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GOALS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS – LOOKING AT RAW 1/30/12

RAW – 30/1/12
Before I get into Raw, I’d like to give some thoughts on the Royal Rumble, which I did indeed purchase. I went into the show not expecting much, and I would never go into a show assuming it would be a poor show, but in this specific scenario I did, because the fact that they had not announced the majority of the participants in the Rumble match itself made me think that it would be written and rewritten on the day of the show and the way the Rumble came off, I’d be shocked if it was done any other way.
The question then becomes, why did I purchase a show I wasn’t expecting much from? Well it’s the Royal Rumble, I have every other Rumble in my collection, I got to have this one too and I like original copies!
My thoughts on the show were that it was better than I expected. They didn’t totally get creative with the Rumble and thank god the midget wasn’t in there. I liked R-Truth coming in at #3 that shows that it’s all about the luck of the draw after they had that match on Raw for who would be #1. I didn’t care for Justin Gabriel coming out at #5, because then it just came off fake. Miz is out there with Truth and Rhodes is out there with Gabriel and coincidentally they are feuding with each other and got four out of the first five numbers. That’s lazy booking by WWE. I also didn’t like Orton, Jericho and Big Show being (28, 29, 30), because once again were supposed to suspend disbelief that the three biggest stars drew the last three numbers, which is asinine. A very lazily booked Rumble and I’d expect better from a staff of sixteen creative writers.
As for the surprises, Kharma’s return was the moment of the show for me. Ricardo was also great. I’m surprised Road Dogg got such a big pop especially since it didn’t seem like he got that huge of a reaction at the Slammy’s, but I guess it could be two different audiences that attend Raw’s and go to pay per views. I don’t think I need to see Jim Duggan or Great Khali in a Royal Rumble again. How the heck did Jey Uso get himself a spot in the Rumble? I actually thought it was cute to have all three announcers in the Rumble, but I could see how some people would hate that. BTW as soon as Lawler was eliminated and Cole said “No announcer should enter the Royal Rumble”, that gave away to me that he was entering, although I was caught off guard by Booker since I thought he was in a suit and he did an interview saying he wouldn’t be in the Rumble. I didn’t like that after Cole was eliminated that the announcers spent the next several minutes arguing about who was in the longest. Vince McMahon really needs to let go of his obsession with Michael Cole.
A few more note, big ups to the crowd all night and for the attempt at getting an Ahmad Johnson chant started on Ezekiel Jackson when he entered the Rumble. The Kofi Kingston hand stand was outstanding and right on par with the John Morrison spider man move from last year. I’m not sure how I feel about Sheamus winning the Rumble. If it was done to swerve the audience, which appears to be the case, that’s pretty lame. Chris Jericho really could have used the Rumble win to keep himself hot and special with his return. Now he comes off as just another guy. Randy Orton in his hometown is in the Rumble for five minutes? Ridiculous. I’ve never understood why WWE suddenly got under the philosophy that they need to bury everyone in their home towns. I guess its part of the bullying mentality that The Bubble has. BTW Orton’s daughter refuses to take Big Show’s hat when he came out for the World Championship match and then later in the night Orton eliminates Big Show. Are father and daughter ganging up on Show? I’m just sayin...
As for the other matches and segments on the show. I absolutely loved the video packages with Rock and Cena and they both better make television as the entire “WWE Universe” needs to see those ones to help build the Rock and Cena match. I’ve always been of the mindset that video packages do more to sell matches than repetitive promos and angles.
The backstage promo with Eve and John Laurinaitis was everything I hate about WWE. Eve saying scripted lines that tell the audience “This is scripted programming and it’s all about our writers”. I mean who would use some of the words she was using, the writer had to know by getting her to say that he was letting the audience know that this show has writers and they are the real stars of the show.
The eight divas tag was there and I liked the ending and I can only hope they are building to Beth and Kharma and deliver it at Wrestlemania and not on the Elimination Chamber. I also hope they avoid doing it lumberjill style in an effort to get all the girls on the show. I assume Natalya will be losing in more five second squashes going forward against Kharma if they are building to Kharma and Beth.
Brodus should have been in the Rumble. I know the logic was we don’t want him to have to be eliminated, but they could have had everyone in the ring throw him out and it wouldn’t have hurt him one bit.
Bryan-Henry and Show was about what I expected and I thought Punk and Ziggler were great. I’m reading alot online that it wasn’t as good as it could have been, perhaps, but I thought it was more than fine. The same goes for John Cena and Kane as I expected a really bad match here and they seemed to click. The angles with Ryder are fine by me as long as it leads to Ryder and Kane at Wrestlemania with Ryder going over. If the plan is for Ryder to turn on Cena, I really hate this as that’s just more booking of WWE trying to control their audience by turning babyfaces the fans like, but The Bubble doesn’t heel to suit their own needs (See Daniel Bryan and Christian, who both make great heels, but I think were turned for the wrong reasons especially in Christian’s case).
Now on to Raw
What this show needs to accomplish?
• Elimination Chamber hype. I was pleasantly surprised to see WWE announced the Raw elimination chamber participants on their website several hours before tonight’s show even began. I like that Kofi got into this match as well since Evan Bourne kind of screwed him. All of this being said the Elimination Chamber is one of the pay per views where I think doing qualifying matches to get in is a better route to go. I assume with this announcement that they are going to go right into strong hype for the show and I hope that assumption isn’t incorrect. I do have to say I was really hoping that Punk would have a separate title defence and that they’d have Jericho win the Raw Elimination Chamber to get the opportunity to face Punk at Wrestlemania. The way they are doing it means either A) Jericho is winning the title so Punk gets his rematch at Wrestlemania or B) Punk steals Jericho’s pin or some other weird scenario they haven’t come up with yet. I don’t like the idea of Punk losing the title at Elimination Chamber only to get it back a month later at Wrestlemania, but I guess nothing is set in stone that he’d have to win at Wrestlemania. I can only hope they haven’t changed their mind on that match
•John Cena-Kane-Zack Ryder/Eve story. I’m going to stick with the assumption that this is building to Ryder and Kane at Wrestlemania so I’ll say I hope we get more from Eve and once again blaming John Cena and perhaps hitting him with a slap tonight
• Triple H-John Laurinaitis. I’m not looking forward to this. Triple H to me is just one of the most insecure performers WWE has and he rarely gives anything on television unless he’s with someone he sees as equal to him like Undertaker or Shawn Michaels. Hopefully this segment clicks given that I expect them to build it for the entire show and the main event segment
• The Rock and John Cena video package from The Rumble must air on Raw. It seems last night they officially began the kickoff to Cena and Rock and those video packages are a must for Raw
• Re-establish Kharma
• Chris Jericho. It wasn’t the end of the world at The Royal Rumble so Jericho needs to do some explaining tonight
Show Breakdown

