-- 12/14 WWE Raw Reax

Terry Kozak, Torch reader (3.0): The rating comes from Dennis Miller's humor, which had me rolling on my seat as it was clear that the audience couldn't comprehend any of his jokes. As for the show itself, pathetic comes to mind. I'm not a WWE follower and I find The Undertaker just old and slow. While watching the show, I finally realized where I had seen John Cena's character before. How about next week he starts calling his opponents "maggots" because Sgt. Slaughter must be working with him on his persona. As for DX (Dumb Extreme), if I want to see slapstick, I'll watch the Three Stooges. Goes to show what happens when the promoter's son-in-law sees himself as a star no matter how old his schtick has gotten. Funny how I thought DX had more than two wrestlers. Are they a group or a couple? Finally, the Bret Hart tease...Sorry, but Jan. 4, I'll be watching TNA because it's been obvious for a long time that WWE is not effective unless they have competition. Looking forward to seeing Eric Bischoff and Hogan.

Alex Roberts of the U.K. (2.5): Could WWE have featured their new largely unknown new WWE Champion any less prominently on this show if they'd tried? A four-minute promo on the first hour of the show and a five-second appearance at the end of the show is not the way to launch Sheamus as a credible WWE Champion. In fact, this week's show seemed to be all about undoing or at least undermining the major pushes of younger talent and re-establishing who the real top guns of the WWE are. C.M. Punk was squashed in about a minute to re-build Cena. Kofi Kingston was thrown back down to the mid-card. Sheamus was nowhere to be seen. The U.S. and Intercontinental Champions were on screen for about five minutes. Evan Bourne jobbed again. The entire show just seemed utterly at odds with everything the WWE has tried to accomplish recently, and it captured why WWE has had such a low turnover on new stars. There were also plenty of questions. Why the night after losing cleanly to Randy Orton was Kofi on the losing side of a nothing tag match? Why is one-half of the brand new Tag Team Champions challenging The Undertaker to a singles match at WrestleMania? Why was Dennis Miller's opening speech so awful? Why, on a show featuring talent from all three brands, was Chris Jericho thrown out of the arena? Why was all but one match on this three-hour show under five minutes long? Why did we get another edition of Orton vs. Cena? The entire show was just a complete train wreck although it did have some surprisingly entertaining moments along the way. Miller, Striker, and even Lawler produced some excellent one-liners. Vince McMahon's reaction to Bret Hart being a guest host was fantastic. Of course, now that they've teased it, are they actually going to deliver it? The Chris Masters, Eve, and Carlito segment was strangely brilliant. Carlito's re-worked gimmick is very good and him asking why Matt Hardy was accepting Jeff's award was priceless. Maybe WWE will actually make use of this gimmick and Carlito. Obviously, I'm not holding my breath.

Andy Goodnight of Houston, TX (DUD): I can't rate a show that I turned off within minutes of Dennis Miller's opening "monologue." Within mere minutes of seeing the Superstar of the Year "tournament" and listening to Dennis Miller drop one poor line after another, I knew this episode of Raw would be nothing but three whole hours of uselessness. The Guest Host gimmick can actually be used as a barometer of how good/bad an episode of Raw will be. From the start, I knew that Dennis was not motivated, not popular, and most importantly, not relevant to wrestling. If a host has no direct or indirect relationship to the product, then they should at least have a passion for pro wrestling. Being the Slammy's, I thought I would try watching Raw tonight (Smackdown is my show of choice), but thanks to Dennis "Heat Vortex" Miller, WWE lost me as a Raw viewer until they either pick guest hosts relevant to the wrestling world or the gimmick is removed entirely.

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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