Last week, Chris Jericho made his anticipated return to WWE and said... nothing of interest. Tonight, we've been assured that he'll address the WWE Universe. We've also been assured that Brodus Clay will make his Raw debut, but we've heard that one before. One match we do know will go down is Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston in a Champion vs. Champion match. Also, what's next between Kane and John Cena? See whatever WWE Creative probably finalized an hour before the show, and read on for my thoughts on it as it goes down.
Well, it doesn't start off much creepier than Kane.
I'm liking Evil Kane.
Ha. That's one way to get people hating Kane instead of Cena. And honestly, it's kind of true for some.
Kane's voice is pretty evil sounding.
All in all, good promo.
And that's why you don't hang around backstage during Raw.
Kane's not as indestructible as he has been in the past, but this isn't bad.
Hmm. Interesting start to the show.
Santino's done pretty darn well for himself as a joke character.
Not a bad collection of superstars to start off the action tonight. Sheamus, Barrett, and (to a lesser extent) Mahal have some pretty good upsides.
Cultural education by Michael Cole. Who'd have thought it?
I really hope this is building to Sheamus getting a big match at Mania. He's got breakthrough potential.
Well... Jinder did eat a Brogue Kick before taking a Cobra so he's kind of protected in that matter. I would have thought bigger things were coming for him after beating Ezekiel and DiBiase.
Otunga and his coffee...
I thought we were getting Brodus vs. Miz for a second there.
Laurinaitis and Otunga make a humorous duo.
I'm guessing either Mil Mascaras or Carlos Colon.
Wow. Yeah, that's a lot bigger for the current audience and will sell some HoF tickets.
Great little video package.
I was wondering where Mason ended up.
Really looking forward to this one. Bryan and Kingston are the stars of tomorrow for sure.
God, that entrance music's terrible. Especially for a heel World Champion we're supposed to take really seriously.
Bryan's still got some growing to do to be a credible headliner, I'm afraid. He hasn't been booked strongly enough for a long enough time.
Impressive beginnings from these two.
Didn't see that one coming! I think that looked more like a one-time fluke than anything, though. He could still use some serious credibility boosting.
Hmm. That's more than a little surprising. I was expecting them to save the rematch for the Rumble. They've got the chance to really build Bryan if he can hold his own in that match and not look like a paper champion. Time will tell.
In before Johnny Ace trolling.
Wait... What? This is real? Did Brodus pee in someone's drink backstage or something? This guy was a beast on NXT, Smackdown, and Superstars.
Build a credible monster performer or pass him off as a goof. Apparently a hard choice in WWE.
This is both great and stupid at the same time. This is really 2012?
I'm guessing his two valets are from FCW. I didn't get a great look at their faces, but Naomi and the former Ariane Andrew have been doing kind of a similar shtick down there.
I knew that song sounded familiar... apparently they used that song for Ernest "The Cat" Miller. As you might have guessed, he didn't last too long as a serious competitor.
All those intense video packages thrown away. Ugh.
Anyway, moving on.
I wonder what kind of trick they'll pull out of the hat for Miz's protection. Skip Sheffield's been around lately.
Punk's got the same expression as everyone else here.
That's fair enough. I half-expected a Swagger face turn around that time.
Good nod to Swagger's wrestling ability.
Sometimes things trend because they're stupid. Actually a lot of the time.
I just noticed Ziggler wearing a Swagger shirt. Nice.
Not really sure what they're going for with Laurinaitis.
That looked like it might have hurt Punk more than Swagger. Less can be more with highspots.
Yeah, I don't think that's why Jericho was silent.
This is a pretty good wrestling match, but I can't help but thinking they could take a little less time for this and more for Bryan/Kofi.
This just gets weirder with Laurinaitis. He's trying to get on Punk's good side.
Theoretically the face wouldn't take a tainted win?
Yeah, that didn't go as well as it could/should have.
Good little segment with Cena and Ryder, though the Twitter talk's undoubtedly lost on some people. Ryder's been good in everything tonight.
God, I'm hating those WWE Network ads. A lot.
Way too much focus on awards and things on TV.
Ricardo speaks English pretty well. He's great as the bumbling sidekick.
I'm really cool with Edge going in since he's retired and all. Rock's still got at least one match.
Another rather surprising edition at this point. Flair's in TNA! A legendary faction, and they've definitely earned it. What does this mean for Flair? Surely they can't use him on TV if he's under contract to TNA?
Hahahaha. This is incredibly stupid but kind of entertaining at the same time.
Now I think it's about 50/50 on the dumb/great scale.
This feels like it will either bomb or kill in the ratings and getting over (see the original "This is Your Life").
Well, Ricardo and R-Truth killed it as far as comedy that was effective but didn't really make me want to see R-Truth vs. Miz.
This on the other hand might be good for the feud.
Also, are we supposed to feel sympathy for Ricardo? I'm kind of confused.
How many people care about what the Undisputed Championship was? That was 10 years ago. Are we going to make O-Town references next?
Ok then. Who is he now, Kharma?
I should never feel like I wasted my time watching a TV show. I'm kind of feeling that after that segment. It gets us all asking questions and wanting to see what happens next week, but so did the Iranian Hostage Crisis.
Maybe they should do more building of the people who are going to be in the Rumble and more recent events about it?
I think the first Rumble I saw was in '99, but I'm pretty sure I've seen the '98 Rumble as well.
We're really going back into campy territory with some of this now.
Don't you need to jack the car up first?
At least Kane didn't speed off with her or something.
Ryder's not getting on a pit crew any time soon, that's for sure.
Cena can't help him without losing to the Show Off.
Ziggler's gimmick is getting kind of ridiculous, and not in the good way.
Well, that's an interesting idea for the Cena-Kane feud to continue.
Yeah, that was kind of a clustermess. They're really getting heavy on the action soap opera theme this week.
Ok then. Guess we're done here. That's all for a very off-the-wall Raw this week (but, hey, people wanted them to "change the formula of the show and make us think anything can happen"!). I'll be back for NXT Wednesday. A news post will be up later tonight. Thanks for reading!
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