James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (3.5)

Raw has rightfully been ripped to shreds in a variety of ways already, so I want to focus on something other than the quality of the show, but there weren't many moments of hope. Usually, you can find some the silver-lining in a bad Raw cloud, but the problem is that the Youth Movement was pushed back in favor of focusing on the usual suspect stars.

Sheamus, one night after winning the WWE Title, was given the A.J. Styles treatment by being presented as a complete after-thought. Vince McMahon returned to TV to begin a program for Bret Hart's return. DX was DX, including another Hornswoggle skit for the kids. Evan Bourne was pinned and Kofi Kingston was pushed back to a feud with Legacy. Jack Swagger was nowhere to be found. MVP played second fiddle to Goldust. The Miz was stuck in a throwaway six-man tag match.

All that said, there's still six weeks of Raw left before the Royal Rumble. WWE can write this show off as a failed, day-after-a-PPV, year-end review episode with a comedian guest host who didn't know his audience doing material on a show where the writers can't do comedy either. We'll see if they get back on track next week.

Jon Mezzera, PWTorch.com Contributor (2.0)

This was a bad episode of Raw made worse by the fact that it was three hours long! There were some things to like on the show, but you had to look hard to find them. I did like Dennis Miller as the guest host. The opening segment was rough, but he settled in nicely after that and was funny. I particularly liked his interaction with Vince McMahon and the tease for a possible guest host job for Bret Hart. The best part of the show was when Shawn Michaels challenged Undertaker for a rematch at WrestleMania next year. I don't actually want to see that match as I would rather see Michaels face a younger wrestler like John Morrison or CM Punk, but I loved seeing Michaels get serious for a change from the DX silliness. The other good moment on the show was the main event of John Cena vs. Randy Orton. It was the longest match (but still short at 9 minutes). I am tired of this match-up but Cena and Orton work well together and put on a good match with a good story. The announcers were at their best in analyzing this match and putting it into context and helping the wrestlers in the ring tell their story.

That was the good. As for the bad, where do I start? After the poor opening, they continued with the bad six man tag featuring the Ruthless Roundtable vs. Christian, Kane and The Great Khali. I was disappointed in the weak follow-up to Sheamus becoming the new WWE Champion the night before. I was disappointed (but not surprised) by the needless fat jokes at the expense of Vickie Guerrero and Mickie James. I was extremely disappointed in the fact that John Cena defeated CM Punk in less than two minutes. That is a PPV-caliber match and it was way too short, especially with a clean win. It made Cena look strong, but Punk look very weak. He lost a lot of in ring credibility. I didn't like Batista's involvement. He had a chance to get heat back by costing Undertaker in his match against Randy Orton, but instead they used Legacy in that role. That left Batista's only appearance in the silly Kanye West spoof when he interrupted Maria's speech for Diva of the Year.

Speaking of the Divas, the 14 Diva tag perfectly represented how poorly WWE has used the Divas on Raw this year. There were too many in the ring in a very short match without any kind of back story, angle, plot development, or the chance for any Diva to stand out. The other big disappointment was the bait and switch for DX vs. JeriShow. I was looking forward to the match. I don't get where Big Show disappeared to. I don't get why a bunch of ECW and Smackdown wrestlers would help DX kick Chris Jericho off of Raw. It was bad. The whole show was and the matches were way too short on the whole.

Greg Parks, PWTorch.com Contributor (3.0)

Just a bizarre episode of Raw, one that I was actually looking forward to seeing as WWE was successful in their presentation of the Slammys in 2008. Every match was pretty much a joke, either because of content (Orton vs. Cena) or length (pretty much everything else). I can't wait to see if/when WWE will explain why more champions don't get themselves intentionally disqualified to retain their titles. Yes, it was DX hijinks, but at the expense of cogent storytelling. I'm also praying it was a one-off for Orton and Cena, and that Orton can go back to feuding with Kingston.

Dennis Miller as host was hit-or-miss, but he certainly wasn't the worst. I don't know who thought Miller's act would get over with the live crowd to the point of allowing him to do an opening monologue, but whoever it was should be fired. Punk cut a nice promo, but his loss to Cena was just mind-boggling. The show was just all over the place, from Goldust's odd bit to Batista spoofing Kanye (isn't he a heel? Why would he spoof someone else to get a laugh?) to Cole's shots at JR, to Carlito attacking Matt Hardy. Nothing really seemed to fit together or make sense.

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