James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (9.0)

This was easily one of the strongest episodes of Raw this year. It started on the right note with an excellent three-way #1 contender match, continued with Nexus's first involvement on the show with Edge and Chris Jericho, then built to a good conclusion with John Cena teasing an alignment with Nexus. In-between, each segment seemed to have a purpose building toward Summerslam or building toward the final segment of the show. Even the Kozlov & Santino filler comedy had a purpose creating some levity before the heavy stuff at the end of the show.

I was surprised WWE went with Bret Hart returning to be part of John Cena's team at Summerslam. I was also surprised WWE has John Cena in a 14-man tag match on the second biggest PPV of the year. Obviously, they have plenty of room to set up matches and storylines on Raw leading to Summerslam with 14 men in the mix, but I'm not sure why they didn't simply build to Cena vs. Wade Barrett one-on-one. Bret Hart's involvement clearly won't be a long-term storyline, as Hart is getting married later this month. I was expecting Triple H to be involved, to where they could protect him in a 14-man match, but they likely want to save his big return for the down the road when he wouldn't be lost in the shuffle.

Hart fits the role of being a big name part of a big team since he's not in a position to be a long-term draw for WWE and he can't really have a one-on-one match at this stage of life. I like some of the theories being thrown out about Hart possibly turning on Team Cena and continuing with Nexus, but that doesn't seem realistic. I think the audience is still waiting for Barrett to reveal whatever master plan is in play, whether that involves Hunter, the revelation of the mystery GM, or someone else in the mix.

Tony Donofrio, PWTorch.com Contributor (9.0)

From top to bottom, this was the best Raw in at least the past two years. It started off hot with a PPV quality triple threat match for the #1 contendership and ended with a hot angle and big surprise. Even the Divas match and "comedy match" with Santino were tolerable. Sadly enough, WWE followed that up by announcing that we will see guest hosts in October. I know, I know, that's not until October but no one can argue that the quality of the shows lately has been very good without the guest hosts. If they're planning that far ahead for guest hosts, I'm sure we're going to have ones in-between now and then, too.

But, back to this edition of Raw. Randy Orton winning the triple threat match was no surprise but that match itself was so good that it didn't matter. Following that with Nexus' domination of Chris Jericho and Edge was also well done. It was sad, however, to see Jericho and Edge have such a great verbal exchange considering none of their exchanges leading up to WrestleMania this year were close to that good! The Divas match, while it didn't do much for that division, did help further the Ted DiBiase/John Morrison angle. I guess WWE figures, "if we can't do anything for that division, let's at least use it to boost another feud." Well, in that case, nice job and well done.

The most exciting part of Raw,though, was The Miz. This was a huge two days for Miz and he is on the cusp now of being a full-time main eventer. He continues to get better by leaps and bounds and I was ready to mark out had he cashed in and won the WWE Title on this edition of Raw. With that said, I was glad that it didn't happen yet. I hope the momentum of Miz carrying around the briefcase continues to grow and we see Miz evolve more and more into a main event player. His next feud with R-Truth should be a no brainer. Nothing against Truth, but Miz needs this to be a "squash-like" feud where he gets the better of Truth at every turn to really put the mid-card behind him. If Raw was a sign of things to come, the fans are also ready for Miz to make the final jump into main event status.

Finally, John Cena forming his own team was bitter-sweet. It was mostly sweet though. Having The Great Khali and R-Truth on his team kills a little of the buzz on this angle, but not much. I guess you have to figure, having 2 guys on the team that aren't exactly big names isn't so bad considering no one on the Nexus is a big name yet. The unannounced appearance of Bret Hart was actually shocking. In a time period where keeping things a secret in pro wrestling is basically non-existent, I'd have to give this surprise an "A-plus." The toughest thing that WWE has to deal with now is how to follow up a Raw like this on both Smackdown and next weeks Raw.

Greg Parks, Torch Columnist (8.5)

Santino & Kozlov vs. Regal & Ryder was the only down-time on the show, but even then, it fit in with the Santino-Regal feud. For as much as the Nexus angle may have been losing steam lately, they sure picked things up this week. The potential 14-man tag at Summerslam has some interesting possibilities as far as the build-up leading to that PPV next month. Great Khali and Bret Hart are the only ones I'd look at on the babyface team and cringe at, but at least Hart has name value.

The opening Triple-Threat may have been predictable, but it was a really good match. The Divas match was short and Ted DiBiase didn't show much on commentary, but they could continue to use him in that capacity to work on getting his personality over. Sheamus and Evan Bourne put on a good match as well, and while Bourne has been losing lately, at least he went 10 minutes with the champion. That's got to be a good sign.

We suggest these recent related articles...

CALDWELL'S WWE RAW RESULTS 10/5: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of live Raw - Lesnar returns, Cena's Open Challenge, more

CALDWELL'S WWE RAW RESULTS 9/28: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of live Raw - John Cena's Open Challenge, Paul Heyman, Reigns vs. Wyatt main event, MizTV, more

CALDWELL'S WWE RAW RESULTS 9/21: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of live Raw - Night of Champions fall-out, Cena vs. Rollins U.S. Title re-match, Bizzaro Kane, more