By Jon Mezzera, Torch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: The post-Hell in a Cell Raw got off to a good start. I did groan when it started with The Authority in the ring, but it turned out to be a good opening segment. I liked the mic work from Seth Rollins. He didn't do as much of the annoying forced laugh that he did a lot of last week on Raw and Smackdown. I liked the way he responded to the "Let's Go Cena! Cena Sucks!" chants by brushing it off with a "blah, blah, blah." WWE effectively moved on from Rollins's feud with Dean Ambrose (not that I endorse how that feud ended the night before, because I don't) to moving on to Rollins' match against John Cena. Randy Orton's appearance at the end was good too. I liked how he sold how he was fighting to control his anger management issues leading to his surprise RKO on Rollins in the end.

Henry Heel Turn: I had mixed feelings about how this heel turn went down, but I am giving it a marginal Hit. Mark Henry works better as a heel, so I was happy to see the heel turn finally come. I think it would have been better to come at the PPV during The Big Show's match against Rusev as it would have helped protect Big Show. But, if the justification was getting Rusev another clean win, then I am ok with it. I didn't like that after losing to Rusev and Bo Dallas several times, that Mark Henry was in line to get a tag title match with Big Show who also just lost to Rusev. A heel turn over defending America would have had more impact to me than in a random, unearned Tag Team Title match. But, the heel turn itself was well done with Henry's anger boiling over. I liked how he gave Show multiple World's Strongest Slams. His performance was well done. I liked the follow up too. The announcers also did a nice job of questioning why Henry turned on Show. They talked about how the hard tag from Show could not have been enough to make Henry turn on him and that there has to be more to the story. Part of why I am giving this a Hit is that their talk makes me think that we will actually get the dots connected by Henry to really explain why he turned heel.

Roman Reigns: Roman Reigns's satellite interview wasn't great, but it was so much better than the last one that I have to give it a Hit. Reigns was much better here than before. He still needs to improve on his mic work, but hopefully this is a good first step. I particularly liked his line at the end when he used Seth Rollins' claim to be the future of WWE by saying that when he's back, he will make Rollins the past. I do have to say that I hope Michael Cole (and everyone else in WWE) stops calling Reigns the juggernaut.

Cena - Authority: This was another marginal Hit. It was a very long all talking segment. I liked the performances, and some of the script, but I didn't like all of the script. I could have done without the local pandering from John Cena, but I loved how Stephanie McMahon turned it around on him. I liked how serious and intense Cena was and didn't go for humor at all. I didn't like how he said that his match against Orton at Hell in a Cell might not be the end of their feud. I hope it is. But, I liked how he addressed his future World Title shot against Brock Lesnar and his main event match against Rollins. I liked Stephanie's performance, but wasn't a big fan of her inviting Cena to join the Authority. This is when the segment started to drag, especially after Triple H came out. It did lead to the concept of Team Authority vs. Team Cena at Survivor Series which has some potential in terms of Cena having trouble recruiting wrestlers to his team. So, I am curious to see where WWE goes with this idea. But, I would have liked to hear how many wrestlers are on each team. Doesn't Cena want to know how many he has to recruit?

Cena vs. Rollins: Until the mundane run-in disqualification, I was enjoying the match between Cena and Rollins. Rollins got in a ton of offense and despite selling injuries from Hell in a Cell, he was able to be very competitive against Cena which was good. Cena did a nice job of selling for Rollins, but also in making brief comebacks here and there to keep it interesting. The use of the new stooges on the outside worked as well to help give Rollins an unfair advantage. The wrestling action was good. It built well nicely to Cena making his comeback and getting the STF on Rollins leading to the attack from Kane. It was a good enough match before that point to give it a Hit.

RAW MISSES

Kane - Ziggler Backstage: I like the concept of having Kane threatening Dolph Ziggler for potentially joining Team Cena. However, the execution in this short backstage segment was poor. First of all, everyone watching the show saw that Ziggler had talked to Cena and shook his hand. So, then why did Kane say that there were reports going around the back that that happened? That was stupid. I also am fine with Kane threatening Ziggler, but Ziggler should not have looked so dejected at that point. He looked like a weakling. The match later on was better. It was a solid match and it was good to see Ziggler get the win. And I liked the fact that he came to Cena's aid at the end, so this may have been saved, but it was bad in the moment.

Ambrose - Wyatt: The start of this new feud between Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt at the PPV was terrible. I wasn't thrilled with the follow-up either. Dean Ambrose was ok in his initial promo, but I didn't like how he said he didn't care why Wyatt had interfered in his match against Rollins. Shouldn't he care? I did like how he attacked his scheduled opponent Cesaro with the mic before hand and just beat him up instead of having a match against him. That worked well. But, the interruption from Wyatt himself wasn't as good. His attack on Ambrose was very random and his explanation was generic Wyatt speak gobbledygook. I have liked a lot of Wyatt's promos over the past year, but not all of them. I get that they are supposed to be strange and cryptic, and that we aren't always supposed to fully understand what he is talking about. But, we do need to understand enough to stay engaged in whatever program he is currently involved in. Unfortunately, I didn't understand this at all and it didn't make me want to stay involved, especially after the terrible start at the PPV.

Crazy Show Closing Brawl: WWE did a nice job throughout Raw of selling the idea that Cena will have trouble recruiting wrestlers for his Survivor Series team. The idea is pretty simple and straight forward that wrestlers will be reluctant to stand up to The Authority while others will be lining up to suck up to The Authority by joining their team. So, it was good to see Ziggler signaling that he will be on Team Cena by coming to Cena's aid in the end. All of that was well done, but then came this show closing locker room emptying brawl that made no sense to me. Were the heels trying to try out for Team Authority? Were the babyfaces trying to try out for Team Cena? I think that was the idea, but it was ultra cheesy how they were all just standing by the curtain waiting for a chance to run out all together. Wouldn't they have started fighting in the back while waiting to run out? If the faces were trying to stand up to The Authority and showing that they would join with Cena, didn't that ruin the show-long theme of Cena having trouble finding wrestlers for his team? It should take Cena time, over a number of weeks, to slowly convince guys to be on his team. If you set it up that it will be a struggle, then follow through and make it a struggle. Instead, this seemed to show that Cena will have every babyface on the roster volunteering for him which did in the whole angle before it really got started.

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.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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