RAW Thoughts

Hello everyone. Time for another review of RAW. Who's the #1 Contender for the WWE Title. Lets find out!

Santa Claus Isn't Real???
RAW started this week with Alberto del Rio. What, no HHH to start RAW this week? They recapped Alberto taking out Rey Mysterio last week. They said Rey would miss a number of months. Before ADR could get out two words, John Cena interrupted. Cena said everyone new who ADR was, so he came out to introduce himself. He said he's John Cena, and he's here to take the WWE Title back. Cena's gonna send ADR back to his parent's house. Cena said there's only one man that can go toe-to-toe with him, and that's C.M. Punk.

Cue C.M. Punk right on time. Punk asked if this show was a re-run because John Cena wants another WWE Title match. Punk said that's not gonna happen again. He said if anyone is getting a title shot, it's going to be him. Alberto interrupted saying its his time. Punk told him not to interrupt. Punk said everyone was trying to screw him. Alberto said it was destiny. Punk said it was his destiny to cash in his rematch clause. Cena said it was his destiny to cash in his rematch clause tonight. Punk said Cena's rematch clause exists as much as Santa Claus exists. Del Rio says he was ignoring both of them.

Triple H came out to settle things. HHH told Del Rio to wipe that smug look off his face because even though he's not wrestling Punk or Cena, he has a match next. HHH told Punk and Cena that they would fight tonight to see who faces ADR at Night of Champions. It was a good segment, but it seemed like something was missing. What it was, I don't know. Just didn't seem like everyone clicked together. Survey Says: 3/5

Don't Piss Off This Mexican Aristocrat
Del Rio waited for his opponent, which turned out to be John Morrison. Morrison looked a bit more motivated than normal. He worked over Del Rio early. Morrison went for a moonsault to the outside, but ADR moved and shoved Morrison's back and neck into the guardrail. Back from break, ADR worked over Morrison's back. Del Rio charged at Morrison in the corner but Morrison back dropped him to the outside. ADR's head hit the floor kind of hard. Morrison hit a variety of moves on Del Rio back in the ring. Morrison telegraphed a back suplex. Del Rio went for the cross armbreaker, but Morrison countered into a schoolboy for a 2. DDT got another 2 for Morrison. Morrison got a 2 out of a hurricarrana reversal. He went for Starship Pain but ADR moved. He shoved Morrison into the post and applied the cross armbreaker for the win. He applied it after the match on the outside as well. Very fun match. Strong showing by both men. Survey Says: 4/5

Booty Shaking Doesn't Make the Match Better
Eve and Brie wrestled. Eve shook her butt. Eve hit a nice reverse neckbreaker for the win. Beth and Natalya came out afterwards and applauded. Survey Says: 1.5/5

Uh Oh, Riley's Already Getting the Ring Entrance During Commercial Treatment
Vickie came out and introduced her new potential client, Jack Swagger. Rematch from last week with Alex Riley. Riley hit a nice spinebuster. Dolph Ziggler came out and asked Vickie what she was doing. Dolph knocked Vickie down. Swagger forgot to watch and the ref had to remind him to turn around. Swagger confronted Dolph. Back in the ring, A-Ri rolled up Swagger for the win. Not much of a match, but at least there's some semblance of an angle going on. Survey Says: 2.5/5

Yes Kids, When You're Married You're Whipped
Triple H came out to talk with Kevin Nash. He said him and Nash talked, and he thinks everything is straightened out. He asked Nash to come out still. Nash said he thought he was doing HHH a favor, but apparently he wasn't. Nash said he was going to apologize to Punk, but after last week he's not going to. HHH said Nash doesn't work here, and he can't have Nash taking guys out. HHH told him to go take Punk out across the street at Tim Horton's, which got a big pop. He asked Nash to leave.

