BRM Reviews the 1/2/2012 Raw (HORRIBLE!)

[Big Red Machine]

OPENING SEGMENT- very good.

DANIEL BRYAN vs. CODY RHODES- 4.75/10

THE MIZ & JOHNNY ACE BACKSTAGE- good (although Miz not having been told who his match is against annoys me from a kayfabe POV

WADE BARRETT vs. SANTINO MARELLA- good squash

SHEAMUS vs. THE MIZ- no rating. Bad segment. I really didn’t like having Sheamus give Miz the Brogue Kick. R-Turth should have been the one to put Miz down.

DOLPH ZIGGLER PROMO- GREAT!

RYDER, EVE, SWAGGER & JOHNNY ACE BACKSTAGE- good.

WWE TITLE MATCH: CM Punk(c) vs. Dolph Ziggler (w/Vickie Guerrero)- 7/10. Great booking here, as it sets up for Punk vs. Ziggler at the Royal Rumble and also furthers Punk vs. Laurinaitis. PERFECT execution by Johnny Ace, too. He made everything look so perfectly accidental.

THE BELLA TWINS vs. KELLY KELLY & EVE TORRES- 1.25/10

PUNK & LAURINAITIS BACKSTAGE- GREAT!

THE MYSTERY PERSON IS… Chris Jericho. Pretty much everyone saw that coming… WTF?! Jericho wastes ten minutes of TV time DOING NOTHING! This segment gets a rating of… DUD!

HANDICAP ELIMINATION TAG TEAM MATCH: The Big Show, John Cena, & Zack Ryder vs. Jack Swagger Mark Henry- DUD! First Kane apparently just decided that he didn’t want to wrestle, so he didn’t have to. This also put the babyfaces at 3-2 advantage... because people always like cheering for the heel underdogs… I guess? Then Show and Henry both got DQed because Show hit Henry with a chair. Then Kane comes up through the canvass, chokes Cena out, then goes to pull Ryder down under with him, but Cena stops him. WTF? What was Kane going to do to Ryder under the ring? Beat him up? It seems like it would be a lot easier to do that WHERE YOU CAN SEE! Then a column of fire comes up form the hole for some reason. This was just utter sh*t... to the point where it also makes the opening segment bad retroactively.

Overall, with the exception of Punk vs. Ziggler and the stuff between Punk & Johnny Ace, this show absolutely sucked. A terrible way to start off the year for WWE.

[badnewzxl]

Ace DID tell Miz who he was facing; you must have missed it....

[Earth Child]

Who was the woman that is supposed to be with Jericho?

[badnewzxl]

Ace DID tell Miz who he was facing; you must have missed it....

http://wrestlingfeed.com/yt.php?url=mODDxm0KaiQ
about 8mins in

[Big Red Machine]

Ace DID tell Miz who he was facing; you must have missed it....

My point is that it is ridiculous that these matches aren't kayfabe booked in advance. It is ridiculous that Miz didn't know who he was facing yet. Does anyone else find it ridiculous that WWE kayfabe goes in to most of its TV tapings without having matches for a lot of their top stars and almost always without a planned main event?

[Big Red Machine]

Who was the woman that is supposed to be with Jericho?

No idea. I was actually going to rant on the videos and how, if there isn't a woman involved with Jericho, they will have meant absolutely nothing, but then Jericho doing nothing for ten minutes pissed me off to the point where I forgot about the other thing.

[Earth Child]

Ace DID tell Miz who he was facing; you must have missed it....

My point is that it is ridiculous that these matches aren't kayfabe booked in advance. It is ridiculous that Miz didn't know who he was facing yet. Does anyone else find it ridiculous that WWE kayfabe goes in to most of its TV tapings without having matches for a lot of their top stars and almost always without a planned main event?

I'm guess that either:

A) they want to create a buzz when they annouce the match

or

B) they don't think we'll look that far into things

[kiel297]

I thought Jericho wasting ten minutes doing nothing was priceless. It's the ultimate troll. He's spent months on Twitter building up this character that doesn't care about the fans anymore (even I bought it!) and he solidified that last night. Last night was "You want me to pander to you like this like I used to? Well screw that and screw you. Bye."

[badnewzxl]

I thought Jericho wasting ten minutes doing nothing was priceless. It's the ultimate troll. He's spent months on Twitter building up this character that doesn't care about the fans anymore (even I bought it!) and he solidified that last night. Last night was "You want me to pander to you like this like I used to? Well screw that and screw you. Bye."

I hate the term "troll" and "trolling;" one of the consequences of the internet....

[kiel297]

I thought Jericho wasting ten minutes doing nothing was priceless. It's the ultimate troll. He's spent months on Twitter building up this character that doesn't care about the fans anymore (even I bought it!) and he solidified that last night. Last night was "You want me to pander to you like this like I used to? Well screw that and screw you. Bye."

I hate the term "troll" and "trolling;" one of the consequences of the internet....

Okay then, he worked the hell out of all of us

[badnewzxl]

I thought Jericho wasting ten minutes doing nothing was priceless. It's the ultimate troll. He's spent months on Twitter building up this character that doesn't care about the fans anymore (even I bought it!) and he solidified that last night. Last night was "You want me to pander to you like this like I used to? Well screw that and screw you. Bye."

I hate the term "troll" and "trolling;" one of the consequences of the internet....

Okay then, he worked the hell out of all of us

thanx for the translation, sir. I honestly thought "trolling" was the same as simply surfing or roaming the internet. In case it isn't obvious, I don't use the internet but to visit this site, 1wrestling, hiphopdx, worldstarhiphop, espn, nba, nfl, and facebook.

