-- 1/25 WWE Raw Reax

Terrie Neilson of Las Vegas, Nev. (5.0): Best: promos excluding Dule Hill. Worst: both Divas matches. If only this week's show was like last week's show. I will excuse the guest host remix IF Roday's absence was legit. Dule Hill was willing to be embarrassed, but it wasn't executed as well as Heder's embarrassment. Even the tension between DX and Legacy wasn't handled all that well despite the good promo delivery. Plus, DX wasn't followed up at all, while Legacy's follow-up was weak at best. The MVP-Miz story was about the only full-sized saving grace on the show. Craziest moment of the night: Shawn Michaels is booed...not for challenging Hunter, but because he left Hornswoggle at home. What's wrong with this picture? The same crowd barely responded to WWE's attempts (sloppy that they were) to give some attention to the women's division. That is, until Alicia Fox bitch-slapped Hill, which like DX, got no follow-up. Whatever push Kofi had looked gone via a match with The Miz where Miz's loss was protected only by a few bars of MVP's entrance theme. At least that was follow-up. The "Rumble By The Numbers" video was a nice touch as always. This time it added the updated shortest longevity of Santino and the date of the last Rumble PPV at the venue of the current year's edition. The show finish killed a lot of the momentum last week's show had. Last week, the end played up the "every man for himself" aspect of the Royal Rumble match. Where was it this week? Randy Orton got even-steven payback on Sheamus, but John Cena stood tall in the end. I'm guessing Cena doesn't win the Rumble, but why didn't anyone get involved to ramp up the Rumble match build?

A.A. Norman of Tulsa, Okla. I just wanted to comment on the current state of women's wrestling in WWE. The reason we used to care about Divas is because there was a reason to care. Chyna had a really fun storyline with Eddie Guererro leading up to the Playboy cover release. Lita had several fun stories with the Hardys and Kane. I still remember Ivory and Molly getting booed by crowds with their C.M. Punk-like promos. Give the women some video packages to showcase their characters. Give them more mic time. It will go a longer way than simply giving them deathly-silent crowds during two-minute throwaway matches.

John of Cocoa Beach, Fla., writer. (6.0): Best Match: Cena vs. Sheamus. Worst Match: All the Psych plugs. It looks like WWE is using the work/shoot storyline formula again. John Cena's tirade on Vince McMahon sounded like what so many critics of the WWE company have said from Bruno Sammartino to Marc Mero to Goldberg. This is what I'm predicting: it will be John Cena wrestling with Bret Hart in his corner against possibly a heel-turned Triple H with Vince in his corner. If Triple H wins, Bret leaves WWE forever. If Cena wins - classic booking from the old days - the heel manager has to take his punishment like in the old days when Bobby Heenan had to wear a weasel suit. In this case, I could see Bret Hart getting five minutes alone with Vince McMahon, and the payoff would be Vince gets his for Montreal when Bret puts him in the Sharpshooter. The whole Royal Rumble storyline of DX gets more intriguing each week, and it's going to lead to the eventual split as Shawn will be screwed out of winning the Rumble by Triple H, which means no match at Mania against the Undertaker. They had a good ending to Raw, with the exception of Cena being the man on top at the end. Nice booking, WWE. Sheamus pretty much dominated the match, then Cena comes back to barely make the ten count. It would have been better to have Cena counted out, then Randy Orton tries to RKO Sheamus, who blocks it, Legacy jumps Sheamus, then the Orton RKO. Interesting segment as well with Carlito in the production truck. Maybe a shot at Eric Bischoff from years past? Remember Raw Roulette? Sometimes, I have dreams of Carlito and Chavo leaving WWE, and showing up on Impact along with Homicide to form a new Latino World Order. The Miz had a classic heel promo, but I wonder who did MVP offend in the back? Give MVP a run with the belt. The Miz is so over as a heel that he no longer needs the belt to get over. How about a triple threat with Kofi-MVP-Miz? I still have some hope for Jack Swagger, but he needs to either turn face, or move to Smackdown. Raw did build momentum for the Royal Rumble this Sunday and Raw will be even more intriguing next Monday, as I'll look forward to the inevitable Bret Hart challenge to Vince at WrestleMania.

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