PWTorch is customized for your mobile phone such as your Blackberry. Just enter www.pwtorch.com on your phone's browser and choose the "Mobile" option. Samsung Omnia II users, download our free Widget. Apple iPhone users, download our free PWTorch App (search "pwtorch")
The final hype for Cena-Hunter-Michaels was lousy, and Cena pinning Hunter may portend a Hunter title win at Survivor Series. The show itself felt "big" and was a nice recovery from the disastrous run that led to a deserved drop in audience levels in recent weeks. The pushes of Kofi, Swagger, Miz, and Sheamus are all being well done. The crowd is clearly itching to get permission to cheer Orton, and setting him up as a top babyface is going to be tough to resist, but WWE should for another year or two until they have firmly established a whole new tier of credible heels. Strange that Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes were left off the show. Piper alone was terrible, as is par for him the last 15 years, but once McMahon was added to the mix it hit the right tone and was pretty entertaining.
James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (7.0)
A solid show for TV purposes with a very strong final 20 minutes. Survivor Series hype? Not so much. WWE didn't even try to flip the switch; they merely put Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and John Cena in a position to stare at the switch on the wall, then decide it was too much effort and left the Big Elephant sitting in the room. DX joking about how poor the hype for Survivor Series has been pretty much summed up the poor hype job. From a storyline perspective, it makes sense because Hunter and Michaels are playing passive juveniles who don't want to face their issues - possibly having to fight off each other for the WWE Title at the PPV - and would prefer the avoidance route. Not going to sell PPVs, though.
From a TV perspective, Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton's brawl through the crowd was a true star-making moment for Kingston, who WWE is really behind right now. Orton sold effectively for Kofi and Kofi delivered the goods with some major hops on the Boom Drop off the railing through the table. WWE stayed with the moment for a good while with numerous replays and discussion from the announcers to reinforce the moment. Going back to the lackluster Survivor Series hype, Kingston and Orton will be on opposite sides of a ten-man tag match on Sunday, but WWE didn't give the audience any reminders of that for an opportunity to pay $40 for the follow-up before next week's Raw.
The main event had all the stars, hype, crowd involvement, finishers, and historically-significant moments that WWE is looking for to create memorable TV every week. Shawn Michaels opposite Undertaker for the first time since WrestleMania 25 was a nice treat for viewers at home. Taker then setting up a possible match against John Cena at WrestleMania 26 was a good piece of business for five months from now. The only drawback was that one of the Big Four PPVs, Survivor Series, was over-looked yet again.
Greg Parks, PWTorch.com Contributor (6.5)
The highlight was once again the Kofi Kingston vs. Randy Orton segment of the show, but other than that and the hot crowd, there wasn't a ton to like. The main eventers had their working boots on, likely because they were in MSG, as we've seen similar tag matches lumber to an end on other Raw episodes. Roddy Piper was all over the place in his promo against McMahon, which didn't end up leading to anything other than awkwardness. Sheamus looked good, but I'd rather see him squash somebody in the ring than take out two (for all intents and purposes) non-wrestlers.
Jack Swagger gets his win back against Evan Bourne and again, no one gets over. The Miz vs. MVP was fine but inconsequential, aside from getting Sherri Shepherd on WWE TV again. Nice to see wrestling fan Judah Friedlander on the show, but the Divas match was a disappointment. DX burying Hornswoggle was strange- not sure who was supposed to be the face there. I guess we'll see if, like some are speculating, it was Horny's "initiation" into DX. If not, I'm nots ure what hte purpose was. Santino got to be Santino in front of the Garden crowd and the celebrities, low on the totem pole as most were, made it seem like a newsworthy show. Send feedback on this article to pwtorch@gmail.com and we'll regularly publish reader feedback in the "Torch Feedback" category on the Main Listing.
