Somehow Lawler and Horn****** have managed to vault over Russo, Nash and HHH for "people involved with wrestling I most want to die instantly." Congrats guys!

@ 7:21
as bad as nash

ok finally caught up! very sorry i missed the thread live but lol working late. show was bookended by awesome promo at the beginning and awesome main event. fun episode of Raw for a change. Cean's shirt being pre-torn and the aforementioned people who should self-end by jumping off the Titantron being the only low lights.

also it looked like the Beth/Fox match was a botch. Beth had a huge goose-egg on her head and looked like she took the reverse DDT hard and got roughed by that leg drop.

the funny thing was, when he said that he actually rolled his own eyes.

it seriously looked like he was told to say that over the headset and couldnt believe it.

but yeah, just finished and that was a solid raw. i wouldnt say amazing, there wasnt much actual progression or anything like that, but it was just a well done show. z-ry and barrett were great. henry's brief appearance was good too.

im ecstatic that kane/cena is likely going to happen til rock/cena. i actually think cena excels in story lines like this, and it allows all the top guys to flourish without having to work title matches with either of them.

Just watched Raw and wow. Grunching this thread, but those two hours flew by and I was thoroughly entertained the whole time.

Kane/Cena is really interesting to me. They actually let Cena get beat down pretty good, which is awesome.

Pretty sure Beth is half dead now and will murder Fox backstage. Even the tag match with Primepico was really, really fun. No H's, and the whole thing was awesome.

Best Raw since "The Shoot" imo.

Also, looked to me like ADR tore his groin on that dropkick by Bryan. Freak accident, but he looked like he was in serious pain there.

And Cole was very, very good on commentary tonight.

But y were u looking at his groin?

Very casual wrestling fan (last watched seriously 2002) but I was seriously marking out for Raw. Awesome show.

Best Raw in I don't know how long.

Tiltingly, my internet cut out last night a little way through Raw so I'm gonna post thoughts ITT as I watch it today.

- Opening segment was really solid as I said before, Orton/Barrett also good.

- Is WWE gonna shove Alicia Fox down our throats now? She pretty much sucks at everything and is one of the less attractive Divas, so I have no idea why.

- Sheamus vs Mahal again? LOL, Mahal in a turban, thats just hilarious. I suppose this is a classic booking tactic, have one guy get crushed by someone and then have several more matches in which he gets more competitive each time.

- Cena's about to say something shocking. Let me guess, he's being sarcastic. Oh, yeah he is. Very interesting how much they're addressing the Cena hate brigade. Henry's here, "Sexual Chocolate" chant, amazing. Kane is here, awesomeness. The welder mask is back?!? Ah he's taking it off, okay. Did Kane just cut off Cena's air supply and knock him out? He's bleeding, holy crap. Weird beatdown.

- The Usos vs...Primo and Epico? Do they have a team name? They need to bring back Carlito and make it into a Colon family stable. Pretty good Backstabber by Epico.

- Cody vs Santino? This is a little random. Cody needs to crush him fast. The kneepads do really make the difference in making Cody look like a legit guy.

- This Tribute to the Troops bull**** makes me sick, same crap goes on in the UK with our troops. My Dad is ex-Forces and he's a ****, look a bit deeper before you call them all heroes.

- Ryder celebrating with his Dad and Big O was a great moment at TLC. Really elevated the US title and made it easier to pull for Ryder too.

- Big Show turning heel soon imo. Can't work out what they're doing with Bryan though.

EDIT: Posted too early.

- Another cryptic promo featuring the little girl. If those promos are for who they're supposed to be then I have no idea where the girl fits in.

- Ryder coming in through the crowd is a nice touch. Oh wow, Bryan doing the same, ****ing awesome. I'm guessing Punk'll do it too. Yep. The shot of the 3 of them holding their titles was great.

- Cole remembered that King hates ECW! CONTINUITY FTW!

- This whole match is a big IWC circle jerk...posing for the crowd mid-match is a bit lol.

- 6man tag was great, except for Cole ****ting all over it for the whole time. Good episode of Raw overall though.

ouch

OHHHHH YOU GOT OUTFOXED BOIIII

seriously tho how can you say she is a less attractive diva? she is like a 351 out of 10

Its a good job Fox doesnt use any moves that can seriously injure someone. She is brutally inaccurate with the flip legdrop. She as much as anyone needs to be a career "person who walks to the ring with men and looks pretty".

I don't think that Divas match was supposed to end there, come to think of it. I think Beth was legit hurt after taking that botched leg drop.

Having said, more jumping Alicia Fox, less talking Alicia Fox. Plsthx.

come on... noone laughed at "you just got outfoxed!"

that was such an entirely different level of bad it was hilarious imo

I'm starting to come around on Ryder as US Champ. If they keep building it up the way they are right now, then it could one day be back to it's original glory.

They need one less belt, imo. If they can get both the IC and US title to the prestige they once had, I would be surprised. It does seem they are well on their way, though.

