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Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (5.0): Best: Michaels-Show on commentary. Worst: DX-Hornswoggle promo. One clear conclusion I could make from this show was that Mark Henry isn't the one with the personality problem; Raw TV does. Jericho delivered well, but we've heard it before. DX had a chance to counter about their 2002 Three Stages Of Hell match, which was a TLC-plus match, but I didn't expect it to hear it. The moaning and groaning about popularity determined by merchandise is old: Edge and Punk did it to Jeff; Carlito did it to Cena; JeriShow did it to DX. Santino's comedy was problematic being set up with Sheamus, but Santino did make a good point about Sheamus looking too far ahead and ignoring the opponent in front of him. Santino can take a squash match and it won't hurt him. Kofi was protected from his loss by it essentially being an unannounced three-on-one handicap match. It gave Legacy some much-needed juice after being sidelined for a while. For once, I was happy Chavo was MIA, but alas, Miz was the surrogate for guest GM toying. So Mark Henry needs a personality, eh? I guess his being able to direct the crowd to pop at will is the sign of a personality that needs improving. Carlito could have ramped up the "voice of the locker room" promo he was giving, though if he had, he would have come across as a face. It would have been nice if there was some other follow-up with Carlito, i.e., someone else disputing his being "voice of the locker room." Anyone notice that Carlito seemed to go the Kofi route and dropped his accent, or a good bunch of it? When DX was on commentary a few weeks back, I thought there was too much noise unrelated to their upcoming PPV match. This time, it was Shawn and Big Show on commentary, and I was much happier. There was still a lot of dialogue happening, but it was much more focused where it should be. Plus, I liked the moments where they stopped debating each other and were armchair coaching their partners. The finish was lame and not well-executed, which took away form the only match given enough time to potentially be good. And the face side got the handicap advantage? Definitely different, but I can only think that's because of Show's bum knee. This show definitely could have been a whole lot better.
Alex Roberts of the U.K. (4.0): On a week that should have been all about establishing Sheamus as a credible threat to John Cena, WWE completely dropped the ball. It's hard to know what, if anything, WWE thought Sheamus destroying Santino would accomplish. Does anyone view Sheamus as a bigger threat because he beat down Santino? Unlikely. However for all the mistakes the WWE is making with Sheamus, they are doing some potentially very interesting things with Cena. The WWE roster and particularly the young/mid-card roster rising up against Cena is an interesting way to make use of Cena's split heat if they handle it well and Carlito got a nice rub right until the end of that interaction with Cena. Of course, I now have more interest in seeing Carlito challenge Cena then Sheamus challenging him, but that's another story. On an additional note, the more arrogant aspects of Cena's character that WWE has allowed to shine through recently has added some much-needed depth. They're also teasing a heel turn that will probably never come. Elsewhere, it was pretty much business as usual. After the highs of Ventura last week, the guest host was awful and pointless this week. The Miz made the most of terrible material and was then squashed. DX continued to push their midget jokes, although at least took some time out to promote their Pay-Per-View match this week. Jericho and Big Show were boring. I'd push for them to be split already, but the inevitable feud between the two that would follow would be even worse. Some progress was made with Kingston this week, but he still desperately needs some mic time to establish a character. The fact that he kept going despite the Legacy attacks was better than nothing and at least gives people something to latch onto. WWE needs to follow this up with a strong promo from Kingston next week. Also, how oddly refreshing was it to see Legacy treated like a capable and credible heel stable? It's worrying how badly and how often WWE has dropped the ball with Legacy.
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