A couple of things. I REALLY enjoyed the first hour of Raw tonight. I thought just about everything clicked the way it should have. The opening segment between Jericho and Show was really well done. It is too bad that it led to nothing more than a throwaway match in the second hour that served no purpose other than to get Show's punch over. Honestly, it made Jericho look bad too as he went and got himself DQ'ed like a heel would and made the IC champ look awfully bad.
But the buildup was nicely done. I really think they should have had that be the start of a slow burn feud for those two (little known fact, Jericho fought Big Show for his 1,000th career match some years ago).
I thought the Umaga build was nicely done too. I really like him which is odd because I typically don't like big fat wrestlers. But the guy can move and holds my interest as a fan and worker. The ONLY thing I would have changed would to have had Big Show face London and Kendrick. They are both about the size of Mayweather and Show beating on two of them would have driven the point home better about how Mayweather has no shot. Plus, you could still have Spanky wlak out on London if need be.
I disliked the Flair-McMahon match. As a general rule, two 60 year olds falling all over each other and being visibly blown up a minute in is not fun. If you are gonna do this match, they should have had the payoff be at Wrestlemania where a gory bladejob like the one Flair did would be entrenched as a WRESTLEMANIA moment forever. Plus, the highspot off the top rope (it finally worked!) would have been a nice one as well. Again, as it stands, its a throwaway match on a decent Raw card.
The main event was interesting. I thought it was different in a good way and plays to HHH's character. The scrubs they put out their as "raw's roster" was pretty bad though. No Michaels, No Show, No Jericho (although you could explain that one I suppose) No Jeff Hardy...wait, nevermind. It would have been kind of neat to see Orton and Cena weave their way through this first wave, think they have won, only to have HHH come out and explain that that was only HALF of the Raw roster and then see the big boys come down to take care of it.
But overall, nicely done show, good pacing and advanced some storylines. Their mission is to build on that next week and beyond I suppose.