Having both belts defends at TLC was a step in the right direction. One belt might work better than two, but they dont need one less belt so much as they need to start having them defended so people remember them as more than just props.

I still think they need 1 of each belt and end the brand extention. We could have better builds to storylines

Just caught up on the show, grunching the thread and posting my stream of consciousness as I watched.

*I notice that masked Kane is immediately in the opening. Not just the Raw opening, but he has a blip in the “tonight we’re bringing you a great show” opening. Foreshadowing another big push?

*I enjoy CM Punk, but being the uber-squishy babyface isn’t my favorite way of seeing him. Regardless, it’s good to see that he seems to be plenty over.

*Daniel Bryan just still isn’t that over. I really want this to work, but this reign isn’t going to be very long if the pops don’t improve. Using Punk to help give him a rub is a good way to go about improving the situation though, so hopefully this helps.

*Very nice somersault plancha by Zack Ryder to the outside. He’s able to do those? Between that and last night’s hurracanrana off the top rope, I’m becoming more sold on Ryder’s abilities in the ring.

*Predictable six-man tag main event setup is annoying. A day existed when big superstars teaming up to face off was worthy of the main event of SummerSlam. Now it’s just a garden-variety thing that happens on Raw most weeks.

*Orton vs. Barrett. Given away unannounced, on the show they’re not even primarily a part of, and for no particular reason the night after it’s a PPV match that was built to for a while. Sigh. Suck it, amp. Also what is this anchor thing on Barrett’s ass?

*A DISQUALIFICATION OVER A THUMB TO THE EYE?!? That used to be a Hulk Hogan signature move FFS!

*Lawler: “I wouldn’t be surprised if we never see (Nash) again.” JackNicholsonYes.gif. At least he made things fun again for a while.

*Alicia Fox’s music is hideous. Like she actually seems to have the worst music of any diva, which given Eve’s awful theme is saying something. In before B&W has another section devoted to preaching about her wearing a pelt to the ring.

*WHAT THE ****?!? Did Alicia Fox just SQUASH the divas champion?!? This is more exclamation marks than I’ve typed in a while, but that was awful. “I hope everyone has a foxy…holiday.” Good Lord.

*Can we stop giving segments to Jinder Mahal? So brutal. At least this match with Sheamus was booked properly.

*I hope the WWE Network is better than these commercials for it. It would be hard not to be…

*Pretty heavy boobirds for Cena. I always enjoy that. He calls out Kane and Henry comes out for no apparent reason. Oh, here’s Kane now. Maybe Henry just keeps existing in these segments to establish that Kane is tweener rather than face or heel.

*Cena actually doing a nice job here of selling “clearly afraid of Kane but trying to keep a brave face.” That isn’t easy to convey just with facials.

*Okay, by the end of Kane’s attack on Cena I’m left with no clue why Henry appeared. Also I have no idea why Kane just took Cena’s shirt back with him. Is he going to melt it down and turn it into a chain that he wears around his neck?

*Rosa Mendes on my screen. I’m happy. She’s suddenly making a big push for hottest diva in the company. Yes, she might even surpass lovely Nattie.

*I like the attempt at getting a tag division going, even though the crowd isn’t having it with these guys right now. You can’t build Rome in a day, and the only way you’re going to get a division of insta-over teams is to having nothing but randomly thrown-together singles.

*Cole: “ANYONE can win the Royal Rumble. If you don’t believe me, just watch this.” And then there’s a ****ing ******ed promo of gypsy Santino in no way addressing how anyone can win. Cole, I still don’t believe that absolutely anyone can win…I hope you have something stronger for Exhibit B.

*It is beneath Cody’s dignity to be dealing with Santino. But at least it was a squash.

*Hornswoggle segment is AIDS. Lawler: “He’s going to be dealing with low ELF esteem.” ****ing kill me. Lawler is the guy who, on December 30th, tells people he’s going to see in less than a week, “See you next year!” and then walks away mentally masturbating to himself as to how awesome it was that he said that.

*Big Show promo is probably foreshadowing a heel turn. I don’t know what else they can do with him now.

*Complaints about the idiocy of constantly thrown-together tag matches aside, this was a very fun main event and Bryan being the one to go over was awesome. Whatever pessimism I had about this segment was completely dispelled and I was wrong. I have way more hope for Daniel Bryan’s reign than I did before this episode.

OVERALL: The last match left such a good taste in my mouth that I forgot almost every bad thing that happened on the show. It’s like Mitch Hedberg once said, “You have to start the show strong and end the show strong. Those are the two most important things. Can’t be like pancakes…all exciting at first, but then by the end you’re ****ing sick of ‘em.” Anyway, there were some lowlights but I definitely enjoyed the show.

In my mind Alicia always walks out to this theme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-LJgr8oG1w

WWE needs to pay to use Foxy Lady by Hendrix for Fox.