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By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Big Show vs. Bryan: After a decent opening segment with Big Show addressing Sheamus, the Brogue Kick, and his 45-second title reign, Raw picked up with this match between him and Daniel Bryan. It wasn't great and was too short to really deserve a Hit (especially considering the commercial interruption), but Bryan is so good in the ring, I have to give it a Hit based on his performance. I'm not sure how WWE wants the fans to react to Bryan, but he is getting a good reaction and the fans were definitely into this match. Show going over strong makes sense, but I would like to see Bryan protected more. In the end, the spirited come back and offense from Bryan in the second half of the match was enough to give it a marginal Hit.

Cesaro vs. Gabriel: This match between U.S. champion Antonio Cesaro and Justin Gabriel only went about four minutes, and I would have liked to see more of it. I understand wanting to keep Cesaro strong against a lower card wrestler like Gabriel, so you don't want the match to go too long, but I think the fans should also have a chance to see what Cesaro can do in longer matches. These are two talented workers and they put on a good match while it lasted. That European Uppercut from Cesaro on the spring boarding Gabriel was awesome. I will talk more later about WWE's mismanaging of their three hours, but for now I will say that they should have found time for Gabriel's ring entrance, and two more minutes for this match.

MizTV: Fans of Kofi Kingston have been waiting for something big to cheer for ever since WWE dropped the ball with him after his great showing with Randy Orton in MSG several years ago. The announcers even referenced that moment later in the show with he wrestled The Miz. This appearance on MizTV gives me some hope that WWE is finally ready to pick up where they left off with him as a singles wrestler on the rise in a program against Miz for the Intercontinental Championship. Miz was great on the mic in getting under Kingston's skin in a case where the truth hurts. Kingston the performer still needs to find something inside him to take him to the next level, but Kingston the character was given that by Miz here. Their match later on was good, though I don't quite understand why we needed to see it twice in one week. I certainly hope Miz is ok after that brutal kick.

Sheamus vs. Barrett: This was a very good, hard-hitting, physical match between World Champion Sheamus and Wade Barrett. It was everything that it needed to be. It was very enjoyable to watch. It continued to show how resilient Sheamus is. It built up Barrett as a legitimate World Title contender in how well he performed in the match. It gave Sheamus some needed momentum in the build to his PPV Title match against Big Show who had all the momentum before this match. It was well booked and well executed and fit in well with the storyline. I wouldn't mind seeing more between Sheamus and Barrett on PPV in the future.

RAW MISSES

Punk's Reveal: I was turned off by this segment based on what I perceived to be C.M. Punk making a sly and shameful reference to his physical altercation with a fan at the end of last week's show. I was offended when he said that he doesn't care who it is, someone in WWE or the fans, if they get his way he will put them down. There was no reason to reference the fans in that instance. It made me think of his total lack of judgment when he struck out at the fan behind him last week. I'm not saying he wasn't provoked by other fans, but he was still in the wrong and this just came across as an arrogant response to what he did. I had trouble even caring about the rest of the segment at that point. I think he made another similar reference later on. In terms of the rest of the segment, his attempt to reveal his choice of opponent for Hell in a Cell was lame as he wasn't really getting a strong negative reaction from the crowd, but he was acting like he was. It just didn't work, nor did the interruption from Vince McMahon.

3MB: I am not a fan of this new group with Heath Slater, Drew McIntyre, and Jindar Mahal. I don't see anything in Mahal at all, so I don't want to see him on my TV. I like McIntyre and think he still has potential in WWE, but don't really see this gimmick as being what will get him back to where he once was (which was just as a solid mid card heel). Slater is good at what he had been doing with the legends in the build up to Raw 1,000. I don't see him as good enough to be a central character at all. I don't see him being good at being a tough guy who can physically dominate people even with the help of two other wrestlers the way he is being portrayed now. They are obviously supposed to be a joke, but aren't there enough other jokes on Raw each week that we don't need to lump three jokes together like this?

A.J.: I have grown to hate A.J.'s character as a person. She is a terrible human being. Matt Striker did not deserve what happened to him. Sure, most wrestling fans have wanted to see him get beat up by Kane at one time or another, but he didn't deserve what happened to him on Smackdown last week, nor on Raw this week. I think we are supposed to like A.J., but she sends Daniel Bryan out to face Big Show who is a heel. That was her punishing Bryan whom most fans still like by facing a heel whom all fans hate. Her character has no definition which makes some sense because she is supposed to be crazy, but that just furthers my belief that there is no way if this was real that the board of directors would keep her on as the Raw GM. She spit in their face by attacking Paul Heyman. She spit in their face again by demeaning the coach that they gave her. She acts irrationally and doesn't do a good job and opens herself up for a potential law suit, yet next week she will still be in power. It is bad writing.

Use of Time: Three hours is just too long and this week really started to drag. If WWE insists on keeping the three0hour format, then they need to do a better job of filling that time, and several matches (four this week) that are two minutes or less is not the answer. Trying to cram every wrestler on the roster into the show isn't the answer as nothing has a chance to really sink in. I give them credit for trying to do something with the tag team division and for having a longer Divas Title match than usual, but more needs to be done to keep the audience's interest for such a long show. Do fans even remember that Alberto Del Rio defeated Brodus Clay by the end of the night? They also don't give a lot of wrestlers full entrances which sends the message that those wrestlers aren't important, even if they win. On a three-hour show, every wrestler should get a full entrance. If you are running out of time on a three-hour show and have to cut entrances, you are not effectively managing the time. Less is more. The instinct to cram more content into the show is the wrong way to go. Give us fewer, but longer matches (a few squashes is fine). And one of the few matches that got a good amount of time was The Rhodes Scholars vs. Primo & Epico which makes no sense considering it was basically a seven-minute squash. Why give that match that much time? And if you are going to, then give Primo & Epico more offense so that the crowd doesn't get bored watching a long very one sided match. WWE is just telling me that they really have no clue how to fill their three hours.

Contract Decision: First of all, I'm still waiting for Vince McMahon vs. Paul Heyman. Did I miss something there? Then, can someone explain to me why I should ever get behind John Cena again in the future, when he gave away his opportunity to face Punk again for the WWE Title? He was making all these pleas over the last several weeks to get that shot. What happened to all the talk from guys like Mick Foley and Jim Ross that in order to actually earn respect, Punk had to defeat Cena in Hell in a Cell? I know that Cena is hurt, but this was their back up plan? Cena wants Punk to get his ass kicked, so he will let Ryback do it. Shouldn't he want to kick Punk's ass just as much? Shouldn't he feel like he has as good a chance to kick Punk's ass as Ryback does? It makes Cena look like a total chump. Despite being the biggest star in the company, over the last year we have seen Cena using lower card wrestlers' catch phrases in a way that might elevate that wrestler by having them associated with Cena, but is also a way for Cena to try to gain some acceptance by a certain demographic of WWE fans. I'm talking about him doing "Woo Woo Woo" or "Yes, Yes, Yes." Now he's using "Feed Me More!" I hope I am wrong about Ryback's in ring ability, but I don't have high hopes for their match. However, this Miss isn't for Ryback being the #1 contender, but for how they got there.

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 Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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