-- 8/16 WWE Raw Reax

Richard H. of Wilmington, Ohio: Last night's Raw was pretty weak for a PPV follow-up. With the exception of Orton flashing some of his old destructive IED, everything just seemed flat, or, to go old-school, phoned in. We really did not need an opening roast of Nexus by emcee Cena, any more lame guest hosts (and how they could get any lamer than those three I have no clue), schizoid ramblings by Cole, beeping e-mail from Triple H, or anything to do with Khali that don't involve a wrestling ring. The synergy between Cole's go-away heat and the e-mail GM's beeping interruptions is dangerously close to killing all the good things on the show. As for the Nexus's gauntlet of matches, they did a good job of giving them back some of their heat without sacrificing too many Superstars. Young being cast out by his own team was predictable, as were the numerous non-finishes. But they kept the heat going when Raw featured wrestling. It was when they tried the secondary stuff that their house of cards collapsed.

Ryan of N.Y. (3.0): Best Match: Jericho-Barrett; Orton's post-match beat down. Worst: Everything else. Whatever steam WWE had coming off the last few Raws was derailed by the biggest party of the summer continuing into Monday's Raw. I believe WWE did nothing to get the heat back on Nexus after their PPV loss at Summerslam. The booking was terrible and they accomplished one thing - they made the Nexus guys and the WWE guys look terrible. That is quite an accomplishment. I understand we are supposed to suspend disbelief at times and that WWE is catering to a PG group, but in what planet would it be believable for Edge to be outsmarted by Heath Slater? Then, there were two matches that were interrupted by WWE wrestlers affecting match outcomes, but the Raw GM didn't draw attention to the ban on wrestler interference? They need to show some sort of consistency. The whole theme of Nexus is how they function as a group, therefore, they should have gone over at Summerslam in a group setting, but last night on Raw, they should have lost their individual matches to show that the WWE veterans actually have talent and skill as individuals. Barrett vs. Jericho was a good match and Barrett will have a bright future in this business, but that match should have been last, with every other Nexus member losing theirs, getting kicked out of Nexus by Barrett, only to come back later in the show to help Barrett win. That would have re-established them as a powerful "group" that needs to survive in numbers. That is, if the goal is to continue the Nexus program going long-term instead of breaking them off into individuals. After the last few strong Raw shows, I had high hopes for Summerslam and last night's follow-up, but it seems like WWE lost focus of where they wanted to go.

Kevin Jones of Bronx, N.Y., Writer (6.5): Best Match: Orton vs. Gabriel (mostly for what happened afterwards). Worst Match: Women's tag match. This episode of Raw wasn't exactly epic, but it did it's job. The opening segment was typical Cena - Cena walks out, 10-year-olds cheer; Cena makes a bad joke, 10-year-olds cheer. One thing that threw me off was why did the GM have to interrupt twice in the same segment? Does the person just come up with these decisions by picking from a hat? The Barrett-Jericho match was a good way to open up the night, but, unfortunately, it didn't set the tone for the night. The Bryant-Tarver match was good for adding extra fuel to a Miz-Bryant feud. (Side Note: Does anyone else find Michael Cole's commentary on Miz hilarious? I'm sorry, but that is comic gold. Outlandish statement after outlandish statement has grown on me.) The GM's reasoning for replacing Bret Hart vs. Gabriel seemed flawed, as the person just let him present the new tag titles, but whatever. The Orton-Gabriel match was good to show Randy Orton's mindset, as well as help ignite the Orton-Sheamus feud. The tag match was weird in that why didn't Nexus just run a seven-on-one gauntlet if they could choose the match type? You'd think they'd choose favorable matchups. Regardless, a clean finish for Bill Goldberg, I mean, Dave Batista, I mean, Skip Sheffield, and David Otunga was refreshing. The Divas tag match was exactly what you'd expect. Moving on. Edge vs. Slater was another bad move. Why would the Ultimate Opportunist take an opportunity to lose to a Rookie by count-out? The Khali skit was actually pretty funny as far as guest hosts go. And then there's the main event. As much as I dread Super Cena, the near count-out was pretty epic, I must admit. Why did Cena just back out and allow the beating on Darren Young, though? It seemed against his character. I actually see the point in Darren Young being "exiled," though. Eventually, the members who deserve the biggest pushes will be taken out first. From there, Nexus will probably crumble. Overall, it wasn't a terrible show, but not amazing. We'll see how they follow up next week.

Tyrone Dudley of Roanoke, Va. (6.5): Best: Barrett-Jericho. Worst: Divas, Cena's "gay joke," Michael Cole. I don't know who decided to write the "gay joke" for John Cena, but the person should be fired. The good news from the show is that Nexus is mostly still together and I thought got a good amount of heat back from Sunday. The bad news is, they lost a member and won matches in crappy ways. I think it's safe to say that according to the results of Raw, Truth and Morrison have been exiled to Mid-card Island. It's sad because they both have natural charisma and athletic ability that can take them pretty far. Jericho should get a medal for putting over youngsters like he has lately. He's still over, respected by most fans, and is one of the Top 5 wrestlers right now. Edge's count-out was lame and made him look like a moron. Orton's count-out gets more love because of Sheamus being in the picture. ... Daniel Bryan vs. Miz at Night of Champions looks like it's a done deal. ... Darren Young looked a lot better in the main event of Raw. In fact, seeing him get booted from Nexus hurt considering his improvement. I'm just wondering why Super Cena didn't use his powers to help the youngster against Nexus. It went against his heroic nature. ... What I really couldn't wrap my head around was Michael Cole. I get that he's trying to sell the whole "I'm not a fan of Daniel Bryan" thing, but for the love of Frankie the Parrot, at least come up with something useful to hate him for: like beating Cole up on national TV. ... I won't even acknowledge the Justin Long thing because he's nothing without the heel who plays "PC" in the Apple commercials. I gave the show a decent grade only because Jillian winning a match is rare and she deserves a break from putting over the horrible Bella Twins, not as much as Gail Kim, but we all know how her second run in WWE is going.

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.

[Torch art credit Grant Gould (c) PWTorch.com]

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