"I think a short program between the two could have been a nice break from Orton wrestling the same guys all the time. ..."

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I would agree, if not for the fact that Henry, as an in-ring performer, ranks down there with the Great Khali. If Henry were to get lost in the Raw shuffle, I wouldn't be very sad about it.

Not a bad who at all, I missed a large chunk after seg 1, but what I saw was certainly not bad. I would really like to see the Miz and Jack Swagger battle, I think their interactions, the few they have had, have been very entertaining. I can't think of a time when I've seen two heels have a program, maybe somebody can help me out here, but I would love to see it, I don't know who I would root for since they are both great in their own right.

The triple threat match next week actually sounds interesting.

A little sad to see Jericho knocked out on his birthday, but I guess it has to happen. Seems like he has to try overly hard to get heat because people really want to like him because he is so charismatic. He always has to add so many insults to get boos.

Dude...Ricky Hatton got FAT since he got demolished by Manny Pacquaio!

I think the original plan was to let Swagger's streak last until the end of the year but someone in creative decided something had to be done to make Bourne look strong for the pay per view.

I think it would be best to keep Miz and Swagger, heel vs. heel.

"I wasn’t real familiar with Ricky Hatton, but once I got past his rather ordinary, less-than-athletic look, I thought he did a pretty good job. He seemed like a likable enough bloke and he handled himself well on the mic in the opening segment with Jericho and Big Show...."

Haha, funny you should mention the "less-than-athletic" look as, if you don't know him, that is one of Ricky's traits. For a fight, you wouldn't know any different, as he's in tip-top shape. But after the fight, Ricky's the sort of guy who loves a pint, or ten, and plenty of takeaways! That's why he gets his nickname of "Ricky Fatton".

He's actually a really nice bloke - almost your anti-Floyd Mayweather. I think this translated on the mic as he wasn't as charismatic as some previous guest hosts. But, he certainly didn't embaress himself and, all-in-all, he did a pretty decent job.

P.S. I'm actually from Sheffield, but didn't manage to get tickets for the show. But I did see the Bella twins in town one night, which was quite something! :D

I love your column Eck! Loved Raw this week. Hatton in front of home crowd can't be wrong. Not that it matters, but what would Raw be, with out the 3 "what do we do with these guys" horseman....Chavo, Santino, and lol, Jackswaggle. I love segments with them, rather than the ridiculous, please just wrestle, DX. SS offers, 2 triples, with a team in each triple. I'm glad SS is shown for free at the Fiesta Rancho in Vegas!!. Roddy next week should be smacking it down. Would love for it to be Mcintrye, but again, Dive Daughter says smackdown. My guess, Sheamus gonna taste some Rowdy this week. Wont hurt his image, but promote Roddys. And Raw is ALL about the promotion!. Finally, I see the end of Taker at WM 26, with a tearful loss to.......EDGE!!!

Kevin, you're missing the obvious with Jack Swagger. He's "The All-American American"! Obviously losses in Europe don't count. (At least that will be the angle they'll take.)

Hey Kevin Hatton is known to put on up to 40 pounds after a fight and then loses it during his training proccess. So when you saw Santino doing his bit about being Ricky Fatton, it's actually true and Ricky even pokes fun at himself for his weight gain. Raw sucks right now just plain and simple, ratings talk and they are speaking for wrestling fans right now.

Are you really surprised about Swagger's streak ending so early? Remember Marella's Honkameter? He didn't even come close to holding the Intercontinental Belt as long as the Honky Tonk Man. So, you are right. Why mention it at all?

i watched the entire show, and then later read your words on it after -
i honestly had more fun reading about it here.

i found it weird yet kinda cool how the miz and swagger didnt look at each other at all in their confrontations, even when miz came out with the mic... - did i miss something maybe? (i was drifting off to sleep) why couldnt they look at each other?

I love your column Eck! Loved Raw this week. Hatton in front of home crowd can't be wrong. Not that it matters, but what would Raw be, with out the 3 "what do we do with these guys" horseman....Chavo, Santino, and lol, Jackswaggle.

Yea, Swagger will say his lose doesn't count, becuse the "all- american american" didn't get pinned in america.. Easy storyline

Orton vs. anybody but Cena/HHH/Batista is a real treat for the viewer. If we aren't getting Orton/Kofi one-on-one at Survivor Series, does that mean the feud between them is perhaps going longer-term? Hope so!!

Orton displaying ugly prejudice against Kofi was a good way to show that Legacy is stuck-up and bigoted, since Kofi comes off about as "hood" as Jim Ross.

I would be excited about Evan Bourne going over Jack Swagger if I thought it meant anything for Bourne.

Hatton may not have drawn ratings, but I thought he did a good job and was extremely entertaining, if for no other reason than his accent and low-key, everyman demeanor provided such a contrast to the larger-than-life, over-the-top wrestlers.

That backstage segment with the idiotically undulating Bellas cooing over his prowess at BAR DARTS was twilight-zone hilarious.

So they bring up Shemus from ECW to Raw and have him squash Noble and have Noble contemplatting retirement. So it looks like we our going to have a Shemus/Noble feud. Wow! That will do wonders for Shemus career. That be like having Desmond Wolfe starting a feud with the Deaner when he first came up!

