By Jon Mezzera, PWTorch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: The post Night of Champions Raw got off to a pretty good start with Dean Ambrose coming out to start the show. Ambrose has been missed this past month. He will hopefully be interjecting some much needed energy into Raw. I liked how the show started. I enjoyed his annoyance when John Cena joined him in the ring. The brawl that ensued once The Authority got involved was well done. I like how Seth Rollins wasn't able to just get away as Ambrose and Cena caught up with him in the parking area. The bit where Ambrose jumped into the trunk of the Rollins' stollen car seemed overly dangerous to me, but otherwise the show started off well. I was less enthused after the break by the announcement of Cena vs. Randy Orton for the main event.

Damien Mizdow: I have to admit to being a fan of what Damien Sandow is doing as The Miz's stunt double. I like what Miz has done with his character since returning from filming his latest movie. Adding a stunt double to the mix was a clever concept and Sandow has played the part to perfection. I like how he imitates Miz in doing pretty much everything. I have also laughed at R-Truth as R-Ziggler, though he wasn't on Raw this week.

Sheamus & The Usos vs. Cesaro & The Dusts: This was a good six man tag match. I liked the contrast between Cesaro and his partners the Dust Brothers. The match featured good wrestling action and went over 15 minutes. I have really enjoyed The Usos this year. Along with The Wyatts, they stole the show at two PPVs this summer. Their matches against the Dust Bros haven't been as great, but they have still been good including this one with the addition of Cesaro and Sheamus. I wish WWE would do more to further Goldust and Stardust as heels. They did a decent job of it before the PPV, but they should have cheated to win the Tag Team Championship. And this is another example of a new Champion losing right away, which has been a very bad trend this year. But, at least it was a good match otherwise.

RAW MISSES

Intercontinental Championship: As I said above, I enjoy The Miz and Damian Mizdow together. However, I'm not sure this comedy routine is good enough for the Intercontinental Championship. I with the title was treated in a more serious manner. Also, I am not a fan of having the title pingpong back and forth between Miz and Dolph Ziggler so frequently. Their matches have been solid to good, but I don't like giving Miz a one day title reign. And I wasn't a fan of having Ziggler cheat to win, just because it was the same manner of cheating as The Miz the night before.

Ambrose Locked in the Closet: Ambrose vs. Kane was ok. Rollins returning to attack Ambrose at the end of the match was good. Having him back down once Ambrose had recovered was good. Michael Cole did a nice job of talking about how Rollins keeps attacking Ambrose from behind, but backing down from a fair fight. All of that was decent to good. But, after the commercial when Ambrose attacked Rollins in the back, The Authority locked him in a closet. I did appreciate the fact that Stephanie McMahon was smart enough to realize that if they kicked Ambrose out of the building he would just return. However, locking an employee in a closet seems to be illegal. What other company could get away with locking their employee in a closet without a criminal investigation? To me, this crossed a line and it made the entire angle totally unbelievable.

Rusev vs. Henry: Mark Henry and Rusev had a better match at Night of Champions than they did on Raw. This was boring. It was slow and one sided and felt like it was mostly just a long rest hold from Rusev wearing down Henry. Henry was good in showing emotion before the match at being sorry for letting his fans and country down the night before. The interruption from Lana was ok. But man, this match was so boring.

Rose & The Bunny vs. O'Neil & Slater: This to me is a match that should have only taken place on Main Event or Superstars (is Superstars still on?). This whole angle feels minor league to me. I'm ok with it on Main Event. I guess I'd be ok with it on Smackdown. But, it should not be a part of Raw. This is a major example of how 3 hours is just way too long for Raw. They have to fill it with stuff like this that doesn't feel A level Flagship Show material to me. If Raw were only 2 hours (and if there was a just and loving God it would be), we wouldn't have to put up with these types of segments or matches. But, if they have to fill up all that time, what can they do?

The Bellas: The acting from the Bellas is poor. The tease of a match between Nikki and Brie with the Bella name on the line was groan inducing. I do not want to see a match between the Bellas with that stipulation. I'm so tired of this angle. I don't think it was smart to interject the Bella feud into the Divas Championship feud between Paige and AJ. So, I wasn't happy to see that sort of continue here.

End of the Show: Randy Orton and John Cena could put on their best match ever and I still wouldn't care. Clearly in the main event, they did not put on their best match ever. It was ok, but I don't ever need to see them wrestle again. So, I didn't care about this. Really, the whole match was just a tease for the present at ringside with the possibility that Orton, Rollins and Kane would put Cena through the cinder blocks. You knew that wasn't actually going to happen. So, the whole main event and aftermath felt anti-climactic. The surprise with Ambrose worked ok, I suppose. But, it felt way too Deus Ex Machina to me. How did he get out of that closet? Maybe we'll get answers to that, but in the moment it was way too convenient.

No Heyman: I won't complain that Brock Lesnar wasn't on Raw. I understand given his contract status, he won't be on Raw very often. But, the night after a big Championship match, where there was a possibility that Lesnar would have lost the WWE World Title to John Cena if not for the interference of Seth Rollins, Lesnar's advocate should have been on. I don't understand why Paul Heyman wasn't on this show. He was greatly missed. I assumed (like most fans) that the cop out finish at Night of Champions was going to set up the rubber match between Lesnar and Cena inside of Hell in a Cell at the PPV of that name. If that's the case, then why wasn't Heyman on to start to steer the angle in that direction? Cena and Cole say that Lesnar was beat. Shouldn't Heyman have answered that claim? I know he can next week, but Raw doesn't seem like Raw without him.

Jon Mezzera is PWTorch.com's WWE Hits & Misses Specialist, providing his point of view for Raw and Smackdown each week. Email him at his NEW email address - jmezz_torch@yahoo.com.

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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