-- 5/24 WWE Raw Reax

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (3.0): Best: Batista says I Quit; Truth vs. Miz. Worst: Lovitz. I didn't catch Over The Limit with my own eyes, but by all accounts, OTL was decent but nothing to write home about. So much could have come from the fallout, but more than enough fell flat. Batista had been rumored to be leaving WWE, so his ultimate "I Quit" (assuming the rumors were true) fit. Good-bye, JBL; don't let the door hit ya on the way out. Meanwhile, an injured Randy Orton gets into the WWE Title four-way match via Batista's forfeit. Apparently his shoulder seems to be okay enough to make the next PPV so far. (From everything I've gathered, it looked like his shoulder was already in trouble long before his RKO tease on the PPV.) Speaking of shoulders, Sheamus took advantage of Mark Henry's to advance. Good follow-up on Henry, buying a loss for him as well. The less said about Jon Lovitz's involvement, the better. Except one thing: if he's guest host, why did he seem so lost knowing who was who? I was happily surprised that Truth got the duke for the U.S. title. Giving it back to Miz without a tourney would have been just as lazy as putting the Women's Title back on Michelle McCool when Beth Phoenix was injured. Why not set up a tournament, though, with the finals at the PPV? I just don't get it. Not having read anything after the fact, it will be interesting to hear WWE's presented background on the new threesome that attacked the Hart Dynasty. So, Cole wants a public apology from Daniel Bryan. I'm hoping the storyline unfolds with Bryan shutting Cole up. He really annoyed me all night long. ... As much as everyone has issues with it, I was actually hoping for a Cena win in the TV main event. The four-way match on the PPV is one member removed from the four-way of Backlash 2007 (Sheamus in place of Shawn Michaels). And it already looks like the map of that match has been drawn out, giving us Cena-Sheamus and (hopefully without hitches) the furthering of Orton-Edge. Finally, if Bret is GM of Raw, who needs guest hosts? And how is it that Bret is GM after having feuded with Vince McMahon less that two months ago?

Richard H. of Wilmington, Ohio (7.0): Good surprises and decent action. The best part of the show was obviously the announcement of Bret Hart as the new GM of Raw. The possibilities are endless for this plot development and should afford WWE writers months of material. But seeing what they have done with promising material and performers in the past, I'll give them six weeks to ruin it. And, John Lovitz was as lame of a guest host as Raw has had. While we're dissing the guest host, the lamprey that is Santino is sucking the creative juices out of the show. He needs to either wrestle or retire to a comedy act. Congrats to William Regal in his new role as enhancement talent as well. Lastly, there was way too much use of injured performers. Batista deserved a better sendoff, even if he portrayed a big pain in the butt.

Bryan Perry, Torch reader: My opinion of Raw on Monday was that it was like an attractive girl coming up with a lame and pointless idea. I felt the whole show was just pretty flat. The best part was when Bret Hart was named the new GM and Batista quit. The Mark Henry vs. Sheamus match seemed rather fake, and if you paid attention to detail, you would have noticed that when Mark Henry went for that last slam and just dropped Sheamus, he "no sold" the shoulder. It basically just made it look like a major miscue on both parties in the match. Then, there were the guest host segments. I felt both segments were insulting and pointless. Now that there's a GM, what's the point of a guest host? I found the the triple threat match to end the show to be rather boring, which is a first for me saying that about a match involving John Cena. Even though he had a brutal match with Batista the night before, I can't excuse what I thought was a lazy performance at the end of Raw. The spear that Edge delivered while Cena had Jericho on his shoulders was sloppy and didn't even look like a spear. Altogether, I felt that especially after a PPV, the show fell short of expectations.

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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