By Jason Powell

WWE Raw Hits

Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett: The outcome of the match is clearly a hit for Orton, yet a miss for Barrett. At some point, WWE has to give the Nexus leader (or even the entire group) a truly meaningful victory. Sure, he's beat some top tier wrestlers, but he really needs to beat a true main eventer in order or rise to that level. Of course, they could thrust him into that spot by having him win the six-pack challenge at Night of Champions. Overall, though, the match was solid and Orton was over huge with the live crowd. I thought we might see John Cena go for revenge after taking an RKO on last week's show, but the staredown at the end of the night was well done.

John Morrison vs. Chris Jericho: A quality match with an intriguing outcome. I assumed Jericho being out of the six-pack challenge was a sign that they were trying to get out of the stipulation that he would leave WWE if he didn't win the match, yet Josh Matthews seemed to tease that he still has to become WWE Champion by Night of Champions or the stipulation is in play. Of course, Jericho didn't respond to Matthews, so I guess we still don't know. Either way, it was nice to see Morrison get a meaningful victory, and I got a big kick out of their backstage bit with Morrison mocking the distraught Jericho over losing the match.

Edge and Zack Ryder: Hilarious backstage exchange between these two. Edge being so direct with Ryder was a riot. I still see money in the Ryder character. He needs some in-ring credibility. It looks like WWE is going the opposite direction by making him out to be a complete tool. I don't think it will lead to money, but I can live with it if it leads to more entertaining exchanges like this one.

The Miz: Great promo. Daniel Bryan didn't seem to strike a chord with the live crowd, but I still enjoy the way their personalities clash, and I'm looking forward to their Night of Champions match more than anything else on the card. Did I mention that Miz delivered another great promo? His mic work is becoming a fixture in the "Hits" section.

Overall show: A decent night for Raw that continued the build toward Night of Champions by putting heavy focus on the top babyfaces John Cena and Randy Orton. It wasn't a great night for memorable in-ring performances, but there was some fun mic work that kept the show interesting.

WWE Raw Misses

Edge vs. Great Khali: Did Khali really exit an over the top rope challenge by climbing over the top rope to go after Edge? I assume it was by design since the announcers were all over it. If not, good for them for pointing out the bizarre move. The only way to get a good match out of Khali is for his opponent to bump all over the place for his campy offense. It didn't happen here, and this was just a lousy match that did nothing for either wrestler.

John Cena vs. Justin Gabriel: You know they wouldn't let Cena's loss to Gabriel go unavenged for long. They could have had some fun with this and dragged it out for a few weeks by letting Gabriel boast while dodging a match with Cena. There wasn't much interest in this match, but they could have created some interest had they built up to Cena getting his hands on Gabriel. As it played out, it was one step forward for Nexus last week, and two steps back this week.

Melina vs. Alicia Fox: Lousy mic work by Alicia to start. The fans just don't care about her. Granted, they don't care about most of the Divas, but they really don't seem to care about her. I feel bad for the babyface Divas because they're expected to deliver a fake smile and pretend to be excited when the fans couldn't care less about anything other than the finish of the match.

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