By Jon Mezzera, PWTorch Specialist

RAW HITS

Cena vs. Rollins: This Hit is for the fact that John Cena and Seth Rollins did put in a strong effort in their lumberjack match. These two do have pretty good chemistry in the ring together. This was a classic stack the deck situation with Cena playing his part of the underdog babyface very well. The action was good throughout with the heel lumberjacks making things difficult, if not impossible for Cena. I also like the fact that Booker T did a very nice job in complaining about the unfair tactics from the lumberjacks and The Authority. I'm not a fan of this booking approach, but the execution was well done. My problem was that this seemed like the set up for the babyfaces on the roster to step up. Having this be a Raw main event and having the babyfaces come out at the end of the match to fight off the lumberjacks allowing Cena to get the win would have been potentially a very good moment. It allows Cena to be a hero and makes the rest of the roster look strong for a change (instead, they look weak and selfish). That would have been a good way to bring Ryback, Erick Rowan and Dolph Ziggler back. Instead, we got a pretty good match that made me want to boo the wimpy babyfaces for not helping.

Reigns vs. Harper: This was a good match. Roman Reigns does have some skills. He needs to develop those skills. He needs to continue to improve in the ring. He needs to add more actual wrestling moves instead of just punches and clotheslines. But, I think he can. He isn't a bad worker. Luke Harper has been impressive. I enjoy watching him work. This wasn't a great match, but I enjoyed it. The ending was strong with Reigns ducking Harper's spinning clothesline to hit the spear for the win.

Heyman's Promo: Paul Heyman did his best to make the mostly absent Brock Lesnar feel like a big deal. Heyman's performance with Lesnar's reactions in the background were good. Heyman's fantasy/reality mantra worked well. He needed to remind the audience about Lesnar conquering The Streak at last year's WrestleMania. The problem is that Lesnar didn't wrestle enough after that. WWE botched the follow up to SummerSlam and then he disappeared for several months. This could have been a much stronger moment if Heyman had more to brag about on Lesnar's behalf. So, it did feel like a bit of a stretch. It was still good, but not great.

Daniel Bryan: Daniel Bryan had the best babyface moment in WWE in quite some time when he first declared that he would win the Royal Rumble, and then stood up to Stephanie McMahon's attempts to berate him, and then fought of Kane's attempt to re-injure his neck. If he was any other babyface on the roster, he probably would have cried after Stephanie made fun of him. He probably would have cowered after her announcement that he would have to face Kane in his first match back after 8 months (like Dolph Ziggler cowered after hearing he had to face Kane after joining Team Cena). Bryan was good. Stephanie was good. The physicality had the right ending with Bryan giving the fans an actual reason to cheer for something. Plus this was a very strong hook to watch the first Smackdown back on Thursday night.

Contract Signing: This is a marginal Hit. I had issues with this show closing segment, but it was good enough to get a Hit in the end. Cena, Rollins, Heyman and Lesnar all played their parts well. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon stayed out of it which was good. Heyman was strong in talking Rollins up, before saying he wasn't finished yet. Rollins was good in his comeback, mirroring Heyman's promo structure. Lesnar and Heyman's reaction to Rollins was great. Rollins had a nice tease that he could potentially cash in Money in the Bank if he doesn't win the match. Lesnar can be good on the mic in short bits and he was here when he talked about conquering The Undertaker, Triple H and John Cena, and that he would conquer Rollins too. Cena was short and to the point which was good at this point in the show. I have mixed feelings about the physicality at the end. I don't like seeing Lesnar so easily getting AAd through the table. I don't mind seeing Rollins stand tall in the end, but my problem is that I want to see Lesnar as a strong monster heel. I don't want to see him getting cheers for going after Rollins. That is part of the problem with this triple threat match. Rollins has done a great job of making the fans want to see him get beat up, but they shouldn't be anticipating Lesnar as the one to do it. This segment made me want to see Lesnar destroy Rollins. But, that's the right way to go.

RAW MISSES

Opening Segment: This was a better Raw than last week, but it didn't get off to a good start. At least Cena was trying to do something against The Authority. But having people tweet that The Authority sucks is a stupid plan. The Authority has been perfectly fine with an absentee WWE World Champion since September, so why would Cena's threat to win the Title and go home really matter? I guess the threat of a WrestleMania without a Championship match is supposed to be worse than having Hell in a Cell, Survivor Series and TLC without one. But, considering the long history of stripping Champions of Titles (like when CM Punk was stripped of the Title after he left the company, or last year when The Authority stripped Daniel Bryan of the Title), it really wasn't much of a Plan B. By the time Triple H and Stephanie got halfway through their mocking of Cena's plans, I was honestly drifting off. I just have no interest in hearing them talk and I stop paying attention. The segment dragged on and on. It wasn't good.

Ambrose's Psych Evaluation: I don't think this stuff belongs on a wrestling show. I like it when wrestling is presented as being real. In a real life situation, a psych evaluation would never be shown on tv. The way the three skits were woven into the show felt forced. The first skit was short and just a set up. I will admit to laughing at Dean Ambrose's responses to some of the pictures he was shown. When he blurted out "Thursday" before even being shown the first picture, that was funny. His "toothpaste" response to Kane was a nice insider joke about Glen Jacobs' first WWE persona, Dr. Isaac Yankem, but was such a bizarre random answer than non insider and newer fans might have laughed anyway. But, the "Hoooo!" joke while amusing was very forced. There was no reason why Hacksaw Jim Duggan's picture would have been included if not to serve as a set up for the punchline. Ambrose's funny answers would have been enough without forcing a joke like that if they had better comedic writers. Not that I wanted more of these sketches, but it seemed like we needed at least one more to get to the final one where Ambrose had turned the tables on the doctor. It seemed like too big of a jump to me.

Savage Announcement: This Miss is not for the fact that Randy Savage was announced as the first inductee into the 2015 Hall of Fame class. This Miss is for how the announcement was made. I don't understand the tease. Having the announcers talk about the rumors that he would be inducted seemed odd to me. Just do a tease for the first announcement, then do the announcement. The video packages of various Superstars and Divas doing the "oh yeah" imitations of Savage were strange. Trying to have heels like Big Show get laughs felt out of place. The tone was off too as they often came across more mocking Savage than honoring him. I don't think that was what they were trying to do. And it didn't always feel that way. But, it did feel that way to me some of the time. It is great that Savage finally will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, but WWE could have done a better job with that announcement.

Show - Reigns: The Big Show's promo was very generic making fun of the fans for not having good jobs and for being like an NBA team that has no connection with the local market. It was just odd and not interesting at all. It could have been ok with a better follow up from Roman Reigns. It could have set up Reigns delivering a strong promo where he called into question how long it has been since Show did something meaningful and how he doesn't want Show's spot on the roster which isn't that impressive. Show talked about what he did on his first day of work and how he doesn't feel that Reigns is a threat to his spot on the roster. Reigns did call into question how long ago it was that Show beat Hulk Hogan on his first day of work. He did say he wasn't trying to get Show's spot. I liked that. I thought he was about to explain that Show's spot on the roster isn't high enough for him. He wants the top spot which isn't Big Show's spot. Instead, he went into the long fairytale story which sucked. First he was quoting Superman, then he was quoting a cartoon cat, and now he is telling fairytales? What about that was supposed to be cool? He started out strong which raised my expectations. Then he went into silly story mode and it sunk the segment.

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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