1. First let me wish all of you a very, merry Christmas Eve, Christmas & Boxing Day (since I started writing this on Wednesday). Everyone knows how crazy the holidays are, especially with a 2-year-old, so at 11:45 PM on 12/26 is the first time I’ve been able to sit down and watch Raw. I’d say it’s been a long 3 days but nothing’s tougher to overcome than running over Santa Claus when attempting a babyface turn. Oh and the opening video… it was cute when it was posted on WWE.com but it did not deserve to be on Raw.
2. I give Cody Rhodes a lot of credit for getting into the ring with Kane so quickly after his injury. I know that Kane is an absolute veteran and extremely careful in the ring but I think the butterflies might have taken over if it were me.
3. God I hope that Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler are getting all of their Christmas puns out-of-the-way early because I don’t know if I’ll be able to sit through a full three hours of them.
4. This match between The Big Show and Sheamus is really bugging me. 3 stellar pay-per-view matches in a row between these two big men should have been enough. But because we’ve had countless matches, tag team matches and specialty matches given away for free on TV, it’s made their three PPV matches (especially their first) seem meaningless. WWE has gotten away from this type of booking for the past 2 years or so but now this feud is quickly becoming John Cena vs Randy Orton of 2012.
5. Ok I’ve given up on this show being taken seriously at all once Big Show started singing “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer” in the middle of his match.
6. Miz/Kofi vs Cesaro/Barrett is truly the future of the WWE. Miz is only 32 and Kofi Kingston is 31. While Antonio Cesaro is just 32 and Wade Barrett is also 32. These 4 men could very well be headlining WrestleManias for years to come and only time will tell. I am very excited to see where these four (among others) are going in the next few years. *ahem The Shield ahem*
7. I’m still not sure how I feel about the Dolph Ziggler and AJ Lee pairing. It is nice to see AJ playing a character that isn’t crazy and isn’t a babyface. It’s too soon to see if these two have chemistry together but one thing is absolutely certain, Dolph Ziggler needed to get away from Vickie Guerrero and to move on to the other most over Diva on the roster is not a bad trade.
8. That was actually a simple and damn good promo from Ryback setting up his TLC WWE Title match against CM Punk. As much as I love Punk’s act and in-ring ability, his current character is beginning to get repetitive. His upcoming feud with The Rock should reinvigorate his creative juices but as of right now, it completely feels as if Punk is in a rut.
9. I’m curious to see if Justin Gabriel and Tyson Kidd take over the role Sin Cara and Rey Mysterio were playing in the tag team division. They’re more crowd pleasing high-flyers, they’re bigger guys so they match up better against most of their opponents and they’ve paid their WWE dues. 2013 could be a great year for Kidd and Gabriel.
10. I know it’s Christmas Eve and I know that the WWE doesn’t put much stock into the “holiday” shows (I KNOW this for a fact). But what I don’t understand is why. The common excuse is poor ratings. And yes, WWE does horrible holiday ratings. But they can’t really blame any one else but themselves. They’ve trained their audiences to recognize that these shows will be corny, won’t follow storylines and generally won’t matter. The NFL does GREAT rating ON Thanksgiving for their games and the NBA does very good numbers for their Christmas day games. The only reason WWE sees poor ratings is because they’ve ALWAYS done poor ratings and have never tried to change that perception. That being said, this show was terrible and I’m rather annoyed I stayed up until 2 AM to watch it.
