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Shane McKinley of Danville, Calif. (3.0): Best Match: Main Event. Worst Match: Santino and Roddy Piper. Wow was this show bad. Things got off on the right foot with a good exchange between Triple H and Orton. Then came a JBL squash, which was somewhat saved by JBL announcing that he wants some of Cena. Considering that their WrestleMania match was one of the worst big time matches I have ever seen, I don't know about this. Then London & Kendrick came out against Cade & Murdoch, which was in essence another squash match to build up the tag team division. The New Jersey crowd was not having any of Murdoch's pretty good singing. Maybe they just don't like them some Garth Brooks. Murdoch should have chose "You Give Love A Bad Name" by Bon Jovi. Then came Paul Burchill. Enough. I can't stand Raw putting squash matches after squash matches. I certainly can't stand Burchill squashes anymore. I had TiVOed this thing so I fast-forwarded this nonsense. I don't care at all for the rivarly between the "International Superstars" and Rhodes/Holly, which began seemingly five years ago. Some kudos to the King of the Ring cornoation and the main event, but those were the only good spots. I'm not sure what the Highlight Reel accomplished. I understand that it is setting things up, but throwing some old clips on doesn't make it entertaining, it makes it very lame. And then suddenly there's Roddy Piper out of nowhere joking with Santino about Cindy Lauper. "If we put a WWE Hall of Famer in here, maybe the show won't stink so much!" Wow, was this show bad. In my mind, a solid main event does not save the show, because if I'm unimpressed with the rest of the show, what would lead me to believe that the main event would be better? I'm not up in arms about the "Regal main event cutoff." I think one of the reasons for the "Regal main event cutoff" is that they want Regal to become Eric Bischoff, and of ratings. Because the rest of the show was so bad, I had no emotional investment in the main event. WWE and TNA certainly have no qualms in throwing away shows if they believe that the payoff will be huge. Tonight was a definition of a throwaway show, and everybody knew about it.

Curtis Shanks of Casper, Wyoming - Retail Manager, 26 years old (6.5): Best: Regal-Kennedy brawl. Worst: Reliving anything Heidenreich. Just an odd show all around tonight. We started off with a good opening segment with the promise of a WWE Title match to close the show, and then everything went downhill. The twelve-diva match was just a throw away. And there was so much promise the last couple of weeks that WWE was going to treat the women's division seriously. Murdoch serenading Cade may look good on paper to a WWE writer, but came off as strange. Seemed more like "relationship troubles" rather than just two friends at odds. The Burchill match was nothing. I enjoyed him better, but not by much, as a pirate. The Holly/Rhodes-Santino/Carlito feud feels childish. Cody's remarks the last two weeks seem like playground retorts from the bully to the nerdy kid rather than trash talk between two oppossing "sports entertainers." Now to the good. Kennedy's return was nice to see. (Possible face turn?) The brawl with Regal was very physical and adds that sense of seriousness and realism that is missing in today's wrestling world. I am intrigued to see where this leads. I do not have a problem with the finish of the show. It's something new. Most of Raw's finishes are too predictable lately. I saw it more as heat on Regal than anger against WWE Creative for their ploy. My belief is along with ratings for the first quarter hour next week, they were trying to create more web site traffic with curious viewers wondering what happened. I was one of those curious. First time I'd been to their site in weeks.

Mark Swiderski from Chicago, Ill. (6.5): Best Match: Main Event. Worst Match: Womens Match. The arena looked very impressive today. It reminded me of the crowds they used to pull every week back in '98-99. Anyways, Raw got off to a great start today. Triple H cut a decent promo, but Randy Orton blew him right out of the water. Wow where did that come from?!? That was a great promo that had me excited to watch the main event. As I said last week on here, I still do not understand why William Regal is being pushed or even contemplating on being in that ring. He makes me want to change the channel every time he appears. As for Mr. Kennedy's return, for the love of god can they please please change his music back to how it originally was. That music he has now is such a career/character killer for him. The crowds used to react really well to his original music, now they just sit there. As for the main event, I was surprised to see it start at 9:33. Great back and forth action, but what do you know, they ruin it again with Regal's involvement. All in all, pretty decent edition of Raw with a cheap trick to get people to tune in next week. It might work or it might turn off even more viewers. We shall see next week.

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