Raw - 11th June 2012

So Raw on a whole was okay this week, surprisingly enough. Considering it was 3 hours (or rather 2 hours for me), I expected it to drag a lot more like it usually does... But it didn't so much.

I didn't really see the point in Tensai attacking Sakamoto after losing to Sheamus. I care about Sakamoto but not everyone is quite as affectionate as I am so somehow I doubt many people actually gave a crap about that.

All our current champions made an appearance tonight. This whole thing between Santino and Ricardo, whilst entertaining at times, is a little bit irrelevant. I mean, if Santino's a champion, why engage with someone like Ricardo? Beth Phoenix pinned Layla though so I'd assume she's taking on Layla on Sunday or at least in the following weeks.

For someone who doesn't like four-way matches, I really liked the elimination match between Ziggler, Swagger, Khali and Christian. As expected, Khali was eliminated first. Jack Swagger looked surprisingly decent in this match with his exchanged with Christian. Those two seemed to gel together pretty well but Christian's always been a versatile performer so perhaps that's no surprise. Ziggler eliminating Swagger was great and carried on pushing towards him breaking off from Vickie though in a sense, I feel like they're gone backwards in that aspect. Two weeks ago, he was being less dependent on Vickie and yet now it's like he's gone back to letting her speak for him etc. Ziggler won the match and he'll be facing Sheamus on Sunday so we can expect at least one awesome match.

Daniel Bryan cut a promo and dropped quite possibly one of the best lines I've ever heard, "Once you go Bryan, there's no point in trying. AW YEAH!". Or something. Well, whatever it was, it was hilarious. I swear, Bryan just looked like he was going to start laughing throughout that. Bryan's reaction to Kane's pyro is also brilliant. That is how everyone should react.

AJ was put in a tag team match with Punk against Daniel Bryan and Kane. This is just too fucking much because Kane's face every time AJ's around has me in stitches. So AJ mounts Kane and makes out with him while Punk is outside the ring and Bryan's watching, like, "holy shit". Fucking hell. What a fucking weirdo. I love AJ though. I hope to God she screws over Punk and Kane on Sunday and Bryan wins the title. That would be A+.

If Punk drops that "I dig crazy chicks" line one more time, I will go insane. It's awful. Never use it again. When AJ kissed him and he's facepalm-ing and yet he's constantly (intentionally or not) flirting with her... God, you manslut. Make your mind up!

It was no surprise Laurinaitis didn't actually end up getting fired. Unfortunately, Big Show and Cena crashed the party and everything went downhill. Can I get some "BORING" chants?

And... I don't have much else to comment on. Except R-Truth's promo was fabulous and Little Jimmy needs to avenge him.

All in all, decent Raw considering it was three hours. However, I'm not looking forward to this permanent switch to three hours. Despite the extra time, we still got the same guys we see every week featured and I just don't think that's good use of time. There's also far too much time being spent on Smackdown stars. I realise Raw has more viewers but less time on Smackdown would be great. The more you feature Smackdown on Raw, the less likely people are to actually bother watching Smackdown.

Whatever~

I have no objection to Kofi teaming up with Little Jimmy until Truth is back.　

d'you ever think r-truth talks to little jimmy off-screen

Lol so I finished Smackdown this morning, whilst in bed.

And fell asleep during the main event.

welp

No Cody Rhodes appearance? :(

Also, is it necessary to have 2 squash matches on the show? Brodus AND Ryback?

AJ/Kaitlyn could have been longer. Or if they wanted a quick match so badly, a DQ finish would have sufficed. Daniel Bryan was pretty hilarious though. Y'know, this could be a nice way to feature Derrick Bateman more on Smackdown...

Don't get me started on the whole Sheamus/Orton/ADR/Jericho crap. A tag team match AND THEN two singles matches? Really?

I don't even remember what else happened. Oh yeah, Big Show was like a schoolboy being told off by Laurinaitis. That was pretty amusing. Jack Swagger lost to R-Truth. Whatever. I'm not particularly looking forward to the match at Over The Limit for the tag team titles since Ziggler/Swagger's chances of winning are literally non-existent. Why use them as a filler tag team to lose all the time? Use someone else. -____-

Cesaro beat...someone. Oh yeah, A-Ry. Poor A-Ry. Aksana reveals Cesaro is now her "lover" and Teddy's facial expression is hilarious. Damien Sandow also cuts a fabulous promo backstage. He was so patronising with Striker, haha.

Oh yeah, Titus O'Neil and Darren Young beat Santino and Ryder. What has happened to Zack, man? Remember when I hated Titus though? Haha. He's growing on me with Darren Young now. I quite like them as a team and they're being featured on TV regularly.

Smackdown was below average.

If Lil Jimmy and R-Truth were competing for the tag team titles...

And they won...

How would you even try to pin Lil Jimmy anyway?　

Imagine Dolph Ziggler vs Lil Jimmy.

Madi goes to Raw. 15/04/12

Yeah so you all know this is my last show for, like, over a year (unless I can somehow miraculously make the Smackdown or Raw taping here in Brum in November...) but it was my first Raw. So I thought I might as well go all out with the ridiculous signs.

Oh, that reminds me, Colt Cabana sign? It was unfinished but we just held up my Punk and Cabana ones throughout his match, haha.

Raw - 05th March 2012

Since I'm going until Wrestlemania 28 without being negative about WWE, I'm not going to be rating shows out of 10 either. So here's Madi's 100% Positive Raw "Review"!

