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Hits & Misses
7/12 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Cena vs. Nexus, Edge vs. Orton, Brady Bunch, Bad Humor, Mark Henry

Jul 13, 2010 - 5:29:01 PM
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By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

OrtonRandyArt_130GG_58.jpg
Orton vs. Edge: After a terrible first hour of Raw, something good finally happened with this match between Randy Orton and Edge. These two work well together in the ring. The match went 12 minutes and was particularly strong after the commercial with several counters and near falls. I thought Orton might win with the school boy at one point as I figured the match wouldn't end with either hitting his finisher and getting the pin. I was pleasantly surprised when Edge kicked out and the match continued. I also like how Chris Jericho's interference was just a distraction and Edge got the pinfall victory as opposed to having Jericho jump in the ring to cause a no contest. The fight afterwards was also well done with Jericho surprising Edge with the Code Breaker followed by Orton hitting Jericho with an RKO. I would have liked to have Evan Bourne actually get the better of Orton this week after what happened last week, but at least he was involved. Also, the RKO on Bourne in midair as he attempted Air Bourne was pretty sick.

The Miz: The Miz is awesome and he is doing a good job in showing a serious side as opposed to the more goofy comedic side. My only problem with his promo is that he started out by saying that he would let his actions speak louder than his words and that the didn't need to talk, but then he continued to talk. I liked the promo, but don't say talk is cheap and then talk. I liked how he highlighted the fact that he injured R-Truth with his hands, so imagine what he will do to his opponents in Money in the Bank with a ladder. Of the Raw participants who haven't won the WWE Title yet, Miz certainly makes the most sense to elevate at this point.

Closing Segment: This was a bad show, but the second half was definitely better than the first as it culminated with the six-on-one handicap match, Nexus vs. John Cena. The match was well booked to have Cena do well early on when he was able to keep control, before the numbers game caught up with him and Nexus took control. He got the crowd back into it with a comeback, but it didn't seem like the super human come back that we've seen in similar situations from the likes of Triple H and Shane McMahon which is a good thing. In the end, the numbers game caught up to him and he got pinned clean after two of the group, David Otunga and Justin Gabriel hit their finishers on him. The fight afterwards with Cena recovering and getting the steel chair worked well. Sheamus' save was predictable given what happened before the commercial break. Plus, the focus was on Sheamus & Cena vs. Nexus as opposed to really hyping Sheamus vs. Cena for the WWE Title. I'm not sure that is good. But, at some point they needed to do something to back up Cena's words from the last few weeks that Sheamus could potentially be a target too (otherwise, you stop believing Cena when he says it). So, I have mixed feelings about the very end of the show. But, it was still as strong enough ending to get a Hit.

RAW MISSES

Opening Segment: I did not enjoy the start of Raw. John Cena has been going back to the overly kid-friendly promos that he had thankfully gotten away from for awhile. Talking about removing Sheamus' face and replacing it with his butt and making Lucky Charms cereal references aren't going to quiet his critics. Nexus unveiled their new hideous t-shirts which have to be among the ugliest t-shirts in WWE history. Not that that really has anything to do with the quality of the show, but it did bother me. The promo exchange between Cena and Wade Barrett was decent. But again, the proceedings were interrupted in a very annoying way by the flickering lights and Michael Cole reading an email from the anonymous GM. Why does he have to get the wrestlers' attention first, then go to the podium, then ask for everyone's attention again? Why can't he just get people's attention, go to the podium and read the damn email? Then, we got a rather mundane announcement about the format of the main event. It wasn't a terrible opening, but it was far from a good one.

Eve Torres: This was one of the worst guest commentaries that I can remember. Eve Torres has zero skill on the mic. She showed little to no personality on guest commentary during Alicia Fox vs. Gail Kim. The match was very short so she didn't have much time to impress. However, that is probably a good thing considering how bad she sounded. She did nothing to get me excited to see her get her hands on Fox and get another Divas Title match at the PPV.

Morrison's Translation: There was comedy potential in having John Morrison translate what Maryse said to him in French. However, his script was very lame. It just wasn't funny. The whole segment with them and Ted DiBiase was solid as it continued a mini-feud between them and helped to hype their involvement in Raw's Money in the Bank match at the PPV. However, the writers missed the bus with the lame translation. This is a true Miss as the writers missed an opportunity to actually get a laugh.

Brady Bunch: I am hopeful that WWE is fazing out the guest hosts. The recent episodes without them have been nice. I haven't missed them. I would have preferred if this Raw didn't feature Florence Henderson. This is nothing against her, but the Brady Bunch crap was a bunch of crap. Santino Marella and Goldust do goofy things like this, so at least it made sense why they would be involved in it. But, why would William Regal go along with it? Why would he and his team agree to film the Brady Bunch opening parody? Who thought a Doink the Clown appearance would be a good idea? Who thought adding a laugh track would be a good idea? I hate when they do stuff that takes the fans out of the moment. It was just horrible.

Henry Revealed: I was underwhelmed by the announcement that Mark Henry will be replacing R-Truth in MIB. Raw's version of the match looked better than Smackdown's with several exciting participants (Morrison, Bourne, Edge, Jericho and Truth) while the less exciting participants are still really good (Miz, Orton and DiBiase). Compare that to Smackdown's version with Christian, Matt Hardy, Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston being more exciting in a ladder match with Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhodes, Kane and Big Show slowing things down. Taking away Truth and replacing him with Henry is just going to slow things down. Henry has some experience in MIB, and he can add a different element to the match with his power, but Smackdown's MIB match will have plenty of that element for the show with Kane and Big Show. I am looking forward to the match less now than I was last week.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, NXT, 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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