3/2 WWE Raw Reax

Mandi Saldano of Miami, Fla. (8.0): Best Match: Main Event (John Cena vs. Edge). Worst Match: Divas Tag. Raw gets a much improved nod from last week. Jericho opening the show was good, but it didn't have the same intensity with Snuka as Jericho's segments did with Piper and Steamboat. Kane winning the triple threat was a nice surprise and I hope he actually wins to get a real-deal title run. The divas tag was what it was. It showed Mickie needs to be in every match to hold crowd interest, Kelly shouldn't be wrestling until it no longer takes her five minutes to set up a flip, Jillian is poorly misused, and Beth is a bore. Melina and Maryse was the highlight. Maryse is definitely the best utilized heel on the entire roster. The two of them in a match should be good. Triple H-Orton was a great segment and these two pull out some great reactions from each other. The free TV main event was good and I like how Edge continued to sneak his way out of losing. I'm definitely not excited for Big Show to be in a main event.

Alex Roberts in the U.K. (4.5): Best Match: Edge vs. Cena. Worst Match: Divas Tag. WWE's perplexing build to WrestleMania continued this week with a surprisingly anti-climactic edition of Raw. Edge-Cena for the World Title takes match of the night honors by default more than any real quality. The announcement of a Big Show-Edge main event for Mania was greeted by almost total silence, which is not a good sign at all. People just aren't into this simmering tension between Show and Edge. Normally I'd say this doesn't matter because obviously Cena's going to get back into the main event, but given recent WWE booking trends, I have no idea if that's actually going to happen or not. It's actually a good thing, as it makes things a little more exciting and interesting. Maybe those Hogan-Cena rumors are true? That would certainly give the WWE the big match they're currently missing, although it would overshadow whatever is planned for the Jericho angle. Regarding the WWE Title, things aren't looking good. After presenting Triple H as being in uncontrollable rages for the past two weeks, WWE suddenly has him calmly talking and deal making with Orton? I don't buy it. Worse still their face-to-face lacked any real intensity or emotion, which has so far been the only thing driving this Orton-McMahons disaster forward. And the way they got Orton to backpedal into the match with Triple H was awful. On the plus side, his promo on Stephanie gave him some of his edge back. Elsewhere, Shawn Michaels got a watchable match out of Kozlov. I am looking forward to Michaels-Taker at Mania. That should be excellent. Not so excellent is putting Kane in the Money in the Bank match ahead of Rey Mysterio, unless of course the WWE has something bigger planned for Rey at Mania. On one final note, the Jericho opening segment was good but probably the weakest of the legends confrontation segments, primarily because we didn't get a real legends response to Jericho this week and those have been the best part of these segments.

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