We opened with a long ass promo, as usual. Thankfully, HBK opened the show and called out Triple H to explain what it was that made him snap and accept Undertaker's challenge. He left by oh so casually announcing he would be the Special Guest Referee for the match. I thought this was a good segment. HBK is a far better talker than Triple H. Triple H didn't talk much. What's not to like? I liked HBK's tone and you could feel some heat between the two guys when he confronted Triple H about him accepting the challenge because he couldn't handle being perceived as worse than Shawn Michaels. It wasn't just reiterating what we already know and developed the match further. I liked it. Shocker, I know.

I'm going to avoid talking too much about the United States Title match between Jack Swagger and Santino Marella. Despite Ziggler's interference, Santino won the match. Santino is on TV more often than Swagger so I guess it's not too bad to have him holding the title. But are they really going to keep him as Long's personal assistant?! There was further development in this Laurinaitis/Long feud (Otunga & Laurinaitis came out shortly after the bell went, followed by Teddy, Kofi (why?) and Aksana, who is apparently his girlfriend now~), which was good, I guess. Aksana looked like she was giving a blowjob when she mimed the trumpet...

Rock gave his first history lesson of the night in a pre-taped segment. It was good. Well, it started out good. It was better than last week?

Kelly Kelly is at the announce table for the very short match between Eve and Alicia Fox. It's unfortunate it was so short because it could have been half decent. I guess Eve squashing Alicia makes her look stronger though I don't really know how the length of divas matches on Raw really does much in that sense... Zack comes out and drops in the "Broskis before hoeskis" line. Backstage, she goes after him and kisses him before leaving. Zack looks happy. I like this new Eve. She's way better than that boring babyface we were so accustomed to seeing.

We get a pre-taped segment of Cena. It was less dramatic and over-the-top than Rock's. I think I preferred it. He said he won't settle for second best. Y'know, I have to hand it to Cena... A few months ago, I didn't give a fuck about their match at Wrestlemania but Cena's promo have managed to get me more interested in it.

We got a good tag team match of Sheamus and CM Punk vs Chris Jericho and Daniel Bryan. Maybe I'd have waited a week to book this match but it was good nonetheless. Jericho won; Punk pulled him into a small package but Jericho rolled it into a package of his own and won the match before taking hold of the title, looking at Punk. The match itself had some good moments though it was a bit of a mess when everyone got involved near the end. We didn't get all too much interaction between champion and number 1 contender, which was good.

Rock gave us another history lessons. This was better than the first one and definitely more entertaining and had some slightly more original material rather than the usual phrases he tends to repeat over and over again...

The Miz faces the Big Show. Cody Rhodes comes out and shows us a segment from Wrestlemania 18 of Big Show hanging out, "WRESTLEMANIA YEAH BABY WOO". I enjoy Cody's little segments and the way Big Show gets victimised makes you feel sorry for him and hate Cody for "bullying" him a bit. Show basically squashes Miz though. Who's Miz got heat with?

Rock gives us yet another history lessons. Let's just say the previous one was better.

R-Truth comes along with Little Jimmy by his side and takes on Kane. Kane wins the match fairly quickly. Post-match, Randy Orton, unfortunately, comes out and RKOs him. Looks like we're probably going to get a match and Wrestlemania between the pair.

John Cena came out and got a nice share of boos in Boston. I enjoyed this promo. Cena's growing on me again and I kinda like him these days. Rock came out and cut a small promo, which was better than last week's. After he leaves, telling Cena he's going to rip out his throat at Mania, Cena carries on talking. Man, I don't know. Rock's holding back on his material because he's a better promo cutter but at the same time, he keeps using the same material, which is why I prefer Cena's promos... Cena was entertaining though.

Raw was okay. I usually hate too much promo time but these were good, for the most. It was lacking in wrestling but it helped build up all the matches on the Wrestlemania card so far, which was good.

Watching the Triple Threat Tag Team Match,

And this has just pissed me the fuck off.

So fucking dumb.

So The Usos have been a legitimate team since they turned up. Reks and Hawkins have been teaming up for a few months now.

Ziggler/Swagger are on. Then off. Then on again. Also, Swagger's the United States Champion and we never see him in that role. Sort this shit out, for fuck's sake. Kofi/Truth start teaming for a week and get booked to beat Epico/Primo. Whose genius idea was that?! Reks/Hawkins get absolutely no TV time. The Usos get little to no TV time despite how over they are.

What the fuck is this shit?

So now we get this triple threat tag team match.

Hey WWE, here are a few ideas to help your tag team division:

Elimination Chamber 2012 - 6/10

You'd think a PPV called "Elimination Chamber" would have the main event as an Elimination Chamber match. We were mistaken. Our main event of the night was John Cena versus Kane in an Ambulance match.

Question: How do you have a good ambulance match without blood and gore?

Answer: You don't.

I didn't even watch this match properly. I didn't think it was worth it. From what I did watch, it pretty much sucked. Cena came out with a win, which I think was stupid and WWE completely screwed up with Kane big time. Next!

Teddy Long booked a match for the PPV, as I predicted. It wasn't between Christian and Sheamus though. We got a random US title match right before the main event. Jack Swagger defended his title against Justin Gabriel, who is apparently Hornswoggle's babysitter now, in a relatively short match. It was alright. I'm just annoyed they randomly threw this together. Swagger hasn't been on TV for weeks. Sort your shit out, WWE.

