By Jon Mezzera, PWTorch Specialist

RAW HITS

Opening Segment: I certainly didn't love the opening segment, but it was good enough to get a minor Hit. Roman Reigns was solid in his opening promo. He was better on the mic than he usually is, so that is a positive. The segment definitely got better when Daniel Bryan came out. His line about being as good looking as Reigns was very funny. I don't want to see The Authority, so that was a drag when they came out to interrupt. Triple H advanced his issue with Sting by demanding that he respond to his challenge for Fastlane on Raw. That got a good pop and teased that Sting would be there (he wasn't, but in the moment it worked as a good hook for the rest of the show). I did like Bryan's comment about what Triple H has done in caskets in the past. I certainly wasn't thrilled with the big opening match of Big Show & Kane vs. Bryan & Reigns that was set up, but it was another hook to stick around after the first commercial. But, I am really getting tired of these long talking segments to start Raw.

Rusev: Rusev is continuing to get stronger on the mic. He is pretty good. His segment started out strong with him and Lana. I liked their video "honoring" John Cena. Lana is always fun and Rusev is finding a voice too. His promo was short and to the point. It didn't drag which might have exposed Rusev. It was a good set up for Cena's interruption which unfortunately wasn't as good (more later).

Wyatt vs. Ziggler: This was another good match between Bray Wyatt and Dolph Ziggler. I wish more was said as to why they were having this rematch, but I wasn't complaining about getting to see it. It was a good match. Wyatt and Ziggler have shown very good chemistry in the ring together. They played off of last week's match ending as this match built towards its ending. It was well done. I liked how the announcers actually analyzed the match when Ziggler wasn't able to put more into his pin attempt after hitting the Fameasser and super kick. In fact, the announcers were quite a bit better on the whole this week than last. Wyatt continuing to get clean wins makes sense keeping him strong for the presumed match against Undertaker at WrestleMania.

Paul Heyman: As always, Paul Heyman was great on the mic talking up Brock Lesnar. In this case, Lesnar was in the ring by Heyman doing a great job of just standing there and reacting to what Heyman was saying. Heyman addressed both of Lesnar's potential WM opponents, Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns. He talked up Lesnar and talked down the opponents in a way that should make their fans want them to prove Heyman wrong.

Usos vs. Cesaro & Kidd: I don't like seeing the Tag Team Champions losing non-Title matches like this, but at least it was in a good match. Cesaro and Tyson Kidd are developing into a good team. They have had good chemistry in the ring with The Usos. The match went over 10 minutes and was a good tease for what they can do in a longer PPV Title match. I am looking forward to seeing them wrestle again, presumably at Fastlane. I do have a complaint about what happened after the match. While the announcing was better than last week, after watching a heel team cheat to win, the babyface announcers should have been upset, but they weren't. Both Michael Cole and Booker T justified the cheating because it allowed them to win. Then why should I boo them? If the ends justify the means, then they didn't do anything wrong, so they aren't heels, so I shouldn't boo them. So while the announcers were better for most of the show, this was right back to them being as bad as they were last week when they were at their worst.

RAW MISSES

Bryan & Reigns vs. Show & Kane: This match was dull. Many matches involving Big Show and / or Kane are dull at this point. The disqualification ending seemed to come out of nowhere. It is another example of WWE being too loose with the rules and how the rules are enforced. They are inconsistent. We've seen similar moments with the illegal wrestler breaking up a pin or submission attempt so many times without getting DQ'd. Ultimately, the match was just a set up for the tension that happened between Reigns and Bryan after the match and for the 5 on 2 handicap main event announcement. And after watching this match, I wasn't looking forward to the main event even if Seth Rollins was going to be involved.

Rollins vs. Ryback: This Miss is for the short time given to this match before a quick DQ finish, the second straight DQ finish on the show. Now, I give Cole credit for selling anger over the DQ's being The Authority's fault. Booker T was also good afterwards in being upset over The Authority's tactics. It is an example of the announcers being better on the whole than last week. Having the announcers upset over the DQ finish made it better, but it didn't make it good. And Booker calling it a rerun points to the fact that we've seen this Authority storyline and their tactics for too long and too many times.

John Cena: As I mentioned above, Cena's interruption of Rusev wasn't good. His delivery was good. He was very intense. It started off well with his response to their video saying that he has gotten knocked down many times in his career, but he always gets back up. The problem is that he vowed to kick Rusev's ass, but he never vowed to win the match. He never once mentioned the United States Championship. He never once mentioned the USA. Cena has the reputation of not vowing to win when he isn't going to win. That reputation was on full display here as you would think that if he was going to win he would have said so and he would have mentioned the Title that is on the line in their match. But since he is likely going to lose (or win without gaining the Title), he isn't going to talk about it. But if wrestling were real and if Cena didn't know the outcome of the match ahead of time, then his character would certainly say he was going to win and take the US Title from Rusev. This is a chance to elevate the US Title, but Cena didn't do it. His final line about Lana having the balls was good, and the physicality at that point worked well, but his actual promo was very disappointing to me.

Triple H & "Sting": This was bad. This was cheesy. I don't think having Triple H point out that Sting has been nothing for 14 years is a good way to build up Sting as being a major deal. I know he is a heel, but he shouldn't be making a big deal about that. The video with the effects showing Triple H's face looking like it sort of had Sting's makeup on was lame. The very bad Sting look alike was super lame. Were we supposed to actually think it was Sting? If so, then it was a big fail. If not, then what were we supposed to think? They strongly teased that Sting would be on the show live during the opening segment and they didn't deliver. If they had come up with something better, then it might be forgivable. But this was terrible.

Main Event: If you want more fans to cheer for Roman Reigns, this isn't the way to go. He has a chance to show more in the ring, and instead he just gets knocked out twice and does one spear during the entire match. And then he speared Daniel Bryan afterwards. I think they want us to boo him, so maybe it is the way to go. And I suppose I shouldn't complain about seeing much more of Bryan in the ring than Reigns. But, the match just didn't do much for me. I did appreciate the fact that Ziggler, Ryback and Erick Rowan would come out to challenge The Authority. It was nice that a group of babyfaces would stand up to the heels. This is presumably setting up a six man tag match at Fastlane, but I'm not really interested in that. I'm not interested in anything involving Kane, Show or Rowan for that matter. So it seems like a disappointing PPV match for both Ziggler and Rollins. Another issue I had was that what they did in attacking the heel team seemed way worse than what Big Show did during the opening tag match. So, why did Show's actions warrant a disqualification, but the babyface trio's actions didn't? But, they had to have the match still going to have the lame ending with Reigns tagging himself in. This certainly felt like a bit of a heel turn and I don't understand going that route considering Reigns has still gotten mostly positive responses the last few weeks.

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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