2/23 WWE Raw Reax

Joseph Lawson of Las Vegas, Nev. (6.0): Best Segment: Jericho-Steamboat. Worst Match: Cena-Guerrero. Definitely a better Raw than last week's snoozefest and I definitely love the fact Vickie has taken over Raw as well. She's getting a great reaction from the fans and should provide a lot of depth for the build up for Mania. I still expect to see Edge vs. Cena, but we will hopefully see some twists and turns along the way. I'm not a Cena fan by any means but I did enjoy the promo he cut at the beginning of the show. And after that wonderful segment they give us a Cena-Chavo main event squash... thanks, I guess. The mixed tag was humorous and provided a slight insight of a Glamarella break-up in weeks to come. Michaels and JBL was no where near their No Way Out encounter and it seems HBK and JBL phoned it in. Obviously Taker and Michaels is inevitable and I'm all for hype or a distraction, but Vladimir Kozlov? Seriously? Ill save the insults. The high point of the whole program was Y2J's encounter with Ricky Steamboat. Classic promos cut from both and made complete sense. I still don't see a definitive direction for this angle, but hopefully we see Jericho vs. the "Ultimate Legend." I would want to see Austin, but his life would be on the line for a return match and nothing is worth that risk, so it seems Hogan would be the logical choice. The ending segment left me puzzled. Orton gave a great promo however his status as an anti-hero was officially ruined after tonight. They dragged Triple H's entrance way to long and I thought I was watching a Tom and Jerry cartoon with the way they had Randy and the Legacy running around the ring avoiding hunters sledge. Still no major WrestleMania build and one MITB qualifier.

Terrie Neilson, Las Vegas, Nev. (6.0): Best: Miz-Morrison-Punk; Edge portion of opening segment. Worst: mile-away visions coming true. Better late than never that WrestleMania build is starting to happen. Punk is in the Money in the Bank match when he should be defending the IC Title at WrestleMania instead. Past winners should not be allowed back in that match, especially the following year. At first, I couldn't see anything suspicious in the Knox-Noble match. I was trying to figure out what kind of storyline Jamie was doing with this "beat the squash" gimmick. But even before the Jericho-Steamboat promo, something caught my attention: canned noise. Seemed odd considering the package right before introduced the crowd to Steamboat's amazing in-ring career (and Flair being his inductor, a spot where there was no noise). Then I get a buzz from a friend that something happened to Jamie. I took another look at the tape, and it was right there. Knox's kick knocked Jamie out of his boots, then he picked him up by the scruff of the neck to finish him off. Can't tell if the finisher did anything further, but Knox's face after the pin told a big story: he could see that Jamie wasn't responding. It looked like "Oh sh-t" all over Knox's face. I've made no bones about being a longtime Shawn Michaels fan. Would it be hypocritical of me to want Kozlov to win next week? Shawn would have the best match with Undertaker, but currently has the weakest reason for it (better than JBL). JBL had a better reason with his delusions of grandeur. Kozlov has an even better one still: streak vs. streak. Shawn (a Raw superstar) beating Kozlov (Smackdown superstar) after all this build on Smackdown would make the whole thing meaningless. Considering that I saw Chavo coming a mile away, I'm seeing JBL taking Shawn out of the equation. JBL has lots of motive: Shawn in fairly short order has taken some of his money, delusions to title greatness, and aspirations of beating Undertaker (which in turn takes him out of WrestleMania for the moment). As for the whole Orton-Triple H matter, just one question: does anyone remember that Randy Orton has an earned title shot from the Royal Rumble match? When was the last time it was mentioned?

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