Raw Hitlist: Triple H, Orton, Cena, Mayweather, Mr. Kennedy

Raw Hits
Floyd Mayweather vs. Big Show angle: A slight thumbs up. There was no way they were going to top what they did at the pay-per-view the night before and it was wise to not even try. The slow-motion footage of Mayweather’s punches was fantastic. Show was great on the mic on both nights and he is the main reason I’m giving this segment a Hit. Mayweather came off as enigmatic and not in a good way like Jeff Hardy. Perhaps that was by design. I could have looked past the pro-Oscar De La Hoya crowd booing Floyd and looked at him as a babyface if he had said or done something likable. Rather, he talked about how much he craves publicity and he made himself seem insecure when he talked about how he can’t back down from a challenge. Again, though, this may have been by design, as it appeared WWE was trying to make him out to be the heel at least on this night. Check out my Viewpoint Editorial from earlier today for more thoughts on whether Floyd should be a heel or a babyface.

Triple H leaves John Cena and Randy Orton lying: I had no problem with this whatsoever. No one would have thought twice about it if Orton or Cena had played the referee role and left both of their WrestleMania opponents lying at the end of the show. It was a logical move and one can only assume that all three men will be positioned as strongly as possible heading into WrestleMania 24.

Raw Misses
John Cena vs. Randy Orton with Triple H as the special referee: I wasn’t as down on Raw as the unbalanced number of Hits and Misses would seem to imply. There was followup to a major angle, two Money in the Bank qualifiers, and a spot in the WrestleMania main event on the line. In other words, there as a lot a lot going on and that made for intriguing television (even if there was no suspense regarding the outcomes of the Money in the Bank matches). However, I just didn’t think the show was as good as it could have been coming off the hot No Way Out pay-per-view. This match was far from Cena and Orton’s best work. Quite simply, it lacked the type of intensity one expects with a spot in the WrestleMania main event on the line. Part of the problem was that I never thought Cena was going to lose, nor were there enough believable nearfalls to make anyone feel like his main event spot was in jeopardy. I know a number of people felt ripped off by the DQ finish of their pay-per-view match. I didn’t have a problem with it because No Way Out delivered in so many other areas, although I can understand why people who ordered the show for Cena would be upset.

Hornswoggle angle: I don’t think the average viewer has enough invested emotionally in Horny to really care about JBL’s attack regardless of how vicious they tried to make it. He's a comedy figure and I think most adults are burned out on his story line with Vince McMahon. As I noted in my Live Coverage of Raw, Finlay delivered a strong performance while begging JBL and Vince to stop the attack. However, it wasn’t enough to really draw me into the angle. Honestly, I'm so tired of the grunting leprechaun that I was cheering on JBL. Does that make me a bad person?

Mr. Kennedy vs. Val Venis. Just a slow, forgettable match. It’s time to send Mr. Kennedy back to Smackdown. He's lost in the Raw shuffle. His brief feud with Ric Flair did nothing to boost his stock and now he’s right back where he was last year in the Money in the Bank match at WrestleMania. I wonder what Kennedy’s career would be like right now had an injury not wiped out plans to give him a run with the World Hvt. Title last year. One can only assume that he’s ponders that thought routinely.

Maria pins Beth Phoenix: I know it was portrayed as a fluke, but I don’t like the idea of Beth doing a job when she’s being portrayed as the monster heel. It just wasn’t worth it. The angle with Maria only being able to pose for Playboy if she beat Beth was cute, but it came at the expense of all the work the creative team has done to make the Glamazon seem invincible.