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Adam Riemer of New York, N.Y. (6.5): Best: Chris Jericho. Worst: C.M.Punk's descent. I have never liked Punk, but for a guy who was on top of Raw a few weeks back, he sure has fallen quite a bit. Why is he not demanding more rematches for his belt? He seems utterly indifferent about losing the title and much more concerned with the man who took him out of the match. It doesn't make sense at all! Why isn't Punk out challenging Chris Jericho every week? Oh wait, because Jericho is in a much better storyline right now. Chris is still the best in the business. As someone who is sick to death of HBK, Jericho is a breath of fresh air for me. If you really think about it, everything he says about Shawn is true. Randy Orton went from being fresh and exciting, to really annoying this week. He is actually in the position that Punk should be in wanting the title back. Why is he saying it is his belt still? Didn't Triple H shut the door in the glass ceiling and kick the crap out of him a few months back and end the Orton era? I like how Jericho told Orton he was a waste of time, because in reality... he is. Santino is still hilarious, but WWE is showing how they think the IC Title is now a joke. His immitation of Batista was great and he actually had me laughing out loud. Haas was hilarious, too, when he took that huge breather to let the "cheers" die down. It may be a short lived gimmick, but at least it is something. I had mixed feelings about the Punk vs. Rhodes match; it was good, but Cody in a match against a "main eventer/high profile midcarder," but it is apparent that Cody is just not as good as Ted DiBiase and I think the WWE sees that, which is why Cody can be beaten clean and they will spare DiBiase. Kane vs. A.J. Styles-Bourne was cool, only to see Kane show how much damn strength he still has. Bourne showed good offense here and has a lot of promise as a high flyer, but still the WWE does not push high flyers unless your best friend Eddie Guerrero dies or you are a way over with everyone yet a major complication professionally like Jeff Hardy. The main event was good especially having Lance Cage go over HBK. It is about time this guy wrestled again, and his win does much more for him than an loss does for HBK. Lastly, I will just say that it is nice to see the WWE remember long ago history with Shane McMahon and Kane, but it is a shame that they forget not too long ago history... like how Batista teamed up with HBK then looked concerned after the match when they lost. Didn't Dave Batista hate HBK and try to end his career.... like five months ago?

Alex Roberts from the UK (5.0): Best Match: Jericho/Cade/JBL vs. Batista/Shawn Michaels. Worst Match: None. Raw should be incredibly exciting right now. For the first time in longer than I care to remember the WWE is shining the spotlight on a whole batch of younger and fresher stars and more importantly the vast majority of these guys are rising to the challenge and yet there's a strange lack of excitement and buzz around Raw right now. Basically the whole show is just flat. What for example, would I have actually missed out on by not watching Raw this week? The return of Shane McMahon was the only noteworthy incident across the entire two-hours and in the grand scheme of things that didn't amount to much. More than anything I want to love Raw right now because I want to see WWE pushing a new batch of stars and getting them over, but I just can't get excited about any of the WWE shows right now. The show itself was a good one. The opening segment whilst long was enjoyable and it should be noted that in recent weeks WWE has done a really good job of merging various angles and feuds into these long segments and I like it; it just makes everything feel connected and more fluid. The matches were all good, even the short Santino "squash" and women's match were decent offerings with some good storyline pay-off and the longer matches all delivered well booked entertainment but they just weren't exciting. Watching Evan Bourne hold his own against Kane for a while should have been exciting but it wasn't. Watching Cody Rhodes hold his own against former World Champion C.M. Punk should have been meaningful and exciting but was neither, primarily because of Punk's horrible booking. With that said, I think WWE has set up some incredible long-term possibilities recently. The Santino-Batista mini-feud is brilliant and I'd really love to see that play out for longer, although why Santino-Batista is being pushed above Batista-JBL, which is supposed to be one of the big No Mercy matches I'll never know. The Rey Mysterio/Evan Bourne partnership has orgasm producing potential, but someone should remind WWE that they gave Mysterio-Kane away on free TV and nobody cared, so why do we care about them in a PPV match? The real great bits of this show though come from The Miz & Morrison defeating Cryme Time with no hint of tension between Miz/Morrison. Please let this be a sign of them dropping the splitting of this team because with a tag division to work with they could be awesome. The build to a classic Survivor Series match is also grabbing my attention; Orton/Rhodes/DiBiase/Manu-Punk/Kingston/Cryme Time works for me at Survivor Series. Lance Cade pinning Shawn Michaels in the main event should also be great if they follow up on it with more than HBK squashing Cade next week. The greatest point of long-term interest, though, comes with Shane McMahon. I'm hoping he sticks around for a while. I loved Adamle's reaction to being overruled. It set up a good dynamic between the two and allowed for Jericho to manipulate Adamle nicely. There's a huge amount of story potential here. More interesting, though, was his backstage segment with Orton, with them playing up on Shane's "fourth generation" status like that. I have visions of him leading the Orton/Rhodes/DiBiase/Manu stable in a bid to take over WWE to bring about the return of Vince McMahon and maybe a couple of legends to set up a big old stable war. All in all, though, as potentially good as a lot of what they're doing is, nothing on this show really stands out in the here and now; it was all okay, but nothing was great and nothing made me feel like I had to watch next week. Credit to WWE, though, for sticking with the younger guys in light of the horrible ratings.

SUPER-BONUS 9/18 TNA IMPACT REAX

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (8.5): Best: Joe and Sting promos; end segment. Worst: Velvet/Kip vs. Taylor/Rhino; sending Morgan's DNA into space. Where has TNA been lately? This was actualy a good show. Not to say there weren't flaws, but the show flowed a lot better and was much more focused than Raw, and that should say an awful lot here. I know Kaz is Suicide, but I'm already not liking where this is going. The Guns cop an attitude again. Wouldn't you after not being on TV since the last time you copped an attitude? This while you're being used as an example for Sting's "heel turn." Booker really needs to lose the accent; NO ONE will take him seriously with that accent. There's a briefcase in play but no real followup. Only the fact that it's similar to the Feast Or Fired briefcases is why I am even noticing. Ref Shane snaps again, turning Petey face (I think) and opening the door to becoming a wrestler (I think). That I'm curious to wonder more about. I like the idea of "Knockout Law" with Traci Brooks in charge. Problem here is that it was already sorta established with Traci reffing matches, then when she was officially named "Law" she went off TV when a few good stokes of the coals could be made (especially pertaining to "hardcore" Roxxi and The Beautiful People). Kip is apparently too important to take bumps from a woman while Rhino doesn't seem to have any issues. Whatever. His Fameasser is getting lower to execute, so maybe it's time to contemplate retiring it and himself. The Knockouts DVD should have one of the actual Knockouts who wrestle on it, not one who doesn't. The end segment had quite a few "if this is the case, then..." flaws by Sting, Jarrett, and Angle, but the crowd was absolutely hot for it, and did clear up some of the awkardness of the storyline leading up to this segment. Also, it was a very good touch to give the impression that this issue of respect is making a roster-wide impact (pun intended). I'll hold off on commenting on Mick Foley until more comes to play; there was not enough there to make any judgments. This now makes two title matches at the next respective PPV where the challenger simply asked for it and did nothing to qualify for it (sorry, Shawn, but it's true). Bad trend here that needs to be nipped in the bud.

We welcome your 1-10 score and comments on this show for a "Raw Reax" feature in the Torch Feedback section of PWTorch.com. Just to add a twist to this feature, include not just your hometown, but also your occupation (mechanic, lawyer, stay-at-home-dad, college student, etc.) so readers get a flavor for what everyone does as "day jobs." To contribute your thoughts on Raw, click here.

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.

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