By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

Here is part 2 of my Hits & Misses of 2011. I will reiterate what I said about the Hits, that this list is for performers, angles, feuds, and trends that were poor this year. I hope you enjoy this negative look back on 2011.

2011 MISSES

Divas: On my first Raw Hits & Misses of 2011, I gave a six Diva Tag Match a Miss for being short. As with the past few years, this was a sign of things to come. It was a terrible year for the Divas. They were an after thought for the most part. When something good was actually happening like Kharma's debut or LayCool, it would get derailed. Kharma got pregnant. Layla got hurt. Michelle McCool left to take time off (or for good). Gail Kim and Melina, two of the more talented Divas left the company. Maryse got injured and released. At the biggest show of the year, WWE was more interested in promoting a retired Diva in Trish Stratus and Snookie than any Diva on the roster. That shows how the year went for the women in WWE.

New Nexus: By the end of the year, CM Punk was a strong Superstar of the Year candidate. But early in the year, he was part of the terrible New Nexus angle which went nowhere. Unfortunately, it took half of the year to go nowhere. I was never a big fan of Punk as the leader of The New Nexus. The group didn't have as much meaning in 2011 as it did when it first started. I didn't like Punk's initiations. I was a fan of Husky Harris and felt that he had potential, but he was Punted by Randy Orton and hasn't been seen since. Mason Ryan added nothing to the group. It fizzled out once Punk became the Voice of the Voiceless which is the only good thing about it.

The Corre: Taking Wade Barrett and having him join a new faction after leaving Nexus with fellow Nexus rejects Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel along with Ezekiel Jackson was not a good move. The group never meant a single thing on Smackdown. At the end of the year, Barrett is finally getting a push on his own where he should have been for the entire year. Luckily The Corre didn't sidetrack his career for too long.

Cody Rhodes's Face Mask: I liked the Dashing gimmick for Cody Rhodes. It was not a main event gimmick, but I don't see Rhodes as a main event level talent. Of course, wearing a face mask isn't a main event gimmick either. I complained numerous times that it was ridiculous and insulting that WWE acted as if he actually looked different after his nose was broken by Rey Mysterio. He looked the same, yet we were expected to buy the fact that he looked different. The key to the gimmick should have been that everyone talked about how he looked the same, but he became so sick in the mind that he saw himself as ugly having lost his dashing looks. That would have worked, but nobody pointed out the obvious. Also, the mask made his voice really annoying. I am glad that at the end of the year the mask is off, and he finally has knee pads on.

Lawler vs. Cole: While there was potential in a feud between Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole, it dragged on far too long and hurt the quality of WrestleMania. Instead of doing the smart thing and giving Lawler his WrestleMania match against Alex Riley with a stipulation for getting 5 minutes in the ring with Cole if he wins, they had him wrestle Cole which was stupid. Stone Cold Steve Austin was totally out of place as the special guest referee for their match. Adding people like Jim Ross and Jack Swagger and dragging it on forever wasn't a good idea either. It should have ended at WrestleMania but then it kept going with more PPV matches and more confrontations and after going away from it for a long time, it came back with more "matches" between Cole and Ross. Keep the announcers out of storylines please.

The Announcers: I might as well take this time to talk about how bad the announcing was in WWE in 2011. It was terrible. I've already touched on the feud between Lawler and Cole. It is a shame that Jim Ross' role has been so diminished. He actually knows what he is doing and I'm not sure anyone else does. The constant bickering between anyone and everyone at the announce table all year long was supremely annoying. Michael Cole's character became so over bearing that it really was a turn off. Nobody sold the wrestlers or the angles or the PPVs. There wasn't a strong lead voice selling the product. Nobody stood up to Cole when he made stupid and outlandish comments. I thought Booker T would do a good job, but have been disappointed in him. He did improve a bit towards the end of the year, but most of the year was just him spewing meaningless clichés and undermining the product by praising the heels despite being the babyface announcer. I don't get it. Josh Mathews is spineless. He doesn't stand up to Cole nearly as strongly as he should. This has been consistently a problem throughout the entire year. If WWE is going to get back on track, it has to address this situation from the top down, as Vince McMahon's choices on producing the announcers is where it all begins.

Michael Cole: I know I just spent quite a bit of time complaining about the announcers including Michael Cole. But, I have to single him out specifically. He is by far the biggest problem on the announce team. He needs to go far far away.

Sin Cara: Mistico may have been a huge star in Mexico and other places around the world, but he has not made an impact in America. WWE did a solid job of hyping him as a big deal internationally before his debut, but his debut was a disappointment. He nearly tripped coming into the ring with the trampoline entrance on his first night on Raw. That was a sign of things to come for him in his WWE rookie year. He did dazzle at times. He did have some good matches. But, he also had a lot of slips and mistakes which can be indicative of the Luche Libre style. He didn't always mesh well with his opponents. The Sin Cara mood lighting for his matches made no sense. He never had a memorable feud. He ultimately got a Wellness Policy violation and missed a month. I did like the initial Good Sin Cara vs. Evil Sin Cara feud, but the matches between them were not particularly good. The young fans responded to him early, but as the year proceeded, the cheers seemed to diminish. And, at Survivor Series he suffered a severe knee injury that will keep him out of action past WrestleMania next year.