We got a in-ring promo from Johnny Ace and David Otunga (also featuring Mark Henry), which went on too long. That was his grand announcement? That he plans to take over Smackdown and Raw? I'm certain this was mentioned on Raw so really? No big deal. The highlight of this would have to be the return of Alberto Del Rio but even better, the return of Captain Charisma, Christian! You can probably guess I marked out hard when his music hit. Basically, all the heels expressed how they agree John Laurinaitis is better than Teddy Long. Does that mean Teddy Long is going to try to get Raw and Smackdown himself now? The Triple H chants were unanswered.

Beth Phoenix retains her title in a match against Tamina Snuka. It was okay and went a decent length. The beginning was pretty sloppy and basically like a cat fight, unfortunately. Things picked up towards the end when Beth kicked out of a Samoan Drop and the Superfly Splash. In the end, Beth landed the Glam Slam and won the match. So is that the end of Tamina's allegedly big push?

I enjoyed both Elimination Chamber matches. The guys chanting "boring" throughout the Smackdown one were really irritating though. Both matches were different but good in their own way. Raw's was a lot faster paced. Dolph Ziggler was amazing. The number of bumps he took were ridiculous like Truth colliding with him off the top rope and that later on DDT... Kofi was also a great addition to the match. I think it was a shame Truth didn't last very long. I'd have liked to see Miz get taken out quicker than him. The bit where Jericho gets kicked through the door, knocking out the cameraman and official was awesome. You could see Punk watching carefully whilst they tried to see if Jericho was okay. I liked that Punk and Kofi started off. I think they worked together well but again, Ziggler... He was too much. All those bumps... It was like I could feel them... Most of all, I'm glad this match wasn't entirely about Punk! It wasn't him just destroying everyone in the ring and getting ganged up on or crap like that. The exchanges between different guys were nicely balanced and it was good, surprising yet good, to see Punk retain his title. It got the PPV off to a very nice start but then you worry the rest might fall short.

The Smackdown match was also pretty good. Big Show and Wade Barrett were alright to open. Daniel Bryan entering last convinced me he would retain. Big Show climbing into his pod was insane and pretty entertaining. Big Khali came in strong only to be pinned by Show after a spear within minutes. Pointless entry or pointless entry? I liked the teamwork between Cody Rhodes and Wade Barrett and I like how long Barrett lasted in the match. Cody also looked awesome with those Beautiful Disaster kicks off the chamber wall onto Big Show. I was glad to see him pin Show. However, I wasn't too happy with how Santino was used. He just sort of lay down, out of harm's way for most of the match, which is unfortunate because with all the backstage segments they'd shown of him preparing for the match, they could have maybe used him a little bit more seriously? I think towards the end Smackdown was also better because of how invested into the match the crowd was. They were going crazy for Santino, which was great. At the end, Daniel Bryan locked in that LaBell Lock and after trying hard to escape, Santino eventually tapped out.

Daniel Bryan celebrated, only to get lain out by Sheamus, who is obviously challenging for the World Heavyweight Title at Wrestlemania!

I'd give this PPV a 6/10. I wouldn't pay for it. The divas match wasn't too bad. The main event sucked. The random in-ring segment sucked (but it gets points for a returning Christian in that leather jacket with that facial hair and...). Swagger versus Gabriel wasn't too bad but it was essentially pointless with Swagger having not been on TV for so long! Just... Replace the United States title with the Cruiserweight title because this thing is just a prop now. The Cruiserweight title would actually have some use... The two Elimination Chamber matches were pretty good.

Our world champions are still CM Punk and Daniel Bryan!

Raw - 13th Feb 2012 - 6.5/10

I don’t know how to feel about this week’s Raw. I feel like it was centred too strongly on the six-man elimination chamber match in that pretty much the entire card was based on that as well as the opening segment and I thought that was unnecessary. I mean, another week of no appearances from our United States Champion and our Tag Team Champions? Surely, you could give up some time for them? Raw needs to structure itself around the midcard and below as well as the main event rather than just focusing on the big names.

That being said, R-Truth was golden in the opening segment, or rather "debate". God Bless Little Jimmy. Miz’s material is getting boring. Punk was decent, outshined by Truth though. Jericho and Punk’s little war of words was entertaining enough, hahaha and Ziggler’s with Truth was great.

John Laurinaitis has been reinstated as Interin GM of Raw. Otunga says he has a plan to give him the position permanently as well as Teddy Long's job as the GM of Smackdown. Okay then. That was the last we heard of that.

Chris Jericho finally defeats Kofi Kingston in singles competition! Wow! About time, huh? Hahaha. The match was alright. Not particularly memorable but it just kind of reinforced the idea that Kofi has essentially been slapped into this title match for no reason.

Miz lost to Punk. Whatever. Jericho was watching eagerly,, which highlights the possibility of a Jericho win at EC and a Punk/Jericho feud in the run up to Mania.

Truth beat Ziggler but just about. I don’t think this served much purpose aside from basically continuing from their squabbling in the opening promo.

I didn’t feel it was unnecessary to throw in a Randy Orton match against the Big Show, especially considering the finish of Smackdown last week. That botched RKO, however, was hilarious. Daniel Bryan was at ringside. I think. I loved the footage of post-Smackdown where Show chokeslams Orton though, hahaha. Anyway, I don’t even remember how this match ended. That was how memorable it was. I guess that speaks for itself.

