5/18 WWE Raw TV Reax

David Miller of Terre Haute, Ind. (7.0): Best match: Batista & John Cena vs. Legacy. Worst match: Santina Marella vs. Vickie Guerrero. Ric Flair's presence added a couple of points to my score for this show. Although Flair's promo ended predictably, it was still an entertaining segment. The Divas battle royal was a complete joke. I know Mickie James is talented from seeing her in TNA and against Trish Stratus in WWE, but who knows about the other ladies unless they give them a chance to wrestle for more than two minutes. Santino vs. Chavo was interesting because of Santino's apparent bewilderment of his own talent. It will be interesting to see where they go with that. It was good to see Goldust back in the ring. Hopefully, they will do something meaningful with him as I think he can still be a good draw. Although I'm not a Miz fan, I thoroughly enjoyed his segment thanks to the vastly underutilized talents of Jerry Lawler. Lawler would have been so much better in the WrestleMania legends match. MVP vs. Matt Hardy was there. Orton has improved by leaps and bounds since he first came to WWE. He has really learned how to use his facial expressions and how to move in the ring to tell a story. Although the ending wasn't clean, Flair again made it satisfying and entertaining. Not bad for a Triple H-less Raw.

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (6.0): Best: Miz promo; Hardy vs. MVP. Worst: Carlito/Primo vs. Kendrick/Goldust. In the aftermath of a very predictable PPV, Raw quickly revved its engines toward Extreme Rules. Vickie was almost everywhere on the show one way or another, which is fine since she is GM. While it was explained well enough by Ric Flair, it should have come from Vickie's mouth that the next Orton-Batista match was a cage match. Which quickly brings up Chavo. If there is something to his usurping Vickie's duties, it's about time to go somewhere with it since he's been doing it for quite some time now. Also, WWE trying to jam it into my head that her match with Santina was the only time she's been in the ring for a match again hit the wall of "uh-uh!" About this time last year, she briefly squared off against Undertaker. Like that match, Vickie got help from a multiple of people including Chavo. Kelly winning the battle royal in the way she did (Maryse spraying Mickie out of sight of Kelly) poses an interesting proposition: to turn or not to turn? I don't think it will happen, but the possibility is there. How weird is this seeing Hardy vs. MVP with the roles reversed, and further development of Hardy and Edge in cahoots? Factoring the cast into the match, what came to be was very good. Metatarsals, Metacarpals, what's the difference...except feet and hands? But I won't pick on JR too much for the booboo. The Santina storyline looks to be phasing out with Santina's loss of the Miss WrestleMania crown and Santino getting a little more serious in the ring. One can only hope, anyway. If only they took the Colons more seriously, too. Miz goes 5-0 on promos, especially with the step up of using Cena's old music and mannerisms to the ring. The Old School Cena-style pseudo-rap was a sweet touch. Lawler worked to call out Miz's character; perfect logic, as well as becoming the whipping boy for Big Show. The commentators could have used some of the same logic calling out regarding Cena and the main event. He no-sold the end of the Cena-Show match. Then he's given the Kane Unmasked treatment in that what we see doesn't tell the whole story. Guys, Cena's fine: he's bouncing all over the ring. See? He's selling punches to the gut like any other punch to the gut with no long-term sell in the mix. Ted DiBiase does a lousy version of Orton's long-play chinlock, but we're supposed to believe that Rhodes and DiBiase are becoming more and more like Orton. I'm still waiting for it. And finally, since when has Orton done the Ted DiBiase SENIOR-esque fistdrop that is in JUNIOR's arsenal? Supposedly DiBiase takes after Orton with it but the copycatting rings no bells whatsoever.

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