Miz vs. Cena: While The Rock was great in his role, and while both John Cena and The Miz had individual moments that were quite good during their feud and angle with Rock before and after WrestleMania, their feud really never got going on its own. Miz was always a distant third to Rock and Cena in the feud. You cared more about Rock's involvement than you did the actual match-up that was the main event of WrestleMania. And ultimately, their matches together (whether on PPV or free tv) never were very good. The two of them just don't seem to work well together. They don't gel in the ring the way that they can and do with other wrestlers. I don't look forward to their matches.

What Happened to Riley?: WWE had something with Alex Riley. He was doing well in his role as Miz's henchmen. When given opportunities, he showed that he has the all around skills to be a star in WWE. He has charisma. He is strong on the mic. And he has been solid to good in the ring. The fans rallied behind him in May when he snapped on Miz. They did a nice job initially of building him up and made him look strong in multiple physical encounters with his old boss. I said at the time that WWE needed to do something to make the fans like Riley other than the fact that he didn't like Miz any more. They needed to do something to distinguish him from Miz in terms of personality and looks, but they didn't. The fans were still behind him and he seemed poised for a push. But, that just fizzled. I understand he had an injury but he has been seen since then. He is healthy, but you don't hear a lot of fans really clamoring for him to return. WWE had a chance with him to make a star and that potential is still there, but they failed to capitalize on how hot he got right after he split from Miz.

Punk Walks Out: This had the potential to be the best storyline of the year, but it ended up a disappointment. When Punk gave the show ending promo on June 27th's Raw, it looked like something special was in the works. Punk vowed to win the WWE Title from John Cena and walk out of WWE and take the Title with him. He gave a great promo that night and the intrigue over the angle was high (at least among internet fans). Vince McMahon was paranoid that he might accomplish that feat. The interaction between McMahon, Cena and Punk was good. You wanted to know what was going to happen. Their first match was a match of the year contender. So how did it end up a Miss? After being so worried about Punk leaving with the Title, McMahon simply had a tournament to crown a new Champion. That made a joke out of Punk leaving. You had Cena as the Champ, then he lost to Punk who left the company, then Rey Mysterio became the new Champion by winning the tournament, then he lost the Title to Cena on the same Raw, then Punk came back after being rehired by Triple H who had taken over for the fired McMahon, then Punk won the unification match at SummerSlam, then Alberto Del Rio cashed in Money in the Bank moments later after Kevin Nash's surprise return to become the new Champion. It made a joke out of the Title with so many changes so quickly and so many people in line for their automatic rematches at the same time. Punk wasn't gone long enough for it to matter. It launched the horrible Triple H as boss angle. Eventually Punk would rise to become one of the top stars on Raw, but the walk out angle should have been much better.

Morrison's Losing Streak: WWE never seemed to capitalize on John Morrison's talent. I'm not saying he should have been a World or WWE Champion, but he could have been used better than they used him. The year did start out well for Morrison with a spot in Raw's Elimination Chamber. He had some good matches during the first half of the year with a variety of opponents. His angle with R-Truth helped to launch one of the most entertaining acts in WWE this year. He seemed to be poised for a permanent spot in the upper mid card. But, he wasn't a team player at WrestleMania. Once Melina was out of the company, you could tell things weren't going to go well for Morrison. After returning from injury, he never got going. He never had that big payoff with Truth. Then he went on a long losing streak. Those streaks can ultimately help a wrestler, but they seldom do. In this case, WWE barely mentioned the streak at all. He had some near wins against big opponents including Mark Henry, but he never won. When the announcers finally acknowledged his losing streak, he snapped it that same night against Dolph Ziggler. I don't get only brining up a streak the night that it ends. That shows WWE isn't looking ahead in its booking. Then, after winning one match after 3 months of losing, he got a US Title match? That made no sense (again, poor writing). Now he is out of the company. What started as a promising year ended up disappointing.

Superstars Walk Out: This was the worst storyline of the year. Its roots went back to Punk's promise to leave WWE with the WWE Title, but I've talked about how that launched the McMahon firing and Triple H hiring as COO. The real problems started with Kevin Nash and the mystery text. I was never a fan of this angle. Who sent Nash the text? Was it Triple H, or Stephanie McMahon, or John Laurinaitis? Or was it Kevin Nash? The power struggle between Triple H and Laurinaitis was terrible. While this was going on with declining ratings on Raw, a simple tried and true formula was working on Smackdown to give entertaining shows and the ratings increased. It was ridiculous to suggest that things in WWE were worse under Triple H than ever before. There were so many bad promos from Triple H and Nash during this time. Somehow during this time, Triple H went from being COO to being the Raw General Manager which was never announced on air and was confusing. The main problems on Raw were caused by Nash, Miz and R-Truth. The Game fired all of them, yet everyone still complained that he wasn't doing his job? The referees were upset, but he fired the ones who had attacked them. It made no sense. The walk out was terrible. It made the babyfaces in the company look like chumps. It was so poorly written. The next week wasn't any better as the few who stayed on were trying to put on a show. Everyone was happy when Triple H was fired, but the babyfaces (at least Morrison and Jerry Lawler) admitted that Laurinaitis was worse. So why did they come back? Why wouldn't the referees protest when he rehired Awesome Truth who were the antagonists towards them in the first place? It was unsafe because of them. Triple H fires them, but that wasn't good enough. Triple H is fired and the referees go back to work. Laurinaitis rehires Awesome Truth, but the referees don't protest. Again it made no sense.

