WWE Monday Night Raw: 2/11/2013

Is CM Punk the best mastermind in the biz right now?

Here are the highlights of this week's Raw from Nashville, TN :

*Photos courtesy of WWE.com

-Paul Heyman's opening promo was spectacular.  His believability on the microphone is only matched by his facial expressions that are so spot on they could make Paul Bearer blush.  I know that here on the Internet, Paul Heyman praise comes aplenty and to most, it's usually met with a "jerk off "hand gesture, but how could you not love this guy in the current role that he's in?  CM Punk coming out to talk Heyman off the ledge struck me in my dead smark heart as well.  And I couldn't have been the only one screaming "Don't do it Paul!" at my TV last night.  Gotta love these two together.  It's interesting to note the look in Punk's eyes as they embraced near the end of the seg though.  What are you up to?

"Just give me the gun, Paul"

 

 

-Mark Henry again made the most noise of the night with very few words.  The guy is just "on it" since he's been back.  Seriously, you could put damn near anything that comes out of his mouth on a tee and you've got my $$$.  "I make this look easy!" "That's what I do!" and "Grown folks fittin' to talk" are easily my favorite big man quotes of the year thus far.  Oh, and Hornswoggle getting World's Strongest Slammed into oblivion?  Yes please.  I like my monsters merciless.

-Chris Jericho mocking Booker T was hilarious.  If that shit didn't make you chuckle at the very least, then I'm convinced you have no soul.  And Y2J vs. Daniel Bryan Part Deux?  This is like the Raw of my dreams right now.  The two technical beasts had previously tangled in a now infamous contest on the very first season of NXT nearly three years ago and Daniel Bryan has now grown leaps and bounds as a performer since then.  Put these two in there any time "creative has nothing for them" and magic will happen.  What a match!  [***3/4]

Jericho's expression here is near identical to mine when this match was announced

-The Mega Schmega Powers (John Cena, Ryback and Sheamus) made easy work of 3MB.  As they should.  If their match with The Shield this Sunday ends up in a chamber "War Games" style, I'm gonna lose my shit.  Those are some of my favorite matches! 

-Oh, and what the f*ck is a Fandango?

-Big Show was just awesome tonight.  Gotta love him going all Fast & Furious on Alex Riley mostly just for looking like a jacked up Paul Walker. 

-Jack Swagger obliterated Zack Ryder in one of the best squashes I've seen in a while.  I like Swaggs' new attitude, look and hell, even the borderline racist manager is workin' for him.  U mad?  It's wrestling folks.  Don't take it as much more than that.  Having some old 'Nam vet bitching about immigration plants the seeds for Del Rio vs. Swagger at mania.  Whatever line they may or may not have crossed doesn't matter if they get their comeuppance at the hands of the WWE's best white meat babyface right now.  Undoubtedly, the match should be awesome.  Zack Ryder should take a tip from Swagger and take some time off to get himself on Extreme Makeover: Wrestling Edition. 

-The Miz vs. Cody Rhodes.  Bleh.  As much as I can applaud the awesome one for having the balls of ten men when he took it to Brock Lesnar last week, this was about five steps back from that for me.  Ah well.  Either way the real star here was Antonio Cesaro!  That back an forth big swing to the barricade was just nasty and it made the big swiss look like an absolute badass.

-Brodus Clay and Tensai defeated Primo and Epico and danced the night away.  Because let's face it, fat guys dancing is always funny.  Much rather would have seen Rosa Mendes and the Funkadactyls battle it out though, but to each his own.

-If I were to give any advice to the other two members of The Shield.  Look mean & please let Dean Ambrose do all the talking.  The other two aren't bad by any means, but they're definitely not as effective.

-Alberto Del Rio def. Damien Sandow and after tonight, you've got to wonder if Rhodes Scholars made the right decision in splitting up.

-Wade Barrett put the boots to Kofi Kingston to send a message to rookie Bo Dallas.  Good stuff.  Always a fan of heels sending signals to their opponent via. a random guy's face only to have said opponent kick his ass again at a later date, humbling him in the process.  Message received. 

-Kane defeated Dolph Ziggler via. Chokeslam effectively giving Ziggs nothing to work with come Sunday.  That briefcase has got to be gettin' heavy Dolph.....

-AJ Lee has a nice....everything.....and yes, that's ALWAYS worth mentioning.  Even Big E Langston got caught slipping due to being captivated by dat ass....

"Hey big guy, a little help?!.....dude, you're breaking the Bro Code!!!"

-I'm always down for an appearance by WWE Champion The Rock, but even in my most positive of moods, I could not decipher where he was going with this "crackhead" thing.  Still the dude looks awesome with the belt (yes, that counts for something) and he and Punk's feud is still one of the most compelling in all of wrestling right now.  Rocky has the stipulations leveled against him at the Elimination Chamber PPV and one can only anticipate some shenanigans and a possible Punk/Rock/Cena main event at Wrestlemania would be pretty sweet.  The whole segment led to a scuffle that saw Punk get the upper hand and level Rock with the GTS in a manner eerily reminiscent of the Raw 1000 finish.  He then walks off with HIS WWE Championship.  Sublime.  A solid ending to an excellent go-home show.

- Overall it was a fantastic episode.  This had nearly everything you could want.  The opener and closer were both effective, there were a slew of decent to great matches and the backstage work was even very well done.  Kudos.

Episode Score: 9.0