B.K. of Detroit, Mich. (1.0): Best Match: Jeff Hardy vs. Shelton Benjamin. Worst Match: Triple H vs. the Tag team division. Another horrible Raw. Why do I continue to watch? Oh yeah, because the roster is so depleted that watching WWE programming is like watching a drunk riding a bicycle. The only reason I've been watching is to see how they are coping with the missing roster. Would it have killed Triple H to wait a week to squash Kendrick & London seeing as they had a natural main event six-man tag for next week? The Hornswoggle angle is fine, and Santino Marella gets better by the week, but the show is stale and they don't have the talent to improve it. Time to just drop the brand extension, dissolve ECW, and start focusing on starting up new farm systems to develop new talent or else I could seriously see the demise of the company in the next few years. They are making me embarrassed to be a fan, making me bored as a viewer, and richer from not paying for the horrible predictable recent PPVs.
Jon Gargis of Cartersville, Ga. (3.0): Best Match: Hardy vs. Benjamin, Hornswoggle's shenanigans. Worst Match: Anything involving Cena. The McMahon/Triple H/Cena show rolls along for another week. If Vince could trim his TV time each week by even two minutes, some of the midcard competitors could get some mic time. Why not give Shelton Benjamin a mic in the ring before his match or have one of the interviewers ask him about the match before he walks out there? Some of Triple H's verbal jabs at McMahon were funny, but the penis jokes are still old. That said, what was even worse was having him not only defeat the tag champs single-handedly, but also knock down the #1 contenders (and probably the only contenders at this point) for the belts. Santino's vulgar line should have stayed in the writers' room. The flag match could've been "explained" if Ross or Lawler said that today was Constitution Day, but I doubt many people would have realized what that is. I can tolerate a heel GM, but I don't like it when a GM changes the match stipulations after the match is over and the targeted wrestler has won the match; at least restart the match with the changed stipulations. Since wrestlers get handcuffed to the ring ropes every other week (at least in TNA), Cena actually looked clever by figuring out that the ropes can be undone from the ringpost - why can't anyone else figure that out? The last few seconds of the show definitely showed what the crowd thought of Cena the Younger. Perhaps the crowd would've thought more highly of him if he had moves that didn't look fake, as the camera angle used during the Five-Knuckle Shuffle definitely showed that he doesn't really hit his opponent with it. I hope the return of the suspended wrestlers will greatly improve the show's quality (Kennedy, I'm looking at you.).
Anthony Moseley of Saraland, Ala. (3.0): Best Match: Benjamin vs. Hardy. Worst Match: Cena vs. Marella. Wow, tonight seriously must have been "Let's bury everyone on the Raw roster except Triple H and Cena" night. The show started out decent enough and the Benjamin-Hardy match was perhaps the only highlight of the show, although seeing Mr. Cena get beat down by Orton was pretty close. The Hornswoggle skits were at times humorous, and I will admit to laughing at the shillelagh line from Triple H. However, that was the only thing I laughed at from him. Most the matches were boring and meaningless except for the IC Title Match, which given a little more time, could have been a great TV match. Before I end this, let's take a look at all of the stars that were buried tonight: Daivari (more so than usual), Cade & Murdoch (who were finally gaining some momentum), Kendrick & London (apparently attacking two mid-card faces makes one even more of a face), Santino Marella, Cody Rhodes, and to an extent Carlito (although most of that damage was done last night). Apparently, they're trying desperately to drive home the notion that Triple H, Randy Orton, and John Cena are the only true stars of Raw. WWE is getting more and more unwatchable, and I really hope TNA succeeds with their two-hour broadcasts.
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