Raw Thoughts.

Raw kicked off with the entrance of one Triple H who was coming out to give his reasons for wanting to face The Undertaker at Wrestlemania. Triple H looked jacked, nothing like the flabby man we saw defeat Alberto Del Rio at the WWE Fan Appreciation show back in October. Triple H stated that he wanted to face The Undertaker because that's all he and Taker have left to do - in writing that sounds validated but the way Hunter put it across seemed to bury the entire WWE locker room, he later stated that when they meet at Wrestlemania nothing else matters. Again he was obviously trying to state how important this match was, but maybe it somehow managed to put down every other match at Wrestlemania. After he put his point across Sheamus came out, now in my opinion this was a great thing at least WWE wasn't going to ignore the situation like they seemed to do last Monday, yet for some reason Sheamus got destroyed by the jacked up Triple H. The angle didn't look good, Triple H has lost a lot of pace and seemed to move awkwardly very similar to the way he was back in 2002 when he was too jacked. Unless Triple H can get some decent time in the ring on the build up to Wrestlemania I think the Undertaker match could be a repeat of the King Of The Ring disaster in 2002.

After the break Sheamus was still trying to recover from his beat down when the General Manager said he was booked for a match and was then slated to face the returning Evan Bourne who won in about two minutes. It was good to see Bourne back, hopefully he will get a Wrestlemania match this April.

Lawler vs Michael Cole was made for Wrestlemania as long as Cole got to have a guest referee of his choosing and also have his trainer at ringside, his trainer was revealed to be Jack Swagger yet the guest referee is yet to be revealed. Swagger beat down Lawler. At this point any affiliation Swagger can have with Cole is good for him, I never thought I'd say this but Michael Cole could have more heat than anyone on the Raw roster and Swagger desperately needs heat and an elevated status at a Pay Per View.

Punk versus Orton was also made for Mania, the weeks leading up to the event will see Orton face off against the other members of Nexus and if he wins the individual matches said Nexus member will be banned from ringside. He faced Michael McGillicutty and won the bout afterwards he punted him much to the chagrin of CM Punk. Now something I found funny after the match was Orton ran into the fans and away from Nexus who were charging down the ramp however the camera angle WWE used showed Punk running down yet failed to get the rest of the Nexus members in the shot so it made Orton look like he was running from Punk.

The Rock replied to Cena's rap last week and seemed to completely undermine anything Cena can say back by claiming he went into movies to help other wrestlers, which is complete crap but still what are the kids to do, right? He then rapped a bit and called Cena a bitch, how very PG. One could be led to believe that after Linda's failed campaign they have slightly (and I mean slightly) loosened the the choke hold at least for this angle, and Punks busted nose the other week.

The main event pitted Cena against Riley in a Cage match if Cena wins Riley gets fired as being Miz's right hand man and if Riley wins Cena must proclaim Miz as AWESOME!... Cena won. What I did find entertaining was Miz tweeting pictures of Cena as the match took place, that was rather cool.

WWE BRAGGING RIGHTS THOUGHTS

Daniel Bryan for the 3rd PPV stole the show

Dolph Ziggler for the 2nd time in his career stole the show

Dolph/Mysterio, Summerslam 09

John Cena is a champion again

This time I'm quite happy with it

David Otunga is a champion for the 1st time

At this time I'm quite happy with it

Goldust finally had a match on PPV

Is Goldust the most underrated performer EVER!

NO!

Sorry, I mean - no

I get a bit carried away talking about Goldust

Has Ted DiBiase got AWESOME music or what?

Is Natalya the sexiest women in wrestling today?

Is Lay - Cool the most annoying gimmick in wrestling today?

Does anybody actually care about wrestling today?

I dont and I'm writing about it

Kane and Taker had another boring as hell match

Does that mean hell is boring?

Who remembers Rellik?

Was he from hell?

Rellik is Killer spelled backwards

So Nexus attacked Taker to help Kane retain his title

You know what that means?

HBK is the leader of Nexus

Not really

Talking about underrated, HBK is underrated in my opinion

I'm not joking

Kane's title reign is now over three months long and I hope it continues for a while yet

I believe it will

Edge was the star of the show in a good Raw vs Smackdown match

The star on the Raw side was CM Punk

Orton kept his belt

The end.

WWE Raw Review

After a great show last week, Raw was able to follow it up again this week with another top showing. This week was the much hyped return of Raw Roulette, Chad Ochocinco as Guest Host, and the 'mega' main event between Cena and Orton. The show opened with the wheel being spun for the first time to see what type of match Randy Orton would be facing John Cena in. To my surprise it turned out to be a Tables Match. Cena looked shocked while Orton stared at Cena with a slight smirk and then walked off. I will review the main event at the end of this article.