Punk came out and said he was going to get to the bottom of everything. Punk wanted to figure out who sent the text. He said maybe it was "Big Lazy" with the Just for Men. Or HHH with the Sledgehammer. But his money was on Stephanie McMahon with the candlestick in the library. Punk was going to kick Nash's ass. Punk went for Nash but HHH stopped him. Punk asked HHH what his problem was with him, and why he didn't want Punk to be WWE Champ. HHH said he promised not to cross any lines, but don't think he's not the same Hunter he used to be. Punk said he wouldn't want HHH to wrinkle his suit up and put it in his wife purse, where he obviously keeps his cell phone and his balls. Nash punched Punk as HHH restrained him and walked to the back. Classic Punk there. Great line to finish the segment. Survey Says: 4/5

Backstage, Nash told HHH he changed. He said 4 weeks in a suit changed him as Nash left.

Can We Now Future Endeavor David Otunga
Tag Titles were on the line next. Kofi hit his pattened mid-air cross body on McGillicutty. Kofi went for the Boom Drop but Otunga pulled him out of the way, allowing McGillicutty to regain control. Both men took turns working over Kofi. McGillicutty hit a dropkick on Kofi and he turned to Jerry Lawler, who had been calling them out for being bland, said "You Like That Jerry!" Kofi got to Bourne for the hot tag. All hell broke loose. Kofi took McGillicutty to the outside and then kicked Otunga. Bourne hit Air Bourne on Otunga for the 3. New Tag Champs. Fun little match. Maybe this is the start of something new for the Tag Team Division. Survey Says: 3/5

Backstage the new Tag Champs were interviewed. They were bathed in champagne by Zac Ryder and others.

Johnny Ace caught up with HHH backstage. He said Nash had been in a car accident and was at a local hospital. Hunter left to go check on his friend.

Spiders. Spider Web. CONSPIRACY!
Santino came out for a match, but was attacked by Miz and R-Truth. Miz hit the Skull Crushing Finale in the ring. Truth said what happened to Little Jimmy is going to continue to happen to Little Jimmy. Truth said everyone was in on the conspiracy. Miz said he can't believe he was going to say this, but he agrees with R-Truth about there being a conspiracy. Miz said he went from main eventing Wrestlemania to having to pick a fight with Jared from Subway just to do something. Miz said that him and Truth were done waiting around, and they were going to create their own opportunities from now on. Miz and Truth worked well together here. They seem to have the making of a good pairing as the undercard heels who were at the top at one point, but are now forced to the bottom and don't like it. Survey Says: 4/5

Ugh. This Does Seem Like A Re-Run
Main Event Time. Alberto del Rio was ringside scouting while John Laurinaitis was ringside making sure everything went smoothly. Cena threw his shirt into the crowd 2 times and it was thrown back. Punk and Cena exchanged their basic offense early before going to commercial with Punk down on the outside. Both men went for their finishers before Punk went for his flying clothesline and shouted "I'M FLYING!" Cena eventually locked in a crossface. Punk got his foot on the ropes. Punk shoved Cena into the ring post then hit the GTS, but only scored a 2 count. Punk went for the Macho Man elbow but Cena moved. Cena hit his flying leg drop for 2. Punk countered out of the STF with a parade of elbows, then a knee to the face for 2. Cena hit a quick AA for a 2. Punk regained control over Cena and was ready to hit the GTS, but Nash came out and told Punk this wasn't over. It distracted Punk long enough to allow Cena to recover, hit the AA, and pick up the win. After the match, Del Rio attacked Cena. Johnny Ace tried to stop him but ADR lead the beatdown as the show went off the air.

Another good match between the two. Not on par with the first 2 but an above average TV match. Cena finally gets his win over Punk and now moves on to Del Rio, while Punk continues to wonder who really is out to get him in this storyline. Survey Says: 4/5

OVERALL
I thought this was another solid episode of RAW. Two solid matches in Punk/Cena and Del Rio/Morrison. Miz and Truth make a good pairing together and I'm interested to see where they are going with those two. Kofi and Evan Bourne seem to have added some new life to the tag team division as well. I also thought the announcing on this show was much more tolerable than it has been recently. I don't know what changed but Cole was toned down and everyone seemed more concerned about the product than themselves. There was some storyline progression on this show which I like, so I'm giving this show a solid 8. Keep up the good work RAW.

That's all from me this week.

Until next time,
Justin C
Follow Me on Twitter @JCWonka