OPENING SEGMENT- pretty good.

JOHN CENA & CM PUNK vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER & JACK SWAGGER (w/Vickie Guerrero)- 6/10


JERIHCO STUFF- not good. Here is the problem with being a troll. Trolls get banned. Jericho has been trolling both the fans and the company. He screws up the main event last week. This week he trolls the company by making the set-up guys set the ring up all fancy, then not using the set at all and only saying one sentence. It makes no sense that he should be rewarded with a Royal Rumble appearance. At this point, we have no reason to believe that Jericho will do anything but run around the ring, hide in the corner for a while, then eliminate himself.

ROYAL RUMBLE VIDEO PACKAGE- good, but with two exceptions. They said that “unfortunately for their male counterparts, these divas have their number” In what manner of measuring? There have been a total of three female entries into the Rumble, combining for total of three male superstars eliminated. All three female entrants were eliminated by men. So at best, they are even.

The other thing that bothered me was them saying that this is the most unpredictable Rumble ever because “for the first time ever, every WWE Superstar is eligible.” Wasn’t everyone eligible before? And even if this were true, this year still wouldn’t be the most unpredictable ever. Last year had more guys in it, and thus, there was a lesser chance that each person would win… and least year also a guy in it who wasn’t even kayfabe under contract WWE (Nash), so if the above tag were true, it still wouldn’t make this Rumble more unpredictable. The Rumble has so much great history and excitement to it that we don’t need to make up dumb sh*t to hype it up.

FALLS COUNT ANYWHERE MATCH: Kane vs. Zack Ryder (w/Eve Torres)- No rating. Great segment with a disappointing ending. I really didn’t like Kane running away from Cena even though Cena wasn’t running at him. If Kane’s goal is to get Cena to embrace his hate, Kane needs to make Cena’s hate get the better of him. Kane wants Cena to be blinded with rage, like he was last week. It didn’t hit that point this week. They should have had Kane continue to go after Eve and make Cena have to come down and attack Kane to save her. Also, Eve’s acting was terrible.

Also, Kane needs to go back to his original music. Bringing back the piano intro with the Phantom-esque opening chord was a good choice, but I think that his original music did a much better job of conveying the concept of a fire of hatred burning away at someone, whereas his music from 2008 onwards sounds more like something from a creepy carnival clown.

My personal thanks to Michael Cole for using the term “sacrificial lamb” correctly. Take that, Taz!

JOSH MATTHEWS INTERVIEWS CENA- GREAT! Matthews said exactly the right thing! It was innocent enough, but you know that it had to make Cena feel even worse than he already did!

SHEAMUS vs. JINDER MAHAL- 4/10. For the 98th time in the past few weeks, Sheamus beats Jobber Mahal.

MIZ & R-TRUTH SEGMENT- not good. They are killing R-Truth. What happened to the ultra-pissed off R-Truth? The R-Truth that was going to absolutely slaughter The Miz? This isn’t the place for comedy BS!

BRODUS CLAY vs. HEATH SLATER- good squash

LOSER BECOMES THE #1 ENTRANT IN THE ROYAL RUMBLE: R-Truth vs. The Miz- 4.5/10

CM PUNK & JOHNNY ACE- decent segment.

CM PUNK vs. DAVID OTUNGA- no rating. Eh segment.

Overall, an okay episode of Raw. It had some good storyline stuff, but it absolutely stunk in the ring.

As usual, a well thought out review, but I have a few disagreements I'd like to lay out on the table.


1. I personally like Kane's music, I think it's trying to convey to the audience that Kane's new attitude is a blend of both his old one (psychotic, burned face), and something completely new (new mask/attire etc)

2. I liked the Kane/Ryder segment. I don't think Kane was running away from Cena as much as he was just walking away. His whole intent with this Cena feud was to make Cena embrace hatred, which of course would require that his friends turn against him. In kayfabe injuring Ryder, we saw that Kane has made Eve turn against John, and possibly Zack. So, Kane had planted the seeds of conflict and was just walking away from a job well done.

3. I know I've said this before, but the whole point of R-Truth's character is that, because he is kayfabe insane, he can alternate between comedic and serious roles on a frequent basis, and because he is insane, the audience isn't really supposed to think anything of it.




And now, a question for you BRM. If John Laurenitis was "abusing his authority" as the fax said, then why didn't the fax demand that he withdraw himself from the referee position for the title match? By still being the referee, Laurenitis is still in a place to screw Punk, not really doing anything to mend the damage he's caused.

NWK wrote:As usual, a well thought out review, but I have a few disagreements I'd like to lay out on the table.


1. I personally like Kane's music, I think it's trying to convey to the audience that Kane's new attitude is a blend of both his old one (psychotic, burned face), and something completely new (new mask/attire etc)

2. I liked the Kane/Ryder segment. I don't think Kane was running away from Cena as much as he was just walking away. His whole intent with this Cena feud was to make Cena embrace hatred, which of course would require that his friends turn against him. In kayfabe injuring Ryder, we saw that Kane has made Eve turn against John, and possibly Zack. So, Kane had planted the seeds of conflict and was just walking away from a job well done.

