BRM's thoughts on the 12/27/2010 Raw

[Big Red Machine]

1. The opening segment with Cena and Punk was spectacular. Cena's happy-go-lucky-ness usually works for me, but it seemed a bit too thick this week. In retrospect, Cena probably did that on purpose to give Punk material to work with. Both men hit the ball out of the park.

2. Dibiase (w/Maryse) vs. Santino (w/Tamina)- 2/10. I know it was a roll up, but Santino got NO OTHER OFFENSE IN! The match wasn't long enough for Dibiase to get overconfident, and even more importantly, Dibiase being over confident as not the story they were telling. Hell... they couldn't tell ANY story because the match was so dman short! ONE MINUTE AND TWO SECONDS! THAT IS BULLSH*T!

3. The Cobra Christmas present was funny, but this whole segment (I'm not even going to call the above a "match") could have been accomplished by having Snatino come out to give Tamina the present, then have Maryse and Dibiase attack them, then start arguing with each other, leading to the babyfacs recovering and beating them up. It would have taken roughly the smae amount of time, we would have gotten a bit more of Santino's comedy, it wouldn't have made Dibiase look weak, and it would have done an EVEN BETTER job of getting across the "Maryse and DIbiase are having relationship problems" angle in a way that makes wrestling look more important (because their arguing causes them to get go from an advantageous position to getting their asses kicked). It also sets up a Mixed (or inter-gender) tag team match for next week in which Maryse and DIbiase lose becuase they argue, which makes no one look weak, and once again makes wrestling (and the result of the match) seem important.

4. The segment with Miz, Morrison, and Riley was okay. The stips for the match are okay.

5. John Morrison vs. Alex Riley (w/The Miz):
If Morrison wins, he gets to choose the time and stip of his title shot, if Riley wins, Morrison is no longer #1 contender- 4.5/10. Did it's job, clean ringwork, but not very exciting. The back-and-forth between Cole and Lawler during this match was very good.

6. Morrison chooses a Falls Count Anywhere match next week. Hmmmm.

7. We get a mediocre segment with Dragon, the Bellas, Tyson Kidd, and his bodyguard, but it both hyped up a match and looks like it will build to something, so that was good.

8. The Orton interview was very good, aside from the stupidity with Matthews insisting that Orton call Sheamus "King Sheamus." IT'S A METAPHOR, NOT AN ACTUAL KINGSHIP!

9. Mark Henry vs. Tyson Kidd (w/Jackson Andrews)- 4/10.
Nevermind what I said above. That other segment was just plain worthless, because losing this match, the having his bodyguard beaten up made both Kidd and his bodyguard look like punks. Way to go, WWE. Push the guy who hasn't been able to get over in his entire 15 year career at the expense of not just one, but TWO up and coming wrestlers. This was moronic.

10. GREAT promo by The Miz. He really knows how to play off of the crowd.

11. Jerry Lawler vs. The Miz (w/Alex Riley)- 6.25/10. Good match with a dumb finish. Somebody needs to tell Morrison that babyfaces don't cheat. Coming out and distracting Miz would have been one thing, but getting physically involved in a match crosses the line. Yes, I know Lawler is old, but he is a former wrestler, and more importanly; HE WAS HOLDING HIS OWN. It wasn't like Miz was dismantling him. He was fine!

12. Eve Torres & Gail Kim vs. Alicia Fox & Melina- 2.5/10. Terrible. Natalya wasn't very good on commentary either. The aftermath was pretty good.

13. The backstage segments with Punk talking to the trainers, the cameramen, etc. were great.

14. Daniel Bryan (w/the Bella Twins) vs. Zack Ryder- Short and not very good (and joined in progress). From what we saw, 2/10.

15. The Happy New Year E-mail was dumb, but it did it's job of distracting us from Lawler so that he could get jumped PERFECTLY.

16. Sheamus vs. Randy Orton- 7.5/10. Very good match, but they could have used some more time.

17. The closing segment ws very well done. The contrast between Cena's demeanor here and at the beginning of the show set the mood perfectly. Nexus distracted me from the Punk angle to the point where I forgot all about it,m and when Punk came out, I had absolutely no idea what he was going to do. The one thing I didn't like about it was Punk putting on the armband. Having him take off his t-shirt to reveal a Nexus t-shirt would have accomplished the same thing, but no one would have seen it coming, and it would have looked a lot more premeditaed than Punk picking up Otunga's armband.

Overall an okay Raw. MOTN is easily Sheamus vs. Orton.
Stupid announcer quotes:
1. Lawler- "Daniel Bryan has been a winner here in the WWE since day one"- no he hasn't. In fact, he didn't win a single match on NXT. He didn't start winning until about day 180.

[cero2k]

17. The closing segment ws very well done. The contrast between Cena's demeanor here and at the beginning of the show set the mood perfectly. Nexus distracted me from the Punk angle to the point where I forgot all about it,m and when Punk came out, I had absolutely no idea what he was going to do. The one thing I didn't like about it was Punk putting on the armband. Having him take off his t-shirt to reveal a Nexus t-shirt would have accomplished the same thing, but no one would have seen it coming, and it would have looked a lot more premeditaed than Punk picking up Otunga's armband.

The power or not saying a single word. But I think this had to work with the wristband. particularly because, same as cena, Punk won't be wearing the N shirt, only the wristband, and maybe just maybe the hoodie. furthermore, the shirt thing only tends to work with guys that rip the other shirt out. other than that, I completely agree with you, the segment was worked perfectly, timing and all.