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Dan Strauss of Goodhue, MN. (5.5) Best: Stone Cold Steve Haastin. Worst: Main event. I liked the way WWE shook things up this week by starting Raw heading straight into a match, and a divas match nonetheless. Nice change of pace for the normal confrontation segments of "I don't like you, therefore I challenge you to a duel." That happened next segment. Even though I just made fun of it, I think Jericho and Batista's confrontation was the best they've had so far. Jericho is just head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to selling in a non-verbal way, with his facial expressions and eye gestures. Miz/Morrison vs. Kofi/Punk was an all right match. The crowds still really like Punk so hopefully they keep him meaningful. Santino's segment was a little long but I still laughed. The only downside of the segment was what appeared to be a botched finale. Santino hits Hacksaw with a guitar, yet Santino comes out of it bleeding from the mouth like a vampire.

Just as I got excited to see Regal in the main event, I see him jobbing immediately, bringing his record tonight to 0-2 in roughly one minute. The main event (or six individual main events) really lacked any sort of, well, anything. For the time of the night where everything is supposed to be hard-hitting and fast-paced, it was extremely slow. This gauntlet meant nothing so it didn't get much reaction from the fans. They put Batista over to close the show, and the announcers kept saying Jericho's days are numbered, which leads me to believe that they are setting us up for a Jericho win this Sunday. Raw seemed awful lackluster tonight. The wrestlers are trying hard and I'd like to believe the writers are too. Raw is definitely suffering from having Orton and Cena both injured at the same time. I'm not going to totally bash WWE or claim I'll never watch it again like some others come on here and do, but I do believe things have become stale and need a few more major continuous, interesting storylines to carry the show. (Sorry Charlie Haas, you're funny, but can't carry the company.)

Eric Gall of Bridgeport, CT. (5.5) High Point: Chris Jericho, overall comedy. Low Point: Batista the Invincible. Please, let's drop these "Did You Know?" bits. WWE has become even more self-congratulatory than ever; could it be it's worried about stockholders watching the show, and they want to show how relevant the product is to the mainstream? These "very special" episodes they have need to be spaced out more as well; the 800th episode, the 15th year anniversary, the big moving-to-another-network festival, the groundbreaking "Yes, Michael Cole is STILL with the company" Labor Day Special. I consider the Diva matches that a lot of people love to trash to be one of the more consistently entertaining moments on Raw - it's attractive women for three minutes in what may or may not be a well-wrestled match. I don't want to see Smirktista, I don't want to see Randy Orton, and I'm flat out jaded to the WWE product right now. Every time Jericho speaks is an exciting moment for me, and every time Batista interrupts him makes me want to punt my TV. Batista is not The Rock or Steve Austin no matter how much he or creative wants to present him as such. It's been a rough couple weeks for Lillian, hasn't it?

I like John Cena, but the hero worship celebrity sound bite package they showed tonight is bathroom break material. No more Jim Duggan; I'm tapping out on this one, fellas. Not sure how Santino started bleeding from the mouth, but that would be a nice, gritty new wrinkle to his goofy character if he did that every time he cut a promo. I've never seen a gauntlet match set up like tonight's and I hope I never do again. Everyone wound up looking weak, except, of course, Batista and possibly Kane. The main event might have looked clever to a Hollywood script writer in presenting Jericho as the champ in jeopardy, but the fuzziness of the stipulations and its all-around clunkiness severely detracted from it. Raw's best writing revolves around its comedy, and it struggles when trying to bang a square peg into a round hole.

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