James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (2.0)

There wasn't much in the way of redeeming quality on this show. WWE is too concerned about mainstream buzz right now to care about their core product. The Raw brand stinks and there isn't a solution in sight until WWE drops the weekly guest host concept and starts booking with an eye on long-term story arcs without trying to "turn celebs heel" in the most dumbed-down, mindless, mind-numbing, most stupid storyline on one episode of Raw this year. Who cares if Piven and Dr. Ken suddenly "turned on the crowd?" No one cared.

I'm not sure which was the worst booking of the night: the "double heel turn" no cared about, no build-up (again) to Jack Swagger vs. Evan Bourne on free TV, no build-up to the brother vs. brother singles match after Carlito turned on his brother, The Miz cut down at the knees in the opening and closing segments, or another round of Hornswoggle vs. Chavo madness. Take your pick. WWE's booking just sucked all-around on this show. If the writers weren't forced to write two hours worth of lame, stupid, dumb, intelligence-insulting, dumbed-down, "1997 Mad TV" jokes, then maybe there would be a competent show on Monday nights. Fortunately, Sgt. Slaughter is hosting next week. Hopefully WWE can get back to promoting Summerfest, which just happens to be the second-biggest money-maker of the year. Kind of important. Might want to put some emphasis on that show.

Triple H losing clean to Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes was the shock of the night. Two heels should be able to win, but the sheer fact that Hunter was pinned clean one, two, three in the middle of the ring on national TV by two wrestlers who have been booked like towel boys at a Caribbean resort was shocking. The "hang up" by "Shawn Michaels" putting Triple H in a foul mood was pretty interesting. I'm interested to see how this develops, as it was probably the only redeeming quality on the show.

Bruce Mitchell, Torch Senior Columnist (4.0)

This was a little slack. Jeremy Piven and Dr. Ken were clearly slumming. The celebrity gimmick may have run its course, unless WWE can get Shaq to face Big Show at Summerfest. I wonder if Triple H could think of anything to say if he wasn't burying people. Poor Miz – there's potential there and he's stuck with the 'loser" gimmick. It could be worse. He could be Chavo Guerrero. Randy Orton and Chris Jericho also seemed like they weren't trying too hard.

Greg Parks, PWTorch.com Contributor (3.0)

I'll go a little easier on Jeremy Piven and Dr. Ken than most others have; I've said it before, but performing in front of a huge live crowd and being on live TV is very different than being in a TV show or movie where if you flub a line, you can always do a re-take. So while Piven's botch of the next PPV was bad, I can understand it. Not only that, but he also brought some good acting to the backstage segments, which is a rarity for Raw.

What I can't accept is the asinine booking that took place on this Raw. Let's start with WWE's patented even-steven booking (more on that in my column this week on the pdf version of the Newsletter) that saw Jack Swagger beat Evan Bourne cleanly in what amounted to a squash. This after Bourne got the upset last week and, ta-da, no one gets over. The Divas tag match stunk. I couldn't believe Legacy went over Triple H, but they really took away from the win with Triple H's sarcastic, winking-to-the-crowd promo after the match that buried everyone and their mother.

Then we got Primo and Carlito in a throwaway match after so much time had been spent establishing them as a team, then splitting them up. Chavo vs. Mark Henry was more of the same Hornswoggle crap. Kofi being bounced around by Big Show just goes to show that size does matter. There's your U.S. Champion, folks. And the main event that apparently sent Miz packing was just awful- Miz has the GM and lumberjacks on his side and still can't win. Cena no-sells the full-minute beat-down by the lumberjacks on the outside and is able to Attitude Adjust Miz back in the ring. Piven and Dr. Ken, now apparently heels, couldn't rescind the "Miz leaves Raw if he loses" stip? Sure, Raw stunk, but Piven and Dr. Ken's performances were not as high on my list of complaints as some others.

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