The funny thing about this focus on Orton is that he's now been removed from the Elimination Chamber match due to injury so this was a bit of a waste, right? And that, WWE, is why you should invest an equal amount of time on your talent. But, y'know, despite how many times you've encountered these circumstances, you've not learned your lesson so why should I even bother saying this, right?

HBK came out and did exactly what we expected him to do; try to convince HHH to accept Taker’s challenge. The delivery of the promo segment was great. There was heat between the guys as they argued and it was pretty convincing the way they talked. There was a big pop for the Undertaker's theme but it was just another one of those taped promos. HHH/Undertaker is definitely happening, no doubt. And that's unfortunate.

The divas segment was, well, decent considering what we usually get! The match was short, as expected and Tamina pinned Brie (?) Bella after landing the superfly splash. Beth Phoenix was on commentary and  a match between herself and Tamina at Elimination Chamber was announced. I’m looking forward to this mostly because Tamina is half-decent and these two haven’t face each other before, thankfully!

We had this fiasco of an angle between Kane, Cena, Ryder & Eve running throughout the course of the show. It’s the day before Valentine’s and Ryder has something for Eve. Later, he sees her kissing Cena after he “saves” her from Kane… Even though he didn’t do much… Or anything. The acting was awful. The highlight was the spot were Kane throws Ryder off the ramp, after Ryder’s face-off with Cena over Eve, whilst he’s still in his wheelchair. Eve runs to his side, all concerned. I guess the rumoured heel turn for Eve is on its way. I don’t know whether they’re going for the whole “Lita slut” kind of thing. I’m all for “slut” chants during Raw. The acting really was terrible though. I’ve no idea who will win at the PPV on Sunday between Cena and Kane. Kane claims Cena has already embraced the hate… I’d like to see Cena lose so we’d get the whole “superhero’s ego is crushed, sulks, gets his shit together and kicks ass” sort of angle except he moves on from Kane and onto Rock.

I’m giving Raw a 6.5/10. It wasn’t bad. There were some entertaining segments but the matches just… Weren’t particularly interesting or memorable.

We have four matches on the card for Elimination Chamber. Make of that what you will.

God Bless Little Jimmy.

Raw - 6th Feb 2012 - 6/10

When Lawler mentioned Big Show versus Daniel Bryan would be the opening match, I was shocked, thinking we would have a match to open the show for the first time in who knows how long on Raw! Then I heard HHH's theme hit and realised we were going to get a long ass promo instead. HHH cut a promo about The Undertaker's Wrestlemania challenge to him and said he has too much respect for him to accept it. Of course, this blatant rejection of this challenge is just going to feul this upcoming feud more, unfortunately.

Daniel Bryan loses to the Big Show via countout. AJ was at ringside, looking really cute, might I add. Bryan got sent to the outside, feigning a knee injury. AJ was concerned and tried to help him and tried to prevent Show from hurting him more. Bryan took advantage and Show almost flattened AJ yet again. Bryan, again, took advantage and began to taunt Big Show, leading AJ away from the ring to "protect" her whilst slating Show, saying how selfish he is. By the time he reached the top, Show had won the match. Bryan took the mic and said nothing would change after Elimination Chamber.

Bryan's heel character has really grown on me. I wasn't sure about it at first but every time I see that brilliant celebration of his and every time he drops the Vegan line, I can't help but love it. He's using what he's being given greatly and I'm a fan. However, I don't like that we had to see this match YET AGAIN. I don't think it really did much to build up to Elimination Chamber. I know he's facing Orton on Smackdown but putting Bryan against Rhodes or Barrett or even Khali would have been good to see to make it look like they actually have a shot at the title, you know?

David Otunga proceeded to bore us to death with his lawyer crap by attempting to convince us of John Laurinaitis' apparent perfection. Triple H informed Justin Roberts Otunga would be in a match next. Purpose? There was none.

Sheamus loses to David Otunga after some running around, trying to escape.

Chris Jericho came out and cut a promo about "plagiarism" and I loved this segment. He talked about how everyone is just trying to rip him off; Miz with his suits, Kofi Kingston with his high-flying spots, Dolph Ziggler coming out with Vickie like he did with Stephanie, CM Punk with his claim to being the "Best In The World"... He said he trolled us all. Yes, you did, you brilliant troll. He said it's the end of the world as we know it. He said he was going to reclaim what is rightfully his.

And then our WWE Champion, CM Punk came out. Punk had a microphone in his hand and Cole said how we have a pipebomb on its way. I was geared up for a great Battle of the Promos. Punk walked into that ring, dropped that pipebomb, raised that title and walked out. Like a pro.

And by dropping that pipebomb, I mean he literally dropped it. Onto the mat. And Jericho was calling after him like that annoying ex-girlfriend that just got her ass dumped. I thought it was great. Punk mimicked what Jericho had done to us for weeks. He worked the crowd. He worked up Jericho and he left. This is going to be a great feud.

We got a Smackdown tag team match where Randy Orton and The Great Khali took on Cody Rhodes and Wade Barrett. Honestly, the highlight of this was Khali's brutal tags to Orton and when he tagged himself in to finish the match by pinning Cody Rhodes. I didn't care much for this match. In the end, it was all about putting Orton over even more (if that's possible) because he lays out Khali. Who cares?

