I think the writing teams for the two brands were switched in the background... to me Smackdown! was a sub-par show again.

We had two good matches, John Cena versus Chavo Guerrero, and Booker T / RVD... but the rest?

The return of cartoony gimmicks with Scott Steiner (if I recognized the voice) coming back as Mordekai, some sort of miedieval religious figure.

Reuse of bad gimmicks, with Mark Jindrak stealing his shtick from "The Narcissist" Lex Luger.

An awful potential murder skit with The Big Show tossing Kurt Angle off a balcolny to the floor. I don't see how this can lead to a compelling story.

Of course, we also got Charlie Hass 'puking'.

A lot of this will ultimately get more notice than matches, sadly.

In my mind, RAW was a decent show again this week.

I was surprised by the return of "Grand Master Sexay" Brian Christopher. A shame he came back to be squashed in his first match... mind you, except for a feud with Tajiri, I don't know what they'll do with him.

Johnny Nitro is pure WCW sucking up to Eric Bishoff. The music sold it last week, but the logo on Monday nailed it.

By mentioning that Chris Benoit is a Canadian native, I almost thought the fed wasn't trying to bury face Canadian roots - but the fact that only the heels are given Canadian hometowns is upsetting.

Who else had Al Snow "Avatar" images the second Coach brought a masked ninja to the ring? That was a major non-surprise.

The final match was one of the longest I recall on RAW in some time, which was a good thing. You couldn't do those eight men justice otherwise.