By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: I did not enjoy this week's Raw, but I did enjoy the opening segment. WWE did a nice job of recapping the Extreme Rules main event. I liked the Monday Night Raw Staring Brock Lesnar graphic. I'm not a fan of the idea that Lesnar is bringing back legitimacy to WWE, but if that only comes from the heel John Laurinaitis, then I'm ok with it as opposed to if someone like Triple H says it. Triple H's appearance wasn't a surprise, but it worked well. There is often in WWE some murkiness with the authority figures and who really has power. That was added to when we found out that Laurinaitis can sign talent to contracts, but only if Triple H approves. That is strange. Lesnar wasn't asked to do much talking, which based on what he has done so far on a live mic since his return is a good thing. The attack on Triple H worked as it sold Lesnar as dangerous, while reinforcing his proclivity to attack from behind (like he did to John Cena). If Lesnar is only going to be around periodically over the next year, this gives them their first excuse to have him off tv for awhile, but it seems that Michael Cole is right that he has to be fired over this. Or, will Triple H suspend him until he is healthy to wrestle him in a few months? Over all, it was a strong start to the show.

Bryan Wins Beat the Clock: I was not a fan of the Beat the Clock challenge on Raw (much more later), but I did like the ultimate outcome with Daniel Bryan becoming the new #1 contender for C.M. Punk's WWE Title. Bryan vs. Punk has the potential to be a great match at the PPV, plus the next two weeks of tv should be fun. I am looking forward to seeing their encounters over the next two weeks leading up to their match. A series of matches between them over the WWE Title would be welcome for sure. As much as I liked the Punk vs. Chris Jericho feud, it did feel like the time to move on to something else.

RAW MISSES

Beat the Clock: I have liked some of the Beat the Clock challenges that WWE has done in the past, so I don't have a problem with the concept in general. But, this one was not good. It started out on a poor foot with Eve making the announcement. I thought Laurinaitis was bad at announcing things, but Eve was even worse. The real problem is that the better Beat the Clocks of the past have had a longer match to start. If the first match goes 9 minutes, you at least get that one 9 minute match, plus you figure that time won't be beat right away, so you get at least another 9 minute draw out of it, before someone beats the time. You usually get a few longer matches. Here, The Miz set the pace at 4:18 which isn't long and guaranteed a night of short matches. Miz's match against Santino Marella was solid, but like all the Beat the Clock matches was not Hit-worthy. The ending to The Big Show vs. Jericho was off and confusing with the announcers having to sort things out during a commercial break. I hope that was not meant to set up a Show vs. Jericho feud, as I don't want to see that after the two Jericho vs. Punk PPV matches. Half of the participants in the challenge were from Smackdown. I certainly didn't need to see Kane vs. The Great Khali. Randy Orton vs. Jack Swagger was good while it lasted, but too short. I'm trying to figure out why Jerry Lawler, who constantly bad mouths Laurinaitis as the General Manager would be rewarded with a chance to earn a WWE Title match. As I said, I like that Bryan won, but nothing else good came out of this.

Bellas Fired: Perhaps I am being too old fashioned in my thinking, but I don't understand trying to drive business to the website instead of just featuring something on Raw. Why were the Bellas fired? Just tell us on Raw. If they did something so egregious as to be fired, then that should be worth showing on tv instead of making fans go to the stupid website to find out.

Closing Segment: It is hard to imagine a bigger disparity in quality between an opening segment and a closing one. I didn't love the opening segment, but it was quite good. The closing however was terrible. I thought John Cena was taking some time off which would be fine with me as it would give a chance to freshen things up a bit on Raw before his return. Instead, he is back the night after saying he was taking a vacation and he will be at the next PPV too. Maybe he will be off Raw until then? Anyway, that isn't even a big deal. The real problem here is that the Cena - Laurinaitis dynamic did nothing for me. I did not enjoy their verbal encounter with Cena making fun of the GM and refuting his claim to be trying to motivate Cena. I wish WWE would get back into the habit of having a match end Raw. These talking segment main events can be good, but have become too common place, at least that is my perception. The best part of the segment was the deafening silence that the crowd used to meet Lord Tensai. I hope that sends a message to WWE that he is not getting over at all. And then came the announcement that Cena will face Laurinaitis at the next PPV. That sucks. He goes from The Rock, to Brock Lesnar, to Johnny Ace? Really? I had no problem with Cena vs. Rock and Cena vs. Lesnar being the main events of PPVs, but a Title match should be ahead of Cena vs. Laurinaitis period. I don't care at all about this.

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

[Torch art credit Travis Beaven (c) PWTorch.com]

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