-- 7/26 WWE Night of Champions PPV Reax

Gavin Duenas of Bristol, U.K. (6.5): Best match: Triple threat. Worst match: Mickie vs. Maryse. Very good wrestling combined with questionable booking makes this a tough PPV to rate. I'm past the point of caring about Orton's emasculation but suffice to say that was the worst possible finish - albeit with the right winner - to the best match on the show. The Big Show reveal was a missed opportunity to elevate somebody fresh (where have I heard that before?). Starting
off a PPV with a match between two heel teams was very odd. Punk has the best facial expressions in all of wrestling and is challenging Jericho as the best heel in the business right now. He is so good at what he does right now that it seems crazy to end his title reign this early, presumably just to shock the smart fans who expected this to be Hardy's last shot. The six-pack challenge was entertaining and the right person won, and hopefully this sets up a Kingston-Swagger match at Summerslam with Swagger going over.

Mark S. of London, England (6.0): Best: Punk-Hardy. Worst: Maryse-Mickie. My main gripe with this pay-per-view is all related to just how stale Raw is right now. While Smackdown offers us a fresh set of faces to get excited about, Raw seems to have the same main event I've been watching for the last five years. Jeff Hardy and C.M. Punk just main-evented a WWE PPV in a heck of a match. Punk's promo was more hit than miss and the essence of the straight-edged heel was coming out in his arrogant delivery; though maybe they need to work on the actual message. Ziggler is a star in the making with incredible potential. And they've got plenty in reserve. Yet from Raw, the best they could manage was burying six guys in a clustermess of a match while the same three names clogged up the main-event scene. I may be in the minority; but I remember Hunter running Raw into the ground back from 2002-2005 and have been bored of him for a long time now. Cena's never really appealed to me (I'm over 12) and Orton always needs someone to drag the good matches out of him. Put them in a ring together and I just don't care. The so-called "innovative" spot (and I appreciate the geekiness of my knowing this) of the double-submission was a carbon-copy of the Austin-Benoit-Jericho triple-threat from KOTR 2001, right down to the referee's reactions. All I could think was "I've seen this before." Right now, Smackdown is the #1 brand in sports-entertainment and this PPV proved it. Maybe if Raw can elevate the obvious stars in waiting they have (MVP, Swagger, Kingston, Kendrick, and even Miz) and give them some clean wins over the "Big 3," we'll start to have truly unmissable PPVs again.

We welcome your 0-10 score and comments on this show for a "WWE PPV 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 the PPV, click here.

We suggest these recent related articles...

WWE PPV REAX #1: "I wanted the biggest event of the summer to end with an exclamation point; it ended with a semicolon and a question"

WWE PPV REAX #1: Battleground finish generates mixed reactions...

WWE PPV REAX #2: In-Person Battleground Report on overall show, reactions, more