Watched Raw last night and just finished watching the full 3hrs of TNA, and I can't agree with you Steve51. As I said a few pages back, I caught TNA 2 or 3 times in 2009 and it wasn't even the full episodes, so i'm not some raving TNA fan.
Last nights Raw wasn't much better then it was when I got fed up and stopped watching it on a weekly basis months ago, and TBH it's been that way for the better part of two years now, just so happens last nights show had Bret which made it a bit special.
I thought both of Brets segments were the highlight. The first where he addressed the fans & shawn was decent, the second to close the show with Vince was fantastic. There were a couple of decent matches. DX vs Jericho/show was fairly good and Kofi vs Orton was the best raw match I have seen in a while.
The rest of the show was as terrible as it tends to be, ridiculous 2-4 minute matches which the crowd have no interest in and stupid comedy sections which aren't funny in the slightest (someone please shoot Hornswoggle). Cena is away for one week and the singles main event scene is none existent, who is going to challenge Sheamus at the Rumble? Kofi who was just beat by Orton, twice? "Little" Evan Bourne, no that didn't go well, Mark Henry?
TNA which I just watched was able to surprise me time and time again, and that was not due to my limited knowledge of their talent. The majority of the matches may have been short at 5 or 6 mins but in all honesty they were longer then you get on Raw, and I include their 3hr specials in that.
I don't know if the atmostphere is like that every week in the arena but it was electric compared to what I have become used to in WWE, yes it may have a small capacity and be easier to get the place rocking but when the place is buzzing as much as it was in there the guys in the ring take it to the next level, and it showed. Just look at the knockouts tag match for example, I would take that over the US no.1 contender match from raw everyday of the week having seen it.
Anyway that was way longer then I wanted it to be so i'm gona stop now, but if that's how Nitro was on it's last legs (I wouldn't know, was a WWF guy) then Raw must have died a long time ago because the show I just watched entertained me more than any episode of Raw has in years.
And one last thing, AJ vs Angle was amazing for free TV, the only chance of seeing a match of that quality on Raw is in the weeks running up to 'Mania.