WWE Raw Hits

Trish Stratus surprise: I was down on the idea originally because I felt like they could have made more money by building toward her return on pay-per-view, but by the end of the night I was happy and satisfied with the holiday surprise. It was great to see the best WWE Women's Champion in the ring again and I hope there's more to come from Trish in WWE.

Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler: I'm tough on the Raw broadcast team (particularly Cole), but I thought they did a nice job calling the action last night. Maybe I'm just feeling nice because Christmas is only two days away, but good work by Cole and Lawler.

Shawn Michaels and Triple H backstage: Good segment that addressed some of my concerns about HBK's angle with JBL. I also enjoyed the tease from C.M. Punk about facing Michaels for the first time. Even though that match didn't come to fruition, it gets viewers thinking about a potential first meeting between the two.

Randy Orton: Great remorseless promo on putting Batista out of action. John Cena might be the lead babyface and he is doing a nice job in that role, but Orton has been the real star of the top brand since he returned from the injured list. My guess is that Orton was foreshadowing when he stated that he'd be World Hvt. Champion by the time he saw Batista again. It's a shame that Batista suffered the injury, but the silver lining is that they can build toward one hell of a return feud for his return.

Chris Jericho vs. C.M. Punk: Excellent match. The Toronto crowd enhanced the match by cheering for Jericho as if he were Bret Hart during the Hart Foundation faction days.

JBL vs. Rey Mysterio: The match was longer than I expected it to be and I really enjoyed the finish. I think most viewers figured out that HBK was going to help JBL in the Race to the Rumble somehow, but I don't think most people (myself included) saw that finish coming. Nice twist. It will be interesting to see whether HBK helps JBL win the tournament. After all, the Rumble match is the true draw of the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, so WWE can get away with delivering a mid-level title match.

The Miz and John Morrison: I'm still bitter that these guys appeared on three shows last week and were not given any promo time to put over the title win, but I give the Raw creative team credit for going back to the old ECW storyline regarding the friction between Miz an Kelly Kelly.

WWE Raw Misses

None: Again, I might be in a good mood because Christmas is only hours away, but I really enjoyed this show. They played up the mystery of which Diva would team with John Cena well, and the payoff was excellent. The live crowd was hot throughout the show and it was a fun broadcast. Manu losing another match was frustrating, but at least they followed up with Randy Orton expressing his frustration in his new stablemates, so the loss served a purpose.

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