By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

The Shield vs. Evolution: I enjoyed the focus on the feud between The Shield and Evolution as it played out throughout Raw. Last week, Evolution got the better of The Shield in response to their loss at Extreme Rules. This week was a chance for The Shield to get revenge. I liked the opening segment which started with mic work from all three members of The Shield. It was well done. I would have made one change. I would not have had Seth Rollins say that Evolution were good in the past. I am a firm believer in building up your opponent. Instead of saying that Evolution used to be good, he should have said that Evolution is great, but we are just better. If Evolution isn't good any more, then what did you accomplish by defeating them at Extreme Rules? Other than that, it was very strong. I liked how they ran to jump Evolution as soon as they arrived in the arena.

Evolution had an answer later in the show with a solid promo. Randy Orton and Batista did a nice job of showing anger at what The Shield had done earlier in the show. Triple H was strong on the mic as he talked about the entire situation and his history with The Shield. The best part was at the end when Triple H was about to say that at Payback, The Shield will parish when he was jumped from behind. I honestly didn't see that coming. That was very well done. That led to Batista challenging Roman Reigns for the main event.

There's not much to say about the main event. It was only about 4 minutes before it broke down, but that was fine. The brawl that ensued was well done. I liked how Evolution had a back up plan with Stephanie McMahon coming out to send out the reinforcements. The Shield looked strong for standing tall in the end. This may have been too much in one show. It was a lot of content in one show for one feud that could have played out over at least a second week. But, I enjoyed it all, so I won't complain. Now we will have to see what Evolution does to get back on track next week. The Shield got some of their revenge this week, but you have to ratchet that up to make them want to get their hands on Evolution at the PPV even more.

The Divas: I did not love everything that the Divas were involved in this week, but on the whole this seemed like the best use of the Divas on Raw in a long time. I liked the promo from Alicia Fox before her match against Paige. Paige is still trying to prove herself to the fans and the other Divas and this promo played well into that angle, along with the idea that Paige just doesn't fit in. I would have liked to see a more competitive match between Fox and Paige, but it worked well to have Fox jump the gun to get the advantage and have Paige pull of the win in the end. The Paige Turner looked much more devastating than it did agains AJ Lee. I would actually like to see a longer rematch between these two. Fox also did a really nice job of throwing a fit afterwards. I was thoroughly entertained by her post-match antics. We can call this a Hit within a Hit for Fox in general.

Later on, I wasn't a fan of having various Total Divas ringside with their 1-10 score cards. I am also not a fan of incorporating Total Divas into Raw storylines. We know that the previous night's episode was filmed months ago, so why is Natalya just now angry about the painting? And why isn't she upset at Brie Bella for also disliking the painting she gave her and Bryan? But, I like the fact that WWE had two Divas storylines in one show. She and Nikki Bella had a solid, but short match. With AJ gone and Summer Rae on hiatus, you have Natalya, Paige, the Bellas, Emma, and the Funkadactyls all on the babyface side of things, with Fox, Tamina and Layla on the heel side of things (not sure where Eva Marie is supposed to fit in). Am I forgetting someone? Anyway, having Natalya turn heel does make some sense just to try to balance things out. Also, if they build Natalya up better than this as a heel, a feud between her and Paige over the Title would be very good from an in ring standpoint.

The Wyatts vs. Cena & The Usos: It was nice to see a 10 minute match on Raw go without a commercial interruption. That was what we got in this six man tag match between The Wyatt Family and John Cena & The Usos. It was a good match. I have not enjoyed either Cena vs. Bray Wyatt PPV match. However, I have enjoyed the matches that have involved Harper & Rowan against The Usos. At some point, they are going to have a very good Tag Team Championship match. I know that others have been very critical of the weak looking STF from John Cena in this match, and I can't argue with that. My wife always thinks the move looks weak, like it would be a slightly annoying sensation on his opponent's ears. I would like to see him do away with the move all together. But, if he is going to keep doing it, he could try to make it look like it hurts. That was my only complaint in an otherwise good match.

Sheamus vs. Ryback: I guess WWE isn't going to have Sheamus turn heel at least for the foreseeable future. WWE is doing a nice job of building up the new United States Champion. After a bit of a flukey victory in the battle royal last week, they had him defeat Dean Ambrose on Smackdown and then he got a quick win over Curtis Axel on Raw. I liked how Ryback jumped him afterwards. Rybaxel is starting to grow on me as a team. And the match between Sheamus and Ryback was good, much better than I thought it would be.

RAW MISSES

Adam Rose: I like the potential of having Adam Rose feuding with Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter. But, I'm not a big fan of having a babyface distract a heel allowing another babyface to pick up a cheap victory. I do think there is potential for Rose, though I'm skeptical that his act will ultimately translate well from NXT to WWE. The bigger issue though is having Michael Cole trying to party along with Rose and telling JBL to have fun. Nothing makes me want to boo Rose more than Cole's reaction to him each of the last two weeks.

What About the Championship?: It is too bad that Daniel Bryan has to have neck surgery. I hope he has a full recovery. I will say that I hope he stops doing the top rope head butt. I would also hope he stops landing on his back on the top rope missile dropkick. I remember Edge talking about landing on his back on dropkicks (after a knee injury forced him to change how he executed that move) as being part of what led him to having his neck surgery. In terms of the presentation, Bryan's promo was fine when he talked about the injury and announced that he has to have the surgery. Having Kane injure him one more time before surgery was fine. I liked Stephanie McMahon's pleased look on her face when the ambulance pulled away. All of that was fine given the circumstances. My issue here is that WWE should have addressed the WWE World Title situation. I'm not saying that a decision had to be announced. I understand that WWE wanted to wait and see the result of the surgery and take some time to made a decision. That makes perfect sense. However, unless I missed it, the Title situation wasn't even mentioned or questioned. Shouldn't the announcers have asked "what does this mean for the World Title?" The whole situation should have been talked about and questioned throughout the rest of the show.

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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