James Caldwell, Torch Assistant Editor (6.5)

The entire goal of Monday's Raw was to make the potentially-paying audience believe Nexus is a viable threat to John Cena's band of brothers and Summerslam is worth ordering because the top babyface in the company is in jeopardy and he may not be able to fulfill his mission of eradicating Nexus from WWE. WWE was hit and miss throughout the show trying to achieve that goal.

The key hit was Nexus running through the Raw mid-card. The wrestlers involved (other than perhaps Evan Bourne and Hart Dynasty) were okay to be used as sacrificial lambs to show Nexus in action ahead of Summerslam. The key miss was Cena going way over the top with his declaration that WWE will be destroyed if Nexus isn't vanquished. It was a non-believable line from the writers trying hard to make Nexus seem like a very strong threat. Perhaps there's a storyline down the road tying Nexus to a "bigger picture" of who's actually pulling the strings to make it more clear how Nexus could take down WWE. But, on this show, it sounded like an empty theme.

If WWE's fanbase isn't sold on the idea of seeing Team Nexus vs. Team Cena at Summerslam, WWE is doing a fine job marketing Randy Orton as the next big thing in WWE. Orton was used effectively on Raw to set up his WWE Title challenge against Sheamus at Summerslam. It feels like the build-up to Summerslam 2004 when there was a strong undercurrent of support for Orton to capture his first World Title from Chris Benoit. Now, it's a full-blown tidal wave with Orton now a babyface and presented as one of the top stars in the company.

Although WWE over-did, at times, the theme of Team Cena plagued by dissension, it sure beat having segments involving a Raw guest host or the Santino & Kozlov filler comedy. WWE needed to reinforce and reinforce and reinforce the dissension point to make sure everyone tuning in at various points in the show would pick up on that theme and potentially make that mental pre-order for Summerslam to see the drama play out. It was over-done, but necessary and, at times, effective, especially the Cena-Jericho show-opening promo exchange.

Jon Mezzera, PWTorch.com Contributor (3.5)

I didn't enjoy much of Raw. It was an up-and-down show to be sure, but there were more downs than ups. That concept was exemplified in the opening segment. John Cena was down when he gave his silly lame promo comparing his team members to super heroes. That is the type of crap humor that causes adult male fans to boo Cena. Things picked up nicely with Chris Jericho's interruption. Most of their exchange was good as the segment went on an upswing. However, Cena had to throw in more of the lame humor when he came out with possible team names if Jericho were the team captain. It is hard to get serious about what Cena went on to say to Jericho after his goofiness. The one thing that I really liked from the opening segment was the announcement that Nexus vs. Team Cena would be elimination style at SummerSlam.

Randy Orton also had an up and down night. I liked the fact that he got a dominating squash victory, but wasn't happy that it was against Jey Uso. The Usos have too much potential and are still trying to establish themselves with the WWE Universe to be treated this way. Was Primo busy? Or Zack Ryder? I did love Orton's interview later in the show when he explained why he had hit The Miz with an RKO. It was short, simple, well delivered and very effective.

My biggest complaint about Raw was that while WWE did succeed in their main goal of making Nexus look strong while Cena's team looks about to implode, I wasn't thrilled with the way they achieved that goal. Some of the tension in Team Cena was way too forced, particularly the tension between John Morrison and R-Truth. I am okay with Nexus getting such a dominant win in their warm up seven-on-seven match against the Raw crew, but wasn't happy that Evan Bourne and The Hart Dynasty were involved. It made me ask if others couldn't have been sacrificed instead, like Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov. Most of Nexus don't have established finishers since they didn't establish any on NXT. So, seeing the Raw superstars being beaten, mostly after one single move (an unestablished finisher) was really weak. If you are going to have them lose 7-0, at least make the eliminations more believable. Mark Henry took one single (fairly weak looking) clothesline and he gets pinned? David Hart Smith takes one move from Heath Slater and he gets pinned? A tag team Champion should look better than that.

Greg Parks, Torch Columnist (7.0)

Raw continued their string of good shows in their drive to Summerslam. Cena and Jericho was a fine opening salvo, with Jericho bringing up some nice points and Cena getting serious when he needed to. I didn't mind Orton beating Jey Uso since the Usos are clearly far below Orton on the totem pole. I also like plugging Miz into the Orton vs. Sheamus feud, and Miz's confrontation backstage with Sheamus later on was very well done by both men.

The tension exemplified by Cena's team, weaved throughout the show, was necessary to make Nexus seem like a threat at Summerslam; otherwise, who would seriously think that Cena's team of Raw All-Stars would have any problem dispatching of the rookies in an even match-up? I also didn't mind Nexus running through Raw's mid-card...even though they had to take out some good wrestlers, it was necessary to further establish them as more than just a hit-and-run group: That, in fact, they can hold their own in the ring.

The only down-time seemed to be the Women's match and DiBiase vs. Morrison. The main event was a fine tag match that further advanced two issues, and they gave a nice cliffhanger for next week as they went off the air, that being Cena's team falling apart at the seams. Too bad JR wasn't there to really sell it and help it hit home for the viewer.

[Cena photo credit James Caldwell (c) PWTorch.com]

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