Instant Reaction - WWE Raw 5/7
By Benjamin Tucker, PWTorch TV specialist

Overall Score - 4.5

Paul Heyman! Yeah! Woohoo! Too bad the average fan doesn't even know who he is anymore. His promo was fine, but it lacked a solid crowd to get behind it, and the "Brock is fired" angle feels fake. I hope they keep Heyman around, but it really wasn't a successful return. And, this show, in the end, didn't do much that was very exciting.

For one, Over the Limit is failing on pay-per-view build, reminiscent of Capitol Punishment and Fatal Four-Way hype last year. Of the three advertised matches, one involves an authority figure along with the biggest heat vacuum in wrestling, and the WWE Title match has barely been built at all. The only segment hyping it featured Bryan meekly knocking Punk off the ropes to get a victory. The post-match beat down was okay, but not nearly what is needed to sell this match for PPV. The opening Punk-Laurinaitis segment that set up the rest of the show okay, and Cena's promo had a nice range of emotions, but it didn't make me want to see either of their matches at Over the Limit. Most of the entire show was just two hours of fluff when it comes down to the show in 13 days.

And, boy, what fluff it was. Miz lost to Brodus. In less than five minutes. Please don't make Miz the next John Morrison! It's good to see that the AW stable is still getting new members, and the Ziggler-Kofi match was fine, but the apparent feud they're in feels a bit rushed. Of course, it probably is, but it's still a bit early for the tag champs to be taking losses on TV. The Divas were there, as usual, and Rhodes taking another loss seems like a bad move. Cody should be advanced, not kept on the back-burner when Smackdown and Raw are depleted of stars. I have no idea what to make of the Show-Eve segments, but they were fine for what they were tonight.

The World Title tag match was easily the best of the night, with a solid pace and decent action, and the story progression worked, too. Del Rio vs. Sheamus isn't nearly as compelling as a fatal four-way, and even though overall hype has been lacking, they still do have the opportunity to sell this match. It can also lead to a compelling Sheamus-Orton match at Summerslam, if they want to go down that route. But, really, this show was pretty dull, overall. When there was a good segment, there was a slightly worse one that followed. Anything else was just average. Average, average, average. Oh, and have I mentioned that I am STILL not sold on Over the Limit?

Any questions or comments? Message me on Twitter at BTuckertorch!

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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