By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Last night's WWE Raw was an effective show continuing the build-up to Summerslam. It was also easily forgettable, likely due to Raw being a rare taped episode and/or WWE employing a simple formula of build, build, and more build for Summerslam.

Nexus didn't attack, dismantle, destroy, or blow anyone up. There wasn't a cliffhanger-type ending; just a simple angle to continue building up Randy Orton vs. Sheamus at the PPV. Great Khali and Santino didn't have a dance-off. The standard Raw Divas match actually led to a meaningful event.

Since it was easy to move away from last night's Raw after it was over, it's worth revisiting what worked effectively on a show virtually entirely focused on Summerslam.

(1) Intrigue for Team WWE vs. Team Nexus. John Cena's team lost two members for Summerslam, which means the good ol' fashioned "stack the deck" formula that WWE has used to sell PPV matches to the casual audience wearing orange John Cena t-shirts.

WWE also wasn't as hyperbolic describing Nexus as a threat to take down the entire company. R-Truth might have delivered one of his better career promos working with Edge in the opening segment. He sold the audience on Nexus as a threat, but not in an over-the-top manner that would have had the audience rolling their eyes. Truth's promo was an example of WWE hitting the right tone on how to present Nexus as a threat to the company in the context of the storyline.

(2) Orton and Sheamus kept strong. Too often in WWE's recent PPV build-up, WWE has established a weak champion, therefore, he's vulnerable to a title loss. It can work in doses, but WWE has become so dependent on that formula, especially on Smackdown, that it waters down the value of a big one-on-one match-up between top stars on PPV.

In the case of Orton and Sheamus, Orton continues to be presented as a red-hot babyface on a roll heading to Summerslam. Sheamus was given an effective squash match victory over Goldust on Raw to look strong heading into Summerslam. A match-up of two strong characters - an established heel champion and a red-hot babyface challenger - has the makings of a PPV title match worth investing in.

(3) Strong main event next week. WWE announced in advance a big tag match for the PPV lead-in show on next week's Raw, including the return of Bret Hart after a two-week absence. The intrigue there is how Hart interacts with Jericho and Edge while teaming with Cena.

Also, the intrigue for Summerslam is whether Hart can help Cena "rally the remaining troops." After two weeks of hammering home the "dissension" theme, the lead-in show should give the audience a sense that Team Cena is finally on the same page and ready to fight Nexus at Summerslam.

(4) Edge and Chris Jericho. Two of WWE's strongest and most identifiable characters had plenty of TV time, including promos, in-ring matches, and backstage segments on Raw. They also helped advance the theme of John Cena being in jeopardy at Summerslam vs. Nexus. It will be interesting to see where Edge and Jericho fit into the Summerslam line-up, which is another intriguing point for next week's PPV lead-in show.

(5) Focus on Team Cena more than Team Nexus. WWE already established the theme of Team Nexus being a strong unit with no internal dissension. As a result, WWE didn't need Nexus to do much on Raw after taking care of the heavy lifting for Summerslam weeks and weeks before.

Wade Barrett and Edge had a simple and effective match (despite the annoying non-finish), WWE played to David Otunga and Michael Tarver's strengths playing mind games with Great Khali, and Barrett and Skip Sheffield made their presence known during the Khali-DiBiase match later in the show. It was simple, not exciting, but fundamentally-sound booking to reinforce what needed to be reinforced heading to Summerslam.

Overall, the pieces are coming together nicely with a final episode of Raw next week to sell Summerslam. The goals next week should be (a) shifting to Team Cena being on the same page and prime for a fight at the PPV and (b) continuing to keep Orton and Sheamus strong to set up a clash of top stars fighting over the WWE Title. It should set up a very good one-two combination of headline matches for WWE's second-most-important PPV of the year.

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