We were discussing what the new title could look like,

And I said something about it not being able to get any tackier than it already is.

So a guy I know basically said, "the new WWE Title will have a picture of John Laurinaitis on the front in pure gold, capitalised under it 'the People Powers Championship'"

omg

Wrestlemania 28 - Predictions

Epico & Primo (c) vs Tyson Kidd & Justin Gabriel vs The Usos – Triple Threat Tag Team Title Match

So this is the pre-show match. I expect this to be fucking magnificent just by looking at the names alone. A title change is very highly unlikely. I’d like to see Epico and Primo retain and maybe continue a feud of some kind with these teams… Though I’m disappointed Reks and Hawkins aren’t in this. :(

Team Johnny (Dolph Ziggler, David Otunga, Mark Henry, Drew McIntyre, Jack Swagger, The Miz) vs Team Teddy (R-Truth, Santino Marella, Kofi Kingston, The Great Khali, Booker T, Zack Ryder) – Winner Becomes GM of Raw and Smackdown

I guess the teams are slightly more even now, especially since Christian had to be removed. I’m still thinking Team Johnny will win and I think, storyline-wise, it probably gives creative more to work with? Khali isn’t exactly a great asset for Team Teddy… Is this an elimination match or just a standard tag team match? I’m assuming it won’t be given much time and it’ll just be a normal one? The only person on Team Johnny I can see getting pinned is Drew... And I'd rather that didn't happen! :') I’m giving this to Team Johnny, yeah. They have the stronger team.

Beth Phoenix & Eve Torres vs Kelly Kelly & Maria Menounos

Ah yes… This match. I’d like to see Beth and Eve win for fairly obvious reasons but I think it’s safe to assume this “celebrity” Maria Menounos and her partner, Kelly Kelly, will pick up a victory here. It’ll be an awful outcome because either the Divas champion gets pinned or Eve does and she’s been on such a roll lately, you don’t want to ruin that.

Randy Orton vs Kane

Is this even a valid question? D’you really think Orton will lose at Wrestlemania? This “feud” with Kane is pure filler and he’s been killing him in the “build-up”. I’m not expecting a particularly entertaining match and I 100% expect Orton to come away with a victory here.

Cody Rhodes (c) vs Big Show – Intercontinental Championship

This, again, feels like some kind of filler. I feel like Cody/Goldust could have worked much better in terms of storyline. Cody should retain his title here. Didn’t he beat Khali the other week? Not that I’m saying Khali’s all mighty and crap but y’know, size and all…

Daniel Bryan (c) vs Sheamus – World Heavyweight Championship

So I think this match could go either way. A few weeks ago, I’d have said Sheamus, hands down. I’m still sort of leaning towards Sheamus but considering they fucked up advertising and essentially spoiled that Sheamus would win the title tonight, they may have changed their minds? Or they could have gone one step further and thought, “Haha, they’re going to think we’ve changed our minds so we won’t!” ;) What am I doing? Hahaha. Yeah, this should be a great match. It’d be fucking amazing to see Bryan retain and start celebrating and chanting, “YES!” into the next match, oh my God. I fully expect “YES” chants to fill the stadium, regardless of who wins!

The Undertaker vs Triple H

This one’s a no brainer. Triple H isn’t breaking that streak. The Undertaker’s got this. HBK wins either way!

CM Punk (c) vs Chris Jericho – WWE Championship

Again, this could go either way. I’m leaning towards Jericho winning tonight. I don’t know why. I just am. I expect this match, wrestling-wise, to steal the show. These two just cannot go wrong. THE FANS WIN! ;) Yeah, I’m going with Jericho methinks.

John Cena vs The Rock

Cena has to win this. I’m quite interested to see how exactly this match will play out in terms of crowd interaction and how they’ll interact with each other, whether the match will be completely clean etc.

Hopefully, the rumours I’ve heard about a “trilogy” aren’t true. This ends tonight and, I hope, with a victory for Cena.

Raw - 12th 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”!

Where do I even start?

The Doctor of Thuganomics returned to open Raw and I marked out. Cena rapped about Rock all decked out in his old gear. This was great and it was a complete surprise but it was great. The delivery was pretty much spot on and there were some hilarious references in there. Don't you just miss that theme song? WURD LYF~

Sheamus defeated Dolph Ziggler in what was easily the best match of the night. Daniel Bryan and AJ were in the sky box, looking down. Bryan brushed off Matthews after he questioned his behaviour towards AJ the previous week. Hey, Bryan was looking all cleaned up, sitting there like a champ. The match was good. That welt on Sheamus's back looked horrible, especially since he's so pale. The dropkick on the outside from Ziggler looked great. There was a point or two where I thought Ziggler might, by some chance, have the match but as expected, Sheamus was victorious and rightfully so! He's looking good going into Wrestlemania. Why doesn't Ziggler have a big, epic match for Mania though?!

