By James Caldwell, Torch assistant editor

Sunday night's WWE Raw brand house show in Houston confirmed several things about the state of affairs on WWE's top brand and also exposed areas where WWE is weak and needs work.

The show also provided a regular look at how the audience is receiving certain characters and simple, basic, often-times generic stories. WWE's version of wrestling is not a sophisticated product, which allows WWE to draw in a wider audience, but also limit emotional investment, which impacts WWE's ability to draw money. Compact that with bad short-term and long-term booking habits on TV and it magnifies the importance of John Cena to this brand.

The following is a break down of the line-up, looking at the depth chart of Top Heels and Faces. (Read my Raw house show report here.)

Main Event

-- John Cena (face): On the Livecast, we get that question quite often about whether Cena will ever turn heel. It won't be happening anytime soon (as in years) until people stop buying merchandise, people stop caring about Cena, and WWE finds another cash cow #1 lead babyface. Gauging the crowd Sunday night, the cash cow is still producing for WWE.

The Toyota Center was filled with Cena Red merchandise, there was a swell of energy when Cena came out, kids were intensely into Cena, adults were intensely against Cena, and there wasn't another babyface on the show who elicited a response like Cena. Rey Mysterio is a clear #2, but he's not in Cena's league. I'll get to Rey below, who I believe is misplaced right now, but it's clear Cena is the most valuable asset in WWE.

Is there another way to promote wrestling in 2011 where Cena's act would be a detriment? Certainly, but WWE is in the "John Cena business" right now and it's working to keep business stable in-between WrestleManias.

-- R-Truth (heel): At 39-years-old, Truth has finally found himself as a character. Truth was terrific on the mic (drawing laughter from the adults entertained by his act and passionate, passionate, passionate boos from the kids who wanted to see Cena drop him with the AA).

Truth is above a "bit player" heel, but not a heel who can draw money. He was great working with Cena, but I don't think he would be as strong of a heel with another opponent. He's good for house shows, but not for TV or PPV main events, as evidenced by Capitol Punishment last Sunday. He's a typical WWE 2011 Heel - not strong enough to be a money-drawing heel, but good enough to work with Cena on house shows.

Semi-Main Event

-- Big Show (face): Show is Show. He gets the oohs and aahs from the crowd due to his size, but he's past his days being in the main event scene. If Cena were need to time off, Show could rotate in for a short-term run, but he's a good novelty act to have on Raw.

-- Alberto Del Rio (heel): Del Rio thrives in the environment WWE has created: a simple, easy-to-pick up product that appeals to an audience made up predominantly of kids who don't see through the charade and are completely invested in the stories. Del Rio followed Vickie & Ziggler, C.M. Punk, and The Miz in a procession of heels easily working up the crowd on the mic. Often-times, Del Rio's mic work doesn't translate to TV, where the stories are often-times over-written, but Del Rio playing a cowardly heel after pretending to be Show's friend was as simple as it gets for a live audience. He's not positioned as a main event heel, but he's right behind Punk as #2, with Miz and Truth battling for #3.

Sixth Match

-- Alex Riley (face): Riley seems to have a long future ahead of him, so it's early to evaluate his babyface run, but this needs a lot of work. The audience simply doesn't have a connection to him other than "he's not Miz." It's similar to Randy Orton's character on Smackdown not having much depth. Orton gets away with it due to longevity and having a strong connection to the audience. Riley doesn't have much of a presence in the ring and WWE needs to draw something out of him. Otherwise, his current run with Miz could be his peak as a face.

-- The Miz (heel): I feel Miz's work has become repetitive on TV, but he seemed more engaged in his character with some freedom to explore riling up an easy crowd. Also, based on the crowd response, Miz is firmly entrenched as a main-eventer. Now, that's a relative statement. In today's WWE environment, where the formula is WWE Brand + Cena = money, he's not in a position to draw money as a heel despite being a "main-eventer." He's credible enough to seem like a threat to Cena (or another top face), but there isn't a deep, emotional attachment that leads to people opening up their wallets to see him get his comeuppance. Like most heels in WWE, Miz has a surface-level connection with the audience, but Miz plays his character very well when he's engaged.

Fifth Match

-- Rey Mysterio (face): I've said this on the Livecast since the Draft that Mysterio is misplaced on Raw. WWE is obviously trying to fill his shoes with Sin Cara, but Rey should be right up there with Cena as the top star on Raw, but there wasn't a strong sense of connection with Rey at this show. The connection was there, but it wasn't like I've seen and "felt" at previous WWE shows when Rey was really over and Mysterio masks were everywhere. I didn't see much of that Sunday night, but I was blinded by a sea of Cena Red. Rey could be more valuable to WWE as a main-eventer on Smackdown rather than a weak #2 on Raw.

