Last night at the Royal Rumble, C.M. Punk successfully retained the WWE Championship against Dolph Ziggler, avoiding a potential screwjob from John Laurinaitis. Tonight, WWE COO Triple H returns to give the Executive Vice President of Talent Relations, and Interim General Manager of Raw a job evaluation. Also at the Rumble, John Cena and Kane fought to a double count-out, with Zack Ryder taking another injury. The road to WrestleMania continues tonight on Raw. Read on for my thoughts on the show as it happens.
John Laurinaitis just SEEMS like a politician. He wouldn't be out of place in a Republican primary.
Great kiss-assery from the GM.
Ziggler should have been the first challenger announced.
Oooooh, intrigue. I figured Jericho wouldn't be in the title picture until Mania. I might have gone with Swagger if they wanted to save Y2J, but maybe they have something big in mind storyline-wise.
Not exactly a charismatic, error-free promo.
ROH fans just exploded.
Hahaha. Elimination PPV trending.
Stupid commentary.
Nice promo by Bryan. Great delusional heel. He and Punk work together well.
Glad they threw in the elitist vegan attitude.
The two top champions facing off needs to be HUGE. Theoretically they're the top two guys in the company.
Sheamus, Punk, and Bryan in the title picture for WrestleMania. That's not a shameful thing.
Sheamus is fun on the mic. Hope this guy's going places in the months to come.
But hey, who cares... they're just geeks, right?
Ziggler needs to get his heat back in this one.
I like Barrett being in the luxury box.
I think people would have paid to see Orton vs. Barrett again, so hopefully they leave something for the Chamber PPV. Presumably both men will be fighting for the title then.
These two have grown a lot since their debuts, and even their midcard days.
I thought we were in for a jump into an RKO there.
Don't rule Ziggler out as a main eventer yet. He's getting more comfortable facing top guys and having good showings against decorated competitors.
Good match. Ziggler did pretty well, even in a loss.
C.M. Punk vs. Daniel Bryan is headlining Raw. All you internet fans who want something other than the same old, same old better turn out in big numbers.
Almost 9 weeks away.
Maybe they shouldn't have advertised that that was his locker room (unless Laurinaitis WANTED Kane to take him out).
Glad-handing douchebag.
I half-expected "Curt, you still work here?"
This is the craziest thing.
Yeah, this doesn't bode well for Reks.
He's like a bigger Goldberg with a wackier gimmick.
Punk and Bryan are legitimately friends going back over a decade who clawed their way up their ranks into WWE.
Good promo from these two. I want segments like these to be the norm.
What's more important, the WWE Champion vs. the World Heavyweight Champion, or a job review featuring a grand total of zero active wrestlers? BUT, that segment could have big implications for the future, so I see where they're going. I wouldn't be surprised to see Undertaker.
I wonder how much Living Colour makes every time they play that song on TV. At least he didn't want a Metallica song.
The commentary on Bryan is terrible as always.
WWE's Twitter relevance is more important than the action apparently.
Great athleticism from the champs. Much better than a Big Show/Mark Henry match.
Glad the fans are responding well to this one. Maybe the "new generation" can make it in the company after all.
Two of the best straightforward athletes in wrestling today. Good to see them face off.
If only JR was calling this instead of Cole/Lawler.
Damned solid work here.
Hell, this is better than last night's World Title match. What's wrong with that picture?
Ok then. Not sure where this is going, but hopefully it's good.
Yeah, it kind of got leaked earlier in the day.
Now those were the days.
That was pretty awesome.
Big chance for Kofi here.
I'm looking forward to some of those YouTube shows, but I don't think I'll cover them here (unless maybe I get requests to).
Nice Miz promo. He gets people's attention and gets his stories over.
Big night for Kofi. Maybe he can team with R-Truth?
Planting seeds for Otunga? Interesting.
Cool video package on Rock. They're doing an interesting build with these two.
I like the Divas' Title graphic. Won't that technically make that match the main event?
That show could be interesting in is own way.
This will be interesting...
I wonder if Ceasar really liked pizza...
Da dum tssh.
I did think about that with the Meg Ryan comment.
Well, that was quick.
This is a pretty crazy storyline.
I... guess I'm ok with this? It all depends on where it's leading.
If that's not embracing hate, I don't know what is.
I hope all of you who wanted Cena to be more edgy and heelish aren't the ones booing WWE for giving you what you requested.
This could work out pretty well now that I think about it. They're not going to stop using Cena, so him changing up his act some could shut some of the complainers up.
Good Smackdown ad.
I get a bad feeling we're in for a set-up to HHH/Taker Round Infinity +7.
Sad they're just taking shots at the complaining internet reporters with the ratings talk.
Ha. Laurinaitis plays his role so well.
At least he doesn't have a sledgehammer.
Haha. Great heat for this segment.
Laurinaitis is so two-faced. Perfect politician.
I'm under the impression that the Board would be who made the decision to remove Laurinaitis, since otherwise HHH could have fired him a long time ago.
Yep, saw that one coming.
I'm a LITTLE surprised that no one's going to help Laurinaitis. But HHH could fire them, too.
At least HHH is presumably having fun here.
Interesting... not sure why Taker would save Laurinaitis, but it's something different.
So much for those "Taker is bald" pictures (?).
Well, fans are on their feet for the segment, so I can't complain too much about the spotlight on these two.
Why do we need to do this match again?
Hahaha. Yeah, I don't think you'll get off that easy, HHH. At least we're doing something other than HHH wants to end the streak.
Couldn't he have stopped him with fire or something?
I'll give them credit: they moved the crowd without saying a word. Though I might not personally be crazy about going back to the well, I think they can muster up enough magic to draw in money and interest for this all to work out.
That's it for Raw tonight. I'll be back for NXT on Wednesday. A news post will be up tonight. Thanks for reading!
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