On a side note, I feel like Dolph Ziggler should get an award of some kind for having the best trunks. Countless numbers.

We were supposed to have a mixed tag team match consisting of Santino Marella & Aksana vs David Otunga and a partner. Thankfully, we weren't subjected to Aksana's awful in ring work and got a handicap match instead. Santino faced Otunga and Mark Henry and of course, lost. Henry was announced as a member of Team Laurinaitis for this 12-man tag team match taking place at Wrestlemania. Kofi Kingston and R-Truth attempted to take out Henry but he laid them out. I guess those two will be with Santino on Team Long then? This built up well towards the match without taking too much TV time, which was good.

Zack and Eve are backstage. Zack is afraid she's playing him but they decide to be "friends with benefits". Wooaahh! Beth Phoenix turns up and she and Eve exchange a line or two. It wasn't much but at least we got some Eve, which was good. We saw more of what's happening between her and Zack and we got an appearance from the Divas Champion! Finally!

However, I hope we don't get a divas tag team match at Wrestlemania though. They were hinting towards it but... God, please don't let that happen. These Madusa/Beth rumours need to be true.

The Miz is told he can only be on Team Laurinaitis if he beats CM Punk later. So I'm assuming his losing streak will actually go somewhere, right?

We got another return! This time, The Funkasaurus! Can I just say I've missed seeing Brodus, Naomi & Cameron on Raw? Brodus beat Jinder Mahal relatively quickly. I was more entertained by the entrance and post-match celebrations though.

Shawn Michaels cuts a promo and calls out The Undertaker. HBK is pissed at Taker for looking down on him as a failure but Taker suggests that maybe this is a seed being planted by Triple H. The promo got particularly good when they addressed the fact that HBK is the special guest referee and he has a lot of control in the match at Wrestlemania despite not wrestling. I thought HBK's delivery, towards the end particularly, was really good when he talked about still having an opportunity to end The Undertaker's streak even if his career had been ended by Taker.

When he leaves, Triple H comes out, says nothing (thank God) and sends the DX chops round Taker's way before also leaving. Classy, right? Hahaha.

Minimal words from Triple H in its own would make for a good segment but the exchanges between HBK and Taker were great, HBK especially, in my opinion. I'm predicting HBk screws over HHH at Mania... I hope.

We got a guest announcer in the form of an actor, James Roday. I liked him, okay. He seems like a fan, which is cool. CM Punk defeated The Miz in Miz's hometown of Cleveland, furthering Miz's losing streak. The match was pretty short but that wasn't the focus.

The focus was Chris Jericho's promo after the match. Jericho was on the tron and said he had a little dark secret of Punk's to expose. This. Was. Great.

It was pretty mild compared to what it could have been if WWE wasn't (inconsistently) PG but I enjoyed it. Jericho divulged the secret of CM Punk's alcoholic father and forced the idea that alcohol is "in [Punk's] blood", that it's a part of him and that soon, after he loses at Wrestlemania, he'll cave into those desires to consume that poison and he'll end up just like his drunk of a father. I have to hand it to Punk, his reaction to Jericho was A+. He looked so genuinely shocked... Is that the right word? I can't even think of the word. I'm going to sound clever and say Punk's reaction was ineffable but you could almost feel what Punk would be feeling. I hope this feud goes for a while after Mania, at least.

I know there's been a lot of comments on the internet about this promo segment. I enjoyed it. Remember, all of this is scripted. Jericho isn't purposely going out of his way to offend Punk. Punk has been through more brutal promos regarding his family, alcohol and his background in the past so don't get the wrong impression. Just enjoy the product we're being given. Plus it's getting Punk more over and getting Jericho more heat.

David Otunga's services as a lawyer are advertised. It was corny but it made me laugh. I don't mind Otunga in this kind of non-wrestler role at all. He can be entertaining, especially with John Laurinaitis, which is kind of ironic...

Randy Orton beat Jack Swagger with, guess what? Yes, the RKO! Both guyson their own are great in ring performers. Kane's music plays but he's nowhere to be found. Being 100% positive and all, I'll leave it at that.

