud, which I never liked.

ECW Title Missing From Late 2009 PPVs: In the build up to TLC, Christian challenged the #1 contender for the ECW Title, Shelton Benjamin, to a ladder match at the PPV. In doing so, he referenced the fact that the ECW Championship had not been featured on a WWE PPV recently and he wanted to make a statement and steal the show. I was glad to hear Christian make that complaint, as I had made it several times for the previous few PPVs as ECW was left off. As an excuse, Tiffany said that ECW made an impact on one of those PPVs (Bragging Rights I think) because former ECW stars made impacts. That was one of the stupidest statements in 2009. It was good to see the ECW Title return to PPV at TLC and it is good to know that it will once again be featured at The Royal Rumble.

Punk vs. Armstrong: One of the problems with Punk's feud against Undertaker was the involvement of the recreation of the Montreal Screw Job as Teddy Long instituted a conspiracy to keep Undertaker from becoming World Champion. That was all really bad, but belonged to a previous Miss. This Miss is for the few weeks that followed as Punk went from feuding with Jeff Hardy, then The Undertaker, to feuding with referee Scott Armstrong. The only good thing about the feud is that it was kept short. Throw in his work at the end of the year with Luke Gallows which I have not liked and the last several months of 2009 have been disappointing for CM Punk.

Ryder and Mendes: I gave Zack Ryder a Hit for his new persona and good quality wrestling matches this year. However, I have to give him a Miss for his goofy love affair with Rosa Mendes. Really, this Miss is because of the first few weeks of their budding romance, as we saw cheesy point of view shots of Ryder looking at Mendes, or fantasy sequences with them skipping down the hall way. Those were terrible and her early interaction with him at ring side during his matches was bad too. Things have gotten better as the fantasy elements have gone away and she isn't focused on as much in his matches. His poem to her on The Abraham Washington Show was great. But, the relationship was still a Miss on the whole.

Vickie's Return to Smackdown: I was not thrilled to see Vickie Guerrero return to Smackdown. I was never a fan of her new boyfriend Eric Escobar. WWE rushed the storyline of her becoming Teddy Long's official consultant. That felt like "been there done that" to me. They really rushed her break up with Escobar. That happened way too soon after his debut. I already complained about the fat jokes that have come with Vickie all year long, and it was no different after her return. I haven't liked her feud with Escobar. Her cooking for Christmas segments on Smackdown were painfully bad. Vickie can be a fun character, but the writing for her since her return has been poor.

Top Titles Changed Hands Too Often: If my calculations are correct, the World Title changed hands eight times in 2009 (it went from Cena to Edge, to Cena, back to Edge, to Jeff Hardy, to CM Punk, back to Hardy, back to Punk, and finally to Undertaker). That was bad enough. But, the WWE Title changed hands nine times this year (from Hardy to Edge, to Triple H, to Orton, to Batista who had to forfeit due to injury with Orton again becoming Champ, to Cena, back to Orton, back to Cena and finally to Sheamus). WWE came close to the record for WWE Title changes which came with eleven in 1999. Title changes don't mean as much when they happen this frequently. WWE is ending the year making a huge deal about Bret Hart's return. He held the WWE Title a total of five times in his long Hall of Fame career. In 2009, Randy Orton held it three times! Notice how some names appear on both lists. It makes a mockery out of Title lineage and keeping the Titles important. It once meant something just to be a two time WWE Champion. Those days are long gone. I should point out just for comparison sake that the WWE Title only changed hands three times in both 2007 and 2008.

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.

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