Instant Reaction - WWE Raw 5/14
By Benjamin Tucker, PWTorch TV specialist

Overall Score - 4.5

So, with six days before Over the Limit, the PPV has John Cena vs. an authority figure, a World Title match, a WWE Title match with a lameduck challenger, and two thrown-together title matches. PPV hype was not good this week. There were multiple good segments (more on that later), but by the end of the night, I felt less excited for Over the Limit. It seems that WWE Creative's priorities were not in the right order.

For example, I thought the Big Show segment was great. Show put on a very good performance, and Johnny looked like an absolute villain. That being said, did it really do that much to promote Cena vs. Johnny in six days? It's hard enough promoting a main event with a non-wrestler, and it makes it even harder when the authority figure is feuding with so many people at once. They did have the final segment of the show to hype their match even further, but that was undermined by some of the things that have made Cena so hated - the unnecessary and out-of-place jokes. "HAH! I'm making funny noises with my mouth! Argh-eeee-argh!!! Buy Over the Limit, har har!" It wouldn't have been so bad if there was still another week or two to hype Johnny vs. Cena, but there isn't.

The World Title match continues to receive the best hype, overall, with a convincing four-way set-up with all of the men having issues with each other. I would like to see Orton start to work on his character, though. He joins the ranks of Miz, Ryder, Riley, and R-Truth, who really need to freshen up their current gimmicks. Just like at the end of his heel run, he seems uninspired, and it really showed with his match tonight. It was fine, but nothing more.

The six-man tag was just there, serving as nothing more than basic hype for the Tag Title match Sunday, and the opening tag match didn't do anyone any favors. Bryan was lost in the shuffle, Rhodes looked bad again, and Punk vs. Bryan as a feud has no interest for anyone who has not heard of ROH.

I thought the first segment was probably the best of the show, with the exchange between Triple H and Paul Heyman being very intense, and building to Brock Lesnar's return. Why it was on this week instead of next is beyond me, and it probably would've been a good idea, too. Over the Limit needed every moment from tonight's Raw to be given some form of hype, and the show failed miserably. It wasn't a catastrophic failure of a show, but it's not one I'm going to go back and watch ever again.

Any questions or comments? Message me on Twitter at BTuckertorch.

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