I liked the show for the most part - the crowd was dead, but the matches were at least all decent, and some were great. The opening being Punk vs. Taker was a bit surprising, although it kinda fit there since it had a brisk pace to it and the most heat of anything, but it hurt the show because they started the show off with a WORLD TITLE CHANGE - despite having lesser title matches afterwards. How can you expect a crowd to care about the secondary belts on a PPV when you start with a top title changing hands? This also had the most heat of anything on the card, so aside from 'Taker being unable to go very long anymore, there's really no good reason this shouldn't have closed the show. The babyface won, and won a title, so they would've had that big visual to end the show on. The crowd seemed to be more excited about this match than any other going in, because they were largely dead after this and that hurt the show a lot.
Morrison vs. Ziggler was pretty good technically, but lacked heat and was not on par with Dolph's matches against Rey, or Morrison's one against Rey, and Dolph lost again making him a huge choke artist at a time when he really can't afford to have that label AND they're trying to get the crowd to see him as a goof with the whole Mr. Ziggles deal. Poor guy - in three months, he meant from one of the company's hottest prospects to coming dangerously close to a joke. He'd better win this title soon or else any credibility he's built up will be completely gone. And they're sacrificing him for the sake of Morrison, who STILL isn't getting over with the fans as much as he needs to if they want him to be a main eventer.
The divas match was fine - short, but nothing looked botched beyond belief, which puts it above most Raw women's matches. The Unified tag title match was fantastic - probably the best match on the show from a technical perspective as these guys all clicked and had a great match as a result. Batista looked better here than he has at any point since his return, Rey had his working shoes on, as did Show, and Jericho as always, was great as well. Show and Rey's stuff worked way better in a tag match situation than it does in singles, and the finish was perfect with Rey jumping off for the seated senton, but getting THWACK punched by Show. The right team won here - Jericho is way too valuable on Raw to justify Batista and Rey winning, although I could have seen that happening just to give Batista a big win after returning.
Orton vs Cena was fine - I didn't like this as much as their Bragging Rights match because that one made better use of the stip, while this all could have been pretty much done with a no DQ stip since the chair was an integral part of it with Orton attacking the neck. They also shot themselves in the foot with the Raw stuff on top of the cell which was more memorable than anything that happened here AND it stood out more because guys haven't actually been on top of the cell in years. Stupid move there, although they made a good one putting the belt back on Orton. I also liked that he used the punt as a rare desperation move to win a match - the RKO failed, and rather than punt the guy after the match, he did it during it with a bad leg, and while it didn't hit at full strength (which would keep a guy out for weeks), it at least hit well enough for him to win.
McIntyre vs. Truth was good - Truth's best match in WWE easily. Drew's selling was sport on - I especially loved how he took the dropkick from Truth, whose sweep>punches spot looked great and was in keeping with their TV brawls. That's something I like - this match felt like an extension of the TV buildup, as opposed to them doing TV and then doing something on PPV that seems to contradict it in some way. They blended well together and the right man won. The lack of heat, again, killed the match. Well, it got heat, but it was in the form of "boring" chants caused by this happening after two Cell matches. I hope that doesn't affect Drew's push, although if they push him up to the IC title level, he'll benefit from new gear. His current look is kind of indy-ish with the generic lined trunks, and he's a tall guy, so the trunks don't quite make him seem as tall as long tights would.
The U.S. title match was another technically fine match between this combination of guys who are just going absolutely nowhere. Kofi won I guess to show that he once again beat the odds. Great. He's done that so much that he's no longer defying the odds, and the Miz did back to back jobs to him so the main challenger they've pushed for this title is basically completely out of the title hunt and they haven't build up the other guy (Swagger) well enough to have him fill that role. Miz should have won here, but that's been the case for a lot of his matches since going to Raw and it hasn't happened yet.
DX vs. Legacy told a fine story of the young guys getting the better of the veterans for a while, then being undone by their arrogance as they focused on one man, tired themselves out, and made themselves into easy victims of the fresh HHH. Him struggling seemingly forever with the lock didn't bother me too much - he was desperate and was looking for any possible solution to his problem, it wasn't until he'd had some time to think that a cool head prevailed and he thought "HEY, BOLT CUTTERS WOULD WORK!" and then went to get them, leaving Legacy even more arrogant as they had a complete two on one advantage and used it to do stuff like the Dream Street on the chair (which looked like it sucked as HBK's head hit it) and the ringpost figure 4/Million Dollar Dream spot from last month...and then HHH made the save and they destroyed Legacy, but didn't do so in such a way that buried them six feet under, which was a pleasant surprise. The superkick/THOR HAMMER shot on Cody were great, and I liked them having Ted locked out just as HHH had been locked out - only HHH was able to do something, and Ted was largely out of it by that point due to the Pedigree ON THE FLOOR.