To close the show, we got a "Rock Concert". I see what you did there. It was basically Rock singing about sleeping with Cena's mom etc etc. There were some good lines in there but as usual, Rock had to throw in those "usual" lines he uses about Cena. There was this little karaoke thing where Rock tried to get everyone to sing "We Will Rock You"... But hey, the Cleveland crowd ate it up and Rocky was loving it so whatever. Good for you, Rock.

Next week's Raw has Mark Henry vs John Cena scheduled as well Triple H, Undertaker and Shawn Michaels being advertised for an "End of an Era" segment.

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.

Raw - 26/12/11 - 6/10

I’d written out a review. I’d nearly finished it. Then I lose it. That was fucking brilliant. Here’s take 2.

I can’t be the only who felt the Chicago crowd had let us down a little. Maybe it’s because I expected too much? I don’t know. Sure, there wasn’t that same electricity like at Money in the Bank but Punk left there the WWE Champion. Last night, he returned as the WWE Champion. I just expected a stronger crowd. They were pretty flat in some places. Punk got a nice pop. I just expected it to be bigger. Raw felt awkward.

You know what really felt awkward? Alberto del Rio’s promo. His music cut out whilst Ricardo was still introducing him. I just felt uncomfortable. I swear there was a point where I genuinely believe Berto didn’t know what to say. Then the Bella twins came out! Was this really necessary? If you answered “no”, you would be correct. Pointless segment.

R-Truth’s return was another awkward segment. Miz had been counted out during his match with Cena, which he had demanded and then refused to participate in. O-kay then. The crowd almost didn’t know how to react to Truth. When he attacked Miz… That felt awkward. It was like neither of them knew what they were doing. When Truth started talking… That also felt awkward. I couldn’t tell where he was standing with the crowd. Is he a heel? Is he turning into a babyface?

Our Executive Vice President and Interim General Manager of Raw managed to yet again fuck his lines. Nice one. Why is he even on TV? His presence is just unnecessary. When the gauntlet match and the additional stipulations were announced, I worried for Punk. You know how I really don’t want him to turn into a superhero. Johnny Ace’s interference was fucking stupid. And awkward. I would have been happy had Punk lost just with Swagger and Vickie interfering in the match.

Cody Rhodes and Booker T had a random match. I’m assuming this will lead to a rematch for the title. It was a decent match. Cody lost after Booker hit him with the scissor kick. I don’t know how to feel about this so I’m going to move on.

Let’s move away from the awkward and onto the painful.

I think everyone knows how pleased I was when Zack Ryder finally won the United States Championship. But everyone also probably knows that my love for him does not even begin to compare to my love for Tyson Kidd and Natalya. It hurts, y’know… That two of the most talented wrestlers on the roster and essentially used as jobbers. This mixed tag team match was predictable and it essentially revolved around Zack checking out Eve’s ass. Do I really need to elaborate as to why I’m so pro-Divas of Doom?

Another painful segment was, yep, you guessed it, David Otunga vs Big Show. Honestly, I nearly drifted off to sleep. Then I heard Mark Henry’s theme music. Now, I love his theme. It’s hilarious. But which moron said entrance music should play for interruptions should just resign and never watch any wrestling ever again. That isn’t even the worst part. I know, what could be worse than a match with David Otunga in it? Daniel Bryan’s appearance. I didn’t even see his face. He was on screen for virtually a second. He is the World Heavyweight Champion and he’s being used to elevate a feud between Big Show and Mark Henry. What the fuck are they doing with him?! This pisses me off so much, I can’t even explain. He’s not being presented as a threat. He’s not presented as a big deal. He’s not presented as a champion! He’s just there, gleefully parading his world title without a care in the world. Am I supposed to take this seriously? For fuck’s sake, WWE! And the crowd was just flat. I expected better. It really says a lot when your World Heavyweight Champion is featured less than two other guys on the A-show.

Apparently we’re seeing Barrett/Orton face each other on Smackdown… Again. This time in a Falls Count Anywhere match. I hope this isn’t the main event.

Raw was in Chicago this week. Chicago is the hometown of the WWE Champion, CM Punk. But who was in both the one-hour and second-hour main event? Why, none other than John Cena, of course. Your WWE Champion has returned home. So you put one of the least liked guys in the main event. Oh and Kane got a pretty poor reaction. You cannot be fucking serious, bro. Someone obviously panicked over last week’s ratings and felt the need to give us a double dose of Cena. Fuck off. Get over yourself and sort your fucking shit out.