-- C.M. Punk (heel): Punk seemed to be enjoying himself playing a heel in front of such an easy crowd. All he had to do was stand in the ring with a mic in his hand and the crowd showered him with boos. That's quite a satisfying feeling for a heel, and he played it up perfectly. Punk is also the most credible in-ring wrestler on Raw's heel depth chart, which translated into one of the best matches of the night working with Rey.

I would have liked to have seen Punk work with Cena to get a sneak-peek at Money in the Bank, but Punk was clearly the vocal male fan-favorite with this audience, which will be more intensified in Chicago on July 17. During the match with Rey, Punk could have selfishly gone for more "cool heel" cheers, but he instead heeled on the fans cheering for him in order to put the focus on Rey as the star of the show. Punk is clearly the most-well-rounded heel in WWE, which could lead to some strong TV leading to MITB (and potentially after MITB if Punk remains with the company).

Fourth Match

-- Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston (faces): Bourne seemed to be more over than Kingston on this night. It might be different on a different night in a different city, but that Air Bourne move is so over that the audience seemed to react to Bourne's music and his arrival just anticipating getting a photo to post on Facebook.

Looking at Kingston facially, he needs about three-to-five years to age some more in order to develop a "main event look." Also, his offensive moveset isn't quite at that "ritual stage" like it is with Cena where the audience anticipates, knows, and wants to see the whole routine. Kofi just needs time, which is difficult for business when WWE's roster is so thin. He's fine where he is right now.

-- Vickie Guerrero & Dolph Ziggler (heels): I put Vickie and Dolph in that order because of crowd response. As soon as Vickie's voice was heard in the arena, the boos came down hard. Vickie could be a main event heel manager, but she could also eventually help Dolph achieve main-event heel status on Raw.

Vickie has a certain charisma Dolph is missing, but I saw something from Dolph before, during, and after the match that showed he can get there; he just needs time. The way Ziggler carried himself connected with the crowd more than I've seen with TV audiences. Perhaps WWE needs to re-evaluate how they present Dolph on TV, as he carried himself with a certain charisma that connected with the audience beyond Vickie doing the "excuse me!" routine for easy heat.

Rest of the Card

-- Kelly Kelly (face): Kelly was the most-popular Diva in the six-Divas tag match. She's a good face to be positioned as an underdog fighting against an imposing heel, which would have been Kharma's role. WWE needs to build up a monster heel to feud against Kelly if WWE plans for her to be a long-term champion.

-- Chris Masters (face): Not enough from Masters in a two-minute match with Jack Swagger to evaluate him.

-- Jack Swagger (heel): The audience seemed to be impressed with his physical build, but, again, not enough from this match to evaluate whether Swagger can be anything more than a second-match act on a house show.

-- Santino & Kozlov (faces): Santino's entire act is over on that Hornswoggle level appealing to kids, but not at Cena's level to where people will pay money to see the act. Santino is just a very good opening-match babyface getting the crowd excited and into the action. It's a valuable role.

-- New Nexus (Otunga & McGillicutty) (heels): Otunga got plenty of catcalls for being "Mr. Hudson," as he wasn't taken seriously at all by the audience. He's not in any position to move up, but WWE has obviously figured out how to get audiences interested in his matches by pairing him up with Santino & Kozlov. He's a heel whose role is simply giving the audience someone to laugh at. Again, that's a valuable role on a show with main event, mid-card, and lower-card acts. Should he be holding a Tag Title belt, though? No, but WWE doesn't see tag wrestling as anything more than lower-card action.

Faces Depth Chart break down

(1) John Cena (cash cow)
(2) Rey Mysterio (misplaced)
(3) Big Show (featured attraction)
(4) Alex Riley (needs work)
(5a) Evan Bourne (needs an opportunity like summer 2010)
(5b) Kofi Kingston (needs 3-5 more years)

Heels Depth Chart break down

(1) C.M. Punk (most well-rounded)
(2) R-Truth (found himself as a heel)
(3) The Miz (strong live, but repetitive on TV)
(4) Del Rio (not positioned as a credible main-eventer, but could be)
(5) Dolph Ziggler (there's a drop-off from 4 to 5, but Ziggler is like Kofi needing more time)

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