James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (6.5)

The show gets a relatively strong thumbs up based on the "hope for the future" factor with strong involvement from Kofi Kingston, Evan Bourne, The Miz, Jack Swagger, and Legacy. Of course, at the end of the day, we're back to the Big Three minus Randy Orton in another WWE PPV main event. Cue up the John Cena "who do I trust?" facial expressions for the next three weeks.

Kofi stood out the most on the show getting a clean win over Chris Jericho, looking like a ten-foot-tall monster in the close-up backstage, and vandalizing Randy Orton's new car. I didn't care for Kofi vandalizing the vehicle, but he could have been shown peeling an onion for ten minutes and it would have been great because the story was Kofi given tremendous TV time and focus. Of course, when a kid watching at home vandalizes a car in the school parking lot and says he watched a good guy do it on WWE TV last night, then WWE will hesitate next time they try to pull a Steve Austin storyline in a PG TV world.

WWE's storylines seem to be becoming more and more simplistic to capture the hearts and minds of the 8-to-18 elementary to high school age range. The new girl (Eve) shows up at school and the jock (Swagger), the prick (Miz), and the lovable, friendly, harmless nice guy (Evan Bourne) waits in the wings to capitalize with a victory. Throw in everybody's little brother, Hornswoggle, suddenly becoming a decision-maker for the next WWE Title PPV match like Raw is a Disney show. At the end of the day, though, I'll take character development and focus on the younger crew however it comes.

Sheamus coming over to the ECW brand appears to have been influenced by one Triple H. I want to call it a mistake because he was doing fine developing on the ECW brand, but I'm waiting to see what they have in store for him.... Biggest disappointment of the night carried over from the PPV with Ted DiBiase going back to being Randy Orton's buddy, then being shown up by John Cena, followed by Mark Henry and MVP. DiBiase had tremendous momentum on last week's Raw, but now he's back to a sidekick for Orton. I believe they'll re-visit DiBiase turning on Orton again soon, but they continue to water down that eventual turn.

Jon Mezzera, PWTorch.com Contributor (3.5)

I really enjoyed last week's episode of Raw, but not this week's. In fact, if it didn't involve Kofi Kingston, then I didn't like it. The show got off to a bad start with Jeri-Show. There were some nice moments between Chris Jericho and the Big Show, but on the whole, the segment fell flat. I don't like Show as the #1 contender for the World Title as it makes Teddy Long look stupid for giving a Raw wrestler a chance to win his brand's major Title. The Nascar drivers were poor in their performance. It was all bad.

Things did pick up nicely with the good match between Kingston and Jericho. I liked how Randy Orton attacked Kingston after the match. Kingston getting a big push with the win over Jericho (after his involvement in the Bragging Rights main event), and now his feud with Orton is a great sign. I am thrilled that Orton is facing someone other than John Cena or Triple H. The car destruction felt a little forced, but I am looking forward to seeing this progress.

The rest of the show sucked. I was disappointed that Shaemus has been moved from ECW when he could use more time on that show, and ECW needs him more. With Jack Swagger (who still hasn't gotten the push he deserved after his lengthier and much more impressive ECW run), the Miz, Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes in the upper mid card heel category, where does that leave Shaemus at this time? I am also sick and tired of Hornswoggle, whether he is still attacking Chavo Guerrero or trying to join DX. Why can't he read? Or speak English for that matter? I also didn't care for the end of the show. Triple H vs. Big Show is never going to get me excited, even if they make it an anything goes lumber jack match with special guest referee John Cena. I'm not buying the Raw brand pride, so watching Miz and Swagger cheering for Triple H made me cringe.

Greg Parks, Torch Columnist (6.0)

What really sticks out for me about this show is the elevation of Kofi Kingston. There is a caveat of course, in that WWE needs to stay with it and capitalize on it. Feuding with Randy Orton could push him up the card, or it could turn out like The Miz vs. John Cena feud. And no one wants that. It was clear Kyle Busch and Joey Logano were deers-in-the-headlights and very out of place in the opening segment.

Kofi's match with Chris Jericho was solid, and I'm glad they spiced up the Triple H vs. Big Show match; I wasn't in the mood to sit through a straight one-on-one match between the two. The mixed tag match stunk and I'm really surprised at how bad Jillian has been in limited in-ring time lately. Cena's promo was fine and Legacy's tag match with Henry and MVP was good enough. I don't have high hopes for Sheamus on Raw at least immediately, but then again, the right folks are behind him.

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