Raw Only
Match 1: He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named and Edge defeated La Resistance via DQ. Well paced with only one prolonged period involving a resthold. In the final 2-3 minutes, there was some genuinely good byplay between all 4 men. But then Kane came down to interfere causing the DQ. 5/10
Match 2: Chris Jericho beat Tyson Tomko. There really isn't much to say about this bout. It was 6 minutes of decent big man vs smaller man action. Nothing special at all. Luckily Tomko did not embarrass himself & Jericho kept the pace up to an acceptable level. 4/10
Match 3: Randy Orton beat Shelton Benjamin to retain IC Title. There is just something about these 2 that didn't click. There's just no 'wow' factor there. It really did need the appearance of Ric Flair and, of all things, an intense battle of swinging right hands to finally breathe some life into the match. While the final few minutes of the match were good, I did not like the booking of them. Benjamin dominated Orton. While Orton kicked out of numerous 2 counts, Shelton hardly found himself on his back. Yet, not only did Orton somehow get the win, but Benjamin really did nothing to super impress me. I'm possibly being a little harsh on 2 of the WWE's finest young superstars, but this feud better continue & improve, or else I will judge it as nothing more than average. 5/10
Match 4: Trish beat Lita, Gail Kim and Victoria to win Women's Title. The action was almost too hard to keep up with, if you can believe that with a women's match. Maybe the WWE thought some short-term harm for the long-term good of the division was what was needed. Don't get me wrong, this 5 minute match was entertaining, but it was pretty much just a series of spots. 4/10
Match 5: Eugene beat Johnathan Coachman. Basically, it was 7 minutes of letting Eugene be humorous/entertaining. Some of the spots that had been done before didn't have the same impact this time around, so the WWE need to be careful of repetitiveness when it comes to Eugene. 2/10
Match 6: He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named beat Kane to retain World Title. Excellent wrestling match which had a little bit of everything. Kane hasn't had a match as good as this in years, and it's quality is a testament to the ability of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. I loved the intensity at the beginning of the bout, and while there was a little quiet patch afterwards, it was all for a reason. Kane worked on He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named's neck, while the champ worked on the challenger's shoulder & leg. What followed was very good psychological wrestling with Kane simply trying to use brute strength to win the title, while He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named used a clever variation of technical skill to wear down the much larger man. The final few minutes were very well booked & performed with He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named doing everything to make Kane submit. When he continuously was unsuccessful, he went for the surprise rollup which could, and did, legitimately catch Kane off guard. MOTN 8/10
Match 7: Triple H beat HBK in a HIAC. It was a bruising match with very good intensity & excellent work ethic. I find it very hard to be critical when 2 men put in as much as these 2 did here. Furthermore, I thought they did the little things correctly & with that extra bit of oomph that was needed. I'm talking of the foreign object shots, landings, etc... However, at 47 minutes in length, I have to state that not enough really happened. I can't say that I was expecting anything 'Foley-like', but I was expecting something new & different. That definitely didn't come & the main story that was told here was how gruelling a match this was (which is arguably the main purpose of the cell). In fact, it almost went out of it's way to set up the (well-deserved) time off that these 2 should be getting soon. When rated in isolation, this was definitely above average, but maybe it's time for the cell to have a long rest (about 2 years), until someone can do it a little more justice. 7/10
Overall: 5/10