Daylight Savings has hit and it’s unusual that its still daylight out at the beginning of RAW, but I digress. Welcome to the 10 Thoughts on WWE Raw with your sleepy, but stoked host, Rhett Davis. But enough about me it’s time for Raw!
1. The opening segment of The Rock and Kid Cena was hilarious and proved why Raw was great when Rocky was on it. We, as the audience, never knew what was coming next. The Brahma Bull may not bring himself to the shows, but he certainly brings the comedy from “Peek-a-boo” to “Yabba-Dabba-Bitch” to “John Cena don’t cry.”
1a. The Rock definitely turned it up from his last promo, but the promise of ‘bringing it’ is starting to grow stale. It’s time for The Rock to actually SHOW UP on Raw instead of these video packages.
2. Michael Cole’s ‘Cole Mine’ glass casing was a superb idea as I wondered how they were going to continue with Cole/Lawler announcing half and half of the show. It worked the first couple of weeks, but the idea would’ve become even more transparent if they kept it until Mania.
3. The Miz’s promo didn’t have quite the intensity that last week’s did, but its going to be hard to top that one. He commented on Rocky again insulting his hundreds of catch phrases until the GM chimed in with a match against The Great Khali.
3a. I wondered how long it would be until A-Ri reappeared. Little did I know it would be merely two weeks later and he’s STILL kissing Awesome ass. Oh, and the beatdown was about the best Miz could do with the banning of the head chairshots and the fact that Khali can’t hit the ground very fast without seriously hurting himself.
4. Well it appears we are getting our Bryan/Sheamus Mania match as Sheamus becomes the upteenth man to win the Heavyweight title… and then go for an inferior championship. The U.S. and I-C Championships should be used to push up-and-coming talent. NOT just so Sheamus can have something to do. The match was great, the end spot was nice, AND now Sheamus is off this losing streak. So everyone can stop freaking out about him falling off the map.
5. The Brian Christopher/Grand Masta Sexay/Brian Lawler angle was borderline… horrendous. I just don’t understand why they would drag GM Sexay into this angle as he is terrible on the mic. Also, percentage-wise, how many people in the audience do you think even knew who he was? My guess is 40-50% and even that percent didn’t care as he received NO reaction from the audience.
5a. Seeing good Ole JR was awesome. Swagger got great heat for taking down both JR and King in the Ankle Lock and it finally looks like Cole could transition into the managing scene. Cole really fit the role of cowardly manager who talks a big game while his wrestler is dismantling the opponent on Raw and even on Friday’s SmackDown. P.s. I’d take a Brian Lawler angle every week, with a Karen/Jeff angle on the side if we could get JR on commentary every week.
6. Once again, Randy comes out of a coma and punts another wrestler into FCW. And Punk, for the first time in recent memory, shows actual fear when his attempt to jump Orton from behind is foiled. This was a great segment.
6a. This makes me wonder… who is worse for factions? CM Punk or The Big Show? The Corre seems pretty (pardon the pun) stable on SmackDown and they are feuding The Big Show. Punk killed SES and now he’s feeding the Nexus to the wolves as well.
7. The Vickie/Trish match was short as expected, but it had some interesting moments as Vickie tried to use her shoes as weapons. But the best part of the entire scene came after the match as Snooki beat the high hell out of Layla! J-Woww and Angelina… THIS is how you brawl in wrestling!
8. So if Alberto Del Rio rides in a different car every week, why can’t Brodus Clay have his own car too? Just seems kind of bizarre for Del Rio to drive up and then Clay walk from backstage.
9. The Cena/Del Rio match was slow and plodding, but when The Rock’s theme song hit I jumped up yet again as I thought I was going to have to delete 1a. However, what really happened was The Miz coming out as The Rock and a very convincing one at that. That was a great ploy by The Miz and then the beatdown that followed (minus any of Brodus’ involvement) was Awesome as well.
10. Overall the show didn’t disappoint as we saw a stellar bout between Bryan and Sheamus, a Rock look-alike, and the announcement of Snooki at WrestleMania. Oh joy.
With one lasting thought I’ll depart thee…
Do yah smell what THE MIZ is…. cooking?
And quite frankly my dear…. that’s a wrap.