We got a 4-on-4 diva's tag team match with Tamina, Eve Torres, Kelly Kelly and Alicia Fox taking on Beth Phoenix, Natalya and The Bella Twins. A Bella got another brutal tag in from Beth. Eve tagged in Tamina, who landed the Superfly Splash for the win. They were essentially the only participants in the match. I'm just grateful Nattie didn't get pinned or fart... Sacrificing a Bella for Tamina sounds good to me. I'm guessing Tamina will challenge Beth for the title next. On a different note, Lawler should be banned from doing commentary during divas matches.

Triple H is backstage, on the phone to someone, talking about John Laurinaitis and what the Board of Directors plan on doing with him. Johnny Ace himself turns up and says Shawn Michaels will be on Raw next week! And yes, he actually will! This will obviously involve HHH/Taker in some form. This segment was actually pretty amusing with the responses HHH gave to Laurinaitis. That being said, this Ambulance match between Cena and Kane at Elimination Chamber? I'm not such a big fan of that.

Josh Matthews talks to John Laurinaitis, who argues Triple H is unfit for the role of General Manager of Rraw because he's short-tempered, egotistical and a coward.

I aww at Justin Roberts for messing up the rules for the 6 Pack Challenge main event. Bless him.

There was a horrible spot early on in the match where Miz failed to catch R-Truth. Truth's back smacked into the floor on the outside, landing on his tailbone and then his head and had to be helped out. Miz, reportedly, has a lot of backstage heat because of this. Truth really looked like he was in pain but apparently his health is fine, which is good to hear. This was just not Miz's night though. After that, he was pretty much all over the place. You could see him at one point in the match, in the ring, oh-so-discretely talking to Jericho whilst they were laying down... I think you could hear him calling a spot? I don't know. But not good, Miz!

The match was okay? There were some cool spots from Kofi Kingston, as expected and I'm sure he'll be a good contribution to the Elimination Chamber match. Jericho got in the Walls of Jericho on him but he escaped. There were some good moments between Punk and Kofi too. Ziggler got his moments of showing off in though I think if they seriously want to go with this gimmick, they need to REALLY exaggerate it and really make him show off and look good. The odd stall in the match is not nearly enough. Eventually, Punk hit the GTS on Ziggler but Jericho dragged Punk out of the ring and threw him into the barricade behind the announce table to cover Ziggler and pick up the win.

I think it was unfortunate that Ziggler had to be pinned when you've got Miz or Kofi there but I was glad to see Jericho win. There's a legitimate chance he could possibly win the title at Elimination Chamber, now being the last entry.

The show ended with Kane and Eve backstage, Kane threatening her. Who care?

Raw, overall, was okay. It was nothing special. I don't have much to say. Too much time was wasted with those constant Cena/Rock packages, which was unnecessary and I felt like matches like Bryan/Show and Orton&Khali/Barrett&Rhodes weren't exactly necessary. Slightly different matches would have been nicer. Also, no sign of our current United States Champion, Jack Swagger, nor our Tag Team Champions, Epico and Primo.

I didn't review Raw last week but I would have given it a 8.5/10. It was a great show, a massive improvement and it's a disappointment that they let us down this week after that. Bryan/Punk was the definite highlight, despite Jericho's interference and Taker returning was amazing.

Raw - 23rd Jan 2012 - 7/10

Raw opens with CM Punk cutting a promo on the Royal Rumble and John Laurinaitis, giving us a little recap on how Raw ended the previous week. He demands John Laurinaitis comes out and repeats what he said but to his face. After some waiting, he doesn’t turn up. Instead, shortly after, Cena’s music hits and he tells Punk he’s tired of hearing him rambling on and he has some issues he wants to settle with Lauriniaitis. I was entertained by the faces Punk pulled in the background whilst Cena called out Laurinaitis.

Laurinaitis comes out and sets up a tag team match. Who are you? Teddy Long?

CM Punk gets pinned by Dolph Ziggler, resulting in a victory for Ziggler and Swagger over Cena and Punk. The match wasn’t all too captivating, in my opinion. Towards the finish, Swagger and Ziggler started to brawl on the outside whilst Punk and Ziggler were the two legal men. Punk shoved the referee out of the way, who was obstructing his way to the corner whilst watching Cena and Swagger. Punk goes to the top rope and Laurinaitis, who had been entertained by his phone up until them, interferes because Punk shoved the official. Ziggler capitalises and picks up a win after pulling on Punk’s tights. The match wasn’t great but I’m glad to see Ziggler pick up yet another win over Punk, despite Laurinaitis’ interference. It makes Ziggler look like a legitimate contender for the title on Sunday in a match I’m looking forward to.

Punk takes the mic and demands the opportunity to knock out Laurinaitis’ teeth by taking him on in the main event that night. His challenge is accepted. Well… This should be interesting.

The Highlight Reel makes a return! I was hoping more than anything that we would get a silent Highlight Reel. That would have been absolutely brilliant and hilarious. When Jericho came out with the t-shirt and then didn’t give it to anyone… Quality. But Chris Jericho didn’t remain silent. He spoke. And on the fourth week of Raw of 2012, God, I mean, Jericho said, “This Sunday, at the Royal Rumble… It will be the end of the world as you know it.” And then he left. So we have another legitimate contender in the Royal Rumble!