3. I know I've said this before, but the whole point of R-Truth's character is that, because he is kayfabe insane, he can alternate between comedic and serious roles on a frequent basis, and because he is insane, the audience isn't really supposed to think anything of it.




And now, a question for you BRM. If John Laurenitis was "abusing his authority" as the fax said, then why didn't the fax demand that he withdraw himself from the referee position for the title match? By still being the referee, Laurenitis is still in a place to screw Punk, not really doing anything to mend the damage he's caused.

3. I assumed that he was no longer insane when he came back.

As for why Johnny Ace wasn't removed form the Special Guest Ref position? To give him a chance. That is part of his job review. I am certain that if he does screw Punk in a blatant way, he will definitely be fired.

Big Red Machine wrote:3. I assumed that he was no longer insane when he came back.

Why? He's still been acting the exact same way as before, talking to invisible people etc, except he's targeting Miz, so the fans like it.

Also, I think you're expecting too much of the Jericho angle. Not that you aren't right on the technicalities of it, I just think that the reason you aren't enjoying it is because you're overanalysing it.

kiel297 wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:3. I assumed that he was no longer insane when he came back.

Why? He's still been acting the exact same way as before, talking to invisible people etc, except he's targeting Miz, so the fans like it.

Yea; he's quacking like a duck and everything. I'd say he's even more crazy now than he was last year....

kiel297 wrote:Also, I think you're expecting too much of the Jericho angle. Not that you aren't right on the technicalities of it, I just think that the reason you aren't enjoying it is because you're overanalysing it.

I agree with this as well. Jericho's being given all these opportunities because he's Jericho. WWE's letting him mess around for a bit hoping that he'll deliver what they want. I say just sit back and enjoy the ride.

kiel297 wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:3. I assumed that he was no longer insane when he came back.

Why? He's still been acting the exact same way as before, talking to invisible people etc, except he's targeting Miz, so the fans like it.

Also, I think you're expecting too much of the Jericho angle. Not that you aren't right on the technicalities of it, I just think that the reason you aren't enjoying it is because you're overanalysing it.

I didn't realize R-Truth had been talking to invisible people as a serious thing. I thought he was just doing it as a humorous on his insane conspiracy-theorist character.

As for the Jericho thing, I don't think so. If you remember, I had no idea what the angle was until you guys explained it to me, and even then I didn't really buy it until last week. I wasn't enjoying it before I knew what it was, either. Now I have different reasons for not enjoying it. If they had someone yell at Jericho for the stunt he pulled last week, that would be fine... but there is this big gaping whole in the story, which bothers me.

Rabid619 wrote:

kiel297 wrote:Also, I think you're expecting too much of the Jericho angle. Not that you aren't right on the technicalities of it, I just think that the reason you aren't enjoying it is because you're overanalysing it.

I agree with this as well. Jericho's being given all these opportunities because he's Jericho. WWE's letting him mess around for a bit hoping that he'll deliver what they want. I say just sit back and enjoy the ride.

As I said to Kiel, I wasn't enjoying it before. It just came off to me as awkward. I wasn't pissed off at Jericho. I thought it was weird, and I was a little angry at WWE for wasting TV time. The only time I have ever been pissed at Jericho over the course of this whole thing has been when he abandoned his babyface teammates in the main event.

Big Red Machine wrote:As I said to Kiel, I wasn't enjoying it before. It just came off to me as awkward. I wasn't pissed off at Jericho. I thought it was weird, and I was a little angry at WWE for wasting TV time. The only time I have ever been pissed at Jericho over the course of this whole thing has been when he abandoned his babyface teammates in the main event.

Before he was trolling the fans and then he moved onto pissing off his fellow superstars. He's begging for the attention and now he's sort of got everyones eye by behaving the way he has he's going to do what he wants.

Rabid619 wrote:

Big Red Machine wrote:As I said to Kiel, I wasn't enjoying it before. It just came off to me as awkward. I wasn't pissed off at Jericho. I thought it was weird, and I was a little angry at WWE for wasting TV time. The only time I have ever been pissed at Jericho over the course of this whole thing has been when he abandoned his babyface teammates in the main event.

Before he was trolling the fans and then he moved onto pissing off his fellow superstars. He's begging for the attention and now he's sort of got everyones eye by behaving the way he has he's going to do what he wants.

But to what end? I can understand how trolling the fans could be an end in and of itself, but trolling the front office? He can get all of the attention he wants because he is Chris Jericho. It doesn't need to be troll.

Big Red Machine wrote:But to what end? I can understand how trolling the fans could be an end in and of itself, but trolling the front office? He can get all of the attention he wants because he is Chris Jericho. It doesn't need to be troll.

He's making sure he has EVERYONES attention. The fact that he's spoken about Sunday is a sign that he's beginning the next step in whatever his plans are.

Yes he is Jericho BUT he wants to see the fans pander to him by doing nothing then throwing it back in their faces by not doing what they want. Even last week, got a big pop when he got tagged in and left very quickly. He's getting all the pops by doing nothing. He'll have someone to feud with after the rumble.