Bruce Mitchell, Torch Columnist (5.0)

It's like watching an old man have a nervous breakdown on TV every week, and I'm tired of it. At least that stiff Donald Trump is off my TV. I thought Triple H and Randy Orton put together a different match than usual and made a case for watching the rematch at the Bash, at least until Mr. McMahon added all those confusing stipulations. The Divas had a bad match as did Rhodes and Colons. The interplay between C.M. Punk and Jeff Hardy continues to be intriguing. If I never see John Cena wrestle Big Show again, I won't have to write about how bad their matches are.

Tony Donofrio, PWTorch.com Contributor (5.5)

The best part of last night's Raw was the Smackdown match. Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh! Surprisingly, the WWE Title match wasn't bad. I thought it was a pretty good "brawl type match" that ended the way I expected it to. 90 percent of the time, the right thing to do is what is expected (yeah Vince, I still think you dropped the ball on how Christian re-debuted and should have made him Jeff Hardy's assailant...but I digress). Both men not answering the 10 count was expected but it was done well and told a good story. Three Stages of Hell should be decent. It's a shame I'll be nowhere near a TV for a week and won't be able to review it. The Miz and John Cena is going to be on PPV, good. I give WWE some credit for actually booking this match for a PPV and hopefully continuing the feud until at least SummerSlam.

So, the Donald Trump sale angle lasted a week? Or did it? I see that WWE.com is hinting that it may continue. As much as I hate short term/1 week angles, I hope this one is over and that it does die. However, is Vince McMahon now a face or a heel? He got major heat leaving the ring last night because he ended the "fun" version of the WWE. But then he continued his face-like ways by confronting Randy Orton backstage. I think most people don't want to see Vince on TV every week, so I'm hoping he names a new GM soon and distances himself from the product again. Back to Trump though...if he had stayed on as Raw Owner, I believe it would have become very easy to change the channel if WWE honestly went through with the "Guest Celebrity Host" every week. Here's hoping that was never a serious angle that Vince thought about running with.

Overall, the show was watchable and the fact that it was commercial free (w/ the exception of the WWE ads...I mean videos) made it interesting. The six-man tag (from the Smackdown side) was very good, as expected. The Divas match was forgettable, as expected. But, the funniest part of the night was CM Punk on commentary. First, his "what's the deal with this chicken?" had me "lol'ing" (for those not on the up and up, that means "laughing out loud"). Secondly, I loved his promotion of the exciting matches that take place every week on Smackdown. I thought it was clever and a slap to the face of Raw that was much needed. Not a horrible show going into the PPV but the mid-card was again non-existent and not actually having a match set for the WWE Title for Sunday until about 10:40 the Monday going into the PPV really doesn't sit well with me.

Greg Parks, PWTorch.com Contributor (7.0)

I liked this show. It was newsworthy, the fans were into it and Donald Trump didn't embarrass himself. Even though you knew the Trump buying Raw angle wasn't long-term, still, I'm surprised it ended so early. I thought the little skits with Vince were pretty funny, even though Vince was a face last time he was on the show. The billionaire getting his comeuppance by being a normal person reminded me of Mr. Burns selling his plant and realizing he had no power or intimidation factor without it.

We finally get The Miz vs. Cena, which is good. I could make a stink about Cena no-selling Miz's punch or whatever, but hey, it looks like they're pushing Miz and that's what counts. The Smackdown match was confusing but worth it just for Punk's bewildered look at the chicken. I thought the matches would get more time (or we'd get more matches) with no commercials, but that didn't happen. At least we didn't get a thousand video packages to make up for it. The Last Man Standing Match was pretty awesome even though we've seen these two (and that match) seemingly tons of times before.

The Divas match stunk, but Big Show vs. Cena was better than I expected and better than their past confrontations, but if I never seen them one-on-one again, it'll be too soon.

Mike Roe, PWTorch.com Contributor (4.0)

What a kick in the pants this show was. They start off by telling you that everyone at the arena got to see the show for free (well, likely sans Ticketmaster fees), and you at home get the meaningless "bonus" of a commercial free show in the age of Tivo. They promptly filled that extra time with even more meaningless filler than most Raws.

