Instant Reaction - WWE Raw 9/29
By Benjamin Tucker, PWTorch TV specialist

Overall Score - 7.0

Monday's Raw was not original. It did not tread any new ground, deliver segments that have never been created before, or instill the viewer with the feeling that the program was can't-miss. However, I thought it was a massive improvement over the last several episodes of the Monday night show, giving a solid three hours of action, laughs, and intrigue without reinventing the wheel.

The true star of the show was Seth Rollins. Over the past two weeks the young heel has taken the ball and sprinted away with it, delivering a fantastic take on the slime-ball heel character. He looks like an untrustworthy jerk, acts like one, and is being built up perfectly. On the flip side, Dean Ambrose has been fantastic since being thrust into the number two face position in the company. His connection with the crowd was deeply apparent all night despite portraying the seemingly-off putting character of the resident psychopath. These two have done an incredible job developing since The Shield crumbled, and tonight provided ample opportunities to show how far they've come.

The in-ring highlight of the night was undoubtedly the opening triple threat match. From start to finish the three wrestlers never let up, delivering convincing nearfalls, and fantastic three-man spots. Unfortunately for the TV audience the match was broken up by a commercial, but it was definitely a treat to witness live.

Less successful on Raw were the various Divas segments on the show. A.J. Lee's apparent feud with Alicia Fox has no juice off the bat considering Alicia's lack of credibility and the poor foundation of a feud that this one is being built off. I thought Tyson Kidd was the sole redeeming quality of the Layla-Rosa Mendes segment, inadvertently serving as a representative of the majority of Raw's audience during the match. Even Brie Bella's handicap match, while arguably a success from a storyline standpoint, delivered clunky spots and an unappealing finish.

Fortunately enough the poor aspects of the show were limited. Paul Heyman was a welcome addition to the broadcast, and it's nice to see Luke Harper getting a chance to establish himself as a singles competitor down the line. The Slater Gator tag team segment was harmless fun, and Hulk Hogan's limited action on the show didn't detract from the program's overall quality.

For the first time in a long while, Raw felt like it had some juice behind it. Not much, but some. What resulted was a solid program that developed multiple rivalries (Rollins-Cena-Ambrose, Bo-Henry, Rusev-Show) and managed to keep the pace relatively quick. The problems plaguing WWE will require more than one week to fix, but Monday's Raw was definitely a step up in quality.

Questions? Comments? Reactions? Find me on Twitter @BTuckerTorch, where I talk about wrestling and... stuff!

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