James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (5.0)

This show was right in the middle for me. The hits were strong hits and the misses were strong misses. And there were enough of each side to put this right in the middle. Top hit of the night was DX vs. Legacy. I agree with Wade Keller and Bruce Mitchell that Triple H and Shawn Michaels needed to verbally endorse Legacy after Legacy's win over them at Breaking Point. However, I thought Legacy looked good at the end of the opening segment. Cody really brought the wood against Hunter in their singles match and the post-match beat on Hunter down was effective to continue building up Legacy's credibility as heels and get fans interested in that Hell in a Cell match to see Legacy get theirs. Overall, a strong segment.

The lowest of the low misses was that clown car/limo bit at the top of the show and the overall attempts at humor with Cedric. I liked Santino and Chavo's interaction with Cedric, as I thought Santino really worked in the setting, but the Cedric vs. Chavo "match" was just an embarrassment. The fact that it was given four minutes and followed the U.S. Title match, which was given two minutes and didn't even have a finish or an announced decision was a disservice to the roster.

Then, there was Lilian Garcia's very strong segment where she did more work in two minutes to put over the roster than WWE had done the previous hour and 45 minutes. Lilian was terrific in her send-off speech. Now I'm thinking of the opportunities lost the past ten years to give her a different role as an on-air character. Perhaps as an authority figure to really change up the pace. I'd like to see her brought back as a guest host down the line.

The other big miss for me was John Cena's presentation. He came across like a prick in the contract signing with Randy Orton. When he had the "look of fear and trepidation" at the end of the show faced with a gauntlet match next week, it was like the audience was given a chance to laugh at the babyface when comeuppance came an hour after the contract signing. I don't the presentation was effective this week leading to Hell in a Cell.

Other thoughts: The Miz vs. Evan Bourne was great. Miz's new aggressiveness is really good. Bourne didn't lose much from taking the loss. He's Teflon right now and the audience will remember that Shooting Star Press attempt more than the loss. ... I sure hope Mickie James vs. Beth Phoenix was short just because they were short on time. Not a good presentation of Mickie the Champ. Alicia Fox was solid as the heel diva, though. She's not 1996 Sunny, but has some charisma that's worth tapping into.

Bruce Mitchell, Torch Senior Columnist (4.0)

This was one of those shows that demonstrates why WWE's young writers are on Stephanie McMahon's staff instead of actually working in Hollywood. It's extremely difficult to write in voice as distinctive as Cedric the Entertainer's and the writers here failed miserably in the first segment particularly. Ced didn't help matters with his website rant.

The big programs (DX-Legacy and Cena-Orton) seemed like they were going through the motions with stuff we've seen before and better. I don't understand why DX puts Legacy over in the ring, but not in the mic. Speaking of the mic, I wanted someone to take it away from Cena tonight. The writers did him no favors, either. That U.S. Title merry-go-round is endemic of why it's so hard to break out in WWE. WWE did the right thing by Lillian Garcia tonight, and she showed why she stood above the Divas for ten years.

Greg Parks, PWTorch.com Contributor (5.5)

I guess I'm more willing to overlook the dumb comedy with Cedric because there always seems to be dumb comedy on this show with the guest hosts. It's gotten to the "push the cruiserweights" point, where fans will complain about it 'til they are blue in the face, but nothing will change. That doesn't mean WWE gets a free pass, but I'd much prefer focusing on the good, of which there were several things on the show.

I liked Triple H vs. Cody Rhodes. Legacy has been treated well thus far, and I don't even care, unlike the other two roundtablers, that DX hasn't put them over in a promo. That would be icing on the cake at this point. They've been rebuilt and have had their credibility handed back to them, and props goes to Hunter and HBK for making them look relatively good. Evan Bourne vs. Miz was another solid match, though the U.S. Title picture is another matter. What was with Swagger walking out of a title match, with the title, when he had Kingston prone to a loss in the ring? That made no sense.

Mickie vs. Beth was fine, but too short. The good of that segment is James now looks beatable for Alicia, who doesn’t have much credibility and Beth got a much-needed big win. The contract signing I liked; Orton is really playing his character well, and while Cena was kinda all over the place, it was the usual Cena stuff. I don't think the face has to cower in fear or have the deck stacked against him; he just beat Orton at Breaking Point so he's brimming with confidence; why wouldn't he joke around, and also, to put Orton on edge a bit.

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