-- 8/31 WWE Raw Reax

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (3.0): Best: Shawn cuts loose on Monday Night Wars; U.S. title four-way. Worst: "main event." The momentum Raw had from last week is pretty much gone. There looked to be a push for Alicia Fox, then suddenly it disappears. Beth wins the battle royal, then nearly breaks Mickie's collarbone (that hit against the ringpost looked a little too brutal to be a spot). Whatever problem there was in the Gail-Mickie finish was certainly rectified tonight. And the lack of theme music for Gail may mean something, too. Maybe there's a shift to a Bourne-Guerrero feud, but dammit, it's too late already for Chavo. MVP loses fairly clean against Jericho, but to the commentators's credits it's not treated as a total loss. Henry gets a dirty finish (expected as much). For once it's not the obvious non-title wins leading to a title loss scenario. And thank you, Charles Robinson, for sticking to your guns about the exposed turnbuckle, which is almost never addressed in matches directly. Kingston's high-jump crossbody over the top rope was a pretty sweet sight. Lately the U.S. Title has been defended in multi-person matches. Nothing wrong with that, but it's about time to go back to one-on-ones. You know you've dropped the ball big time when someone who's usually a mark picks off the swerve long before it comes. Couldn't they have done a little more work on that, like had Dusty spend more time with his son than with DX? At least then it would feel more like a swerve when the time came. Credit to the commentators for trying to give Cody a chance and keep on the straight and narrow going in. Cena could have also worn a referee's shirt to play along. During the show, Shawn Michaels asked if he should be watching the show. I wish he had; maybe he could really see the disaster he returned to. Tonight gave me more hope Shawn would turn on Triple H, but alas it probably still won't happen. Just when he thought he had grown up and moved on from Montreal '97--three years ago at WrestleMania 22--they pull him back in. If WWE is so hellbent on being PG, why do they keep insisting on looking back at the Attitude Era?

Adam Riemer of New York, N.Y. (2.0) Best: Bret Favre showing he can still play football (he is on my fantasy team). Worst: Monday Night Raw. I gave this show a 2.0 for two reasons. First, the ending was so hot. However, I gave this show a 2.0 because once again it was terrible all around. I found myself watching more of Pre-season football between the Vikings and Texans than Raw. The opening segment was decent I will say that, but WWE is scrambling trying to make Orton more of his pre-Rumble heel character, and to me I just don't buy it and feel like its only a quick matter of time before he is squashed every week by half the roster again. HBK comes back to Raw, and all we get is this garbage. It also looks like he is phoning in every single promo. He looks bored, annoyed, and to not take anything away from Triple H, he looks the exact same way. Instead of doing something "new" and having HBK take is once in a blue moon "heel" turn (like he did with Hogan and somewhat with 'Taker) and turn on Triple H, we get DX looking more bored than ever as they plug WWE Shop.com. This should actually open many people's eyes to what The Rock was talking about when he said he had nothing left to do in pro wrestling and needed to move on. It looks like Shawn is just there. Finally, Hunter doesn't seem that far away either. Cena just annoys me to death. Dusty, although great on the mic still, just overacted the entire (stupid) skit with "The Shockmaster." Gail Kim looks like she has lost at least 20 steps in her in-ring ability, and when the crowd starting booing that battle royale (I was too on the inside), I was pretty much done with Raw. The end was great, sure, but it is so ridiculous the amount of dissension that has been in Legacy for their entire run. Factions are suppose to be a tightly knit unit for a long time before finally showing the seeds of breaking up (e.g. NWO, Nation, DX, Evolution), instead we have seen a merry-go-round with Ted, Randy, and Cody not seeing eye-to-eye on one thing or another from the get go. Randy got a lot of heat for giving Dusty the RKO, and I liked it. The only problem is like I said before, if Legacy wasn't constantly finding reasons to disagree with one another, it would have been that much more important. Overall I really didn't like Raw, and it's because I am so sick of the guest host idea and the same matches/storylines each week. Jericho looks like he would rather be dealing cards in Atlantic City than be involved on Raw. Some fans actually booed Kofi winning the title match, Chavo should just quit and try to go to TNA (him and Homicide could be a great heel team), and I swear Cena looked like he was "Hulking Up" before Orton put the boot to his head. When pre-season football is better than Raw...it's time to just stop watching.

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

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