1. I wonder if it’s time for a theme music change for Raw?

2. Nice touch having Laurinaitis go around and shake hands with everyone

3. I wish WWE would get out of the habit of starting the show with promos especially with Laurinaitis

4. Ah the old unadvertised champion vs champion match. This company...

5. Punk shouldn’t sing the Goodbye song, too many others have done it, and he’s above going down that road.

6. I like CM Punk, but let’s call a spade a spade sometimes he comes off so harshly and so much like a bully that he makes you have sympathy for his victim.

7. Nice promo exchange with Punk and Bryan. I was waiting for one of them to bring up their past and I’m glad Punk did it.

8. The Great White nickname needs to go. I hope now that Sheamus is being spotlighted for Wrestlemania, that WWE Creative gets past the stupid promos where he talks about growing up as a young lad in Ireland or whatever that John Cena like nonsense was.

9. I hope this Sheamus push doesn’t come off too forced and he ends up getting booed for it.

10. I like the handshake at the end between Punk and Bryan. It’s amazing how consistent the Bryan heel turn is being booked. Cole still hates him; Bryan and Punk are still remaining friends. It’s consistent, not sure if it helps him of course to have Cole hating on him.

11. I’m starting to feel sorry for Randy the way he’s being booked over the last six months. He does his best to get other people over and then gets the shaft in his own hometown.

12. Nice touch having Barrett in the skybox and I like the promotion for the Orton-Barrett match on Smackdown this week.

13. Orton and Ziggler is a potential great match.

14. Another good touch by Lawler to ask the question why Barrett needs to have a skybox and can’t take a seat at the commentary booth.

15. Fantastic action between Ziggler and Orton. What a fantastic bumper Ziggler is. Way too decisive of a win by Randy. He needed it, but Ziggler didn’t need this loss.

16. This Invincible song wouldn’t have been my first choice for the Wrestlemania theme song, but its okay.

17. I like the aspect of the build to the Triple H-Laurinaitis showdown with Laurinaitis shaking hands with everyone. Regal was classic in standard form. Hawkins should be asking for a push instead of walking around carrying a cane.

18. Brodus in, Brodus out. Next

19. Only Vince McMahon would try and turn being a vegan into being a heel. The man is such a child sometimes.

20. With regards to the Elimination Chamber match, I thought ADR would be back in time for this show, I wonder if he ends up getting himself into that match or if he’s still not going to be ready to return by then.

21. Great stuff with Bryan and Punk. Of course McCole can’t be bothered to call the action and sticks to bashing Bryan as they head into the commercial break.

22. Phenomenal match with Bryan and Punk. Great ending to start the first chapter of a Punk-Jericho feud and Bryan’s post victory celebration is the stuff smarmy heels are made of.

23. I’d be curious to hear that acceptance speech from Iron Mike at the Hall of Fame.

24. The Miz after being squashed week after week on Raw gets to go coast to coast at the Royal Rumble. I don’t know why WWE does the tear them down, build them up thing. They seem to be on that same kick with Ziggler after the Rumble and Raw tonight.

