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Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (7.0): Best: Punk-JBL face-off; Kane mask reveal Worst: Jericho vs. Kane; the one-week tag title reign Raw finally got itself some steam going into SummerSlam, but it feels almost too little too late. Get well wishes to Randy Orton. I'd almost say this tragic setback would be a blessing in disguise for Chris Jericho as he gets more time to be a sadistic heel, but in the past two weeks he's been added out of nowhere to matches. The new look and apathetic style are clearly showing. Chris even looks like he's gained weight, which doesn't help him in-ring. I believe Michaels-Jericho does indeed continue after SummerSlam. With a rubber match yet to come, maybe the pressure cooker valve was open to level off some heat before starting again, but in the interim it's chumping Jericho. For Randy, with this long an absence and the circumstances for it, he could return as a potentially believeable face. Regardless of the outcome, if WWE goes exactly by the letter of "winner take all," the title record should be that the female winner is co-IC and the male winner is co-Women's champs. Waiting to see how this gets explained later. The JBL-Punk face-off was well-done, though with Punk making the only offensive move during that segment says that Punk is dropping the title to someone who just can't sut in the ring anymore. There's your offensive right there if that happens. I actually liked the Kane reveal. Rey Mysterio mysteriously disappeared from Raw shortly after his arrival and "feud" with Santino, so this explanation for his absence settles with me just fine. Rey gets a hot feud when he comes back, which hopefully will be soon to stoke the coals while they're burning. I should feel like I've been swerved by this reveal (the expectation that it was one of Kane's old masks), but I'm not since Kane is still a monster. There seemed to be some backpedaling when he punked out JBL, but nobody likes JBL so there's not much you can do to disagree with that. What doesn't make any sense whatsoever is putting the tag belts on John Cena and Batista only for them to be dropped one week later. Probably one of the fastest droppings using this storyline device, but Rhodes/DiBiase get punked yet again. Seeing both in major view all night didn't help. And where was the text vote of who would win the title between Punk and JBL, even with the obvious lean?

Jere P. of Amherst, Mass. (3.0): Best Match: Santino's celebration. Worst Match: All the meaningless squash matches A sub-par Raw leading up to Summerslam. Why all the squash matches? We really couldn't go one week without Cryme Tyme? And is William Regal's attire some kind of additional punishment for breaking the wellness policy? Santino/Pheonix takes the cake for best thing on Raw since HBK and Jericho have taken a week off from their feud. Speaking of which, Jericho being thrown into a match with Kane for no reason halts the momentum from the months of great character building we've seen. I don't even know where to start with the Rey Mysterio thing. On the one hand, I guess I'm glad it was an unexpected swerve (though after Raw last week I did notice Rey hasn't been on the show for awhile). On the other, it's a total out-of-nowhere swerve that leaves more questions than answers. The upside is that I don't mind Mike Adamle as GM so far. It seems like giving him time to rehearse what he's gonig to say works, instead of making him call matches off the cuff. One of the major things that has bugged me since C.M. Punk has become champ: Why do JBL, Cena, Kane, Jericho, and Batista all want to be champ, considering how Punk has been treated since earning the title? My current theory is that they all want to wrestle at the end of the first hour and go home early. Finally, Cena-Batista doesn't have nearly enough buildup. Yes, it is the FIRST TIME EVAR!!!, but is that all that WWE has? The entire booking reeks of their characters saying "Well, we have a match, so we might as well hate each other." The Punk-JBL segment, plus all the Santino/Phoenix stuff were not bad, but otherwise a forgettable Raw.

Adam Riemer of New York, N.Y. (5.0) Best:Main Event. Worst: The use of Chris Jericho. This was not a great episode of Raw, it wasn't as bad as it was two months ago, but it wasn't great. Why is everyone screaming in their promos? What has Samoa Joe done to professional wrestling promos?! Kidding aside, the beginning of the show really dragged for me. John Cena does the same promo every week, and Batista needs to lay off jokes the Triple H made months ago. We all know that Cena is popular with the young fans. Triple H made fun of it two or three months ago constantly; let's just leave it at that. The best part of this week's Raw was once again Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes carried the two biggest stars on Raw in the main event. Cena and Batista are not good wrestlers, Rhodes and DiBiase are. For two weeks in a row Cena and Batista have had good matches thanks to Rhodes and DiBiase. I will boycott WWE if they let these two guys fade off like they do so many tag teams. Kane vs. Jericho was not a good match. For weeks Jericho has been the real heel on Raw, really getting under the skin of everyone with his sadistic, egotistical promos on HBK. All his fans (like me) then get excited when he is thrust into the title hunt last week. Sure, he lost, but this week we get no promo regarding retribution? That does not make sense at all for his character. Instead we get Jericho vs. Kane with no hype or really true reason for it other than Adamle saying it's a "Summerslam match." It was a waste of Jericho this week, meaning that we can only expect that he is going to do a run in on the HBK address at SummerSlam. The progression of Kane was just okay, too. I like the curve ball they added here with Mysterio's mask as I really wondered what happened to Rey recently, it at least kept him interesting. Punk vs. JBL will be probably the most unanticipated match at Summerslam. This week did not help. Why should anyone care about this match? Hasn't JBL been beaten in the ring by Punk for the title on Raw already? The WWE continues to show that its two champs on both brands are taking a back seat to more interesting angles that should have the title involved instead.

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