WWE Raw Impressions: Gabriel, Orton, Jericho and More

Last night's WWE Raw was one of the better shows the company has put on this year, at least that's my opinion.

The show opened with Nexus in the ring and they talked about the usual stuff. They dominated the Undertaker last week and made every effort to remind us of that.

Orton came out and had a little exchange with Nexus before the GM chimed in making a match between Barrett and Orton for later in the night. The back and forth was decent between Orton and Nexus, but it would be nice to see some of the other guys in Nexus get mic time once in awhile.

Jericho had a great match with John Morrison. Not the best for either of them but pretty good for a non PPV match. Jericho lost to Morrison after an improvised Starship Pain, and thus lost his title shot at Night of Champions. Jericho did a great job of looking truly dejected after the match.

Later in the night Morrison, tried to console Jericho, possibly to mock him as well, but the segment was great. Jericho's facial expressions were priceless.

Edge had a match with Great Khali that can only be described as strange. First, Edge won by count out, then the GM restarted the match and made it an over the top challenge.

Edge managed to pull Khali down from the outside to win, and keep his place in the Night of Champions match.

John Cena and Justin Gabriel had a great match. Cena showed that he can win but still put over another wrestler. Gabriel really looked like a star in this match, pulling off a bunch of impressive moves, including a gutwrench style powerbomb that showed he isn't just a high flyer.

I have a slightly different view of Cena after this match because he showed off some mat wrestling skills as well as helped put over a young guy who is half his size.

I will not even discuss the Divas' match as it was the one low point of the show for me.

The main event saw Orton face off against Wade Barrett. Both men got in some decent offense, but the advantage went to Orton when Darren Young came to the ring.

Young was booted from Nexus after being the only member to lose a match a few weeks ago. Young got on the mic and said he wasn't the weak link, he was the missing link. Kind of a strange line.

This distracted Barrett long enough for Orton to hit the RKO for the win. After the match, Orton motioned for Young to join him in the ring, and just when we thought the Viper might actually thank him, he hit another RKO on Young.

Edge and Sheamus hit the ring, Edge tried for a spear but got and RKO for his efforts. Sheamus ran in and tried to hit his bicycle kick but he was also hit with the RKO, making a total of four RKO's within about two minutes.

Orton looked like the dominant force he has become, and the ending to the night reminded me of the way Austin used to clear a ring with a bunch of Stunners back in the day. I have always said Orton reminds me of Steve Austin in a lot of ways, and he is pacing to be even more successful than the Rattlesnake was.

Overall, it was a great show filled with good matches and good storyline progression for a lot of different guys.

One last thing I have to mention, Zack Ryder actually made me laugh really hard during his segment with Edge.

Edge said something about loving his mother and Ryder replied with "I love her too", and I lost it. The comic timing was perfect and I thought it was Ryder's best exchange with another superstar to date.

Thats all for now folks, feel free to share your thoughts below.