WWE Raw results and reactions from last night (Jan. 23): Ready for the Royal Rumble

No comment of the night? You must have been upset.

I for one, am glad that Kane killed off Ryder.. I wasn’t a fan, and I think WWe gave him a chance, and he flopped.. some on his own. The crowd sounded like it was piped in all night. It musta been freezing in there for them to sit on their hands for 2+ hours.

I think the Punk & JL feud leads to Taker coming back. Punk sticking up for HHH is brown nose of the year, which clearly means that HHH won’t fire JL, but embrace him, it fits in with this whole Punk won’t get screwed, but will. Maybe the HHH fax was a hoax, more mind games?… but Taker wouldn’t come to rescue Punk.. so the picture isn’t very clear yet. I’m certain that where ever HHH injects himself at, Taker won’t be far behind.

No Santino, no divas.. this was a pretty good show.

Everyone seems to think that people get pushed to become champs, when in fact, everyone is pushed for business… and that push will always end & be for someone else’s push. I think Sheamus is that guy.. they pushed him so much but had nothing for him, so he’s going to be the guy that gets used as a step stone for the next guy. A lot of the guys 2 yrs ago that were young got pushed hard.. and all have plateaued.. all but Punk. Sheamus, Swagger, Christian, and others were given a chance w/ the ball at various times.. each time they didn’t live up to expectations.. now stuck in mid card hell. Not sure why WWe does such ass backwards things… such as Daniel Bryan.. history states that not long after his run, he’ll be on the back burner.. like Miz. Punk was on his way down, but fought it with better ideas. That’s how we get so many Orton & Cena title runs.. these young guys are pushed too soon & can’t handle it… so they run back to the reliable. None of the others are taken seriously because they have been trained how the champs are supposed to act unstoppable.

It really makes the Johnny Ace G2S face even better. Any other night, the Cena face would have been the face of the night. But not when Mr. Excitement is around.

but that was an awful episode. I seriously hate seeing 20 minutes of someone getting carted off. At least the terrible Nash-HHH angle had the terrible payoff of a second sledgehammer shot. But yeah, this was nothing but Eve “acting” horrified and Cena having poopy face (which I can’t stop cracking up on). There are so many good things going on on Raw and Smackdown and they had to prevent any of that from getting screen time just so we could spend more time watching a guy get carted off. Just terrible. The good thing about this is that Zack Ryder gets to be done with this Cena/Kane angle for good now (hopefully) and when he comes back, he can quickly go back to being Long Island Ice Z challenging Swagger for his US championship.

Also, I wish the GTS didn’t happen too. I see why they did it and it doesn’t mean that their feud is screwed up, but the slow build was working and last night was just too forced/rushed in an attempt to build on the greatness of last week’s promos between the 2.

Ziggler will make sure he’s remembered with his performance at the RR. Anyone else and its no guarantee that they can come out of this looking good still, but a PPV match between Ziggler and Punk will be money regardless of the finish (and Johnny Ace will somehow be involved in it).

and where was the anal bleeding, you know there had to be some! Also did he have a pulse, these are important questions people.

I’d give it a D+.

The Ryder stretcher job basically killed the show. That took up way too much time and was terrible for nearly every second of it. Cena’s angry face was impossible to take seriously, especially since he was glaring straight into the camera. Eve’s acting is truly awful. This entire story needs to go away asap.

The Punk segments had some good moments and some bad moments. Ace’s lack of reaction when Punk hoisted him up was memorable but ultimately hurt the gravity of that moment.

The Sheamus routine is completely boring. To those defending his stagnant role as a way for him to elevate guys like Orton did last Fall during Henry’s title run, I just don’t see how Sheamus is elevating anybody. He squashes everybody. What help did Jinder or Swagger ever receive from the numerous squashes they have received at the hands of Sheamus? It just buries them. And it does nothing to help Sheamus because beating jobbers for 6 months in a row is not impressive. This is not similar to anything that Orton did last fall when he was temporarily moved away from Henry. Orton was still entertaining and putting on some great matches a good chunk of that stretch. I can’t remember the last time Sheamus had an interesting match. I think the last guy he put over was Hornswoggle.

Even though the show was disappointing, I can’t wait to see what Jericho does starting next week at the Rumble and the following night at Raw. I am expecting that he will move into the main event program very soon. And the return of HHH and the status of Ace as GM suggests that next week’s Raw could change things up in a big way leading into Mania. Hopefully it will be a change for the better. And please, get Cena away from Kane. Please.

Regal has that Ventura/Heenan wit. He would make the show much more enjoyable.

Punk looked like a little kid wearing his dad’s clothes. Wearing oversized shorts is a goofy look with his enormous shin guards. The title looks so huge when he wears it around his waist. Sometimes I wonder if Punk’s real gimmick is just being a jerky little punk kid. I think Vince is getting the last laugh.

In regards to Big Johnny’s expression, I was thinking maybe he was allowing Punk to get him as past of his master plan for Big Johnny not to get fired.

Jinder Mahal still has potential but will always be held back by the color of his skin thanks to the company he works for.

A very understated point. The day an ethnically South Asian or Middle Eastern wrestle debuts as face or as a non-racialized caricature in the WWE will be the end of the world as we know it.

- Punk re-using the ‘pull your balls out of your purse’ line in back to back weeks came across as lazy. There are about a billion different ways to suggest that a man is not really a man . No reason to use the exact same line 2 weeks in a row. I tend to agree with the people saying he looks tired or burned out.

- I liked the Kane/Cena/Ryder stuff for the most part. The 20 minute stretcher scene and Cena’s overacting were a bit annoying however. I really enjoyed Kane stomping ZR last night. Kane running into the crowd when Cena came out looked like Frankenstein’s monster lumbering his way through an angry village mob. I dug it. Perfect opportunity for Ryder to come back with a more serious attitude and eventually pay Kane back or blame Cena and turn heel. Dumbass Jersey Shore parody still does nothing for me, Youtube channel or not.

- Jericho was awesome but WWE better really have something huge planned for him at the Rumble or I’m afraid it will be a big letdown. If he just joins the Rumble and immediately eliminates himself and leaves I will be disappointed. I expect something shocking or dramatic to happen based on his words last night. Something that could change the landscape, so to speak.

- Why is Regal not a full time announcer on one of the 2 main shows? He’s better than everyone else right now. Or make him somebody’s manager or something. Anything to get him on TV more.

- I like Punk but he needs to just get rid of the GTS. It’s such a phony looking move it really hinders my suspension of disbelief. Or just work it in a more believable way rather than a ‘well, it’s time for a GTS now’ way as his opponent meekly raises his arms so Punk can grab him and put him on his shoulders. It’s almost as bad as the 5 knuckle shuffle shit.

- Anxious to see Funkasaurus in an actual feud. I won’t really have an opinion on him until I see more but I will give WWE credit for putting something out there that isn’t just a clone of 10 other guys currently on the roster.

- Bets on whether HHH makes Foley the GM next Monday?

Does Cena’s “dark anger” face look like he’s trying to channel the Undertaker a bit?