Normally I review Monday Night Raw in its entirety, but since were in a new year I’m going to do something a tad different. The Good, The Bad Monday Night Raw. This is going to be what I liked and disliked about the program. Raw and Smackdown air for several hours on Universal HD for time warner cable on Saturday nights, I get to view both programs twice and it really cement what I like or didn’t. I have the flu so bare with me if my enthusiasm is non existent. My brain feels like its trapped under Rick Ross’s underboob. Insane pressure. THE GOOD: WWE Tag Team Champion Kofi Kingston vs. World Champion Daniel Bryan Bryan came out, very confident pointing at the Championship and going “I’m the Champion!!!!”. Bryan caught Kofi with the LeBell Lock in a very nice spot where Kofi came off the top rope with a reverse cross body. Bryan did an over the top celebration after the match, standing on the barrier and on the announce table kept going “YES!!!!”. Bryan winning clean against Kofi this week and Cody last week establishes the heel “IM THE CHAMP AND IM GREAT” character. Bryan is doing a great job of being the cocky. The fact the announce team is treating Danielson like he got lucky really builds the to the heat. R-Truth/ Ricardo Rodriguez Im a huge fan of Ricardo Rodriguez he works hard, takes some crazy bumps and isn’t on the active roster. Back stage Miz approaches Ricardo and tells him that he better call out R-Truth or he will have him join Alberto Del Rio on the injured list. In the ring Rodriguez makes tries to man up but Truth made a little cockroach reference and asked if Ricardo would sing him and Little Jimmy “La Cuca Rocha”. This is so bad, that it was amazing. A jerk reaction of knocking the microphone out of Truths hand causes Ricardo to receive Truth finisher. The Miz jumps from the crowd and attacks Truth. Truth fought back and chased Miz through the crowd. CM Punk vs. Jack Swagger Before the start of the match, Laurinaitis came out and reminded the crowd that he’s the special referee for Punk’s match with Dolph Ziggler at the Royal Rumble. Why this is amazing? two reasons. The first if Ziggler wins with the help of Johnny Ace it builds more heat to an already bad ass heel. Two seeing CM Punk go ape shit on Johnny Ace and winning back the title at the next PPV is a compelling watch. Laurinaitis went on to say to show he’s fair, Ziggler will face John Cena tonight and if Punk beats Swagger, then Swagger and Vickie Guerrero will be banned from ringside at the Rumble. Punk won the match anyway, so Ziggler and Vickie are banned from ringside at the Rumble. By far the best match I have ever seen Jack Swagger have. The back and fourth was great we got a Randy Savage top rope elbow life is pretty sweet at this moment. Chris Jericho Last week I wrote my thoughts on the return of Y2J. This week Jericho continues to say nothing. Jericho grabs the microphone like he is going to speak but puts the microphone down and walks out of the ring crying. Could Y2J be creating the greatest heel character of all time? Tweet me @EmilioSparks I want to hear your thoughts.
I THE BAD: Kane stalking Zack Ryderget it Ryder is now John Cena’s on screen Brutus Beefcake. But do we need several segments of Ryder on RAW?
Part of the appeal of Ryder was that he got over in other avenues outside of a WWE Push. Winning the U.S. Title…Great, his pursuit of Eve Torres love it. I think we would all enjoy to see jaded romantic miss adventures. Let his comedic side show, but too involved him with this Kane/Cena program is where I say enough Zack Ryder. Too much of anything is a bad thing. Sheamus & Santino vs. Wade Barrett & Jinder Mahal
Ive seen enough of Jinder Mahal to last a life time. In my fluish state is crawled to the bathroom for this entire match. The nothing match went 3 minutes, and ended with Sheamus planting Mahal with the Brogue Kick, and then let Santino take the pinfall. I like to think of this match as hey lets talk about the Royal Rumble. Edge being inducted to WWE’s Hall Of Fame
The headliner this year, being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame on March 31 2012…is Edge. Wow how bad does this suck? Edge is 37 years old and wrestled active last year. Edge never did anything so amazing that warrants HOF status. Ok he held a shit load of world championships and brought the concept of Table, Ladders and Chairs to where it is now, but name me a 5 star match edge had? There are far more deserving to be inducted into the Hall of Famers. Couch Couch Macho Man Randy Savage. Brodus Clay Re-debutes
What the fuck is this cowboy bullshit. After weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks of hype promo packages for Brodus Clay, we get The “Funkasaurus”. Yes all I could do was laugh when I heard them say he was build from “the planet funk”. He has dancing girls. Clay dressed up like a fat Kid Rock. Who decided hey lets dust off the Flash Funk character again, that failed rather nicely lets have it fail again. What really sucks is Curt Hawkins had to be apart of this. Hawkins is a great talent who is going no where. Let Hawnkins cook. Clay squashed Hawkins in a minute and danced with the Funkettes. THE IDK WHAT TO THINK: The ending of RAW
While the match it self between John Cena and Dolph Ziggler was great the events after the match make this my IDK. Ziggler does sit ups on top of Cena. FUCKEN GENIUS SPOT!!!! As Super Cena goes for the 5 Knuckle Shuffle we see video of Kane attacking Ryder, Kane choke slams Ryder off of a ledge to the ground. Cena runs to the parking lot but is attacked by Kane. We see Ryder laying on the ground Kane a face claw to put Cena to sleep knock. This whole storyline has the feeling of a b-horrior movie vibe, like House Of Wax starring Paris Hilton. The whole ending killed what I thought was a great RAW. This embrace the hate storyline needs to be secondary. No hate will be embraced as Post Fruity Pebbles and John Cena are teaming up for a new partnership, which includes a collectable cereal box in support of the ‘be a STAR’ anti-bullying message. For more info CLICK HERE
Emilio Sparks
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