By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Rollins vs. RVD: I enjoyed this match between Seth Rollins and Rob Van Dam. I am more impressed with RVD's in ring work lately than I was during this run from last year. He seems more engaged and interested in putting on good matches than he did before (I could be wrong of course, but that's just my impression of him in the ring). I am also very high on Seth Rollins at this point. I like how he has firmly established the Curb Stomp as his finisher. That is pretty brutal looking. I will repeat what I said as a guest on Moonlighting with Greg Parks this past weekend, which is that at some point RVD has to win some matches so that when he loses, it means more for his opponent. I appreciate that he is a legacy star putting younger wrestlers over. But, at this point in his career, what does a win over him mean when he loses every week?

Rusev - Swagger: I have mixed feelings about turning Jack Swagger babyface in a feud against Rusev. Swagger always has seemed like more of a natural heel to me. Zeb Colter has been great as a heel manager. However, he has a sense of humor which could translate into a babyface gimmick. Also, it is hard to know where WWE is going to go with Swagger long term. It does make sense that he and Colter would not be happy about Lana's anti-American rants. They teased some tension a few weeks back, so again it makes sense to go back to it. I am curious to see where they go from here with this feud. I'm hoping that Swagger can help elevate Rusev's in ring work. I was entertained by this segment, so I am giving it a Hit.

Usos & Sheamus vs. The Wyatt Family: It seems like whenever The Usos get in a tag match against The Wyatt Family it turns into a good match. That was certainly the case here when they teamed with Sheamus. The match went 13 minutes and was fun to watch. I had assumed that The Wyatts would win the Tag Team Championship at Money in the Bank in order to keep their good feud against The Usos going. I have enjoyed the feud, so I am glad to see them continue it despite The Wyatts losing at the PPV. I was curious to see if this would lead to a Sheamus vs. Bray Wyatt feud over the US Title, but we would see later in the show that WWE appears to be going in a different direction.

Cesaro: I like how firmly Cesaro set himself as a heel this week. I loved how he teased the Giant Swing only to not deliver to get boos. Then, his post-match beat down of Kofi Kingston was very effective. That made him look like a monster. He played the part well and Kingston did a great job of selling for him. I have mixed feelings about having the match end during the commercial break. It does seem realistic. At some point it makes sense that a match would end that way. It also was an effective way to get fans to get the app and watch Raw live so that they don't miss anything. You have to be watching the entire show with the app to see exclusive footage like Kingston getting the surprise victory over Cesaro (although it really isn't exclusive considering they showed it again on Raw). My issue of course is that not everyone watches live or has the app, so you are leaving people out of match finishes when you do it.

Miz - Jericho - Wyatt: I hadn't paid attention to the rumors about a former WWE Champion returning on Raw and didn't give it much of a thought during the show. I knew it wasn't going to be a huge star like The Rock. But, I didn't really think much more about it beyond that. I thought it was a good way to go with The Miz's return. I like that he has come back as a clear cut heel. He played his role well here. This seems more like the character that he should be playing. The Chris Jericho interruption was a nice surprise. Even though there were rumors about him returning, most fans don't pay attention to those types of rumors. It was good to see Jericho back. I will repeat what I said earlier about RVD which is that Jericho needs early wins to make later losses mean something. I was assuming this would set up Jericho vs. Miz, but was definitely surprised by the attack from The Wyatt Family. A feud between Jericho and Bray Wyatt has some great potential. I certainly want to see where WWE goes from here with all three of these wrestlers.

Paige - A.J.: This is another one of those segments that I have mixed feelings about. I was happy at first that WWE was giving Paige some mic time. WWE has failed to get Paige over because they haven't given her a chance to talk and connect with the fans or establish her character. But, they finally did and they had her acting like a heel. I think WWE decided to give up on her as a babyface and turn her heel since she wasn't getting that strong of a babyface reaction, but that wasn't her fault. She won't get a strong heel reaction either if they don't continue to allow her to develop as a character and connect with the audience. It was good to see A.J. return. She certainly played a heel well in the past but also has shown that she could make a great babyface. I do like the possibility of some good matches between AJ and Paige and hopefully we will get some that are long enough to develop and show what these two can do against each other in the ring.

End of Raw: The main event tag match with Cena & Reigns vs. Orton & Kane was a solid match. WWE definitely seems to be building to a Reigns vs. Orton match, possibly at SummerSlam. The way they fought off towards the end of the match was effective to set up Kane getting disqualified against Cena and destroying him afterwards to follow Triple H's instructions. The set up for Seth Rollins to come out and attempt to cash in his Money in the Bank contract also worked well. They are playing off of what happened last year with Triple H helping Orton cash in by having him now try to help Rollins do the same. The save by Dean Ambrose was very strong. The reactions he has been getting lately are huge. All three former Shield members have been doing good work and getting good reactions from the crowds. My only issue is that this was predictable because Ambrose promised to ruin Rollins' cash ins earlier in the show. But, it was still effective to keep their feud going. Reigns' return to spear Kane and stare down Triple H was good too.

RAW MISSES

Opening Segment: There were parts of the opening segment that I liked. I don't want to see heel authority figures, but Stephanie McMahon plays her part very well. I was laughing out loud when she was dancing and lip synching to John Cena's music. There was some good mic work during the opening segment. However, I wasn't a big fan of the segment as a whole. I am tired of John Cena playing Daniel Bryan's biggest fan. It is like he is trying to latch on to Bryan's Yes! Movement to get himself cheers. I also didn't like how he inserted himself into the Vickie Guerrero angle from last week by making fun of Stephanie for swimming in crap, especially the way he repeated it twice. The exchange between Cena and Triple H was not good. I'm tired of that easy way / hard way speech that we get from heel authority figures. The big announcement that came out of this segment was the fatal four way WWE World Title match with Cena defending the Title against Randy Orton, Kane and Roman Reigns at the Battleground PPV. This makes no sense. The Authority fired Vickie Gerrero because she gave Reigns a chance to win a battle royal to get into a World Title ladder match at Money in the Bank. So, why would they choose to put Reigns in a Title match at the next PPV? It doesn't make any sense.

IC Title Announcement: I was obviously disappointed to find out that Wade Barrett is hurt and will be out of action for several months. WWE needed to do something with the vacant Intercontinental Championship, but I was very underwhelmed by the announcement that it would be just another battle royal. Even the announcers sounded bored trying to act excited over how much they love battle royals. We just saw one a few weeks ago with Roman Reigns winning. It hasn't been nearly enough time to make me want to see another one again.

Goldust & Stardust vs. Rybaxel: Did we really need to see another match between these two teams? It seems like Goldust and Stardust have only had three matches and all three of them have been against Ryback and Curtis Axel. The first was the best because of the bizarre act from Stardust and I was impressed with how Cody Rhodes had transformed himself for the character, including doing a mostly new set of moves. But, I was bored by their match at Money in the Bank. It didn't click at all for me and the same was true with this match on Raw. I'm willing to give the Stardust character a chance, but he and Goldust don't seem to have the same connection in the ring that they had before he started putting on the make-up. And please give them another opponent.

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.

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