By Jason Powell

Dot Net Members are listening to my 44-minute audio review of Monday's WWE Raw television show. You can join us on the ad-free version of the website by signing up for membership right now via the Dot Net Members' Signup Page.

WWE Raw Hits

None: Sure, I'm enjoying Mark Henry's push and not everything on the show was bad. However, there were so many negatives that whatever good there was didn't stand out by the time the show concluded. WWE is in a terrible place creatively. They have The Rock coming back again next month to bail them out of trouble, but the problem continues to be that WWE doesn't have anything set up so that viewers who tune in specifically to see The Rock will be hooked on the product once he leaves again.

WWE Raw Misses

Overall show: The most chaotic and creatively reckless edition of Raw this year. One can only hope that this is rock bottom for the company, because I shudder to think of what could possibly be worse than this. If someone had told you six months ago that a show would feature the return of Vince McMahon, a new general manager, two on-air firings, the return of two wrestlers who had been fired, and the continuation of a major angle, you probably would have assumed that this was going to be a red hot show that fans would be buzzing over. Rather, it was an absolute mess, and the only reason it's newsworthy is because of how awful it was. This was a train wreck show that did nothing to excite me about the product going forward, let alone the Vengeance pay-per-view.

The Walkout: All of that fuss led to 30 minutes of protest, and the wrestlers who took part being subjected to a bunch of shots from Triple H, John Cena, Sheamus, and C.M. Punk. Furthermore, Hunter's egomaniacal comment about getting a better match out of a broomstick than most of the wrestlers who were protesting was as self serving as it gets. I wonder how many fans watched the MLB playoff game that went into extra innings and then flipped over to Raw only to see that everything was already back to normal in terms of everyone returning to TV within 30 minutes.

The Miz and R-Truth return: These two looked edgy when they hit the ring at Hell in a Cell and were eventually arrested. Whatever edge they had was erased last night when they were reintroduced and went right back to singing the "You Suck" song. I thought and hoped they were changing directions with these two via the firing angle. Unfortunately, the came back in an unmemorable manner and were booked the same way they were before they were fired. They are upper mid-card to low end main event guys that don't seem like threats to guys like John Cena, C.M. Punk, and Triple H. They're just the usual heels who have to cheat to win.

Jim Ross firing: We all knew they'd do something to embarrass Ross in Oklahoma. Even the live crowd knew, as they showed they are numb to it by not reacting with the amount of passion that they have when Ross has been treated like crap in Oklahoma in the past. I suppose it's possible that WWE ends up naming him the full-time general manager, but Vince McMahon's bizarre obsession with attempting to humiliate Ross and not allowing him to do what he does best is mind boggling.

John Cena gets another title match: Of all the crappy booking on last night's show, the news that Cena would be challenging Alberto Del Rio at the pay-per-view elicited the biggest groan from this viewer. Cena challenging for the WWE Championship is so stale. WWE could have built up a strong rivalry between Cena and Del Rio and this pairing would have still felt relevant rather than redundant. Rather, they have them trading the title back and forth to the point that the title feels worthless and their matches already feel like yesterday's news. There's so much more than I could list as "Misses" on this awful show, but I'll stick with the major points and just say that this was the worst edition of Raw that I've seen in a very long time.

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