James Caldwell, Torch Columnist (7.5)

This was quite the eventful show with a surprisingly good amount of pro wrestling content, specifically the C.M. Punk vs. John Morrison and Batista & Triple H vs. Team Legend matches. Star of the show was clearly Chris Jericho, though. His multiple appearances, including a surprising clean win over Jeff Hardy, and a very good show-closing promo continued his streak of MVP performances on Raw.

Smackdown closing the show, though, with Hunter vs. Hardy vs. Edge hype before Armageddon was curious, but apparently Triple H is believed to be the star of WWE Universe and the one capable of selling PPVs with his feud in the spotlight on the flagship show.

The Slammys spotlight was fine. It didn't take away from the show and created contrived transitions from award-to-entrance-to-match throughout the show, but it was fine. Hey, Jeff Hardy won an award. Wait, he has a match next? No way! I still want to know how this thing was voted on. Just make up something. The Fink drew names out of Finlay's derby hat. I don't care. Just add some legitimacy next year.

Greg Parks, PWTorch.com Contributor (8.0)

I never expected this show to be this good. Even with all the PPV-caliber matches (which cheeses me off, since I'm going to Armageddon this Sunday and the card won't nearly be this stacked). The Slammys worked for two reasons: (1) They kept the segments short and (2) They worked it into the storylines. Unlike Mr. McMahon's Millions, when the segments seemed to have nothing to do with anything else on the show. The other thing is I didn't really have any arguments with the winners; they all relatively made sense. I know I'm going to regret saying this, but I hope they bring this back in the future.

I really liked Morrison vs. Punk, especially Punk shouting "I'm flying!" as he went for his springboard clothesline. The other matches were good too, with Rey vs. Kofi bringing a lot of energy in a short time. MVP vs. MVC wasn't a great match, but Haas' impersonation was funny (I thought for sure I'd be tired of that gimmick by now), and getting the Phillies somewhat involved was entertaining.

Hardy vs. Jericho was quite pedestrian; I was expecting something more. The interplay between Kelly and Kane at the podium was pretty funny. As was, of course, Santino. Specifically, Beth dropping him when she heard she won the Slammy. OK, who was the person backstage that told Alicia Fox to take a shot at Joey Styles at the podium? The Handicap match was a good win for The Legacy. Truth vs. Ziggler was a strange match, but Ziggler is a strange guy. I thought it was dumb they ended with the Smackdown match getting the final plug. That didn't really make sense to me, but it was a minor complaint on a solid show.

Mike Roe, PWTorch.com Contributor (6.0)

I was underwhelmed by Raw this week. The Slammys weren't great, they weren't over the top bad, they just existed. The show felt like it lasted every minute of three hours. Perhaps four.

Cena's parody of Jericho's promo was counterproductive and took an angle that had a little heat and made it seem silly. Jericho's promo later in the show was great, as his promos have been for a long time now, though not as great as his promo about his son last week.

The main event was good, and it was nice to think back to the great Cena-Edge rivalry that really helped build both men. I enjoyed the tease here and would love to see the feud reignited down the road. They did a decent job setting up the pay-per-view title matches, though Jericho has never been allowed to seem dominant with relation to Cena in one-on-one situations, which hurts how likely you feel another title win for him is.

Orton setting up the Legacy as the new force to be reckoned with was great, and I'm looking forward to seeing them win some titles and make life difficult for enough other wrestlers that they start to seem like an entity worthy of being feared. The handicap match was a nice next step for this faction, but they need to show that their dominance leads to actual consequences.

The best Slammy speech of the night was that of John Morrison and the Miz due to their enthusiasm and glee (and as a bleeding heart liberal, I enjoyed their "Yes we did!"). The best Slammys moment of the night was JBL sweeping in to steal Shawn Michaels' award, and got me excited to see where they go with the Michaels/JBL dynamic.

C.M. Punk versus John Morrison was good, and it made sense given that they had just reminded us all that Morrison is a tag team specialist, so it didn't seem like such a big deal when he lost a singles match. Chris Jericho versus Jeff Hardy wasn't given as much time as Punk and Morrison, but was good as well. Jeff as the extreme award winner was predictable and his promo wasn't particularly great, but I can't argue with his popularity with the fans. Rey Mysterio versus Kofi Kingston was fine, but I'm excited to see Rey and Punk face off on pay-per-view.

Edge and Vickie winning best couple was fun, and the heel heat Vickie gets is incredible, though Santino and Beth not winning is criminal. I hope they don't keep up the Santino and his sensitive area storyline going too much longer. I got a kick out of Joey Styles' appearance, and I wouldn't mind seeing him get some occasional TV time. C.M. Punk's acceptance speech was genuine and was the only speech of the night that actually felt real.

Dolph Ziggler versus R-Truth was sloppy, but Ziggler has a certain snap to what he does well that gives me some hope for him. I thought Charlie Haas's MVP impression was good, but it doesn't feel like MVP has any direction right now or that this losing streak will ever end. The "Damn" moment of the year... the less said, the better.

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