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James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (7.5)

I thought this was one of WWE's better Raw episodes in some time. It's worth nothing a 7.5 for Raw is different than a 7.5 for, say, Superstars. Superstars gets a 7.5 if they don't screw up the formula of three decent-to-excellent TV matches featuring all three brands. Raw gets a 7.5 for excelling at delivering compelling wrestling, character development, and solid PPV build, but fell short in some areas. There's just so much room to screw up on Raw. Lately, they have been, but this was a solid, solid show.

Highlights of the night were the Triple H vs. John Cena match, Ted DiBiase's character development, and some focus for the younger stars who are going to be asked to carry the brand in the next decade. Will anyone pay money to see Kofi Kingston in a PPV event three years from now? We don't know, but they need to start planting seeds for his development on the mic. Kofi dropping the accent (no matter how illogical from a storyline standpoint) was a good start because he is an eloquent man with a college education.

Hunter vs. Cena was a very good, four-star level TV singles match featuring two of this decade's top stars. You notice a theme where WWE was presenting some of this decade's top stars while also trying to transition to the next decade's stars - DiBiase, Rhodes, Kofi, Swagger, and Drew McIntyre. January 2010 is a chance to begin putting these men in a position to be top stars. DiBiase has a movie coming out just before the end of this decade that could be the equivalent of putting Kevin Federline in a storyline with John Morrison on New Year's Day 2007 to begin planting seeds for Morrison's future stardom. Three years later, Morrison is ready for prime time.

Shane McKinley, PWTorch.com Contributor (7.5)

I'm happy that Kofi Kingston let the cat out of the bag and spoke in his normal voice. Maybe it's time to take this guy seriously. I'm also happy that WWE did their "how will the audience accept Ted Dibase as face?" experiment. Conclusions? They're ready. Randy is the best in the game when it comes to facial expressions (a big part of WWE programming), and Teddy...still needs some work. It was like watching a constipated chipmunk out there.

DX's "white boy" humor was refreshing and actually funny (The opposite of funny? Trips making boring gay jokes and HBK superkicking little girls in the face). Kudos for the Captain Lou video package. Instead of crafting a guest host backstage skit worth watching, WWE instead throws in Hornswoggle, Chavo, Santino and a good dose of lame-brain humor. It's sad that the "scented candles" joke probably took them forever to think up. Why not Snoop Dogg professing his love for a new diva named "Mary Jane"? Haven't you heard? It's Obama's America now. Showing people lighting up doobies on TV will not cause kids' heads to explode. But whatever, WWE. Most people just fast-forward through these parts anyway.

Triple H takes a break from DX comedy and puts out another great match with John Cena. Hey, Raw actually has some meaningful wrestling! The only thing Miz vs. Marty J match accomplished was sympathy for Marty. Miz and Morrison built up their PPV match talking about neither of them was going to become the next Jannetty. "I'm not going to become a loser! You're the loser!". Then on Raw Miz faces the said loser. Poor Marty. Maybe he wrestled for a hamburger. "Now I can get to eat my burger!....Aww, they only gave me the patty. Guess I'll have to use my hands as buns. Sigh..." Either a) The Raw booking staff doesn't bother what happens on Smackdown or b) JBL was right about how JoMizzy are jackasses. And, yes, the rumors are true, I have a crush on Vickie Guerrero. Don't judge me.

Greg Parks, Torch Columnist (7.0)

First off, Snoop did a great job hosting. They kept him out there for only a short time in the opening segment, so hopefully the writers are learning not to lean on guest hosts to carry longer segments. The DX stuff with the Raw wrestlers was hit-or-miss, better than just "miss," which is what a lot of their stuff is. The opening tag match didn't accomplish much, other than to show that the members of the Raw team are worthy of the spot. DiBiase vs. Orton however was awesome and I couldn't believe how quickly the crowd bought DiBiase as a face.

Cena vs. Triple H was technically sound and an engaging match, but you know what you're getting with these two; that is, they're not going to break out anything new or veer off course from their usual stuff, which is a bit disappointing. A Marty Jannetty appearance always pops the show up one full point in my gradebook. Melina's match with Jillian was thankfully short and the stuff afterward with Snoop was fine. The main event non-match was some good hype for the Bragging Rights main event, but you had to know a big schmozz at the end was coming even before the show started. No Jericho vs. HBK match makes me sad.

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