-- 8/23 WWE Raw Reax

Elliott R. of Atlanta, Ga. (6.5): Best Match: John Cena vs. The Miz. Worst Match: Jericho vs. Khali. The Miz is clearly a star. His promo was short and sweet, and leaving off the catchphrase made him seem like the most believable personality of the night. I'm not much of a fan of Cena's in-ring work, but him and the Miz had a surprisingly awesome (no pun intended, really) match. The only thing I didn't like was that Cena seemed to not care about losing the match thanks to Danielson's run-in (more on that later). Danielson looked fierce, and I think for the 15 or so minutes, this was the best segment of the whole show. Aside from that, while the rest of the matches weren't bad, the finish was awful. Sheamus was great all night up until squashing Ryder (not his fault, poorly booked). Ryder is someone who I think has a lot of potential, maybe not as a main event contender, but a strong mid-card heel. After that, it just got worse. The GM was announcing changes to the WWE Title match, and all the contenders just happened to be ready to come out, with theme music and all, and then everyone hit their finishers on each other...it was just way too scripted and not believable in the slightest. Not to mention they ended up with a six-person title match. That totally waters down the match and devalues the importance of not only the match, but the fact that it's Wade Barrett's first World Title shot. Sheamus and he had good chemistry on the mic, and while I don't know if either of them are ready to carry on a good long main event match one-on-one, I think a triple threat or Fatal Four-way would have sufficed and made for an exciting match announcement. But a six-way? I'm probably going to skip this PPV. The other random highlight of the night: Santino/Kozlov vs. Usos. I thought they gave a good match while still managing to hit some nice comedy spots.

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (7.0): Best: Miz vs. Cena. Worst: glaring omission for Night of Champions. I don't have too many issues with who won their respective "qualifying matches." Jillian getting a title match out of nowhere didn't make a whole lot of sense, and neither did the Lay-Cool follow-up, which they still didn't follow up well on from Summerslam. Who did the Usos piss off that Tamina is getting their push? Miz got the match he should have had back when he was directly feuding with Cena: a loss, still, but hardly a squash. A Six-Pack Challenge gives Sheamus an out should he lose, which is fine. Barrett is in there for the job. The problem I have with this match is that, by rights, Cena has no business being in Raw's main event. He lost to The Miz via DQ caused by Daniel Bryan, then ceded the loss without issue. The GM is all over the place with decision-making, which doesn't fit the past teases of Austin and DX/Michaels/Triple H. I'm almost positive that it's Cole in a heel turn at this point. Favorite words to Michael Cole on Monday night: "Shut up, Cole!" I'm sure we're not the only ones saying that.

Blake Reilly, Frontier Ramper (8.5): Best Match: Cena-Miz. Worst Match: Sheamus-Ryder. I thought this was a very good show tonight. Even the Divas match between Melina and Jillian was good. (Which leads to the question, why doesn't Jillian wrestle in legit matches more often?) I'm probably one of the few who thought that Sheamus in the throne was one of the funniest running bits of a show in a long time. He's really growing as a champion and his facial expressions told the story more than anything else. Cena-Miz was by far their best match together, ever, better than their previous matches combined. Miz has really come so far and I really want to see him win the championship soon. Edge-R-Truth was good and Y2J even brought a good match out of The Great Khali. The one thing I saw was that it was super-obvious that Orton would win over Jo-Mo and DiBiase. I have no idea why he was even in that match with them, even though it was entertaining. The other note is that Wade Barrett is finally cashing in his title shot, but it's in a Six Pack Challenge. But, hey, at least the NXT title shot finally means something. Overall a very good show, especially for a taped one, and I really wanted to stick around to see what was going to happen next.

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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