James Caldwell, Torch Columnist (6.0)

Interesting show. It's tough to evaluate this week's show because there were two really poor matches, a fun ten-man tag, and a drab main event until the final five minutes of epic storytelling from Shawn Michaels. HBK's show-closing performance was stellar TV and he did more with five minutes of facial expressions than Manu did with five minutes of offense against Matt Hardy.

John Cena didn't have much to do the past two weeks, so it was only natural the writers became bored and went with a classic hit-or-miss Cena promo/exchange with Stephanie McMahon. Hit: Cena hyping a near-comatose crowd. Miss: Cena trying to do a Will Ferrell impersonation of an impersonation. The actual ten-man tag was well done at the end to create some entertaining TV, but Mikey Knox taking the pin was surprising unless the program with Rey is completely done. Until Knox figures out how to effectively rag-doll a wrestler around the ring like a proper heel should do, then perhaps we're better off moving along, just like WWE seemed to move along from the Rey-Kane disaster in booking logic.

Chris Jericho needs a new program in 2009. He's too valuable to be wasted away on Raw. Unfortunately, the talent roster is thin up and down the line-up, so they might have to look outside the box to find a suitable program for the MVP of '08. ... Randy Orton continues to be great. ... Manu took a step back. C.M. Punk has two losses in a row going into an IC Title match. Way to go in restoring the pride of Pat Patterson's title.

Wade Keller, Torch Editor (6.5)

A solid show start to finish with a meaningful main event and the Legacy challenge gave significance to three other matches. The Goldust segment was just not TV-worthy and one of the more head-scratchingly pointless segments in the history of Raw. The Michaels-JBL storyline is an effective ongoing drama to hook fans with both wrestlers playing their parts well, if not slightly melodramatic on Michaels's part.

Bruce Mitchell, Torch Columnist (4.0)

This was one of those half-thought-out holiday shows that come when WWE Creative has their minds elsewhere. Even the biggest star in the business, John Cena, couldn't sell that ten-man match. The Shawn Michaels Sellout angle is a downer so far. The Legacy tryouts were flat, too. WWE Creative ought to assign someone to come up with personalities and storylines for the Divas.

Greg Parks, PWTorch.com Contributor (6.0)

This was a decent show, but certainly not up to par with the past three weeks. The in-ring action this week was a notch below those episodes, are there were more plot holes exposed that should be addressed.

The show started off right with Rey Mysterio, who it seems they rarely give meaningful promo time to. It was good they got this out of the way off the bat, and made Rey and Shawn both seem classy in their reactions to how things went down. Not sure what Mike Knox did to get taken out by John Cena, then pinned in the 10-man tag. Rhodes vs. Punk was a good four-minute match, but the count-out finish is being used too much these days. Cena's pitch to Steph was hit-or-miss, as was Goldust's; Cena did a good Harry Caray but the whole thing seemed out of place. It's clear they're struggling already for ideas to get Goldust on the show, but I liked his Ziggler comment.

The Divas Battle Royal was a supreme waste and it looks like Candice Michelle is on thin ice. Sim Snuka has potential, but did I miss him officially getting into The Legacy? Or was this a "win and you're in" deal? Chris Jericho had his usual solid promo. The 10-man tag was fine but I'm surprised they bothered to protect Ziggler. Randy Orton as Kelly's boyfriend was an interesting turn. I hope they can go somewhere meaningful with it from here. Manu vs. Matt Hardy was not technically bad but incredibly boring. Like the 10-man, the Fatal Four-Way was relatively entertaining, but the HBK-JBL interaction at the end was fantastic, helped out by the great fans who seemed on the edge of their seat.

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