James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (7.0)

It's rare that I've given Raw an overall show rating in the 7-10 range lately, as I've felt like recent shows have failed to build to anything of substance. Or, as was the case on the January 4 Raw, there was a strong beginning and end, but the middle was insubstantial. This show had a strong beginning and end, but had an improved middle with everyone focused on the Royal Rumble.

The Royal Rumble hype really picked up on this week's show, especially a refreshing DX with limited comedy, a strong Triple H character, and Shawn Michaels having an excellent, simple, focused exchange with The Undertaker. Plus, Miz and MVP were focused on carrying their feud to the Rumble, Miz was positioned in a main event situation, and Jack Swagger was booked to look stupid again, but at least it was focused on building intrigue to see how he fares in the Rumble, which should help fill the middle of the Rumble match itself.

Jon Heder was a good "ham" playing the annoying wrestling heel while Don Johnson seemed a bit "above the wrestling stuff" at times, but he was a good complement. The audience bought into them and their interaction worked well for a self-contained episodic storyline. I'm not a fan of these one-week storylines that sometimes interfere with whatever main storyline WWE is trying to develop, but this was an acceptable guest-hosted week.

Jon Mezzera, PWTorch.com Contributor (3.5)

There was some good on Raw. Unfortunately, there was more bad than good, making it a poor show. I will start with the good. I liked the opening segment with Vince McMahon, Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. It was interesting to hear Undertaker address the Bret Hart situation. This was a good tease for the possible Undertaker vs. Michaels match and set up that Michaels has to win the Royal Rumble to get the match he wants. I liked how Sheamus looked strong. The hype for his match against Randy Orton was well done with Sheamus being positioned as the heel. I enjoyed the work by the guest hosts, mostly John Heder. Don Johnson was good too, but Heder made a great heel host. He did a good job getting heat on himself. I enjoyed everything he was involved it, leading to being punched out by Triple H. From an in ring stand point, the only good match was John Cena & Kofi Kingston vs. Legacy. It was a good tag match that got some momentum for Kingston while teasing more tension between Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase.

That was all good. Unfortunately, that was the only good match. The other matches were all short, and there wasn't much wrestling on the show. The first half was the worst as it only had one short match and the 30 second All-American American challenge. While some of the matches were fine despite being too short, some of them were bad. Gail Kim & Eve Torres vs. Maryse & Alicia Fox was ugly. I have been saying WWE needs to give the Divas more in ring time, but they have to perform better. I didn't like that Chris Masters looked so strong against Orton. The Masterlock has barely been good enough to beat Carlito, yet it almost beat Orton?

From a booking stand-point, I was disappointed in the follow-up to the confrontation last week between The Miz and Montel Vontavious Porter. The follow-up was almost nonexistent and MVP looked bad by being knocked out by The Big Show. I'm annoyed by Hornswoggle. It is very hard to take Shawn Michaels seriously in terms of Bret Hart or his challenge for Undertaker when he has to act goofy around Hornswoggle. How can I take Triple H seriously when talking to McMahon about Hart when moments later he has to give Hornswoggle a piggy back ride? My other problem was the lame ending with Cena, Show and Triple H announcing that they are in the Rumble. It was presented like it was supposed to be a surprise, but we all knew they would be in the Rumble. Michaels was booked to act shocked that The Game would be in the Rumble, when it was obvious that he would be. That made HBK look stupid. It was a bad ending.

Greg Parks, Torch Columnist (7.0)

The Royal Rumble was built well, and I was really fearing Jon Heder and Don Johnson as guest hosts, but they hit it out of the park. Heder deserves praise for his work, and Johnson played the straight man well. The only negative of the segments was Carlito dressed as Napolean Dynamite backstage. What was that about? The opening segment was really good, but they probably needed Bret Hart on this show. The Taker vs. Michaels stuff was intriguing and well-scripted. I'd assume HBK is the favorite to win the Rumble at this point.

It was nice to see The Miz get some rub from the guest hosts this week, as well as MVP. That has to be in part due to the lack of Chris Jericho, who usually gets that spot. Props to the crowd, who were very good all night, especially in the mid-show tag match, which was a good match itself. Kingston seemed to get back on track with the fans, which was nice to see. The booking of Orton vs. Sheamus is interesting, as it appears Orton is the face for the moment. I agree with Jon about the revelations about the main eventers being in the Rumble and how WWE made it sound like these were shocking announcements. But I think the message it got across was sound.

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