Bruce Mitchell, Torch Columnist (3.0)

WWE Creative needs to get their act together. When the better workers aren't around their effort needs to be tighter, not just more manic. Everything that happened tonight was too contrived to flow like a story; it just seemed like excuses to get jerk the characters around to the places they wanted them before Judgment Day.

Brian Hoops, PWTorch.com Contributor (4.5)

Another show that came off flat. Main focus on the show was building Batista against Randy Orton for the Judgement Day PPV. I like the idea of pushing the main event above everything else, but doing it at the expense of DiBiase and Rhodes is not smart long term planning. They need to find a better way to build these match ups as making the heels weak on TV week after week, is 180 degrees from what worked on a weekly basis in every territory 25 years ago. Declining ratings and PPV numbers should tell them, their current booking strategy isn't working. Nothing inside the ring to get excited about. If you want to watch actual wrestling on a wrestling show, you need to watch ECW or Smackdown instead of Raw. There wasn't anything on this show to compel me to purchase the PPV.

Greg Parks, PWTorch.com Contributor (5.0)

I really wanted to like this show and give it a solid thumbs-up, but I just couldn't. The good news is the mid-card is getting time, with The Brian Kendrick apparently setting up a feud with the Colons (a shame Kendrick has to go back to tag teaming, but at least it's SOMETHING), MVP and William Regal having issues and The Miz getting to look relatively good against John Cena. But the main event scene is just killing this show every week.

Cena finally gets to look vulnerable for more than one week....unfortunately, it's for a match against Big Show. The constant burying of Team Priceless is getting ridiculous, as are the constant non-clean finishes in important matches. Just put someone over, I'm begging for it! I'm glad the main event didn't go too long as to not give away much for this Sunday. I also thought it was intriguing Orton offered Batista a spot in Legacy.

The Beth Phoenix vs. Santina stuff has got to end soon. I get a cheap laugh now-and-then over it, but I'd much rather have Beth move on to something more significant. Unfortunately, it's clear the writers love writing for Santina. Where do they go after this week though, a clean win over Beth? Doesn't this have to end with Santina being exposed as Santino? I understand that WWE wants Smackdown, ECW and Superstars to be wrestling-heavy, but this Raw had very little in-ring action to get excited about, and that's a problem.

Shawn Valentino, PWTorch.com Contributor (2.0)

Raw continues to be a weak show on many levels. Orton gave an OK promo to begin the show. Something just seems missing with his character lately and he seems much less inspired than he did a few months ago. Batista did not help matters much, and I do not think their interaction helped sell their match this coming Sunday as a must-see attraction. Vickie made things worse setting up another ridiculous stipulation that would inevitably lead to a handicap match. These handicap matches are just killing the program. These types of matches should only be used on rare occasions, and it hurts that they are merely taking the match that people are expected to pay to see and adding a couple characters to it. Of course, it was not to be, but what actually took place was even worse. I will get to that later. Bottom line is that the WWE needs to do a better job of keeping their top wrestlers apart.

None of the matches on the show amounted to much of anything other than setting up for the pay-per-view, which I guess would be good if they were better executed. It is good to see some of the young guys continue to be pushed. The Miz was the highlight of the show for the third straight week and it is good that they did not job him out yet. Cena's constant eye on The Big Show was annoying but it did get over Show is a major threat that can strike anytime. The Brian Kendrick winning also gave him some hope of being more than a jobber to the stars. I really enjoy his character as he seems to be one of the only guys having fun out there. Hopefully, his search for a tag partner gives him something useful to do. MVP just does not click at all as a babyface character as he just looks cheesy and awkward.

Finally, the Legacy-Batista storyline that weaved throughout the program was just stupid. It makes no sense that the heel trio would not just stay together backstage instead of constantly looking for the missing member. Having Orton face Batista was another lame example of WWE lacking creative direction and throwing top stars that we should pay to see together on free television. Sure, it was not much of a match, but they could have came up with something better. The aftermath was completely senseless. Orton takes a complete beating from Batista's multiple chairshots and then suddenly recovers as if nothing happened to him. Then suddenly he was hurt again. Just a lame finish to another bad show. Thankfully, we have Friday nights to look forward to for a good wrestling show.

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