Tony Donofrio, PWTorch.com Contributor (6.0)

With the exception of the really hot finish to Raw, this show was very forgettable. Everything that made last week's Raw (the advancement of the hot Cole-Bryan-Miz angle and the hopeful elevation of Evan Bourne) so exciting was completely scrapped this week in favor of silly guest host segments and fan voting that really dragged down the show. Most of this show was forgettable but was salvaged some by the last ten minutes. I'm very exciting to see where WWE goes with the NXT season 1 wrestlers from this point on. Are they acting independently? Do they have a leader that's another established star? If not, are they lead by someone else with financial backing? Or, is Wade Barrett their leader and this is just more of an NXT Revolution than anything else? There are many roads that can be taken from here. It should make for great TV and hopefully wash away most of my memory of this edition of Raw.

Another positive was the ongoing storyline with Kane. I guess it's no surprise that one of the highlights of a three hour, combined roster show would come from the Smackdown side of things. After consulting with a close friend of mine, we concluded that Randy Orton's injury may be worse than WWE is letting on and wouldn't be surprised to see Kane somehow end up in Raw's Fatal Fourway for the WWE Title. Rumors have it that Vince McMahon is suddenly very high on Kane again after he cut that great promo last week on Smackdown. Giving Kane a much deserved push is something that I'm all for. The fact that Kane has only been WWE Champion for about 24 hours of his career is still really an injustice in pro wrestling.

The rest of the show, including the terrible guest hosts segments, was a lot of stuff that I'd like to forget. Chris Jericho is seemingly being jobbed out for no reason, unless you consider rumors that upper management is starting to become annoyed with his outside projects (specifically his most recent one hosting a show on ABC in the coming months). The only other program that was really furthered this week was Orton and Edge. If this edition of Raw didn't have the hot ending that it did, I might have considered it one of the more disappointing Raws of 2010. In my humble opinion, this show is lucky to receive the 6.0 that I gave it. Ironically enough, NXT lifted a sub-par Raw by stealing the show at the end.

Wade Keller, Torch Editor (1.5 until the end - 9.5 at the end = 7.0)

One of the worst Raws ever for many reasons ended with a buzz-generating (and much-needed) major game-changing angle that totally worked. This is the type of thing that can give a show that badly needed a spark a new spark, and it instantly creates a top heel faction to create fresh match-ups. The follow-up is the key, but this was a great first chapter in a potential ratings-drawing angle for months to come... I'd like to ignore the first two hours and 57 minutes and just rate the show on the final five minutes, but that's not really fair, but it was enough for me to give this show a thumbs up.

Where was Cole during all of this? Was he behind it? Did he slip away? Does this mean Cole is becoming a heel manager and Jim Ross returns as lead Raw announcer next week, and Ross has simply been quiet about it to protect this secret angle for his return? Or is Good Ol' J.R. going to manage them as an anti-WWE faction. Can you imagine the promo Ross would cut about how WWE demeaned the rookies and treated him like yesterday's garbage, so he met up with them and decided to coach and manage them in an attempt to take over WWE?... Just a couple initial thoughts, that's all.

Greg Parks, Torch Columnist (5.0)

Really tough Raw to grade. So much of it was bunk, how heavily do you rate the final ten minutes, given that it was out of a three-hour show? Granted, the final angle accomplished goal #1 and got people talking. Unfortunately, I have no confidence that WWE can really follow-up on this, as plans change so often, I wouldn't be surprised to see the whole thing scrapped in three weeks.

I don't know that there's anything else worth commenting on. WWE can blame the fans for the bad show, because they're the ones who voted on the matches, but holy cow, there weren't a whole lot of good choices out there. The entire A-Team bit was something, unfortunately, that we've come to expect from the WWE writing team. Even appearances by Roddy Piper, Dusty Rhodes, and Gene Okerlund couldn't save it. Except for when Okerlund told off Josh Mathews.

We suggest these recent related articles...

CALDWELL'S WWE RAW RESULTS 10/5: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of live Raw - Lesnar returns, Cena's Open Challenge, more

CALDWELL'S WWE RAW RESULTS 9/28: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of live Raw - John Cena's Open Challenge, Paul Heyman, Reigns vs. Wyatt main event, MizTV, more

CALDWELL'S WWE RAW RESULTS 9/21: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of live Raw - Night of Champions fall-out, Cena vs. Rollins U.S. Title re-match, Bizzaro Kane, more