10 Thoughts: WWE RAW 12.9.2013 (Daniel Bryan, Shawn Michaels, John Cena)

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So many people covering and giving thoughts on Raw here on Pulse Wrestling, what’s another 10 among friends, right?

1. Funny how surprising it is to start a Slammy episode with an actual match. I’m not sure if that’s much of a change from the usual but I’m not about to go back and watch old Slammy episodes to find out. But then once you realize that Daniel Bryan is in a match and they’re Seattle, you quickly understand what WWE is going for. For once, WWE made more than one smart choice in a night. More on that later. Other notable categories that could’ve been skipped: Fan Interaction (because screw the people) and Insult of the Year (hey, here’s an award for being a giant dick).

2. Could’ve done without the “LOL! Moment of the Year” category because a lot of the nominations seemed like WWE was scraping the bottom of the barrel. Too bad content on The JBL & Cole Show is ineligible for a make-believe awards show.

3. Eve made a quick return and it’s good to see her doing well. And I’m proud of Seattle for not breaking out the “Hoeski” chant as I was afraid they would. Probably best not to get Zack Ryder’s hopes up yet again, just seems cruel. Also, kudos to Seattle for not tolerating The Bellas as Diva of the year. Those two winning that award is mathematically and grammatically incorrect.

4. At least they got something right with Daniel Bryan winning Superstar of the Year. sure, it’s no scandal to talk about how the voting can be rigged for these kinds of things but anyone else getting this award would’ve been intellectually insulting. I’m loving HBK still maintaining a bit of a heel status and keeping the heat between he and Daniel Bryan alive. It gives me the (probably) unrealistic hope of Shawn coming out of retirement for a match against Bryan.

5. Wouldn’t really call Punk beating up Heyman an extreme moment. It would’ve been better served to have nominated something from Punk vs Lesnar at the very least. But again, in today’s WWE, you’re not going to have a lot to pick from in the “extreme” category.

6. Whoever was responsible for Twice in a Lifetime winning Match of the Year needs to be found, publicly flogged with the bodies of deceased rodents and banned from having access to a smartphone. Also the fact that Punk vs Lesnar, Daniel Bryan vs John Cena, Antonio Cesaro vs Sami Zayn, The Shield gauntlet match vs Daniel Bryan or literally ANY other match was not nominated in the place of Rock vs Cena is simply not good enough.

7. I find it weird to actually kinda look forward to a Sin Cara match these days not that Hunico has taken over. And let it be known that this current version of Sin Cara shall henceforth be referred to as “Hunicara.” Tell your friends and family so that they may join in and make this the next “CoDust.” And yeah, the match didn’t blow me away but I did see some improvements as he gets settled into the character. However, I’m pretty sure it was the hipsters in the crowd that was giving this match the “this is awesome” chant ironically. Sorry, Seattle, hipsters make you lose one point.

8. Once again we get a rematch that worked on Smackdown just last week. Not complaining because I’ll take a Punk vs Dean Ambrose match whenever I can. I’m not really buying into any dissension among the Shield just yet but you can see it right around the corner with WWE being so incredibly high on Roman right now. Not sure if that’s gonna happen anytime soon but I’m okay if it takes a while.

9. I’ll always be an HBK smark, it’s just a fact. But for a brief moment I found myself cursing his name for winning Double-Cross of the Year instead of Mark Henry. I don’t care if Blair looks down upon me for liking something Mark Henry did, that moment was brilliant. The fact that Mark Henry lost this award will forever be known as The Seattle Screwjob.

10. It’s like WWE woke up just before that last segment and suddenly remembered how to sell a PPV for a go-home show. First with the talking bits where Cena finally pulled out the good mic skills he doesn’t use nearly enough. Also, it’s fun to point out how much the crowd was against Cena when the segment began and how he turned them around by harnessing Daniel Bryan’s hometown love. I think this would’ve been a much different segment had Bryan not been there. And then everything broke down from there and plenty of madness went down. Does it mean anything at all? Probably not other than reestablish that nobody in the top card trusts each other but still, it was an exciting way to end the show and made me actually want to pay for TLC.

Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do twice,
Chris

Chris is a writer from Fayetteville, NC. He's the co-creator of Irrelevant But Awesome Productions which produces podcasts you all know and love like Classy Ring Attire, Trashy Ring Attire and The Disney Magic Podcast. You can keep up with everything on twitter by following @IBAStudios and @CWSanders39