That being said, I hate how lazy WWE have been with the Rumble itself. There are, what, 5 real contenders? Well, what’s the point in even having the other 25 there? Let’s just make it a battle royal! I hate how they’re showcased some guys so so so much that they’ve completely neglected even mentioning anyone else, showing how irrelevant they are, which is really disappointing. This whole “anyone can compete! Yay surprises!” thing is just pure laziness. Some ‘Royal Rumble Qualifier’ matches between mid-card/under-card talent would have been nice to actually give them TV time rather than putting on stupid gimmick matches like we had on Smackdown. Hopefully, we see something like this this Smackdown but I really strongly doubt it.

Eve is protesting against Ryder facing Kane that night but he insists he has to go out. Mick Foley turns up and Zack is still in pretty bad shape, despite being “medically cleared to compete”. Cena turns up to speak to Zack. In the opening segment, Laurinaitis had made it clear if Cena interfered at all in Ryder’s match, he would never receive another US title shot again. Zack tells Cena not to do anything and he leaves.

Zack takes on Kane in a Falls Count Anywhere match and gets absolutely destroyed. Kane targets his injured back consistently throughout the match. Most of the match takes place outside of the ring, making good use of the stipulation. They go through the crowd and up the ramp. Zack manages to get in some offense once or twice but Kane quickly retaliates brutally each time. At some point, Eve comes out to watch Zack, being all concerned. The “Let’s go Ryder! Woo Woo Woo!” chants were brilliant and in full force. Basically, Zack was the perfect babyface throughout this. He got beat down constantly and continued to kickout every time Kane covered him. You felt sorry for the guy. You wanted to see him win despite knowing full well he wouldn’t. Then Kane chokeslammed right through the stage and the match essentially came to an end. Eve watches on, apparently crying whilst her make up remains intact. Kane stalks her until Cena comes to the rescue. Ryder is taken out on a stretcher to the hospital as he’s not moving. Eve appears distraught, Cena looks pissed off and insists he’ll get back at Kane. Eve turns and tells him he’s done enough before leaving with Zack. You can’t not have Cena turn to the dark side now!

I feel suicidal upon seeing Jinder Mahal and Sheamus are having their 6152156th match in this pathetic excuse for a “feud” of theirs. I was sorely tempted to skip this, being confident Sheamus would win. If not the pattern of their recent matches, Jinder’s jobber entrance gave it away. However, Mr. Wade Barrett appeared to do some great commentary and I couldn’t bring myself to miss that. He talks about Orton’s return (yay…) and how he’s defeated both him and Sheamus on numerous occasions, making him the best contender in the Rumble. Post-match, Sheamus tries to lure him into the ring. Barrett avoids the cheap shot and exits via the ramp. Sheamus takes the mic and states Barrett should get used to the sight of him in the ring because that’s what the outcome of Sunday’s Rumble will be. Again, I’m glad they’re profiling both these guys as strong contenders and it’d be a real shame if neither of them won, Barrett especially but I’d have liked to see even the tiniest bit of emphasis on other guys.

The Miz is backstage when R-Truth turns up, listing some “facts” from Market Research. He insists his name is FLEICHER. FLEICHER. The loser of their match will be Number 1 entrant in the Royal Rumble, according to John Laurinaitis and I really want that Little Jimmy shirt. Actually, I’ve been saying for ages… Little Jimmy headbands, WWE. Get on it.

I am pleased to see William Regal come down to do some commentary! We see a clip of his dancing and assault from Brodus on Smackdown. Brodus Clay defeats Heath Slater. What more can I say?

The Miz loses to R-Truth and becomes the Number 1 entrant in the Royal Rumble. The match wasn’t memorable, hence why I’m struggling to make any type of creative comment on it… Miz being number 1 could be both a blessing and a curse, you never know. I think it’s interesting that they put in this stipulation and hopefully Miz does a good job to show there was a purpose to this on Sunday.

John Laurinaitis is backstage “preparing” for his match with CM Punk. David Otunga turns up with a fax. Apparently it’s not good news. That means it is good news guys!

Finally, we are treated with the main event. CM Punk makes his entrance and John Lauriniatis, after being announced by Justin Roberts three times, fails to turn up. Eventually, when he does with Otunga, he informs everyone there is bad news and that he’s essentially on probation because the board are unhappy with how he’s handling things. No, really(?) Triple H is going to be evaluating him. Well, whoop-de-fucking-doo(!) More of The Game(!) I’m sure you can guess how the show ended, right? Laurinaitis planned on having Otunga replace him in the match. He began to the assault on Punk, who quickly fought back and took him out. With Otunga out of the way, Laurinaitis cowered and offered a handshake. Punk took it and then hoisted him up into that firemans carry, landing his signature GTS and it was a beautiful sight.

But that wasn’t all. As Punk exerted his anger on Laurinaitis, who to turn up but Dolph Ziggler? Ziggler creeps up and lands his Zig Zag, taking Punk out and stands supremely in the middle of the ring.

I thought the ending was great. Ziggler looks like he has a legitimate chance at winning the title on Sunday, which is something we rarely see with WWE’s PPV/title match build-ups! Seeing Laurinaitis being knocked out by Punk was also rather satisfying as it had been a long time coming and you could just see Punk fuming the whole time, which was brilliant.

