Powell Editorials WWE Raw Hitlist: Triple H and John Cena win tournament matches, 15-man trade and the way it was announced, Randy Orton's gauntlet match, guest hosts, The Miz gets some offense, Batista returns By Jason Powell Jun 30, 2009 - 12:45 PM Email This Article | Printer Friendly Page Send Us News & Results | Back to Main Listing I posted an All-Access podcast Raw review after the show last night. You can access this free audio show by clicking here. WWE Raw Hits Triple H vs. MVP: A good match that gave MVP plenty of offense thanks to Hunter's storyline knee injury. It was nice to see MVP control part of the match even though the outcome was just the same old same old. Of course, I felt that way even more when Cena won his match and the usual suspects advanced to the finals of the tournament. Can someone other than Hunter or Cena challenge for the WWE Title just one month? John Cena vs. The Miz: This was so much better than the match they had at The Bash pay-per-view. I still wish they had given Miz a fluke victory on Sunday night to keep the feud strong and to justify his placement in the WWE Title tournament. As nice as it was to see Miz get so much offense, I have a hunch that the only thing most viewers will remember is that Cena beat him twice in two nights. That said, a fun match. Edge and Chris Jericho vs. Primo and Carlito: The best tag title match on Raw since, well, I don't even remember the last good tag title match on Raw. The heels got Primo and Carlito over with the live crowd and the fans ended up buying into some of the near falls down the stretch. Very entertaining. It was nice to see the tag titles featured prominently for a change. 15-Man Trade: It's good to see WWE acknowledge that the Raw brand needed help. That said, Smackdown seemed to come out of this even stronger than Raw. Poor ECW. From a storyline standpoint, Tiffany should be fired, yet the general manager of the best brand is on probation. Gauntlet Match: I didn't care for Bourne losing in his first match as a Raw brand wrestler, but at least they protected Jack Swagger, who should thrive on the Monday night show. The Mark Henry babyface turn was a decent twist. The fans got behind Henry, who is poised to be a mid-card babyface. I just can't see him going any high than that when Triple H and Cena are so dominant, and Shawn Michaels is expected to return later this summer. It will be interesting to see what happens to Tony Atlas, who is technically still the property of ECW. Guest Hosts: Batista this week and The Million Dollar Man next week. Fun gimmick so far. I like the idea of going with guest hosts as long as they stick with people in wrestling or find the type of celebrities who can generate ratings. No word yet on whether Jonny Fairplay is camped out in front of WWE Headquarters. WWE Raw Misses 15-Man Trade Announcement: They didn't bother to announce the full trade on Raw, which I was fine with since I figured they'd stretch it out and make viewers check out the other shows to find out the full details. However, they just announced the trade a short time after Raw went off the air on the WWE website. At the very least, shouldn't they have tried to generate a bunch of website traffic by letting viewers know that they'd be revealing the results of the trade on the WWE website? Strange. Mickie James vs. Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix vs. Rosa Mendes: The multi-Diva matches are dreadful. Can't they just focus on a couple Divas while attempting to rebuild the division? There were some fun spots during the match, but there were also some really bad ones. Rosa is really struggling in the ring. Focus on the Divas who can work while on television and let the other women hone their craft on the house shows. Big Show vs. Kofi Kingston: Was the show running long? This was a strange match with a strange finish. Strangest of all is that Show didn't beat the hell out of Kofi afterward to keep the feud going. I'm actually hoping this results in an United States Title match between the two if only because it's important to show that top wrestlers (and Show is one of the top heels) care about the secondary titles. Vince McMahon and Donald Trump story: Why in the world would Vince feel the need to keep a stipulation that Trump put into play during his week as the Raw owner? Trump announced that there would be guest hosts rather than a general manager. Vince didn't seem happy about it, yet for some reason he didn't just overturn that when he regained control of the brand. Odd story. Batista and Randy Orton: Batista hates Randy so much that he came back to serve as the special guest host of the show so that he could mess with him. However, he doesn't hate Randy enough to force him to put the WWE Championship on the line. Strange. This could have been solved easily by having Batista say something to the effect of despite how much he hates Randy, he respects the title too much to have someone win it in a fluky handicap situation. Dot Net is now on Twitter. Sign up for regular updates at Prowrestlingnet (the dot is not included in the name). Get brief news with quick links to major stories by visiting Twitter.com/prowrestlingnet. HELP SUPPORT DOT NET! BECOME A MEMBER AT OUR CHARTER RATE OF JUST $5 A MONTH - GET THE FIRST LOOK AT EXCLUSIVE INSIDER DOT NET NEWS, TONS OF EXCLUSIVE AUDIO SHOWS, MESSAGE BOARD ACCESS, START YOUR OWN BLOG, AD-FREE MAIN LISTING: SIGN ME UP (or MORE INFO) GOT AN IPHONE OR IPOD TOUCH? THEN BE SURE TO DOWNLOAD OUR NEW FREE iPhone APP: (click here!) (or SEARCH "pro wrestling" in iTunes App Store) FOR MORE BREAKING WWE & TNA NEWS AND COMMENTARY, VISIT OUR AFFILIATE PWTORCH.COM (click here!) FOR MORE MMA & UFC NEWS AND COMMENTARY, VISIT OUR AFFILIATE MMATORCH.COM (click here!) CLICK TO RETURN TO DOT NET MAIN LISTING OR SELECT A LINK BELOW FROM THIS CATEGORY Powell Editorials Latest Twelve Articles Powell's TNA Impact Hitlist: Dixie Carter's speech to the talent crew, hype for Hulk Hogan, the build for A.J. Styles vs. Daniels vs. Samoa Joe, Team 3D vs. Matt Morgan and Hernandez, Tara vs. Hamada WWE Raw Hitlist: Ozzy Osbourne and Sharon Osbourne host Raw, Chris Jericho vs. John Cena vs. Big Show, Sheamus destroys Jamie Noble, The Miz vs. Evan Bourne, vintage Michael Cole Powell's TNA Impact Hitlist: Hulk Hogan footage, Desmond Wolfe vs. Kurt Angle, Samoa Joe has a brain, Eric Young renames the toy belt, Matt Morgan vs. Rhino, World Elite get new warmup gear, Team 3D vs. Motor City Machine Guns WWE Raw Hitlist: John Cena vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels announced for Survivor Series, Kofi Kingston shines, John Cena makes Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes look like losers, Hornswoggle can't read WWE Bragging Rights Hitlist: John Cena vs. Randy Orton in an Iron Man match, Undertaker vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Batista vs. C.M. Punk four-way, Raw vs. Smackdown tag match, The Miz vs. John Morrison Powell's TNA Bound For Glory Hitlist: A.J. Styles vs. Sting for the TNA Title, Kurt Angle vs. Matt Morgan, Ultimate X match, Mick Foley vs. Abyss, Bobby Lashley vs. Samoa Joe, ODB vs. Tara vs. Awesome Kong