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Sheamus - Christian: After a stupid start to the show, things picked up nicely after Sheamus came out to make some demands of guest host Carl Edwards. I liked how he demanded that Edwards make him the last entrant in the Elimination Chamber. It also played up Edwards' friendship with John Cena where he could potentially give Cena the advantage. It was also nice to see the surprise appearance by Christian. He was amusing on the mic. His confrontation with Sheamus was well done. I particularly liked how Christian brought up the fact that last week Edge didn't mention him as a possible WrestleMania opponent. They effectively explained how the ECW superstars will become free agents able to sign with either Raw or Smackdown. They also set up the opening match between Christian and Sheamus. That match was solid, but a little off. I suspect that they haven't been wrestling on house shows (haven't checked results lately), and that they could have a good match once they've worked together more.
Legacy: I liked the backstage scene with Legacy. It got off to a nice start with Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. It played into what we've heard Rhodes complain about to Randy Orton, that DiBiase is getting a big head after his movie role. I appreciate that Rhodes brought up a previous victory over Mark Henry. It is very unusual for WWE to bring up past matches like that, and they should do it more often to make under card matches seem more important. Orton was particularly good in his role getting in their face and announcing their matches for later in the show. The tension in Legacy has been done very well, but they need to do a better job in the upcoming weeks of having solidarity if they aren't going to break up soon.
Unified Tag Title Match: I was glad this turned into an elimination match as those work better for tag team triple threats. I prefer having three men in the ring only tagging their partners, not two tagging whoever happens to be close. The match itself was enjoyable to watch. Shawn Michaels getting the first elimination was the right way to go as it was his first bit of success in the last few weeks and it led to him thinking he could get the second elimination at the end of the match when he tagged himself in. It was well booked and there was good action with a bit of a surprise ending (I would have thought the Straight Edge Society would pick up the win, and once they were eliminated I figured DX would hold on to the Titles to stretch things out).
ShowMiz: Big Show and The Miz gave a good interview with Josh Mathews after becoming the Unified Tag Team Champions. Show was good in once again putting Miz over as a better partner than Chris Jericho. The best part was the end when Miz introduced them as MizShow, only to have Big Show interject that he likes ShowMiz better as it sounds like Show Biz. Miz agreeing with him was well done as you couldn't tell if Miz actually liked the name better, or if he was just trying to placate his big partner.
DX Breaks Down: I thoroughly enjoyed the progression of DX during Raw. Shawn Michaels was good in talking to Triple H early on about how they have never teamed together at WrestleMania and how that would be a big consolation to not being able to wrestle Undertaker. Triple H was good in his role in saying that while that would be nice, he is planning on being WWE Champion at WrestleMania. I already talked about their miscommunication during their Tag Title loss, so I will go on to talk about the backstage scene that followed. Michaels was very good in trying to get Teddy Long (whose presence on Raw was well explained) to trade him to Smackdown. Long was good for his part in saying he would love to have HBK on Smackdown, but that he can't change the Chamber match now. Triple H interrupted to try to talk some sense into Michaels who said that his career is over and superkicked Long to end the segment. Where are they going with Michaels? I'm enjoying this angle of Michaels' obsession with facing Undertaker and I can't wait to see how it continues.
HOF For DiBiase: I was glad to see Ted DiBiase inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. In my humble opinion, this was overdue. I am a bit biased since when I started watching wrestling in the late '80s, DiBiase was the top heel in WWF. Hatred for the Million Dollar Man helped hook me as a fan.
Closing Segment: Once again, Raw had a hot ending with the Vince McMahon vs. Bret Hart feud. John Cena gave a good promo on Batista and his suspicion that McMahon paid him off to attack Cena for revenge on what Cena had said about McMahon. He gave a good performance. I said last week that there had to be an explanation given soon as to why Batista was involved, and McMahon gave the reason that he hired him to screw Hart once again. Just like two weeks ago, Cena was able to convince McMahon to have a match against Hart at WrestleMania. The video of what happened last week wasn't needed. We saw it throughout last week on all the other WWE shows and at the start of Raw. But, that was the only complaint as Hart had a surprise appearance attacking McMahon and his security guards. His destruction of the equipment and the announce table mirrored his fit after the Montreal Screw Job, just like McMahon spitting in his face last week mirrored Hart spitting in McMahon's in '97. It was well done to acknowledge a possible match between them, with McMahon saying "no" for now.
RAW MISSES
Rest of the Opening: I did not like how Raw started until the Sheamus - Christian confrontation. Seeing the car spinning around the parking lot reinforced a complaint about the writing for the guest hosts in that the writers don't know what to do with many of the hosts. Introducing Edwards the same way they introduced previous Nascar hosts showed no creativity. Having Hornswoggle pop out of the car was way too random and silly. He then disappeared. What was that about? Speaking of random, why did Kelly Kelly introduce Edwards? They can't come up with something for Kelly other than introducing the host, or the Bellas other than walking him to the ring?
Divas: Speaking of the Divas not being used well on Raw, I can't get into this Diva plot line on Raw. They are going somewhere with Maryse acting nice and talking down about what has happened recently between the Divas on Smackdown and how she wants Raw to be different. They are playing up Gail Kim as being confused over Maryse's attitude. That is fine. The problem is that this was in the context of a 1 minute wrestling match. They are not given the time that Michelle McCool, Layla, Mickie James and Beth Phoenix were given on Smackdown over the past month or so to tell their story. I was critical of much of that story, but at least they were given more time both in and out of the ring to tell it. Here it is an afterthought, so why should I care about it or the upcoming Divas Championship match at Elimination Chamber?
Lack of Wrestling: This Miss is really for the second half of Raw which had little in ring action. The first half had Sheamus vs. Christian which was 9 minutes, with a commercial interruption which was fine. The Unified Tag Title match was 12 minutes with a commercial which was good. It went downhill from there. I already complained about the 1 minute Diva match. The next match was Orton vs. Rhodes which lasted less than 3 minutes. It was more of an angle than a match. It was well done for what it was, but it hardly counts as a real match. It did count as more of a match than what turned out to be the main event, Cena vs. DiBiase. This wasn't a match as it never officially started as Cena snapped on DiBiase and beat the crap out of him outside the ring. That was it for in ring action. At the risk of being a loser who adds up the amount of wrestling content on a show, this had only 25 minutes of total wrestling, about 7 of which happened on commercials. That means we only saw 18 minutes of action. There was only 4 minutes of in ring competition in the second half!
Guest Host Confusion: This has been a problem from day one of the guest host gimmick, but it hasn't always been an issue on a week to week basis. It was an issue this week. It actually started last week when William Shatner booked the Tag Title match for this week. What if Carl Edwards didn't want that on his show? This week things got confusing when Kofi Kingston suggested Edwards make a series of singles matches for next week with the Elimination Chamber participants. Edwards liked the idea, but asked if he should wait and let next week's host (Jerry Springer) book the actual matches. In the end, he booked them himself. This begs the question of how much authority does a guest host have. Why could Shatner book a match for this week? Why can Edwards book a match for next week? Did Shatner pick the Elimination Chamber qualifiers last week? Could a guest host make a trade with Teddy Long? Can a guest host sign a free agent from ECW to a Raw contract? Can a guest host make any match for any time? Can a guest host book the entire next PPV? Or the one after that? These are not new questions, but the confusion over the role was certainly at the forefront of this week's 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. Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
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