Overall, Raw gets a 7/10 from me. It felt a tiny bit repetitive with the same few faces on constantly but there was a decent amount of Rumble build-up, despite that. It would have been nice to see more and see something from some other competitors! I also felt maybe Brodus’ match was a little unnecessary because this was the final Raw before the Royal Rumble and I would have liked to see a more serious match in his and Slater’s place.

Raw - 9th Jan 2012 - 7.5/10

Raw opened with a promo from Kane. He basically reiterated what he’s been saying recently about hate. Cena then turned up and they started to fight. They took it backstage and violence continued to ensue in the parking lot. A lot happens in the parking lot. Cena turns to retaliate after Kane lays him out to find Kane has disappeared. I feel like it’s just me who has little to no interest in this feud. It feels like filler until Cena moves onto the Rock. I don’t want to get my hopes up for Cena eventually snapping and lashing out. The segment was around ten minutes and not particularly engaging for me.

The first match of the night was a tag team match with Sheamus and Santino Marella taking on Wade Barrett and Jinder Mahal, following up from an incident on Smackdown where chaos broke out in the ring between Wade, Sheamus and Jinder. I can’t be the only who would have rather seen Wade team up with Drew, right? Especially considering Santino beat Drew on Smackdown. The end was predictable with Santino pinning Jinder. Unfortunately, I don’t think it makes Sheamus or Jinder look any good. Why are you having a guy nowhere near the top of the ladder consistently confront a beast like Sheamus? However, there is finally more build-up to the Royal Rumble as all four men are announced to be competing in the Rumble. Once again, we’re told the winner will compete in the main event at Wrestlemania. I think not.

The Miz is backstage complaining about R-Truth at John Laurinaitis and David Otunga. I would like to point out that “Big Johnny” and Miz’s suits were nicely colour co-ordinated, intentional or not. Miz repeats what he said last week. Laurinaitis tells us Brodus Clay is debuting on Raw that very night! Oh, really?

CM Punk versus Jack Swagger is announced for later on that night. It still annoys me he’s not in the second hour main event. This obsession with ratings is unhealthy. You’re making your belt look even less credible by having it constantly take a backseat to Cena or whoever will be in the main event. If you want to keep Punk in the first hour every now and then, fine but do you really need to do it all the time?! No. Stop it.

Edge is being inducted into the Hall of Fame this year and I teared up. Christian has to induct him. There is absolutely no question about it. However, I wish they’d waited for Wrestlemania to be in Toronto to induct Edge. It would have made it that much more special, I think. This is still great to hear though. There’s no doubt about how brilliant a career Edge has had.

Miz is seen asking Mason Ryan to be his bodyguard. Okay then.

Zack Ryder is on the phone to his dad, talking about how Kane nearly dragged him to hell. He completely changes tune and says he’ll destroy Kane when Eve turns up. I ship these two so hard right now. Apparently they’re going on a date after Eve’s match against Beth Phoenix. Someone is seen creeping behind Ryder. I thought it was Truth for a moment.

We get yet another Champion v Champion match! Can you sense my excitement? Kofi Kingston takes on Daniel Bryan. Bryan gets a pretty flat reception from the crowd. It doesn’t help that Bryan’s alignment as either a babyface or a heel hasn’t been fully established yet here he is taking on Kofi. Michael Cole is a heel commentator, right? So why is his commentary still anti-Bryan? The match is short. Daniel Bryan wins via submission with the LaBell Lock, which was good to see. He celebrates extensively, climbing onto the announce table, which I love and gets a slightly better crowd reaction. There was the odd cheer and boo. It’s an improvement! Big Show’s theme plays and the crowd picks up. Bryan grabs the mic and cuts of Show before he barely gets a word in. He says he’s also annoyed at how the match on Smackdown turned out because of Mark Henry and he’s willing to defend his title against him again, whenever Show wants because he’s a fighting champion. Show informs him a no-DQ, no count-out match between the two of them is booked for the title on that week’s Smackdown. I’d like it if we got less title matches on TV, please. There’s some hesitancy with Bryan but he eventually accepts what Show told him.

There’s a re-cap of Y2J’s return last week. We see Brodus Clay’s locker room door. Woah!

This segment was definitely… Suprising. Frankly, I don’t know how Justin Roberts managed to keep himself composed the whole time. Think Big Dick Johnson meets Viscera… And here emerges Brodus Clay with two dancers (Naomi Knight and Ariane Andrew (that’s the Melina/Alicia Fox girl) from FCW). Apparently, we’ve gone from Hall Of Pain, which was apparently his idea, to Planet Funk. Brodus squashes Curt Hawkins. I don’t understand what WWE have against Hawkins. He’s got the mic skills, the in-ring skills, the look, Big Glenn and unlike most of the roster, he has character. Honestly, I can’t put into words what this segment was like. My mind was blown as was many others’. The crowd didn’t seem to know how to respond either.

Backstage, Zack is brushing his teeth, celebrating over his date with Eve. Someone is stalking him.

Miz asks Epico and Primo (with Rosa) to be his bodyguards and is unsuccessful. CM Punk turns up and laughs at him.

