Dan Strauss of Goodhue, Minn. (7.0) Best: Randy Orton. Worst: Teddy Long's suit. Opening segment was great at the beginning. Orton is dearly missed. He should never be turned face, as he is such a natural heel. And because of his solid heel promo, C.M. Punk replied with one of his most solid comeback-promos yet. The fire in Punk's eyes showed that those two could possibly have a meaningful fued later on. So Raw borrowed ECW's guys for a battle royal? I never thought I'd say this, but I think WWE is using ECW to give Raw a rub. I am just not excited to see D-Lo back. I just can't get into his 1998 character, plus his rapid head movements give me motion sickness. Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase aggressively taking their tag titles back was awesome. They looked like the really wanted them back and they elevated the feud much more by their actions. In a completely unbiased, politics aside way (no need to get into that on a wrestling site), Ken Kennedy and Mickie James looked impressive in their segment from the RNC. They both sounded intelligent and very grateful for the opportunities we have, without even dropping a hint of support to either party. Personally, I think WWE is showing a lot of professionalism by doing things like that. I wish Orton would've sat in on commentary and furthered his great night. Average battle royal, big pop for Rey Mysterio, but not much after that. The contract signing was a good segment. I don't know if it was poor editing or what, but while Chris Jericho was running up the ramp I heard zero sound on my TV. Not a bad show. Nothing too horrible stands out that Raw fans usually pinpoint. Some solid segments, and a great preclude to a future Orton vs. Punk fued.

Marquis M. of Shreveport, La (7.5): Best Match: Raw Battle Royal. Worst Match: Women's Tag Match. The few parts of the night that entertained me, really entertained me. However, I was pretty underwhelmed. From a human being perspective, it's nice to see Candice Michelle and Randy Orton back and healthy; but from a fan perspective, it sucks because once again, we're stuck with two of the biggest contributors to the mediocrity that was Raw in 2007. I've never been impressed with Orton's mic work, and tonight was no different. I also don't care for the prospect of him managing Rhodes & DiBiase. It's kinda like Mark Henry and Tony Atlas. Why give someone who's competent on the mic a mouthpiece who isn't nearly as good? As for Candice, her return pretty much re-affirmed every fear I had for the women's division should she return. Mickie, still the only talented face diva left since Trish's retirement, was pushed aside, and Beth, for some reason, showed fear in the face of Candice. Not to mention, her ring-work was horrible, and hampered what COULD have been a decent match. Some could blame it on ring-rust, but Candice has always been clumsy like that. Hopefully Candice and Beth have a quick feud, Candice gets pushed aside, then a returning Gail Kim can take the spotlight. As for the rest of Raw.... D-Lo has become Santino's personal fodder pretty quickly. Rey's return was dumb. For all the hell Kane put him through, he sure looked healthy to me. And how is Adamle gonna call off an unsanctioned match? I mean, overall the segment was good, but they really didn't think that one through. Beth cutting a promo on Orton was quite nice to see as well...of course that was ruined as soon as Candice's music hit. Overall, Raw was just meh for me. It's losing the great momentum from the draft pretty quickly.

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (5.0): Best: Orton's presence; Michaels-Jericho signing (performance) Worst: Michaels-Jericho signing (utter lack of logic). With just four matches set for the PPV, which to me still boggles the mind (December To Dismember, anyone?), Raw was very weak. But I will give props to Randy Orton. Orton looked way thin (and still in some serious pain that isn't sold pain), but made a huge impact on the non-PPV-related material. Orton's salvos were a wakeup call to the titles, and was in serious need of being said. I'm surprised that Orton's longevity with the IC Title ("longest IC champion in seven years") wasn't put in play for Santino to have fun with setting up his "Honk-O-Meter." At the same time, it was nice to play reference to the Rhodeses-Orton segment of last year with the slap and how it means something different this time around with both being heels. At least, I think Randy's a heel; not sure when I was watching the exchange with Punk. Punk chewing out Randy for his motorcycle accident was akin to MVP chewing out Jeff Hardy for his reckless behavior, and that didn't come across too well. Charlie Haas could have something in the parody department; if you weren't paying real close attention, he nearly pulled off being John Cena. Definitely better looking than when Big Show did this a few years back. The battle royals didn't do a whole lot, except to play the idea of confidence advantage. Rey came out looking and moving much better, but in so doing pretty much killed what could have been a decent feud between Rey and Kane. As for this chapter of the Michaels-Jericho feud, the performance of the exchange between Shawn and Chris was absolutely off the charts. If I may say, Chris seemed a tiny step off tonight, especially when Shawn went verbally went nose-to-nose with him. That said, the utter lack of logic was off the charts. The chink in the armor of the feud showed last week when while Shawn and Chris acknowleged and agree to the match, Mike Adamle didn't. It sticks out because Mike was there to play negotiator to the Kane mask-in-bag reveal, and did ask Shawn about Rebecca. If you have a contract signing for an Unsanctioned match, doesn't that sanction it? It was Shawn who brought up the "hold no fault" legals, and the papers that were in each of their segments should have been Shawn's signed documents as the question of medical clearance for him still seemed in question. Then Shawn is legit injured in a segment that for all purposes should not have existed. But leave it Adamle to give an out that I hope gets used: at said signing there was a warning that physicality negated the match. For safety reasons, maybe it's time to think toward No Mercy or Cyber Sunday. I can put myself there. Can't say the same for Unforgiven after tonight.

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