By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: Let me start by saying this was far from a great start for Raw. But, it was good enough to get a Hit. Mike Tyson was awkward at first, but he settled down as the segment progressed. He was definitely better once he had others in the ring with him at the end. I like the fact that after not being seen in the first halves of Raw lately, the WWE Champion made an appearance right away as Sheamus came out to try to intimidate Tyson. Then came the parade of wrestlers trying to become #1 contender. I liked that despite losing last week, Kofi Kingston was among them. I liked what he said about not waiting for an opportunity to be handed to him. He was rough on the mic which didn't help the segment. John Cena messed up an attempt at a cheap pop. But, in the end Tyson was solid in making the triple threat #1 contendership match which was the point of the segment.

DX - Tyson - Jericho: This angle started with a scene between Triple H and Shawn Michaels where they were talking in a serious way. It was nice to see them having a conversation that wasn't based on silly humor or product plugs. It was a good way to bring Bret Hart's name into the conversation while also playing on Michaels' history with Tyson. I liked the scene between Michaels and Tyson with Chris Jericho interrupting. I knew from the start that it was all a set up for DX and Tyson to make Jericho look like a fool, but I also had a suspicion that I was going to enjoy it. The scene was obviously edited together, but not in an annoying way. In the end, they were able to get a good performance from Tyson which is what counts. It also set up what would turn out to be the main event and a reason for fans to stick around to see Tyson in the ring. I also liked Tyson's threat to Hornswoggle as it was a good use of the leprechaun. As I said, the ending was predictable, but it was still fun to watch DX once again get the better of Jericho. And, it gave WWE a SportsCenter moment.

Legacy: I continue to like the development for Legacy in 2010. I liked the teases of tension the last few weeks. This week, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase gave good promos about how each will win the Royal Rumble instead of Randy Orton this year. This allowed for Michael Cole and Jerry "the King" Lawler to debate how cohesive the team is right now as it moves towards the PPV. During Legacy's tag match against Mark Henry and Evan Bourne, it was nice to hear the announcers discussing the match and the larger Legacy issues, and not just talking about what's coming up later in the show. It was also good to see Legacy come together to help Orton later in the show (although I wasn't thrilled with his match or the outcome - much more later). That put the teases of tension to bed for the moment, which is good as you don't want to rush into anything. A slowly developing story should be more rewarding in the end.

Miz - MVP: I will say that this segment did go on a bit too long for my taste. However, I enjoyed most of it. I really enjoyed the opening part with The Miz's promo. It was an interesting shoot-like promo talking about the (probably) real life heat he had in the locker room early in his career. I loved his JBL impression. He was very good in his delivery and it was well written as he walked to the ring and transitioned into his next US Title defense opponent, Montel Vontavious Porter. The segment went downhill a bit when MVP first came out. His early talk about prison and winning over the WWE Universe wasn't good. The animal references were ok, but not particularly good. But then, he showed great passion it talking about surviving his time in prison. That part of the promo really rallied the fans behind him for the first time during the segment. The passion and intensity was very well done by MVP which led to the brawl at the end. I can't wait to see more from these two. If they continue building this feud this well, it could be a Royal Rumble match.

RAW MISSES

Divas Tournament: Two opening round matches in the tournament took place on Raw for a total of just over 4 minutes. I do hope that the matches get at least a bit longer as the tournament proceeds. I doubt they will, but I hope they do. Kelly Kelly vs. Alicia Fox was going well while it lasted. Then it was finished in a little over 2 minutes. Do I think Kelly and Fox can put on a good 8-10 minute match? How would I know? We haven't seen enough of them in longer matches. But, I think they can carry off a 5 minute match which would be a chance to see how they perform when given more time to see if they could pull off an even longer match. The same is true of Eve Torres and Katie Lea Burchill. Her arrival on Raw from ECW could have been done better than this. She looked impressive hitting one move on Torres, but their match was even shorter at less than 2 minutes. I can't invest myself in the Raw Divas or get excited about this tournament because of the way WWE books the women wrestlers.

Orton vs. Kingston vs. Cena: This was a very disappointing match. I was looking forward to it, but it let me down. Kofi Kingston seemed off throughout most of the match. His and Cena's attempts to work together looked sloppy. Some of that can be overlooked as they don't work together often so they wouldn't naturally work together that well. But, it still looked bad. The match did get better after the commercial break. There was some good action and the match built nicely towards the end. However, the fans mostly failed to get behind Kingston which was not good as he was in control leading to the climax of the match. The interference from Cody Rhodes taking out Cena on the outside was well done, but DiBiase's interference leading to Orton's win was not. Again, it just seemed off. It looked really odd how Orton was stalking Kingston to deliver the RKO as if Kingston was slowly getting up, when in reality he was already standing on his feet. That seemed like a miscommunication or something. Orton even yelled "stupid, stupid!" at Kingston afterwards, which may have been because he was upset over the botched ending. I don't know. What I do know is that this was a bad match.

Missed Opportunity: Considering the luke warm at best response that Kingtson got from the crowd, maybe I am wrong in calling this a missed opportunity. But, I saw this as a good chance to actually get Kingston in a PPV main event for the first time against Sheamus. The Royal Rumble match itself is a huge selling point for the PPV. Assuming Smackdown's main event is Mysterio vs. Batista vs. Undertaker, that is a ton of established veteran star power in one match. That means WWE doesn't need to sell the PPV with another established star in the Raw main event. With the Elimination Chambers coming up at the February PPV, this really was their only opportunity to give Kingston a PPV Title match for awhile (assuming he won't be in a Title match at WrestleMania, which is a very safe assumption - I'm guessing Money in the Bank). Orton vs. Sheamus doesn't sound that good to me. Heel vs. heel is seldom, if ever a good combination for a quality match.

Hart Follow Up: I understand not wanting to do too much with Bret Hart too soon as they have several weeks to fill before whatever payoff they have in mind at WrestleMania. However, after the momentous week last week, it seemed very anticlimactic this week to simply have Vince McMahon say that he wasn't going to ever allow Hart back on WWE tv. They teased and hyped McMahon's appearance several times throughout the show and didn't deliver much at all. That added to the feeling of let down that I had. Maybe it was a smart move and they can do something next week to get the momentum back. But, this week felt like a waste of time.

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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