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Hits & Misses
HITS & MISSES - 6/19 WWE Raw: Punk - Del Rio, The McMahons, John Cena - Mark Henry, Brock Lesnar

Jun 20, 2013 - 2:39:59 PM
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By Jon Mezzera, PWTorch Specialist

RAW HITS

Del Rio - Punk: Raw got off to a good start with the verbal encounter between the new World Champion Alberto Del Rio and C.M. Punk. This worked on a number of levels. Del Rio did a very good job of cementing himself as a heel after his turn against Dolph Ziggler at Payback. WWE was smart to finally realize that Del Rio's babyface run wasn't working and having him go heel just makes the most sense. At the same time, Punk cemented himself as a babyface with his strong mic work on Del Rio including support for Ziggler getting a World Title rematch. The teased tension between Punk and Paul Heyman worked well and was followed up nicely later in the show. And of course, it set up Del Rio vs. Punk as the main event of the show.

Christian Returns: It was nice to see Christian finally return from his injury, after there have been rumors of his return for several months. I'm not sure that having him basically squash Wade Barrett, the #1 contender for the Intercontinental Championship was the right way to go for his return. But, I'm happy to see Captain Charisma back, so I will give this a minor Hit for seeing him back even though the return shouldn't have come at Barrett's expense.

Triple H - Team Brickie: I was not a fan of the McMahon family saga on the whole during this week's Raw as they were on too much and took away from the show. However, there was one good moment with the McMahon family which was when Triple H had his early scene with Vickie Guerrero and Brad Maddox. I was floored when Triple H asked Vickie what her main event would have been if Punk had not challenged Del Rio. I've been wanting to ask Teddy Long that for years! I liked how he kept giving them compliments, only to turn it around into questioning their jobs like when he complimented them for bringing Christian back, but then questioning why they were just now bringing him back after he had been medically cleared 6 weeks ago. His sarcastic comment about 3MB that Maddox didn't get was funny too.

Team Hell No Splits: The backstage scene with a more subdued Daniel Bryan and Kane than we've seen from them lately was a nice way to seemingly end Team Hell No without a big blow up. I have been hoping that once they split up that they would just go their separate ways as singles wrestlers and not feud with each other. That seems to be the direction WWE is going with them both talking about wanting to go after the WWE Championship, but ultimately leaving the question of whether they are done as a team up in the air for now.

Orton vs. Bryan: I wasn't a fan of how the match ended assuming at the moment that it was a work. It felt like WWE doing too many of these moments after turning Ziggler's real life concussion into an angle culminating at the PPV and doing a recent storyline concussion involving Triple H. Now they were having Bryan in an injury angle as well. Apparently, it was a legit injury that caused the match to stop, so I can accept that. The match itself before that point was quite good. I am curious to know where WWE was going with the match before Bryan's injury. Presumably, Bryan was going to win as he is going to get a big push coming out of his Team Hell No run. I do want to see more of Orton vs. Bryan based on what we saw here.

Cena - Henry: I could probably give this two separate Hits. John Cena gave a good promo to start this segment, talking about defeating Ryback to retain the WWE Title. He was serious. He wasn't acting silly or goofy. It was well delivered. He effectively recapped his last year and a half (even with some revisionist history) with now a full comeback having won the Royal Rumble, beaten CM Punk and The Rock, and now Ryback too. He also foreshadowed what will happen when the Money in the Bank winner tries to cash it in on him.

The second part of the Hit is for the even better second half of the segment with Mark Henry coming out to announce his retirement. This was a great segment. Henry was brilliant here playing on the emotions of the fans and suckering them all in to actually thinking he was going to retire. It is a testament to the great work he has done on the mic and with his character over the last few years that the fans responded so positively to him. It wasn't that long ago that nobody would have expected to hear a "one more match!" chant towards Henry. This was a great moment with him tricking everyone and hitting Cena with the World's Strongest Slam. But of course, that's what he does.

Punk vs. Del Rio: The main event was a good match. It wasn't great, but it delivered well with Del Rio working on Punk's shoulder and continuing to act in a more aggressive way. Like the opening segment where Del Rio and Punk had to cement themselves in their new face/heel roles on the mic, here they had to do the same in the ring and they did that effectively. The count out ending with Del Rio leaving the match after the GTS knocked him out of the ring was cheesy, but made sense as you weren't going to have the new World Champion get pinned and Punk couldn't lose either. It was good to see Dolph Ziggler attack Del Rio after the count out to try to get revenge for Payback.

Brock Lesnar: A very good Raw with good matches, good storyline development and the return of a popular wrestler finished very strong with the appearance by Brock Lesnar who came out and hit CM Punk with an F5. What will happen next? Was Paul Heyman involved? What will his role be in this feud going forward? I have wanted to see Lesnar face a good worker in his prime in a regular wrestling match. Punk is the perfect opponent for him. I really hope that when they wrestle it is just a regular match and doesn't have any of the No DQ or Steel Cage stipulations that we've seen from him for the most part since his return.

RAW MISSES

Sheamus vs. Team Rhodes Scholars: I didn't see why this handicap match happened in the first place. John Bradshaw Layfield was right that this seemed unfair to Sheamus. It is a no win situation for Damian Sandow and Cody Rhodes. JBL said that Sheamus had no chance to win. Therefore, a win for Team Rhodes Scholars isn't an accomplishment. The fact that they got beat up quite a bit and only won on a surprise roll up from behind didn't exactly make them look strong. Yes, they played up the fact that Sandow out smarted Sheamus, but Sheamus got the last laugh by Brogue Kicking Rhodes afterwards.

Stephanie - A.J.: I was not a fan of this segment. A.J. was good at the start when she was bragging about her master plan to play mind games with Kailyn to become the new Divas Champion. But, once Stephanie McMahon came out, the scene went downhill. I wasn't interested in whatever Stephanie was saying. She threatened to fire A.J. for what? Making fun of her for marrying a WWE Superstar? That made her seem like a heel. Then, when she talked down to Kaitlyn and threatened her too, I really didn't know what I was supposed to think about her as a character. I know what I think about her as a performer. She isn't very good. I would like to see her (if she absolutely has to be on TV) have a more defined character where I at least know what WWE wants me to think of her as a character.

Vince - The Shield: I don't want to see The Shield being praised by an authority figure in WWE, even if it is a heel like Vince McMahon (at least I think he's a heel). They should be totally anti-authoritarian and not praised by the head of the company. I get that WWE is doing this thing where Vince and Triple H have to disagree with each other. But, I want to see less McMahons on Raw, not more. They have a lot of good things going in WWE right now with Daniel Bryan, The Shield, Dolph Ziggler, C.M. Punk with his storyline with Paul Heyman and now Brock Lesnar, a heel Alberto Del Rio, Mark Henry doing great work, a seemingly rejuvenated Randy Orton, the anticipated debut of the Wyatt Family, etc. With all of that going, why do they need the McMahon's running around right now?

The Miz: The Miz was terrible doing guest commentary during Curtis Axel vs. Sin Cara. He seemed to waiver between being ok with how Axel won the Intercontinental Championship the night before, and being upset about how Axel stole his victory. He continues to appear lost as a babyface and doesn't really know how to act.

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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