Anonymous GM Disappears: There were two additional consequences of the walk out angle. The first is that the Anonymous Raw GM disappeared. After months and months of having this anonymous person in charge, speaking through a computer to Michael Cole, he or she was no longer in charge of Raw and a reason was never given. Even worse than that, is that there were fans who actually cared about the ultimate identity of the GM and it was dropped. We never found out who had been in charge that entire time. It was a total copout by WWE. Are the writers and Vince McMahon so out of touch? This isn't an isolated incident where a storyline with a mystery gets dropped and nobody ever solves the mystery. It is terrible tv. A writing staff on any other tv show would be fired for doing such a terrible job with a major storyline that just gets ignored. For an old tv reference, what if the writers of "Dallas" had never revealed who shot JR? WWE owes their fans an explanation and an apology on this one.

Laurinaitis: The other major problem to come out of the walk out angle is the rise to prominence of John Laurinaitis on Raw. He is a terrible performer. This is a clear case where WWE trying to interject reality into their storylines is a horrible horrible horrible idea. Just because he is the real life VP of Talent Relations, doesn't mean that he has to be an on air authority figure. It is a scripted program. Anyone can be scripted to have that job. Anyone, preferably a good performer, could be scripted as the interim GM. I am tired of the lame heel authority figure, but if you are going to have one, at least hire someone who can pull off his lines. He has no charisma. He has zero mic skills (this has nothing to do with his voice). Whenever he comes on the tv, my hand automatically moves to the remote control.

What Happened to Brodus Clay?: I mean seriously, what happened to him? After a strong showing on NXT, he appeared to be ready to break out early in 2011 as a corner man for Alberto Del Rio who was feuding with Edge over the World Title. But, the break out moment never came. He disappeared. Eventually he did show up again on Superstars, but that hardly counts. WWE did a very good job with vignettes of Clay reintroducing him to the WWE Universe in October. Where is he now? They teased specific dates for him to make his Raw debut, but he never did. Laurinaitis gave phony excuses the first few times it happened, but then he wasn't being mentioned. I hope he has the type of 2012 that he seemed ready to have in 2011.

Twitter Obsession: Starting in late October, WWE went totally Twitter crazy. For quite awhile before that, they spent too much time talking about Twitter, Facebook and other social media. But, it really got worse and worse starting when they began to announce during live shows what was trending on Twitter. The constant pop ups were very annoying. WWE cared more and more about what was trending than what was happening in the ring. It was more important for Cole to comment about someone trending than calling the action. This was the worst trend in WWE in 2011. They have their own social media center on their website and from time to time Cole reads posts from fans, like I care in the middle of Raw what wwefan47 or jimmydouchebag69 have to say about Raw. It takes very little chatter for something to trend on Twitter. It isn't important. We were hit over the head by it week after week. The ratings were going down at the same time trending was going up. What does that tell you?

Aksana: I am not a fan of WWE breaking from reality with fantasy sequences, whether that sequence is a dream, a point of view shot, or a hallucination. They just don't belong in the realm of a professional wrestling show which is attempting to be a fake reality show. If you wouldn't see dream sequences in a reality show then you shouldn't on Raw or Smackdown either. So, it is very annoying to me that whenever Aksana is on screen talking to Teddy Long, the light changes and the sexy saxophone music plays. It is so lame. The sexual innuendo has not been funny. It makes Long look stupid. It is a waste of time on someone who doesn't wrestle. She might down the line, but there is no hint of it yet.

Mick Foley's Return: Mick Foley could be used for something great. He has the talent to do something special now that he is back in WWE. I don't know what that is, but I keep thinking about the promo he cut on Edge in his last night in WWE the last time right before Edge faced Undertaker in Hell in a Cell. He left the announce table and cut a promo on what Edge needed to do to defeat Undertaker in the Cell. It was awesome. It reminds me of what Rowdy Roddy Piper did in selling the importance of the WWE Title last year in the promo he cut on John Cena before his job as guest referee for Orton vs. Barrett. A legend with gravitas like Foley can elevate talent and the Titles and the overall product. However, a cheesy comedy character can't. He came back for the Cena This is Your Life segment which blew. His hosting of the special holiday Smackdown was mostly lame and nothing special or memorable. Then on the Slammys he was brought down to the level of the other cartoon nostalgia legends who make occasional comedy cameos like The Million Dollar Man or Tony Atlas.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw, Smackdown, and Superstars each week. Email him at jmezz-torch@sbcglobal.net.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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