25. I stand corrected; Miz goes back to losing on Raw. Kofi did need a solid win however. Lots of great wrestling action on Raw tonight.

26. Goal accomplished! WWE showing The Rock video from the Rumble last night. Big Thumbs Up!

27. I don’t think the best way to promote your new YouTube initiative is to show us Heath Slater answering questions about what his favourite movie is.

28. Eve coming out all nervous. Where was this at The Royal Rumble?

29. Eve almost looking as ridiculous as Natalya on Smackdown here. I’m guessing they are really short on time.

30. You know why I don’t mind this Cena and Kane storyline, it’s because John Cena hasn’t done any comedy. Everyone is complaining, because the storyline is hokey, but think of what would be happening if they weren’t doing this, John would be full of bad comedy and nonsense. I think it’s the better of two bad options so I’ll take it. Also John Cena playing the intense superstar is his greatest attribute as I’ve mentioned many times.

31. Great ending to a pretty newsworthy Raw. I was hoping Triple H would fire Laurinaitis and then Undertaker’s dong would sound, but this will be interesting as well. I guess this means Laurinaitis will remain in charge of Raw for the foreseeable future. I was also hoping Mick Foley would be named his replacement or Laurinaitis would be forced to become Foley or the new Gm’s assistant.

What this Raw accomplished?
The Good
• This was the first show that top to bottom felt like the Road to Wrestlemania was in high gear. One of the tightest Raw’s, I’ve seen in some time. Every segment meant something; everyone who made television had a purpose. An almost perfect show with every segment getting better and better. I’d say the worst segment was actually the beginning and the show just built from there. We got a solid wrestling match between Miz and Kofi, a great match with Orton and Ziggler and a fantastic showdown with Bryan and Punk.
• The Rock video package on Raw. I’m glad they aired this and I assume the Cena one will air next week
• Intense John Cena strikes again. I so much prefer intense John Cena as long as he doesn’t make weird faces. Cena needed to get some offense in on this feud; I assume Kane will do something very evil next week. I would if in the PG WWE that WWE will have Kane assault Eve, even if they don’t show the actual attack on camera
• Undertaker-Triple H. Interesting twist to the storyline with Triple H not wanting the match this year. I assume the logic is that he can’t get involved with personal business, but will see if that’s the road they go down
• Elimination Chamber hype and Smackdown cross promotion. I liked what they did this week to promote the Elimination Chamber and Friday’s upcoming Smackdown
• No Kharma. I said in my goals that they needed to re-establish her, but I take that back as if she returned on this show it would have gotten lost in the shuffle
The Nitpicks
• This show was so good, I’m not even going to have a bad section, but a few minor nitpicks. While it was an unbelievable match, Champion vs Champion shouldn’t happen unadvertised. It should be the first golden rule of the sixteen person creative team
• Perhaps they are saving it for Smackdown, but a lack of presence and promotion on the show for the Royal Rumble winner other than the opening segment.
• Chris Jericho. This would have worked so much better if he won the Rumble and they didn’t feel the need to surprise us, because they felt everyone knew. This was a fine first step in initiating a Jericho-Punk feud, but I kind of feel like Jericho should have spoken this week especially since he promised the end of the world and it didn’t happen.
• Dolph Ziggler and Miz lose cleanly. I guess they aren’t going to be positioned high on the card heading into Wrestlemania, still Miz and Ziggler should be protected in anticipation for the after Wrestlemania hangover. This is a pet peeve of mine with The Bubble and that is they can’t think long term at all especially during Wrestlemania season. It’s fine that Ziggler and Miz aren’t going to be in key positions heading into Wrestlemania, but hopefully they aren’t also the designated jobbers on Raw each week as we approach Wrestlemania.
What needs to happen on next week’s raw?
• We need to keep the Road to Wrestlemania in motion. More Elimination Chamber promotion is needed; we can never get enough pay per view hype. I’d like to see some of the competitors talking about what it’s going to be like to enter the chamber and the sacrifices they are willing to make to be able to point at that Wrestlemania sign and know it means something!
• Chris Jericho-CM Punk. It feels like this chapter in Jericho’s return was supposed to involve him winning the Royal Rumble. I’ll trust since this program involves Jericho and Punk that they will be able to put it into gear soon enough
• The John Cena video package from The Royal Rumble. We saw the beautiful package on The Rock this week so I’d like to see the Cena one next week.
• Miz and Ziggler need wins. Both men are in the Elimination Chamber and need to be looked at as serious threats
• Kane-Cena story. I’m intrigued at what Kane does next. Does he attack Zack in the hospital? Does he go to Zack’s home and take out Zack, Zack’s Dad and The Big O? Does he go after Eve? John Cena was pretty happy this week after he made Kane retreat so I hope that means he doesn’t go back to doing the comedy Cena routine next week