James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (6.0)

I thought the good outweighed the bad from this show. The good mainly being Randy Orton returning to form as the evil, sinister, pre-Royal Rumble Mind Control Freak heel. He is so much more compelling as a character to set up the comebacks from the good guys when he actually has credibility physically and mentally. On the other hand, John Cena's character must be the dumbest TV character ever written. Gee, there's Orton, there's Cody, and there's Dusty. I wonder what's going to happen. This following Summerslam where Cena was booked to have 18 chances to win the WWE Title from Orton, yet still walked away without the title. WWE obviously thinks he's SuperTeflon man with the audience.

The beat down at the end was very well done. If you stop and think about all of the logic holes, it'll make your head spin, but the crowd heat was awesome for DX and Cena taking a beating to set up their respective comebacks next week and at the PPV. It was also nice to see Cody Rhodes in a decision-making position where the focus was on him. That's a positive to see WWE trying to elevate a young star.

Before that, though, apparently Dusty with the boot to Terra Rising's head was a scripted receipt for Hunter ripping apart WCW for 20 minutes. The DX-Dusty segments were mildly entertaining, but insulted WCW fans by reducing WCW down to the Fingerpoke of Doom and Shockmaster. Then again, the entire DVD was an insult to WCW fans by reducing 25+ years down to 90 revisionist history minutes. And another thing...WWE says they don't cater to hardcore fans, but the skits were way beyond any new casual fan's comprehension level. Apparently this was WWE's way of mass-introducing WCW to a whole new audience. What a sad day.

The U.S. Title four-way was very well done, but they need to find a singles feud to focus on. The only singles feud Kofi has been involved in during his title reign was against Big Show. Wouldn't even call it a feud; just a weekly beating. WWE isn't going to elevate them all collectively, as they'll wash each other out over time. WWE needs to find a focused feud for Kofi and run with it. Whether it's against Miz, Swagger, Carlito, or the popcorn guy, they need to decide where to take this title.

Chris Jericho was once again the star in the ring. Just one simple thing like waiting until the last split second to kick out of a small package by MVP with the crowd hanging on every move was great. He took the hope right out of the crowd. ... Mark Henry vs. Big Show was above expectations for me. I enjoy a big man vs. big man battle if it's done right. This was done right before Mark Henry was scripted to blindly run into the exposed turnbuckle. Oh, Mark. Maybe the bright red outfit caused temporary blindness.

I'm not even going to dignify Midget Cowboy vs. Man in Cow Suit with more than a sentence. I just hope WWE's writers and Triple H realize that in 20 years when the next big monopolistic wrestling company is running the industry, they're going to ironically reduce WWE's history down to this match...Oh, and Katie Vick and Mae Young giving birth to a hand.

Greg Parks, PWTorch.com Contributor (6.5)

A surprisingly good show, with lots of good in-ring action. It didn't start out that way, with a rocky Divas Battle Royal. Why eliminate Alicia Fox second after they gave her the win in the tag match last week? But it picked up from there, with Jericho vs. MVP, Mickie vs. Beth and the four-way U.S. Title match being above-average for Raw. Even Big Show vs. Mark Henry wasn't bad, and I can't believe I'm typing that.

This show had the usual "Raw Moments" such as Chavo and Hornswoggle's latest battle, as well as DX's hit-or-miss skits (and I'll admit, I got a chuckle out of the Shockmaster's spoof). But the main event segment, I thought, really worked. I don't know if they needed to turn Orton on Dusty there, but we'll see how they follow it up next week as far as where Cody's head is at as it pertains to Legacy.

Lee Stevens, PWTorch.com Contributor (5.0)

This is a tough week for me to rate the show because what was good, was really good. What was bad, was really bad and the worst of it may not have involved a cow suit.

Dusty Rhodes was strong in his role as guest host, which isn't a surprise to anyone who has ever witnessed him with a microphone. I was pleasantly surprised the usually fan friendly Rhodes went with family loyalty over pleasing the crowd and I was thrilled to see Randy Orton make the legend pay the price.

The four-way match for the U.S. title was solid and MVP vs. Chris Jericho certainly wasn't causing anyone to turn the channel.

Plus, bonus points are awarded this week because for the third straight week, Legacy had brains. They attacked D-X during their "Are you ready" introduction. Then they attacked D-X in the midst of the Vince McMahon Birthday Bash. This week, they tricked not only John Cena, but also Rhodes.

In trying to decide what was worse about the show, I really had three finalists, no promotion of the pay-per-view, a sloppy Divas Battle Royal and Chavo in a cow suit. I looked at the pros and cons of each and then realized that with this decision, there are no winners.

Mooo.

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