They spent the majority of the show building up Donald Trump as the world's biggest babyface in his generosity to the fans. He comes out and cuts a promo hyping some fresh ideas, with the end of GMs, special guest hosts every week, and a huge Wrestlemania 26. Then he ends up selling the company back to Vince and the fans don't get any of those fresh new ideas. So why am I supposed to watch next week again?

Not to mention the pay-per-view this Sunday. It seems almost universally agreed upon that Randy Orton and Triple H had a lousy Wrestlemania match and haven't lit the world on fire since, so after watching another dull outing tonight (with one really goofy looking pedigree from Triple H), why do I want to watch them wrestle three more times this Sunday? The show-closing angle was obnoxious, and I'm hoping that the even-steven booking laws mean that Orton's retaining this Sunday.

On the plus side, I enjoyed Miz's confrontation with John Cena for the most part. Miz has been the most fun part of this show for the last couple months, but watching John Cena no sell him going into this Sunday was a bit obnoxious. I'm hopeful that Miz will be given at least a little chance to shine, though I'm thinking Big Show interference is unavoidable, unfortunately. Big Show was John Cena's first Wrestlemania opponent and they keep bringing them back together time and time again, and with Show's involvement in the build here and his teasing of tension with Miz, I'm hoping this doesn't just result in Show killing Miz to turn babyface.

The comedy with Vince was all right, but they did a lousy job explaining why Vince had an office, why he was still there, etc. after selling Raw last week to Trump. It was distracting and made all the Vince segments illogical and hard to make any sense of.

The Smackdown tag match was fun, but did they really need to have more ignoring of the brand split for this one non-Raw match on the show? The tease of a Great Khali tope to the outside was pretty funny. I'm curious to see how Dolph Ziggler does when they move him into a more straight up feud with someone closer to his own size.

The Santina write-off was hysterical, and probably my personal highlight of the show. WWE often has comedy that is vaguely amusing, but this was a notch up from their usual stuff, and made me hopeful about a return to the Santino genius of his pre-Santina, pre-Vickie Guerrero swine joke phase.

Lee Stevens, PWTorch.com Contributor (3.0)

First, the good. The chicken looked quite tasty. The six-man tag was entertaining.

Anything else positive must come with a disclaimer. Yes, I'm tired of Randy Orton facing Triple H too, but for what the match was supposed to do, it was enjoyable. I don't see giving away a pay-per-view match like that on free TV, but if I'm just reviewing the show, it was decent. I enjoyed parts of Donald Trumps act, but I can't believe they pulled the plug on the whole thing just one week into it. The "no commercial" gimmick was different and the crowd obviously enjoyed the refund, but otherwise, it seemed like just another Monday.

I'm sure someone with a greater command of Business 101 could explain this, but what is the point of Vince McMahon "selling" Raw if it's still going to cost him money? I understand he still owns WWE, so perhaps that's why he was concerned about the refunds and no advertisements, but when General Motors sells the Saturn brand, they won't have any reason to worry about what happens to it. Once it's gone, it's gone. I am willing to suspend reality for a few hours this week, but that question distracted for the final segments of the show.

While Trump got a huge reaction to the refunds, if you truly want fans to cheer, don't put John Cena and Big Show in the ring at the same time. I realize that the summer months often mean reruns of your favorite shows, but they don't replay the same episode throughout May and June. I appreciate the new hat and the new t-shirt for Cena, perhaps there's a new opponent too? The big winner here is The Miz, who people are begging to see simply because he's NOT Big Show.

It seems that the parts I enjoyed all had something in common. Smackdown.

Except for the chicken. I'm not waiting until Friday for that.

We suggest these recent related articles...

PARKS'S WWE SMACKDOWN REPORT 10/8: Ongoing "virtual time" coverage of Thursday show, including Roman Reigns & Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt & Braun Strowman

METZGER'S ROH TV REPORT 10/4 & 10/7: IWGP World champ Okada vs. Roderick Strong main event, plus Briscoes vs. Time Splitters, more from "Field of Honor," Overall Reax

MCMAHON'S TNA IMPACT REPORT 10/7: TNA Title Series kicks off, Bound for Glory fall-out, more; Overall Reax