By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

The Shield vs. Orton & Team Hell No: Once again, WWE gave The Shield and another 3 man team involving Team Hell No a long time for a match, and once again everyone involved delivered. I don't think this was as good a match as Team Hell No vs. Rollins & Reigns last week, but it was still very good. I believe that Randy Orton is miscast as a babyface, but the fans certainly have been popping for him in a big way. Daniel Bryan continues to get huge reactions from the live crowds. The match went 17 minutes and was fun to watch from start to finish. The Shield continues to shine in the ring. Whatever match The Shield is involved in each Raw is one of the main things that I look forward to each week. I still say they should not have lost in that elimination 6 man tag a few weeks back to John Cena which was apparent when the announcers at first claimed that they were undefeated in 6 man tags, only to have to cover and say, well they have never been pinned or tapped out. Doesn't "undefeated" sound better than that?

Contract Signing: I still don't understand why some matches have contract signings and others don't. Did Curtis Axel sign a contract for his unexpected match against Cena? Paul Heyman wasn't happy that Vince McMahon ordered the match, so couldn't he have just refused to sign the contract on behalf of his client? That would make sense given the fact that in order for C.M. Punk vs. Chris Jericho to be official at Payback, he had to sign a contract for the match on behalf of his client. But, at least this was an entertaining segment. The verbal confrontations between Heyman and Jericho have been fun. It was interesting to hear Heyman bring up the fact that it would be a partisan pro-Punk crowd at the PPV. They are doing a nice job of building anticipation for Punk's return.

Ryback vs. Bryan: I said above that The Shield matches are one of the things that I look forward to each week on Raw. I can say the same about whatever Daniel Bryan is involved in as well. This week was great as we not only got to see Bryan involved in the 6 man tag early on, but we also got to see him against Ryback towards the end of the show. I was not expecting to see this match go 15 minutes and normally if I knew that a Ryback match was going to go 15 minutes, I would get worried about the quality of the match. However, in this case I was pleased to see the match go that long. Bryan helped to elevate Ryback in this match and Ryback held up his part of the bargain. The crowd was hot for the match and bought into the fact that Bryan might actually defeat Ryback. And even though it was a disqualification, Bryan did defeat him in the end. This also played off of Ryback taking out Kofi Kingston on Smackdown last week.

RAW MISSES

The McMahons: Raw got off to a bad start this week with Stephanie McMahon. She has never been a very good performer, so I have been fine with her not being on my tv much over the last few years. So, I wasn't exactly thrilled to see her back. Having her and then Vince McMahon telling the audience that Triple H would not be wrestling against Curtis Axel on Raw was not a good way to start the show. If Vince is still CEO (though I thought he was relieved of his duties by the board a few years ago) and Triple H is the COO (though I thought he was relieved of his duties by John Laurinaitis a few years ago, but I guess that was just his duties running Raw), then what exactly is Stephanie in the power structure of WWE to make an "executive decision" to remove Triple H from a match? I don't know where they are going questioning the fans like that. Are they setting up Kofi Kingston to return as a heel since they pointed out that fans were chanting "one more time!" as Ryback was putting him through three tables? This just didn't get me excited to see the rest of the show. And I wasn't impressed with the rest of the scenes later on once Triple H arrived (I like the fact that he arrives separately from his wife after the show has started). I also didn't like the fact that the McMahons put Axel down as being beneath Triple H. And the whole thing with Triple H coming back from a fake concussion so soon makes me uncomfortable given the real life concussion situation with Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler only got kicked in the head, and he has been out of action for over a month. Triple H got hit in the head with a sledgehammer, went against doctors orders and wrestled the next night and collapses, and he gets medically cleared after only two weeks? Come on.

Del Rio vs. Langston: This Miss is more for the series of five matches that Alberto Del Rio has had with Big E Langston than for this, the fifth and presumably final match in their series. I understand and respect the fact that WWE is trying to keep this new comer Langston looking strong. But in doing so, they seem to be failing in keeping the #1 contender for the World Title strong at the same time. He won last week on a roll up after AJ's cheating backfired. Then he lost on Smackdown in a way that suggested that he won't be able to defeat Ziggler for the World Title if Ziggler has the help of Langston and AJ working together. Here, Del Rio won to win the series, but again he won with a leverage pin. He could never make Langston tap out. I understand not wanting Langston to tap out in this point in his career, so my main issue is having this series of matches in the first place, even if they have to do something to fill the time before Ziggler returns from his concussion.

Sandow - Sheamus: This is such a one sided feud, I don't get why I should care about anything involving Damian Sandow and Sheamus at this point. Sheamus gets the better of Sandow at every turn. His match against Sandow's best friend Cody Rhodes was solid. I just wish Sandow had cheated to cost Sheamus the match. Sheamus makes Sandow look foolish all the time and then he still feels the need to punch him afterwards? Shake things up a bit and have Sandow get the better of Sheamus at some point.

Miz / Fandango / Barrett: This is another feud / angle that I am not a fan of right now. Whatever WWE is doing with this triple threat situation over the Intercontinental Title with The Miz, Fandango and Wade Barrett is not working for me. Fandango vs. The Great Khali was not fun to watch. Why did Fandango distract Barrett and cost him his match against Miz, when it was Miz who had come out to stop him from trying to escape Khali? That didn't make sense.

Cena vs. Axel: I don't understand why Vince McMahon made the main event a no disqualification match when their match last week ended in a count out, not a disqualification. Wouldn't a no count out stipulation have made more sense? Jerry Lawler even said it didn't make sense given that it gave the advantage to Curtis Axel since Paul Heyman could cheat. John Bradshaw Layfield claimed that it was because McMahon loved those kind of matches, but McMahon was the one accusing the fans of being blood thirsty earlier in the show. That didn't make sense. The wrestling action in this match was ok. There were some good parts to it, but to me it was a bit boring. It got monotonous watching Axel hit Cena in the back with a chair, pin him, Cena kick out, and then repeat. It also seemed to me that whenever Axel was supposed to miss with a chair shot, he was moving in slow motion, holding the chair at an odd angle that he would not have done if he was actually going to hit the chair shot. It looked phony to me. And like last week's match, you knew that the match couldn't end without Ryback appearing. The fact that it was no DQ, but not no count out made the ending even more obvious than last week.

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]

We suggest these recent related articles...

9/28 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Kane's Split Personality, Divas Revolution, Heyman & Big Show, Reigns vs. Wyatt

9/7 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Paige vs. Banks, Rollins vs. Ryback, Orton vs. Sheamus, Cena & PTPs vs. Rollins & New Day

8/24 WWE Raw Hits & Misses: Opening Segment, New Day, Dudleys return, Stewart, Sting