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-- 10/19 WWE Raw Reax

John of Cocoa Beach, Fla., writer (5.0): Best Match: Orton vs. DiBiase. Worst match Snoop vs. Chavo. There seems to be a generic formula for Raw now. You do a DX comedy bit with a plug for something on WWE Shopzone. If you are in a city with a major league sports franchise, you show them in the front row mugging for the camera. Yes, Jacksonville, you still have an NFL team. Chavo Guerrero gets humiliated by Hornswoggle and the guest host. Santino gets a comedy cameo and no match. That's a shame because he is a good wrestler. And the Bella Twins dance. This week Eve, Gail Kim, and Kelly Kelly joined in. I want to see Eve keep wrestling. She came a long way on Smackdown and could be a good match with Melina. I liked the replacement match for the Raw Team, but why not tweak it a bit and have a wild card ECW brand wrestler on each side of the Raw/Smackdown feud? Heel captain Chris Jericho would take Vladimir Kozlov and the face captains DX would take Christian. The Orton vs. DiBiase and Cena vs. Triple H matches told great stories with great wrestling on both sides. Cena not staying on Raw might be a good thing for WWE. Smackdown needs a long-term lead face until John Morrison is ready and you can't count on Jeff Hardy coming back. Undertaker is not able to do a full schedule anymore. This would enable a Batista heel turn and have the long awaited Cena-Batista feud to culminate at WrestleMania 26. Randy Orton becomes the new lead face on Raw when Legacy and Triple H turn on the Viper. What a shock, Marty Jannetty shows up for a payday against the Miz. Guess Marty isn't getting AWA Classics residuals. What floored me was Michael Cole's commentary that the Miz has the most awesome clothesline in WWE. Obviously Cole never saw Stan Hansen's lariat. I was very moved by the Captain Lou Albano tribute. I was hoping they would do something with Lou and it was nice to see some of the old footage on Tuesday Night Titans and the Captain with the various tag teams he managed. I'm sure right now the Captain, Freddie Blassie, the Grand Wizard, and the Fabulous Moolah are having a party.

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (6.0): Best: Orton vs. DiBiase. Worst: predictability redux. Tonight's show as a PPV lead-in was a mixed bag. There was good build toward the Raw vs. Smackdown mega-tag match, but I wish there was a way to give time to all 14 guys involved to see just what seven-on-seven is really going to mean. Outside of booking a Survivor Series style match, there's going to be some serious anonymity happening on Sunday. Well, anonymous save for any statements Triple H made out Team Smackdown's elements. At least Shawn tried to verbally put them over to save some face. The thought of there being a switch in the team lasted until the opposing team came out looking like jobbers. Orton vs. DiBiase did an awful lot to turn DiBiase face without flipping the switch completely. The complete past is needed to finish the job, but WWE does a horrible job of keeping the right parts of the past alive. The Captain Lou Albano (RIP) tribute video was nicely done. Cena's loss against Triple H doesn't mean a whole lot in the moment. Triple H's been long due a win back from WrestleMania 22. Without a reciprocal stip on Randy Orton for this match, I can't see Cena going to Smackdown and the title takes another hit in the "meaningful" column. Cena needs to be elsewhere, but neither Smackdown nor ECW is it. I'm not going to poopoo on Marty Jannetty for not being 100 percent in the ring. It's been quite a while since Marty was on WWE TV, and I have no idea how often Marty wrestles these days. But he was a nice addition to the Miz-Morrison storyline. Too bad Marty didn't get a chance to talk so people would get a piece of who he is before he stepped in the ring. The closer to 11:00 p.m. it was, the more bait and switched I anticipated with Jericho vs. Michaels. At least give me five minutes of Michaels vs. Jericho before Jericho tees off on the mic and sets off the bringing in of the troops. As significant as the Iron Man and the RawvsSD matches should feel, I'm already looking ahead to Survivor Series. Maybe then, some order will be restored.

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