WWE Raw results and reactions from last night (Jan. 9): Keep on trolling

I don’t even know where to begin. Brodus Clay had to be my favorite, debuting with something none of us saw coming and I couldn’t believe it but he made it work so damn well. Zack Ryder was just hilarious, especially when he sees the flat tire and instantly starts to try and change the tire. Cena got his ass handed to him for most of the time he was on the screen and didn’t really do much talking. Ricardo Rodriguez, Big Johnny, and R Truth were at their best comedically and outdid Santino with the funny, which usually isn’t easy to do.

And of course Jericho being brought to tears by the love he was getting and having to bail out of the ring was great.

The only bad part was the ending to the Punk match. They might play it up in the storyline or something, but as of right now, that’s a big WTF moment. The ref aside, Punk and Swagger had a couple of botches I noticed, but it was a really long match and those will come out then more than when you’re working a 3 minute match. Most importantly, they recovered from the botches pretty well and kept on going.

This was not a good episode at all. The Bryan-Kingston match was what, two minutes? Barely enough time to tell any kind of story. They could have spent forty-five minutes on this match and it would have improved the show considerably.

Brodus Clay’s new gimmick is an insult to the intelligence of all serious wrestling fans. He looked like a complete fool and the whole mess completely sapped my interest in his long-awaited Raw debut. There is nothing wrong with putting a huge scary guy out there as a simply a huge scary guy. When they offered him this gimmick he should have punched them all in the face. Unless it was his idea, in which case he should leave wrestling entirely. You are giving WWE way too much credit calling this a troll job. It is just a stupid gimmick.

The problem with Sheamus is that no one knows what to do with him. They could, I don’t know, put him into an actual program with someone and give him more than five minutes to work.

Santino is great.

I am already tired of watching Chris Jericho do nothing.

Not watching next week.

The result was a terribly goofy but incredibly fun show. That said, shows like this should only happen every now and again. It’s a nice change of pace and a chance to take everything less seriously.

That’s what I was thinking. As much as I prefer a more straightforward wrasslin’ approach, this was fun. However, I wouldn’t want this to be the norm.

What a great show all around. It is absolutely criminal that the ratings will be down this week. This was too good to be tossed away. They’ll bring it back to realism, but hopefully we can keep away from the super serious wrestling business for just a little while longer. And I really hope Trips was behind this. It would make me so much more comfortable for the future.

It is pretty funny how he was “vignette-hyped” and then just never showed up. A couple weeks ago John Lori says he’s coming “next week” but he never shows. And then when he finally does show….he’s a gimmick. I’m not a gimmick fan but even I were, this one was pretty damn bad. It’s like the old Vicera run back in the day when he danced around and shit…but this time it’s so obvious that it’s simply because a lapse in writing, or it’s a troll. Who knows…maybe next week he’ll show up as a scary big monster??

Ziggler is one of the best parts of RAW for me. He always puts on the best matches and even if he’s booked like shit, he makes the best of it. Hence being out in a match with Cena, and still making it a pro wrestling match. I LOVE him programming with CM Punk, but I worry that they dont do their match at Rumble the proper justice with this “John as the ref” angle….if they let them go all out that’ll be a fantastic match.

Kane is being used to re-make people like Cena again. Notice how Kane’s show starting promo was more directed at the fans than Cena like the past couple of weeks have been. If you take Cena out of the angle, I think this is some of Kane’s best work. The promo he delivered, while it was watered down in parts, was a sure sign of his ability to tap into the psychology of mic work. The nuances of his speach were so natural it makes you forget about any image of Kane being a baby face or a nice guy. Kane has reinvented himself here, and I like it, but I long for what it will be after the Cena stuff is out of the way.

Jericho is doing something pretty fantastic. He’s finding a new way to turn. He’s not doing it the easy way; the way he’s proven he’s able to do every run he has. His angle alone is giving me reason to tune in to RAW everyday, which means what he’s doing is working. I say let it ride till Rumble. Let everyone develope a natural dislike..a real dislike, and then win the rumble and go on to have an amazing match at mania with Punk (and maybe make a pit stop with Ziggler because that would be incredible)
:)

I can understand the gimmick and as someone said previously, they already have a Mark Henry. But, sorry, I’m not behind this one at all.

This is one of those horrible 1990s gimmicks and while I don’t doubt he’ll be popular on a Rikishi/Khali level, it’s just not for me. The whole thing just came off as cheesy at best and downright stupid at worst.

Not a fan.

The Daniel Bryan thing, on the other hand, is flat out hilarious. Would love to see him do some sort of gimmick where he beats up jobbers like Jericho did to a degree in WCW. He could then even keep a running toll of consecutive wins or something…walking around with a sign.

Wasn’t a fan of him getting the title so soon initially, but I think this thing has legs if he plays it right.

I think Cole and King did a helluva job covering for the ref botch. When they showed it in slow-mo they played up the fact that the ref messed up and used that as an explanation as to why “Big Johnny” named himself as special ring enforcer or whatever. I thought that maybe it might have been an intentional screw up to continue that story, but after watching it again, it was clearly obvious that no one expected it to end that way and it was definitely a botch. I bet Jack Doan got an ear full from Punk and Vince backstage.

It didn’t try to take itself too seriously, and that is why it was awesome.

Honestly, Sheamus and Barrett feuding based solely on Ireland vs. England would be enough for me. I’m a Sheamus fan.

As I’ve said before, I’d like to see Daniel Bryan be a tough, able-to-beat-everybody kind of guy, but if he can get over with this “I WON (kinda)!” heel character, I’ll be happy.

What are the odds that Jericho comes out next week as an angry badass, trashes the announce desk and ringside area, then leaves?

Maybe Punk was the one who actually wrote the show. He wanted to bring fun back. I didn’t even notice the lack of Punk until afterward. I’m kind of tired of Punk’s ramblings anyway. As for the botch finish, I was thinking that was the plan all along. That gives an excuse so Vickie can be at ringside for their title match, since Punk’s win was not definitive.

This was my favorite Raw in years, yes years. It had a few running story lines throughout the show and lots of quick backstage segments. Santino, Ricardo, R-Truth, Ziggler, Big Johnny, Otunga, Brodus Clay, and Punk checking out Rosa’s butt were all aces in my book. I really wish this is the new direction of Raw.

after being chokeslammed onto wood pallets?