James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (7.5)

Out with the old and in with the new. Randy Orton is Mr. 2009 and there are thousands of directions WWE can take the latest McMahon family storyline to turn Orton into a mega-heel capable of headlining WrestleMania in a few months. Orton's line that "you need me on this show because I make money and put butts in seats" was a classic heel line for justifying why Vince McMahon needed to keep him on the show despite his villainous actions and words. Orton was simply great in his role, although I have no idea how this segment was supposed to sell the PPV. The usual McMahon idea of "well, more people will be tuned in for an epic TV segment, so that increased margin will lead to more PPV sales from simple exposure to the product."

Chris Jericho was good in his role prior to Orton in the final segment of the show. He would be the "out with the old" as the superstar and top heel of 2008, as this year is clearly going to belong to Orton barring injury, suspension, or a de-push. Jericho being forced to apologize was classic Jericho - complete with non-apology and twisting words to save face. It sucked seeing Jericho reduced to that level after the great heel run he had, but Jericho made it work as best he could.

C.M. Punk's IC Title victory was well worth the two weeks of B.S non-finishes to get us to the point of Punk vs. Regal in a very good 10-minute TV match. Stiff, intense, and great drama in Punk's hometown. I'd like to see this series extended out a little while. Maybe a best-of-seven ala Booker vs. Benoit's TV Title series back in the old WCW days.

The HBK/JBL-Cena dynamic was played up very well. No one expects JBL to win the World Title on Sunday, but they planted seeds of doubt by involving HBK as a third party in the match. Paying to see how Michaels becomes involved, which could be enticing enough. Meanwhile, the Rumble match itself received very little hype, which was disappointing. Sorry, but a video package with The Warlord involved isn't going to sell a PPV. But, I felt WWE did plenty outside of hyping the Rumble match to sell Sunday night's PPV.

Jon Mezzera, PWTorch.com Contributor (7.0)

This was a good Raw, but not a great one. With the exception of the Intercontinental Title match (which was a very good 10 minute match), all of the matches were very short, most of them under 3 minutes, some of them under 2. The wrestlers can't put on good matches in such short amounts of time. Those short matches brought down my score quite a bit, as did the multiple recap videos throughout the night. There are too many to list here, but there were recaps from last week, from Smackdown and from this week. I know this isn't anything new, but it was more annoying that usual, particularly given how little time was given to the actual wrestling. The other negative was the first half of the final segment, with Chris Jericho's apology. It didn't work for me. Stephanie McMahon is too annoying to be a babyface, and her humiliating Jericho didn't make me want to cheer her any more. It was not a good pay off to his firing last week.

However, there was plenty to like on Raw, which is why I gave it a positive score. Glamarella was great. I loved Beth Phoenix in her role getting upset at Santino Marella for hiring Rosa Mendez. Santino then gave a line reading like only he can when he asked her if they could keep Rosie. That was pure Santino greatness. I also enjoyed the verbal interchange between John Cena, Shawn Michaels and John Bradshaw Layfield. They all delivered very well on the mic, and the segment did a very good job of hyping Cena vs. JBL at the Royal Rumble. Speaking of the Rumble, the video package (an updated version of the one from last year) on the Rumble itself was very good and a lot of fun to watch. Overall, the hype for the PPV was strong. I also was pleasantly surprised by Mike Knox's interview before his match. His understated performance was good. It was intriguing to hear him not explain why he keeps attacking Rey Mysterio. I look forward to hearing more from him.

In the end, the final moments of the show, when Randy Orton punted Vince McMahon, saved the show. As I said above, I was not enjoying the final segment, that is until Orton came out. His verbal sparring with Stephanie and Vince was much better than Jericho's. He got a huge babyface reaction, which was probably not what WWE wanted, but nobody can deny that it was fun to hear the fans that into the moment. The punt has been so well booked, that this will go down as a very memorable moment in the history of Raw. Orton's acting afterward was very good too. I am assuming that he and Stephanie are working together to keep Vince from returning, but time will tell what happens next.

Lee Stevens, PWTorch.com Contributor (8.0)

This clearly wasn't a perfect show, but the negatives were overshadowed by the positives. People will likely remember the final scene of Randy Orton punting Vince McMahon and for good reason. McMahon was more subdued than in some of his other returns and despite ending up on the wrong end of a boot, to me, it played out much better than scaffolding falling on him. Orton played his role quite well and the extra time allowed the scene to develop without feeling rushed by the clock.

The crowd ate up every second of the CM Punk match, which made it even more enjoyable. Solid work from both Punk and William Regal and I'm glad Punk could walk away from it despite the drop on his head. The microphone was kind to Shawn Michaels, John Cena and Chris Jericho, which isn't terribly surprising and I was pleased with the words from Vince McMahon and Mike Knox for different reasons. McMahon because he didn't rant and rave and Knox simply because he was given a chance to open his mouth.

On the bad side, the opening battle royal was short, the Miz & Morrison vs. Cryme Tyme was shorter and the Kelly Kelly match wasn't short enough. Luckily, there were enough solid moments coming out of the show to make it an enjoyable two hours plus.

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