The highlight of Raw, which isn’t really saying much, would be that Dolph Ziggler is the new #1 contender for the WWE Championship and he will face CM Punk on Raw next week. This can only be beautiful. I loved it when Ziggler got so excited and started parading around with the title.

Despite the fact he was jobbing, Tyson Kidd was actually ON Raw.

Overall, a disappointing Raw. I expected better. I’m being nice by giving it a 6/10. I couldn’t give a fuck about ratings but I hope this week’s Cena segment’s ratings bomb. Sorry Cena. I like you sometimes but WWE management pisses me off. It’s nothing personal.

Night of Champions 2011 - Predictions

I haven’t written anything in quite a while, huh? I won’t be watching the PPV live tonight. Instead, I’ll be watching back at some point tomorrow. In any case, here are my predictions for ‘Night of Champions’.

Beth Phoenix V Kelly Kelly © for the Divas Championship. It’s a surprise in itself that K2 retained at SummerSlam but I fully expect Beth to win tonight in her hometown. It makes sense. I hope it’s a clean win too. For those of us, who still have the glimmer of hope that change is coming (Hello CM Punk), a clean win for Beth is what we want, right?

Dolph Ziggler (c) V John Morrison V Alex Riley V Jack Swagger for the United States Championship. I wasn’t expecting a fatal four-way. Near SummerSlam, I expected Ziggles to defend against Alex Riley with A-Ry possibly going over but Swagger came in the way. I think Swagger and Ziggles will cost each the victory (perhaps a face turn for one of them?) and they will possibly engage in a feud (though I’m hoping for Ziggles to be elevated to the main event very soon)? This leaves us with John Morrison and Alex Riley. It’s anyone’s game, really. A-Ry, I understand why he’s in the match. JoMo, it seems, was just randomly thrown in. Maybe if he turned heel, he and A-Ry could give us a good series of match? I can see JoMo winning just because A-Ry is still pretty green but a feud with JoMo would help there and keep him in the title picture. I'm going for JoMo to win.

Cody Rhodes (c) V Ted DiBiase for the Inter-Continental Championship. This match has been booked too early. I don’t think Ted should have turned on Cody so soon but it was still effective and Ted did a good job. I hope to see Ted DiBiase win and hopefully a feud with Cody will last longer than A-Ry and Miz’s did.

Air Boom (Evan Bourne & Kofi Kingston) (c) V Awesome Truth (R-Truth & The Miz) for the World Tag Team Championships. This should be a good match. I’m a bit unsure as to who will win following RAW and Smackdown this week. Having Air Boom lose after losing their singles matches this week would make them look very weak yet I’d like to see Miz and Truth go over and it would make sense for them to win. I’m going with Miz and Truth to win.

Mark Henry V Randy Orton (c) for the World Heavyweight Championship. Mark Henry has to win. End of. Having him lose would majorly fuck up this entire storyline. There are rumours circulating that Kane and Show could turn up and cost him the match? If Henry’s going to lose, I’d like it to be via DQ as he destroys Orton. Orton winning clean will make me lose all faith in this company.

Alberto del Rio (c) V John Cena for the WWE Championship. WWE go on their tour of Mexico next month. It would be incredibly stupid to take the title of ADR. ADR hasn’t been made to look like a champion at all so it’s important he wins tonight. I expect him to retain, preferably clean but I can see some interference from Ricardo, following what happened on RAW. Either way, ADR should win. No more rematches for Cena. Someone else should be pushed for the world title.

CM Punk V Triple H in a no DQ match. If Triple H loses, he must step down from being COO. Ah yes, the real main event. The match this PPV is all about. If anything, this should be a great match. It should be pretty intense considering the heat between these guys both on and off-screen. If Triple H can control his ego, we could see Punk win. But I think Kevin Nash will interfere. In favour of whom, I have no idea. I’m thinking most likely Punk? It could really all be an act between himself and Triple H. Or perhaps Nash is in support of Punk? Why do I say that? We saw him leave with Johnny Ace a few weeks ago. If Triple H has to resign, he’s a perfectly viable option for the next COO, right? I, personally, would like to see some McMahon drama and Stephanie step in. Preferably against HHH but let’s be honest, storyline or not, The Game would never let that happen, right? We could have a great set-up for Survivor Series if Nash and his buddies try to help HHH. I mean, why else would HHH introduce this no DQ stipulation? Add in the rumours going around for a while now about guys like KOW apparently about to be signed (Claudio Castagnoli who was signed a few days ago under Antonio Cesaro) amongst others and Punk could have a stable of his own formed. I think so long as it’s more beneficial for the storyline, it doesn’t matter too much who wins. I’m going to say Kevin Nash interferes and cost… Triple H the match. ><

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to share your view. :D

RAW - 01/08/11 - 8/10

PUNK RECAP PROMO.