Instead of normally fast forwarding through RAW on the DVR, we actually rewound and watched HBK smack Cena in the shoulder over and over again. We usually only laugh like that during America's Funniest Videos.

RAW is just boring. I watched it today (recorded it) and I was not excited about any match there was at all.

Hatton wasn't bad, but he wasn't good either, but at least it seemed like he was in charge and making the matches for a change.

Cena/DX/Hornswaggle promos = stupid. What is the point of having DX (who are supposed to be anti-corporate and all) going after the little guy for gimmick infringement with lawyers? Does that make any sense at all? Now Cena is trying to be funny like DX is, and that isn't working for me either. I really do not care for Cena at all.

Jericho is the best overall performer the show has right now as far as talent in the ring and on the mic.

Sheamus has a match against a guy who wasn't even introduced, wow...that is really impressive. With all the jobbing Chavo is doing, why not let Shaemus have a smush match against him?

Don't agree with you about Alicia at all. She looks awkward in the ring (like most of the divas now) and her finishing move looks awful. That back kick to the head almost always hits with the bend in the knee and to me it looked like Kelly Kelly fell down before the move even really hit her. Her "antics" look forced. Why are they pushing her and not Kim? Because WWE didn't want to have two Asian looking women in the ring for the PPV?

I'm more likely to shell out $40 (or is it $45 now?) to see the elimination tag team matches than I am to see Cena/HBK/HHH.

I was surprised by Swagger's loss too, although I have to disagree with Jules as I do think it makes Bourne look better.

While creative has dropped the ball pretty often, I'm not so sure this idea was one of their bad ones. For one thing, we'll get a Miz/Swagger feud out of it very soon. In this war of the heels I will be rooting for Miz, since he is awesome.

But that's not all. I was sure that Swagger's streak would stay unbroken for weeks to come like you were, and I was also sure it would end in one of two ways: either Swagger would make good on his promise and stay undefeated--working his way up the Raw roster and scoring wins over tougher and tougher guys, building momentum for a shot at one of the belts--or he'd come within an eyelash of it but lose his last match of the year, go ape(bleep), and feud with whoever broke his streak and made him look bad.

Neither of those things happened. Instead, we got something unexpected, unpredicted. And while unpredictability doesn't necessarily translate to good ideas, predictability is almost always bad.

I'd like to see Swagger/Miz stay with the characters with Swagger being the 'tweener'.

I think he can pull it off the way Psycho Sid did so back in the mid/late 90s when he was the champion....Kevin Im sure you remember that well since your boy HBK was in that ridiculous storyline with Jose Lothario...

I have been watching the wwe since Mr. Fuji blew salt into Hogans eyes. The industry has seen some great moments and what is happening on RAW and Smackdown is the worst most boring wrestling I have ever seen. TNA at least tries to be interesting. WWE just shovels hour after hour of horse manure every week. No storyline, pointless buildups and wrestling moves that never change not for nobody

"I wasn´t real familiar with Ricky Hatton ..."
Well, now you know how I feel over here in Germany almost every week about the RAW guest hosts.

I have to amend my comments about Cena a tad, I think he was actually very good in the commentary segment for DX vs. Jeri-show match.

He was speaking calmly and seemed more real than the over the top guy he is when he cuts a promo in the ring or back stage. I have to give him big credit for this because most of the time when a wrestler does some guest commentating, they are horrible at it.

This should be his character all the time. That whole screaming until his face is red persona is just silly.

I agree with Rob Brown. When Swagger first spoke about his streak, it seemed obvious that he would remain undefeated for a long time. Therefore, there was no suspense in his matches with Primo (on two consecutive Superstars): of course Swagger would win. That is exactly what everybody assumed when he faced Bourne on Monday: one more win on Swagger's record, that's for sure. Even when the Miz showed up, I thought that Bourne would Powerbomb Bourne just on his face. But no, Bourne gets the win, and that's great. It means that anything can happen, and recalls us that everybody on the roster is a "Superstar", which means that there is no such thing as an easy victory.
I actually think they should do it more often. What makes Cena, Trips etc so special is that they have a fantastic win/loss record: they never lose to midcarders, they only lose once in a while to each other.

Let's say that Cena has a 90/0 record in his matches with midcarders; he still be one of the biggest stars if he had a 85/5 record, isn't it?

Just like in real sports: in NBA a team that ends up first or second in the regular season still has some losses... I would want to believe that when a guy with a bigger stardom gets in the ring with a guy he's supposed to beat, he has good chances to lose. That would be a lot more realistic. The midcarders could capitalize on that. When Orton jobbed to Henry, everyone thought it meant so much for Mark. You could have the Swaggers beat the Cenas once in a while, and the Bournes beat the Swaggers, and the Chavos beat the Bournes...

Watching Raw is just like watching Groundhog day, but without the entertaining bits, and the self-conscious irony, and without caring.
Didnt HHH actually make some comment about coming out every week and doing the same thing but expecting different results?.....Like more ratings, or a better quality product?
The definition of insanity right?

screw u mithical aka critical one!!!!!!!!! I CARE ABOUT JOHN CENA ALOT!!!!!!! LIKE IT OR NOT I LOVE JOHN CENA'S SENCE OF HUMER! GOSH CENA HATERS NEED 2 GET OVER THEMSELVES!