WWE RAW Thoughts: 1/9/2012

There is something very odd afloat in the WWE and I like it...

....well.....SOME of it....


Check after the jump for my thoughts on the show as it happened:

• We open the show with a great promo by Kane telling us why he embraces the hate and that we should all do the same since we all hate our boring lives.  He then blames Cena for being the beacon of hope for us all, to which we have the arrival of Cena himself (note the sizable pop for Cena and his mouthing of the words 'you want hate?, c'mon let's go').  The two begin to scrap and this leads us to the infamous backstage dock area.  Very cool spot for Cena, as he attacks Kane with a crowbar and that is def out of character for him.  Kane then vanishes very 'Batman' esque.  We will prob be seeing more of The Big Red Machine as the show continues...
• Sheamus and Santino defeat Wade Barrett and Jinder Mahal via. Cobra....that is all I really have to say about that.
• Miz is complaining in the GM's office about the recent attacks on him.  John Laryngitis encourages The Miz to find his own protection from R Truth. 
• Next up we have the first 2012 WWE Hall of Fame announcement and it's........EDGE!! YES!!! I could not be more happy and I got slightly emotional for him because I was so proud of him and after all the shit that went down last year, at least it pays off for Edge somehow.  Congrats Edge! You deserve it! Check my Edge appreciation post for more on this.
• Miz trys to talk Goku...I mean Mason Ryan into being his bodyguard....FAIL!
• Zack Ryder and Eve further their romance, with Eve finally accepting Zack's offer for a date...sweet news for the Broski.
• Miz tries to get Epico and Primo to aide him....FAIL...still, if you've been following, you know I never complain about the sight of my current favorite piece of eye candy (sorry Kelly Kelly) Rosa...even Punk took an eyeful of that ass while he made his way through the corridor. 

• Champion vs. Champion match up next as Kofi takes on Daniel Bryan...nice!  I would be interested in seeing more matches out of these two if Kofi could learn to maintain some form of momentum.  After a short bout, Kofi taps to the Lebell Lock after a sick counter of a cross body.  Big Show then arrives and informs Bryan that they will have a No DQ, no countout match this Friday on Smackdown....Bryan pees himself and we go to commercial.  Match Rating: 2.5/5

• After weeks and weeks of buildup, we finally have the debut of Brodus Clay!  Or so we thought, because we actually have the debut of THE FUNKASAURUS! 

• You read that right marks, oh yeah, this Barney, Godfather, Heavy D hybrid is the man we've been seeing in those awesome video packages for over a month now!  TALK ABOUT A PAYOFF!......OK....for those who obviously have no clue what sarcasm is, I was fucking pissed about this.  That however, did not stop me from laughing my ass off.....he was entertaining, but still....really?....I mean REALLY?!....I know I'm usually very positive on this blog but c'mon people.....this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen!  Maybe if it were someone like JTG, I would not have been disappointed and just been happy for him getting on television.  Not to mention that not even King and Cole could take this crap serious, he looked ridiculous in that singlet and this is NOT the way our 2011 Rookie of the Year should be used! But ah well.....Clay now joins the infamous ranks of other legendary superstars like:

*Spoiler alert: Here there will be much sarcasm*




                                                                      The Godfather!

Ernest 'the cat' Miller!

And last but not least...

 OH YEAH wait for it....

Flash Funk!

While these men were all entertaining, it's needless to say, Funky does not a World Champion make....

• Anywhoo, next up we have CM Punk vs Jack Stagger in a match meant to weaken Punk before his match with Dolph Ziggler at the Royal Rumble.  However, if Punk wins, Swagger and Vickie are banned from ringside at the PPV.  Wrestling wise, this was a very good match, with both men getting in some awesome counters.  I think Swagger though, could use some repackaging.  After a solid contest, we have Punk picking up the win via the Macho Elbow....or do we?  The ref short-counted this one and before you fools out there point out the obvious...just realize that it looks like we have Johnny Ace to blame here as it appears this has something to do with the storyline between him and Punk leading into the rumble....adding to the dynamic between Punk and the GM, while still making Swagger look strong.  Match Rating: 3/5
• Cena and Ryder are backstage with Zack being very paranoid and creeped out by Kane.  I love where this is going....
• Miz indimidates Ricardo Rodriguez backstage, forcing him to head out to the ring tonight and call out R Truth....more on that in a second.
• The next inductees into the 2012 WWE HOF are announced and it's.....THE FOUR HORSEMEN!!! Awesome!! I was just watching their DVD again the other day and as a huge fan, I couldn't be more happy.  This will make Ric Flair the first ever two time inductee and if anyone deserves it, it's the nature boy.  He will be inducted alongside best friend Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and Barry (YES!) Windham. Still, I gotta wonder how this will work with Flair being under contract with TNA....hopefully we will see the nature boy make a special appearance at the HOF ceremony.
• Now back to Ricardo, he comes out to the ring and after some funny one-liners about Truth, he finally comes out.  Truth asks 'Lil Jimmy' if he should let Rodriguez leave in peace.  Of course, the audience says 'NO!' and he then forces Ricardo to sing....yyeeaaaaaahhhh....regardless...who knew Ricardo could be so entertaining?  Truth finally attacks Rodriguez and gets blindsided by The Miz.  Truth battles back and Miz runs like a bitch and we have another slightly disappointing segment between these two.
• Chris Jericho fools the sheep into cheering him again all while doing THE SAME EXACT THING he did last week.  Say what you want, the man is a genius.  Still, it's a bit embarrassing that the crowd fell for this twice, maybe that's why Y2J started weeping...yes, weeping.  Masterful work here, and even though I myself am annoyed that he wont speak, I'm calm because I know the payoff will be amazing.
• Eve was originally scheduled to face Beth Phoenix, but Kane's music hits and Eve screams in terror.  Zack runs in to make the save and they flee to the parking lot.  But wait....Zack has a flat...HURRY UP BROSKI!...
• Back from commercial, we go to our MAIN EVENT:

John Cena vs. Dolph Ziggler

• Good match with Cena coming very close to victory before he gets distracted by the tron.  We see Kane assaulting Ryder (with Eve screaming in fear) and Cena quickly rushes to the rescue.  Still, he's too late and receives a choke-out from the monster and we end the show with the continuation of the great horror movie inspired booking of Kane.

Final thoughts:  Great if not strange, show.  I am very interested in seeing where the Kane-Cena-Ryder movie will go from here and the quirky Jericho appearances as well.  Not so much in the Miz-Truth, but there's hope.  Still, not too much Rumble hype but we have 2 more episodes to go.


Overall episode rating: 8.5


What to watch if you DVR'd the episode:  The Kane-Cena-Ryder segments, the Punk-Swagger match, the AWESOME Hall of Fame packages and I'd recommend the Jericho segment, but it's pretty much the same thing you saw him do last week.  Please do yourself a favor, and skip the debut of Brodus Clay.




Let me know your thoughts





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