The Raw Roulette wheel made a bunch of stupid gimmick matches which didn't involve any wrestling at all. These matches included R Truth and Eve vs Ted DiBiase and Maryse in a Song and Dance Match and William Regal vs Goldust in a Trading Places match. Once again to my surprise both 'matches' were funny and entertaining, which is something Raw has failed to do over the past year in their comedy routines. In the highlights of these matches, R Truth revealed his new theme music, which is quite good and less child like than the 'Whats Up' theme. Ted DiBiase sang his version of Frank Sinatra's My Way (awful singer). While Goldust confused me and made me think he really was William Regal (don't ask).

Chad Ochocinco was the Guest Host on Raw and had a brilliant verbal exchange with The Miz. This resulted in The Miz facing Daniel Bryan in a non - title Submission match. In true Miz style he 'pulled' a hernia and had to 'pull' out of the match, which resulted in Alex Riley taking his place and losing when Bryan applied the LeBell Lock. After the match Miz tried to attack him but was then caught in the LeBell lock himself. The Miz then tapped out on the US Title. Maybe this is a sign that Bryan will be winning the US Title at Night of Champions, or then again.......

Sheamus faced John Morrison in a Falls Count Anywhere Match, with the added stipulation that if Morrison was to win he would be the sixth participant in the upcoming Six Pack Challenge Match at Night of Champions. Backstage before the match, Morrison was shown doing 'parkour' or 'Free Running' which shown just how athletic this young performer is. The match itself was very good. The fight was took into the crowd and eventually near the TitanTron (all the while both men were taking bumps on plain, hard, cold concrete). This is where after months of lower mid - card dwelling, John Morrison was finally pushed as a star again. Morrison climbed onto the metal scaffolding just in front of the TitanTron and did a splash onto Sheamus from the top of it. It was a brilliant moment for him as it could be an iconic image that will be used on Raw over the coming years. Chris Jericho would eventually come out and cost Morrison the match by hitting him in the back with a steel chair, but this match and moment belonged to John Morrison, and I hope they continue his 'push' and dont waste this talent like they have done with other performers (Shelton Benjamin, Brian Kendrick, MVP) in the past. At this point I didn't believe the show could get better, but trust Chris Jericho and Michael Cole, yes, Michael Cole, to put on an awesome verbal confrontation. It was in this promo that I believe the WWE shown that Michael Cole is the GM, as most of the GM's e-mails were being read out with too much passion from Michael Cole, who in the end is just a simple messenger. A Handicap Cage Match was then made between Jericho and The Hart Dynasty, with the stipulation that if Jericho won he would be re - entered into the now ELIMINATION Six Pack Challenge Match. To no ones surprise Jericho won and then proclaimed he would win the title at Night of Champions. 

In the Main Event Randy Orton defeated John Cena after reversing an FU into an RKO through a table. This was after, get ready for it, Cena put Heath Slater through a table, Orton threw Justin Gabriel through a table, Orton pushed Wade Barrett through a table, Cena slamming Sheamus onto the mat outside the ring, and Orton throwing Jericho in front of Edge to make Edge Spear Jericho through a table, while Orton used Edge's speed against him to make Edge follow Jericho into the same table. All the while the crowd were going crazy for Randy Orton. It was a great Raw and definitely a step in the right direction for the company. Up next - Night of Champions. 

Raw Review

I have to give WWE credit for putting one of the best editions of Raw in quite some time, tonight saw many entertaining angles as well as some great steps forward in the story lines.

The opening segment set the pace for the rest of the night, WWE put Nexus over strong with last weeks accomplishments which given the accomplishments were not that great WWE made a big deal over it. Definately the right thing to do, Nexus lost quite a bit of momentum after the SummerSlam disaster so tonight was a good night to right that wrong.

Jericho and Edge had to protect there spots in the 6 pack challenge match at Night Of Champions in separate single matches, both of which were entertaining for different reason. Jericho lost to John Morrison in a good match which will probably lead to one of two things. 1. Jericho going on a break or 2. Jerichos' return to being a babyface. The Edge match was entertaining also for 2 two reason his mocking of his opponent The Great Khali and the scramble to protect Khali's botch when he eliminated himslef from the over the top rope match by accident.... yes the match continued.

The Miz vs Daniel Bryan for the US Title has been made in decent angle featuring a great Miz promo, where Michael Cole added some great commentary. Bryan went over strong taking on Miz and Riley in a after promo brawl. Strangely during this period Miz's MITB briefcase popped open to reveal there is in fact no contract in it.

Gabriel vs Cena was a decent match which is surprising for Cena. The match featured some great spots by Gabriel. He was booked to actually pose a challenge to Cena. The main event saw Wade Barret vs Randy Orton the match was not great and the fact that Darren Young returned to cost Barret the match was just irritating and doesn't really bode well for The Nexus to continue feuding with the 'WWE'.

The night ended with Orton and Cena staring off after Orton RKO'd all the other 5 pack challengers. Next week the main event will be Randy Orton vs John Cena in a one on one match its a decent main event which I doubt WWE will actually go ahead with as it would be wrong to give this match away for free with the buy rates down for their PPV's.

Overall it was a very good Raw with some annoyances but thats to be expected. To separate all the in ring action was some quite funny backstage skits.