James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (5.5)

Raw was a complete mess at times where I thought WWE was replaying portions of last week's awful Impact. At other times, I thought WWE nailed the WrestleMania 26 build-up, especially with the Batista-Cena promo. One Torch reader brought up great points on the logical loopholes in the mix with Batista siding with Vince McMahon, who Batista was indirectly complaining about when he talked about WWE marketing Cena, not him. Forgetting that, the promo effectively sold the title match for WrestleMania.

"I am here to make money, win titles, and I don't care if these people cheer me or boo me," Batista said to Cena. So great. Batista's evolved look with the leather bands, aviator shades, leather jacket, heavy jewelry, and cocky heel attitude just screams money-drawing heel. His promo effectively set up Cena's quest to become more than just a mass-produced babyface with cute catchphrases. It also set up perfectly the goal of putting Cena in a position where the audience is ready to spend $55 to see Cena kick Batista from pillar to post on Sunday, March 28.

In the middle was a weak Vince McMahon-Bret Hart segment. This will be easily forgotten in Bret Hart's returning storyline, but they seemed to be scaling back before pulling off a bigger storyline down the road. Also, the audience wasn't interested in the latest verbal exchange focused on 1997. Perhaps it's because the audience was burnt out after a ton of talking on the show, or WWE's younger fanbase hasn't been given reason to get behind Hart and really cheer for him. They need damage control the next three weeks.

Then, there's the ugly on this show. I understand not wanting to give away much wrestling before WrestleMania to save the big money matches for PPV, but I'm really tired of wrestling content on national TV being treated so poorly. Jack Swagger squashing Santino Marella was fine - Swagger needed a boost and Santino is expendable. But, MVP squashing Zack Ryder, a Unified tag title match barely going four minutes with a non-clean finish, and a complete non-finish to the opening match was not acceptable.

Finally, there was the guest-hosting business that was an unfortunate byproduct of WWE's hands being tied with the guest-hosting concept that can't end soon enough. Steve Austin should send it off with a bang on March 15, but this was a horrible mess following the Jerry Springer mess two weeks ago and bullriding last week. Fortunately, the individual hype for Batista-Cena and Michaels-Taker has been so great that WWE hurting their pro wrestling content and wasting TV time on low IQ guest-hosting shouldn't hurt their sales pitch for four hours of wrestling-focused pay programming at WrestleMania.

Tony Donofrio, PWTorch.com Contributor (6.0)

If I were doing the Hits and Misses for this show, I think they'd be about even. What was great about the show was great and what was bad about the show was even worse! The build up to the major feuds were all pretty strong with the exception of Bret Hart and Vince McMahon. This was the first time that these two were in the ring and it didn't seem to "click". Vince was over the top and Bret seemed like he was going through the motions. Maybe it was just an off week for the two of them but that means a lot in the lead up to WrestleMania.

John Cena and Batista over the past 3-6 months have done some of the best mic work of their careers (as for Cena, his best since the late-Attitude Era days). I'd love to see Batista retain at WM, but I'd also love to see Jericho retain to watch Cena and Edge chase some more. But, history tells us that both World titles won't be retained and we won't continue to have 2 heel world champs for too long. This Raw was no exception as Cena and Batista made me actually look forward to a match that I really wasn't into the last time they went one-on-one on PPV. Legacy's breakup did hit a minor speed bump on Raw but it still has me very intrigued.

Randy Orton seems to be awkward with his face turn, in my opinion. I'm still waiting to see which way this goes at WM. Do Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase start to have some friction too, turning the WM bout into a triple threat? Either way, I'm willing to bet that the official match for WM will be announced next week on Raw. As for Raw's DX-ShowMiz-Sheamus triangle on Raw, I had no real complaints. We all knew that DX wouldn't be winning back the titles and that we were probably going to see Sheamus vs. HHH at WM. All they did last night was start to finalize those plans. However, here's hoping that we somehow will get a ShowMiz vs. Hart Dynasty match at WM for the titles.

As for the bad on Raw, it just plain out stunk! First of all, I understand that building up WM requires strong mic work, but there was almost no wrestling in 2 hours! Did Vince Russo guest host as a writer last night? The fact that stood out in my mind came from Jason Powell over at Prowrestling.net: The divas pajama pillow match lasted longer than the 2 Money in the Bank qualifying matches...combined! That is just sad. Secondly, the Cheech and Chong segments were all very painful to watch. I'm really hoping that we're down to our last 3 (I guess 2 now, since this Raw is in the books) weeks of guest hosts with Steve Austin taking us out with a bang, as the last one. Lastly, what a way to debut Zack Ryder on Raw. This is a character that I thought could have some mid-card success. But, I guess on Raw that's nearly impossible to get. Ask MVP, Mark Henry, Evan Bourne, and Carlito (unfortunately, in a few months we might be adding Christian's name to that list as he wasn't even on last nights show ).

The show overall wasn't bad, but certainly not as hot as the rest of 2K10 has been (w/ the exception of that awful Springer hosted show). It is funny though how some sour moments with guest hosts and the lack of wrestling can really pull down what had potential to be a strong show, to an average show.

Greg Parks, Torch Columnist (6.0)

I'll come right out and say that I liked the Cheech and Chong segment where Chong was petting William Regal's hair. I don't mind the overt references to pot, since that's what the duo is mostly known for, and they had to find a way to not directly reference it because of the kids at home (and Linda McMahon's political aspirations). It had nothing to do with wrestling really, but hey, I'll take what I can get from the guest hosts at this point.

John Cena and Batista had a real money segment that drew a line in the sand as far as where they both stand on the issues. Bret Hart and Vince McMahon had an OK segment, but Bret is just being booked to look pitiful week-in and week-out. Everyone knows Vince will get his comeuppance at 'Mania, but it's been a rocky road thus far in getting there. Sheamus got some true heel heat in the end, and it's clear now that he's being positioned for a match with Triple H at WM. I am glad we won't see DX for a while, but knowing WWE that "while" won't last long.

As for the wrestling on the show, yeah, there was embarrassingly little of it, especially the MITB qualifying matches. But I also understand that non-match time is needed to build up the Wrestlemania card, specifically the talking segments addressed above. Especially around this time of year, when WWE kicks it into gear for setting up real, three-dimensional feuds, more time is needed to put into the feuds on TV, causing the wrestling to get lost in the shuffle.

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