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Shane McKinley, PWTorch.com Contributor (5.5)

The new Raw theme song will be a old Sunny & Cher song apparently, considering it's now a variety show. Most of Raw was filled with stupid humor, but I like me some stupid humor. Opening was filled with rating-killers, at least told to fans by Mr. Cool push-killer Triple H. Miz beats up on the pathetic Evan Bourne, but Mizzy needs a credible opponent. And it ain't Jack Swaggah. Sheamus' powerbomb of Jamie Noble was memorable. Would like to see follow-up in this week of WWE programming. The brand-spanking freshness of the Kofi-Randy Orton feud is much needed, and I wouldn't mind seeing these two guys at the PPV. Sad to think that nowadays, many fans are excited more about mid-card matches at WWE PPVs than the main events (WWE Bragging Rights). Something's wrong here.

Many people complained that the Raw's Got Talent was beyond stupid (duh), but hey, you've got to dig pretty damn deep to come up with Chris Masters pumping his chest pecs to a Ozzy Obsourne song. I give them credit for the effort. The Cena-DX feud, in my opinion, needs to take a serious tone. HBK and Triple H should clearly separate themselves from each other, because it sucks knowing you're buying a PPV when WWE is playing up the lame "two vs. one" card for two triple-threat matches. Save that for the ugly Smackdown triple threat, which needs that kinda cheap tactic. And, yeah, Triple H is the coolest person walking on the face of God's green earth. But we all already knew that. That's all we've heard for the last eight years. Loved
Ozzy's "The Ultimate Sin' shout-out by Chris Jericho.

James Caldwell, Torch columnist (5.5)

This was a basic, run-of-the-mill Raw without a PPV to immediately promote or a PPV to follow-up on from the previous night. I like that WWE developed some personalities, including Kofi, Sheamus, and Chris Masters, but WWE didn't exactly advance toward the Survivor Series PPV. Not enough was done to create an issue between John Cena, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels worth paying money to see played out at Survivor Series.

Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne provided some "mainstream moments" for WWE, but they didn't enhance the show with name-botching, involvement in a long, drawn-out opening segment, and a typically weak comedy segment with Santino, Jillian, Chavo, Khali, Hornswoggle, etc. At least Chris Masters had some character development, if you want to call him flexing his pecs character development.

Sheamus looked strong in Week 2 on Raw, but WWE needs to exercise patience in finding the right program for him. Take your time, continue to expose his personality to the audience, and feed him more wrestlers. ... Chris Jericho and Big Show standing tall at the end of the show was a nice touch to build interest for how Cena and DX respond next week, but we still don't have a money issue between Cena, HBK, and Hunter.

Greg Parks, Torch contributor (6.0)

Believe it or not, the thing that stands out most from Raw was Sheamus' destruction of Jamie Noble. Everything was just sorta "there," thanks to a few weeks break from the non-stop PPV hyping that WWE has been using Raw for. And to me, that's a good thing. The Osbournes were about what you'd expect as hosts. Nothing more, nothing less. Week two of the Kofi vs. Orton feud smartly didn't give TOO much away as far as their one-on-one match. I'm just not into MVP & Mark Henry as a team, for whatever reason.

I'm hoping neither Jack Swagger nor The Miz turns face, since they're both such good heels. But I don't know where else this feud is going. Hopefully, Evan Bourne can stay in the U.S. Title picture, as sad as begging for something as low on the totem pole as that belt is. Alicia Fox has really improved in the ring, so it's nice to give her another shot at the title. And apparently she's still the only heel on the brand (until Maryse returns). Jericho pins Cena! (in a tag match). But still! Main event was just OK.

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