-- 1/18 WWE Raw Reax

Alex Roberts of the U.K. (3.5): Best: Opening Segment. Worst: Swagger Burial. Raw peaked early this week with the extended opening segment and then went rapidly downhill from there. I enjoyed McMahon's opening promo, but for once things picked up with The Undertaker on the mic. His confrontation with McMahon was excellent and did a nice job of advancing the Hart-McMahon angle. It's just unfortunate that with every passing week, it looks like Triple H will represent McMahon and Michaels will represent Hart. Elsewhere, I dislike the booking of Sheamus-Orton. I cannot buy Orton as the quasi-face. This angle, coupled with Sheamus's booking against Bourne, is doing nothing to convince me Sheamus is worth the time and energy WWE is putting in. The exceptionally good Miz-MVP angle from last week was followed up with one hell of an awkward angle as the guest hosts randomly slotted Miz and Show together against DX. As ever with the WWE, the mid-card is one step forward two steps backward. Last week, they had a hot angle. This week, they did next to nothing with it. The way Jack Swagger is being used makes absolutely no sense to me at all. Is a feud with Santino really the best the have for him? I enjoyed the Cena/Kofi vs. Legacy match and I continue to enjoy the slow break down of Legacy. However, this break down would be much more effective if the Legacy stable had ever been seen as a competent killer group for more than a week at a time. The main event was what it was - more of the close-ended one-show stories to work in the guest hosts. That's fine for what it is, but again, WWE needs to find a way to make these feed into bigger-picture angles because they're using a huge amount of TV time and accomplishing nothing with it. The show-closing over-rung segment was fairly predictable. In theory, I like that they're loading the Rumble match with stars and it make things more interesting, but we'll have to see how it plays out. The tease for Michaels-Triple H makes me want to cry. A lot.

Chris Carver of Southern California (1.0): Best: Hopeful end of DX. Worst: Everything else. As I've been watching Raw for years now, I expect new and innovative ideas and storylines. The Undertaker-Shawn Michaels interaction was boring and outdated. Same goes for Vince and his promo as well. And of course, the matches that don't last five minutes really turn me off to the product. The roster has a great deal of proven talent, but above that glass ceiling, there's a bunch of mid-card guys who are getting squashed (namely Bourne, MVP, and Swagger). I enjoyed Jon Heder's "The Flame" gimmick, as it looked like an old, recycled Ric Flair robe. Nice hit. But the teased split of DX with Trips tossing out Michaels (followed by Trip's music playing) was the best. It might finally end this DX stuff for a while. Too bad the tag titles are still on them, but WWE creative doesn't seem to care about the tag titles anyways.

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (8.0): Best: Cena/Kingston vs. Legacy. Worst: Maryse/Alicia vs. Gail/Eve. This was one of the more focused Raw episodes I've seen in a long time. It's very late to be this intensely focused on the Rumble to make it a big deal, though. In years previous, wrestlers qualified for the match if they weren't already involved in something else (e.g., title matches). This year, they just get in the match. In the words of Hurricane, "Whaddup wit dat?!" Did Swagger piss in someone's cereal or something? I'm not sure who's getting buried worse right now: Chavo or Swagger. The only difference between them is that the past few weeks have been Rumble-related for Jack. I'm hoping this means that Swagger fares well enough in the Rumble match. Bret Hart remained in the picture even if he can't be seen, which keeps him going along in the storyline. The Vince-Bret thing is kinda spinning its wheels without Bret there, so I'm hoping for a clear path soon. Cena/Kingston-Legacy was formulaic but benefitted from the hot crowd. The right guy (Kofi) on the right side won to keep his push alive. Going into Raw, I was wondering how they were going to build up Orton-Sheamus since it is a heel-heel match. I'm not expecting a full babyface turn for Orton, but it's fine he's face for this match. Parallel to that was the first visible sign of Legacy splitting. But this could be just another in the "boy who cried wolf" teases of a Legacy split. I'll believe it when it actually goes down and stays down. The show finish muddied the potential Michaels-Taker re-match. Right now, I'm liking it. There are just too many negatives over positives in the sequel, plus the wild card of whether Undertaker will even be champion come WrestleMania. They did had severe memory issues over the fact that the Elimination Chamber PPV looms between Rumble and WrestleMania. I liked Johnson and Heder as guest GMs. I wouldn't mind having Don Johnson doing the gig alone; I was most amused by his letting Heder put himself under the bus and stick his foot in his mouth. And, for once, Hornswoggle embarrassed the right person willing to make a fool of himself.

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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