I learned something today

[Bob-O]

I really didn’t like having Sheamus give Miz the Brogue Kick. R-Turth should have been the one to put Miz down.

I thought you would have liked this. Last week Truth said he didn't wasn't finished with Miz, that he wasn't going to be finished with him for a while. He insinuated that instead of one all out attack he was going to beat down Miz little by little each week. I thought having Sheamus finish off Miz illustrated this well, especially since Truth "handed" him to Sheamus like a gift.

[yourcrapsweak]

I thought Raw was really good except for the Jericho return. The ending I thought you would like, BRM, because it's vintage Kane. That's what him and Undi do. Remember all the times that they did that back in the day? It's supposed to be some kind of mystical thing, not just "oh they're under the ring" but more like "he's being dragged into the depths of hell."

[badnewzxl]

I thought Raw was really good except for the Jericho return. The ending I thought you would like, BRM, because it's vintage Kane. That's what him and Undi do. Remember all the times that they did that back in the day? It's supposed to be some kind of mystical thing, not just "oh they're under the ring" but more like "he's being dragged into the depths of hell."

THIS

[Rabid619]

Personally i agree with Kiel. Jericho came back to pretend to pander to us then he says nothing and leaves. Yes it went on a bit long but it's Jericho, you know it's gonna be good. Besides, i kinda miss him calling me a hypocrite & a parasite. Not the same when other people do it.

[Big Red Machine]

I thought Raw was really good except for the Jericho return. The ending I thought you would like, BRM, because it's vintage Kane. That's what him and Undi do. Remember all the times that they did that back in the day? It's supposed to be some kind of mystical thing, not just "oh they're under the ring" but more like "he's being dragged into the depths of hell."

THIS

I always found those things stupid. It is the sort of thing that works in the early 90's, but not anymore. And some of it was just so gratuitous. If you have Ryder almost being dragged down to the depths of hell, do you really need the giant column of fire?

More importantly, though, this angle of Cena's is a very human angle. Cena is dealing with the frustration that he feels from the fans who dislike him. It is a very human thing. It is no place for fireballs and lightning bolts and the lights magically going out.

[KILLdozer]

I thought Raw was really good except for the Jericho return. The ending I thought you would like, BRM, because it's vintage Kane. That's what him and Undi do. Remember all the times that they did that back in the day? It's supposed to be some kind of mystical thing, not just "oh they're under the ring" but more like "he's being dragged into the depths of hell."

THIS

I always found those things stupid. It is the sort of thing that works in the early 90's, but not anymore. And some of it was just so gratuitous. If you have Ryder almost being dragged down to the depths of hell, do you really need the giant column of fire?

More importantly, though, this angle of Cena's is a very human angle. Cena is dealing with the frustration that he feels from the fans who dislike him. It is a very human thing. It is no place for fireballs and lightning bolts and the lights magically going out.

absolutely not....You talk about all these human things and this stuff being out of place when hes going up against a monster reborn like Kane! Masked Kane at that! and how could you not get chills during the ending? its just classic kane....and as far as you saying "kane doesnt wanna compete so he doesnt have to" once again its fuckin kane...He just didnt show up who knows what the hell his deal is...just dark mysterious and hes not there for the match so who knows what's he gonna do...I almost get the impression youve been away from Kane so long youve forgotten stuff about him lol

[Big Red Machine]

I always found those things stupid. It is the sort of thing that works in the early 90's, but not anymore. And some of it was just so gratuitous. If you have Ryder almost being dragged down to the depths of hell, do you really need the giant column of fire?

More importantly, though, this angle of Cena's is a very human angle. Cena is dealing with the frustration that he feels from the fans who dislike him. It is a very human thing. It is no place for fireballs and lightning bolts and the lights magically going out.

absolutely not....You talk about all these human things and this stuff being out of place when hes going up against a monster reborn like Kane! Masked Kane at that! and how could you not get chills during the ending? its just classic kane....and as far as you saying "kane doesnt wanna compete so he doesnt have to" once again its f'n kane...He just didnt show up who knows what the hell his deal is...just dark mysterious and hes not there for the match so who knows what's he gonna do...I almost get the impression youve been away from Kane so long youve forgotten stuff about him lol

Kane isn't "reborn." All of that is bs branding and hype. He didn't get put in a casket and set on fire or get buried alive or anything like that. There was nothing mystical at all about his time off. Mark Henry gave him a Pillmanizer.

As for me being away from Kane for too long... not at all. The Kane that I first met was the Kane of 2002, and the Kane I grew to love was the Kane of about mid 1998 onwards. His debut and feud with Taker was well-booked, but I really didn't care for him shooting lightning bolts and whatnot. Magical powers are the sort of thing that need to be phased out of wrestling (except for CHIKARA, but CHIKARA is different), simply because they look ridiculous and make the show look ridiculous. They don't fit in.

[cero2k]

Who was the woman that is supposed to be with Jericho?

No idea. I was actually going to rant on the videos and how, if there isn't a woman involved with Jericho, they will have meant absolutely nothing, but then Jericho doing nothing for ten minutes pissed me off to the point where I forgot about the other thing.

then the segment worked. Jericho is at war with the fans, for many months he's been messing with them. that's why he did this. that's why he's gonna end up feuding with the voice of the voiceless.

[cero2k]

I always found those things stupid. It is the sort of thing that works in the early 90's, but not anymore. And some of it was just so gratuitous. If you have Ryder almost being dragged down to the depths of hell, do you really need the giant column of fire?

to kill Zack Ryder