By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Cena vs. Sandow: It was good to see Damien Sandow doing something better than dressing up like Santa Claus or wrestling The Great Khali. After last week, I was sure they would face again in a rubber match, so I could have given this a Hit just for not being that. But, it was a good match in and of itself. There was obviously no suspense in the match, but Sandow got in plenty of offense against John Cena to look credible. The match went over ten minutes and was fun to watch.

Punk & The New Age Outlaws vs. The Shield: This wasn't a great match, but I am giving it a Hit for a few reasons. The first was that great drop kick that Roman Reigns did from the floor to C.M. Punk when he was laying on the ring apron. That was really cool. Another reason is that if The New Age Outlaws are going to be around for any extended period of time, it does make more sense probably to have them as heels where they can cheat to be more competitive with younger, often much younger, opponents (though that won't be the case with Goldust on Smackdown). Plus, this adds fuel to the fire of a potential Punk vs. Triple H match at WrestleMania which I have to think is the direction they are going in. If you want to have that match, then you have to slowly build to it and this was a good step.

Heyman Interview: I liked Renee Young's interview with Paul Heyman. Heyman was great as usual in his sleazy insult towards Young and his defense of Brock Lesnar. I didn't like what The Big Show did to Zeb Colter (more later), so I should almost give this a Miss, just because it made me side more with the heel Lesnar than the babyface Big Show. It is important for Heyman to get across the fact that Lesnar isn't impressed or intimidated by Show which was well accomplished here.

Bryan Turn: I'm not totally sure what to think about this new development in the Daniel Bryan Saga. Fortunately they re-thought the bad decision for Bryan to turn heel and did a 180 this week. I don't usually like cutting of angles like that, but I had such disdain for the angle that I am okay with it. The fans really got behind Bryan big time. After he took off his Wyatt outfit to reveal his classic wrestling tights underneath, he slowly led the fans in the "Yes!" chants. That was a pretty cool moment. Now he has to give the promo of his life next week to explain why he joined the Wyatts and why he quit so quickly. He can't give bad scripted promos like after The Authority screwed him several times last Fall. I don't want to get my hopes up after WWE gave an FU to Bryan fans two weeks ago. Bryan as part of the Wyatts was not going to win the Royal Rumble, but I can see him winning it now and going on to face Cena in a SummerSlam rematch at WrestleMania assuming Cena beats Orton. That's what I would do. I would then have Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt at Elimination Chamber to end their program, and Cena defending the WWE Title in the Chamber against Orton, Batista, Punk and two others. Maybe Lesnar, but he would have to lose and I don't know if he should lose before WrestleMania. If he does somehow lose because of a distraction from The Undertaker to set up their WM match, that would be fine. I assume they are heading for Triple H vs. Punk. They can possibly use the Chamber match to set up Batista vs. Orton which has history to it and would appeal to me. It might not be the best line up ever, but I would take Bryan vs. Cena, Taker vs. Lesnar, Punk vs. Triple H and Orton vs. Batista as the Top 4 matches at WM30.

RAW MISSES

Big Show KOs Colter: What was that about? WWE needs to do everything possible to rebuild The Big Show after the terrible angle he was involved in with The Authority. His encounter with Brock Lesnar last week was a great first step. Having him win a squash match here was another good step, though I would have rather seen him beat someone from 3MB like this than Jack Swagger. There is too much value in The Real Americans as potential Tag Team Champions to have one of them squashed like this. But, I can look past that. What I can't look past is how Show knocked out Zeb Colter afterwards. That made Show look like a bully. I know Colter is a heel and a lot of fans want to see him get punished for what he has said, but this wasn't the time to do it. You save that for an opponent whom he has really gone after in the past and you build anticipation for that opponent to finally shut Colter up. What did Colter do to deserve getting the KO Punch? I didn't like this at all and it is just another example of WWE never seeming to know how to write Big Show's character.

Orton vs. Kingston: Most of the matches on this show were filler, but they were decent enough to not get Misses. But, this was a boring match. It went on too long for such a one sided match. I understand the story WWE was trying to tell here. Randy Orton took Kofi Kingston lightly, let him stay in the match too long without putting him away, and it cost him with a surprise loss to Kingston. That all makes sense as a way to set up the post-match angle with Orton snapping and attacking John Cena's dad who was sitting at ring side. But at over 16 minutes, it really dragged with Orton staying on offense for the vast majority of the match. Kingston got in a few short bursts of offense here and there, but never for a long enough period to break up the monotonous nature of the match. I am curious to see if WWE actually capitalizes on this win for Kingston. Obviously they are trying to add fuel to the fire between Orton and Cena, but didn't Orton punt Cena's dad's head a few years ago? This feels like a retread storyline to me.

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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