CM Punk takes on Jack Swagger. Due to an interruption from John Laurinaitis before the bell rings, we’re informed If Punk is victorious, Swagger and Vickie will be banned from ringside for Dolph’s chance at the title at the Royal Rumble. Dolph Ziggler is announced to be facing John Cena later that night. The match starts out pretty slow with plenty of mat work. Punk counters an ankle lock yet Swagger manages to maintain control for the beginning. Ziggler attempts to attack Punk when he’s thrown outside the ring but is stopped by Laurinaitis. After switching positions with Swagger, who is still in the ring, Punk takes control with a suicide dive. Back in the ring, he lands some nice kicks and a neckbreaker, followed by a high knee with Swagger in the corner. Swagger counters the running bulldog, resulting in a few near falls after Swagger lands plenty of power moves on Punk. Punk counters an attempt for the gutwrench powerbomb, getting Swagger into position for the GTS. Swagger counters that and we have another near fall. Punk eventually wins when he hits the elbow from the top rope. It looked like two and a half to me and after a slowed down replay, we see that it was in fact two and a half. Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprisingly), Laurinaitis doesn’t object to the referee’s call. I love how when Swagger got his shoulder up, Punk just shoved his arm to the side. This was a pretty decent match! I’m not a big fan of Jack Swagger but I liked this match.

There’s a replay of Kane/Cena’s PG backstage brawl.

Cena and Ryder are talking backstage and what does Cena do? He brings up Twitter. Now I love Twitter. I tweet constantly (cheap plug: @livetogetrad) and I shouldn’t really complain but to continuously bring it up to this extent? It’s a bit too much. Zack definitely has a stalker. I like these consistent Ryder backstage segments. It reminds me of when we used to get numerous skits backstage that would all tie into each other and various storylines. It’s something WWE have been sorely lacking for a long time now.

The Bellas are backstage. Oh joy(!) Ricardo Rodriguez turns up because the Bellas want to send Alberto, who has a groin injury, a message. The Miz threatens Ricardo to call out R-Truth and insult him, obviously to set him up. Ricardo eventually says he’ll do it. Poor Ricky. :(

The Four Horsemen are the second inductees for the Hall of Fame announced on Raw. With Ric Flair on TNA, I’m kind of interested to see how this will work out for both promotions.

Ricardo is scared as shit when he calls out Truth and awkwardly insults his mom and his breath. I love you, Ricky. Truth comes out and says because he’s a GOOD R-TRUTH, he might let Ricardo go. After the Little Jimmys object to Ricardo leaving unharmed, Truth demands he sings and this is brilliant and gets Ricardo a nice pop. However, after knocking a microphone out of Truth’s hand, he’s attacked, only for The Miz to rush into the ring and a fight ensues between him and R-Truth. I’d like to point out Miz looks great in that hoodie. R-Truth gains the upper hand so Miz resorts to escaping through the audience. I’m not sure how I feel about Miz being presented as so cowardly. I was hoping he’d have turned face by now.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome the only man to ever defeat Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock in the same night to become the first ever Undisputed WWE Champion; Chris Jericho!” I love what Jericho’s doing. I love how he was introduced. I love the mockery he’s clearly making of the audience and how they blindly cheer him. I love how he basically repeated what he did last week. I love the Christmas lights, the cheesy smile, the blatant ass-kissing of the fans. I love how he got all “emotional” in the middle of the ring and just left without saying a word into the mic he was holding. Can someone take a “Jeritroll” sign soon with the troll face and all? I love this. The cheers begin to fade into boos as he leaves. Everything he’s doing self-explanatory. Don’t you get it?

We have the promised Divas match between Eve Torres and Beth Phoenix. Eve is in the ring and then someone else’s theme music plays. Now I know Beth is one hell of a brutal competitor but… Kane? Anyway, this was a tiny bit pathetic in how Eve just froze and panicked until Ryder came out and “saved” her by taking her to the parking lot and getting her into a car… Which has a flat tyre. Zack is trying to fix the tyre and this was actually a pretty comical scene. They are adorable though. Again, I like how these backstage segments all tie into each other and are relevant. Those two aside, where has our Divas Champion been as of late? I miss her. :(

The beginning of Ziggler’s entrance is cut. Cena is greeted with cheers for once. Ziggler gets onto his showing off pretty quick. Getting Cena into a headlock, he keeps hold whilst doing a headstand and then a bridge. I still really think he needs to pick up more “Show-Off” mannerisms like Chris Hero was with Larry Sweeney. This was an improvement in showing off though. Good man, Ziggler. After numerous elbows to Cena’s chest, he starts doing sit ups only to have Cena take advantage and treat us to some “Vintage Cena”! This is short-lived as footage of Kane attacking Ryder in the parking lot appears on the titantron. Meanwhile, Eve is locked in the car, screaming. Cena is distracted, enabling Ziggler to lock on the sleeperhold. Kane chokeslams Ryder in the parking lot and Cena runs off towards to them as soon as he breaks free of Ziggler, throwing him into the steel steps and the referee begins the ten-count. Kane attacks Cena and Raw ends.

Raw gets a 7.5/10 from me this week. A solid B. I was originally inclined to give it a 7 but I thought I’d be a little nicer. ;) I liked it though. I’d have liked to see a bit more of a build-up for the Royal Rumble in terms of the thirty-man Battle Royal. So far, we have essentially four men really confirmed. I’m still annoyed Punk wasn’t in the main event yet again as this doesn’t help with the credibility of your champion and title but I’ll deal with it. Champion versus Champion matches need to just stop. I enjoyed most of the rest of it. This Cena/Kane feud started to grow on me with the backstage segment concerning Ryder and the closing of the show. Who was stalking Ryder though? It can't have been Kane... Was it? All in all, a definite improvement compared to last week’s Raw.