Punk comes in and talks. “I love the place I work. I just hate the people in charge” – Thank you. He talks about why he came back and how the change he made seems to have gone so quickly so he’s here for more change. Triple H interrupts. CM Punk says, “Ahem. Well, it’s time to play the game”. I found this amusing. Punk brings back the amusing aspects. Triple H comes out and says resigning him was for good business, whilst expressing his negative personal feelings to boos. Punk mentions old talents Vince let go (JERICHOOOOOO) to a big pop from the audience. THE TRIPLE H IMPRESSION I AM SOBBING. OH MY GOD. ALSO, I DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW SOMEONE CAN HAVE A SKINNY, FAT ASS. THAT IS AN OXYMORON. IT DOES NOT EXIST, TRIPLE H. Punk is brilliant on the mic. A very long segment but it was good!

JoMo and Mysterio backstage.

Then we have the Divas Battle Royale. As soon as Melina and Gail Kim were out, I knew It’d suck and lo’ and behold. Natalya eliminated by the Bellas. Fml. Alicia Fox eliminated. YES. I’m praying for Beth to win. Oh God. If it’s any of the other three, fuck this. No hope for the divas division. YES. EVE’S OUT. THE BELLAS CANNOT WIN. OH GOD. BETH WON. THIS IS GLORIOUS. HEEL TURN. FUKCK YEA. I CAN’T EVEN TYPE. I MEANT FUCK YEAH. But was Maryse even in it? Kelly had better get crushed at SummerSlam.

Amusing Miz/Truth segment about how they got screwed out of titles and are tag teaming against JoMo and Mysterio.

Cena interview with Josh Matthew. Standard. Nothing to say.

Tag team match. JoMo gets pinned by Truth. A good match. I don’t understand why JoMo’s being booked like this if they hyped up his return so much though. Miz then delivers the Skull Crushing Finale on JoMo, post-match. Nice build-up to SummerSlam matches, Could anyone else feel the sexual tension between those two? ;)

Triple H interview. I'm glad we're getting more backstage segments to build up storylines even if they're not completely necessary.

Dolph and Vickie. WHAT ARE THOSE NOISES, MICHAEL COLE?! A-Ry comes out. He’s so adorable. Dolph, just abandon Vickie like A-Ry said. She basically said you’re nothing without her. A-Ry push for US title?! And 3 Downstait songs in a row?! This will forever amuse me. Sorry.

Tag team match. Otunga and McGillicutty’s theme needs to be banned. Whilst I’m glad they didn’t ignore what happened on Superstars with them and Ryder/Marella the other week, this was a much poorer match. I’m bummed Ryder got pinned. If you’re gonna have him on two shows, don’t freaking bury him.

Unnecessary recap of opening segment.

Punk backstage with Josh Matthews. I like this segment. Very reflective of Punk's calm persona, which worked.

ADR V Evan Bourne. My babe. It wasn’t a great match. It was okay. ADR wins via submission. Kofi comes out for some reason. I don’t see the purpose between their “feud”.

Triple H confronts Cena and Punk issue. John Laurinaitis comes out and says to strip Cena’s title from him. Cena comes out and threatens to punch him again. Laurinaitis leaves. Punk comes out. He says Triple H is probably gonna strip his title then. Instead, Triple H says there’ll be a title v title match at SummerSlam, just like we suspected. Except it’s a ladder match. I’m looking forward to this! What about Mysterio’s rematch clause though? Then there’s a silent competition between Cena and Punk, each raising their titles, alternatively. For some reason, there are people booing Punk. Uh, okay. Remove yourself immediately. We end with Punk’s music, thank God, which is cooler than Cena’s so :P

Anyway, I liked RAW this week. There was good build-up to SummerSlam. We got a lot of CM Punk. The promo segments didn’t drag on, they were interesting. I’ll give it a 8/10. There was an unnecessary recap segment. I didn’t like ADR/Bourne that much. Morrison losing his first two matches since injury is ridiculous. If he wins at Summerslam, I’ll overlook it. I wasn’t a fan of the tag team match either so… I’d say I’m being quite lenient with 8/10! That’s what, scraping an A?