-- 7/27 WWE Raw Reax

Adam Riemer of New York, N.Y. (5.6): Best: Bourne getting a win. Worst: The celebrity host idea. Okay, so Shaq wasn't bad at all, but I have to say that I am just so over the whole celebrity guest host. Every single Raw is there to promote the guest host. There was NO talk about the controversial ending to the title match last night, and the main event wasn't even one that would decide the main event of Summerslam. What does it say when your WWE champion says nothing about retaining or nothing about the beat the clock challenge to decide his opponent? I guess the WWE is content with keeping with the idea that the only way people won't cheer for Randy is to bury him. It was nice to see Evan Bourne win, and hopefully this sets up a Swagger-Bourne feud. I would have money on the awesomeness of that. Mark Henry is just never going to get as over as he was that first night on Raw. Pushing him over younger talent isn't the best move. The women's match was fine actually. It seems that the Divas are trying to get a little more physical and it was finally a decent Diva match on this show. Nice to see WWE continue with the burying of the Guerrero name, along with MVP and the Miz. The beat the clock was okay and I do like that Triple H is not in the title picture, but I am not a fan of a potential DX-Legacy (Cody & Ted) that may occur at Summerslam. We all know how the boys in green like to dig the graves themselves before throwing the young talent in them. Like I said, Shaq was good here. I enjoyed the Kobe jokes and I found it funny he had a giant Lakers couch in his dressing room. (Caldwell's Note: WWE still promoting Lakers vs. Nuggets feud, haha.) I enjoyed his interaction with Show, but I am just so sick of the celebrity host. Shaq would have been much better if Seth Green and ZZ Top didn't host, but all Raw is about is the host and everything else is second priority, including selling a PPV. The only thing that would intrigue me about a guest host anymore would be if the guest host would be heel and screw over the faces for a night. Piven could technically do that, but it would be nice to have a full blown heel guest host for a night.

-- 7/26 WWE Night of Champions PPV Reax

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (7.0): Best: Hardy vs. Punk; Punk's promo. Worst: Jericho's "mystery partner" reveal; Mickie vs. Maryse (sadly). Compared to TNA Victory Road, WWE's Night of Champions was a masterpiece. That being said, I'm not really regretting missing this one due to a work schedule concept that makes TNA's booking look like Shakespeare. Generally speaking, match quality fell right about the norms I expected, so no real disappointments there. The only thing I wanted to know before reading any reviews was the "mystery partner" reveal. Talk about a disappointment. I would rather have Legacy split up because they imploded from within and one of them (I'd pick Cody) played traitor. Instead, Big Show gets to play out his now-dated grudge against the fallen and out-of-sight Edge with Vickie nowhere to be found. Wonderful. And worse, DiBiase does the job - unless there is more to that for the maybe-maybe-not face turn. While it would have been nicer for the Philly crowd to cheer for their ECW hometown boy for retaining, Christian taking the ECW title made better sense. At least it didn't seem like a burial for Dreamer. The Six-Pack Challenge was thrown together for the PPV, so Kofi retaining in the chaos didn't bother me. But I'm agreeing with others that the anonymity factor of a mass-sized multi-person match takes away from those who should be breaking away. Melina vs. Michelle was the better match, most people I know believed Mickie deserved better. Mickie getting both titles now (second-ever) is anti-climactic and the match seemed to prove it. I wasn't disappointed that Rey retained the IC title. I considered this a test match for Ziggler to determine if and how soon he'll be seeing gold. Considering the tough spot for the Rey-Ziggler match - "show us what you got, but don't go full out" - the former Nicky will see what Kenny never had the chance to get. How many people noticed Maria's about to turn heel? The WWE Title matching sitting lower meant two obvious things: Orton retaining and Hardy winning. With the Cena-Hunter-Orton trilogy playing out in so many ways in such short time, the winner was the lesser of all evils. C.M. Punk's World Title reigns are only about a click or two above Jeff Hardy in terms of respect given to them. Hardy getting the title right now just seems like a move of appeasement. C.M. Punk has yet to do the "Jericho throwing Michaels through the Jeritron" in 2008 to get fans to really want him to get his just desserts. He was only annoying them at this point.

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on these shows for a "WWE Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. Just to add a twist to this feature, include not just your hometown, but also your occupation (mechanic, lawyer, stay-at-home-dad, college student, etc.) so readers get a flavor for what everyone does as "day jobs." To contribute your thoughts on Raw or the PPV, click here.

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