Official Raw/Smackdown Aftermath, Ratings and Review Thread

[Papa Pillman]

I thought Raw last night executed its agenda quite well. Seriously needed after how lackluster(and that's being kind) Elimination Chamber was.

I loved the booking of the Bryan/Santino match, it was essentially a squash for Bryan, and I think that is the only way to book it right. You can't have Bryan looking strong heading into Mania if he has to struggle to beat a mid-carder with limited credibility.

Also Taker did a very nice job on the mic, Hunter managed to not avoid flipping the switch into his typical boring show-killing promo style, and the HIAC stip came out of nowhere to me, and actually makes this match far more interesting. Disclaimer: that is assuming that they allow them to bring the brutality and spill plenty of blood.

The battle royal was a thousand times better than the one from Smackdown last week, so that's a plus. And Punk on the commentary was BY FAR the best part of the entire show. The guy is better "in the booth" than any color commentator in the business.

I even liked the Cena promo's to some degree, if he manages to keep the usual abundant nauseating corny-ness to a minimum this could be a nice build to Mania. But, with that being said, the thought of him being able to convert any holdout adult males over to the "Cenation" at this point, makes me want to vomit on my shoes.

Some of the filler was even okay. The Truth/Kofi v. Epico/Primo match was harmless and didn't kill the show's momentum, but I hate how any two random guys can be booked to beat the tag champs simply because they are higher up the card. Sheamus v. Henry was also not bad, but I don't think it was necesary, Sheamus is already an over and credible challenger for the belt. Even Otunga did a nice job, made more impressive by doing against a guy like Zeke who apart form his size is basically worthless. As for the ladies... Vickie brought good "reaction" to the train wreck that happened outside of the battle royal(I think Barrett either tore his bicep, broke his arm, or did some structural damage to his shoulder), aside from getting to look at Nikki Bella the diva tag match was pointless, but Eve on the other hand did a fine job with the acting tonight.

 

[Self High 5]

I seldom watch WWE these days, but I try to follow it as best I can. There's few bigger Rock fans than me, and I've always been totally uninterested in Cena, but that promo last night... wow. This is exactly what's been needed all along, and the Wrestlemania build will be AMAZING if Cena keeps this attitude up. Cena in worked shoot shocker! No silly heel turn needed. We just needed him to stand up for himself, fight his corner and say his bit. I don't seem to have been alone in being converted by that promo, and I'm now far more comfortable with the idea of Cena winning clean (which I reckon he will). The next month should be amazing, especially once Dwayne shows up (with his entourage of course) and interacts with Fruity Pebbles.

 

[Nada]

WWE is doing everything they can to get a split reaction at WM, they even confiscated anti Cena signs last night according to Meltzer and Alvarez.

Basically this whole Kane - Hate story was about putting Cena over or at least making more people like him, it was never about turning him heel which sadly everyone was expecting (and hoping).

People who attent PPVs are usually the more older hardcore fans, they will not boo Rock...at Mania...in Miami if he wrestled God himself, its just not going to happen.

And that same scenario, those fans will not cheer Cena, they didnt cheer him years ago when he was less stale against Triple H, a far less likeable attitude star, let alone against Rocky.

When people critizise WWE for not listening to the fans, they arent talking about your Puro watching, Lucha fans, Japanese tape collectors, technical mat fanboys, internet crowd. No.

They are talking about the live crowds at these events, in all major cities in america. To imply that only these internet "geeks" dislike Cena at this point is down right moronic, a large portion of their audience (roughly half if going by arenas) do not like this man.

Cenas promo suggestes that he things quantity>quality. Because he has stayed for so long he deserves your appriciation, really? Mark Henry has been there since 1996ish? Big Show since 1999? So what? Its not quantity, its quality.

People like Rock because he entertained them in their living rooms for the couple of years he was on top, its that simple.

It dosent matter, but heed this: Come WM28, and when their entrance music hits you will all wonder "What was the point of all that 'lets make Cena look good'?" because he will be booed out of the building. They would boo him out of the building if he fought Santino, Regal hell even Michael Cole. Im pretty sure they would rather cheer the annoying Cole than to cheer Cena.

If anything he came across as a whiny little *****, yea Rock left because the industry has a goddamn impressive record at breaking people down, killing some and crippling others. Does Cena know on how many medications Austin is on daily? And Austin left "early", does he even know how hard it is for guys like Taker to even jog?

 

[XXJJ]

I thought Raw was okay. The two things that stood out was Cena and the Undertaker/Triple H promo.

-I thought Cena was great. The stuff with Eve was an easy layup. His promo about The Rock was excellent. He killed Rock with facts and not just silly insults. I thought it was one of his best promos in a very long time.

-Taker and Triple H promo was great. I thought Taker struggled in the beginning. But I loved that really for the first time Undertaker is the chaser. He tried to get under Triple H's skin and it finally worked when he said HBK was better. I though the pat on back Taker gave to Triple H after he announced a HIAC match was a nice touch.

-I didn't like Sheamus vs Mark Henry. Henry has been the most dominant champion in a long time. I have no problem with Sheamus beating him, but not in a 4 minute match.

-Daniel Bryan vs Santino- Horrible job by the WWE having Santino lose in a quick squash match. He gained a ton of momentum at the Elimination Chamber. They should of never used him here.

 

[IHW]

Good SD! so far.

CM Punk- "If he tells AJ to shave her hear i swear i am going to sue him for copyright infringement."

Funnyest line on SD! this year.

I liked the GM vs. GM thing right now, and im ready to see where it goes.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

Fantastic episode of SD. Everything was awesome.

Show vs Henry was another great big men battle. Rhodes getting under Show's skin.

Of course the main even was amazing still without really going all out and showing us what they can do and still leaving us questioning who the winner is.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

WWE Super SmackDown! Live - February 21, 2012

Opening Segment - Solid segment overall that featured some good interaction between Bryan & Sheamus. Bryan continues to do a good job on the mic and I'm sort of glad they've put all the vegan stuff on the backburner. It didn't bother me, but it's just easier to take Bryan seriously. Slapping Sheamus in the face is a nice way of furthering the tension between the two, but they still have some work to do. The Miz's presence seemed a little tacked on. He did a good job, it just felt like he didn't really need to be down there. Nothing spectacular here, just a solid overall segment. Thumbs Up

1. Sheamus vs. The Miz - Pretty good match between these two. They came back from commercial and joined the match in progress and Miz gave a much better accounting of himself than he did during his last match against Sheamus a few months back. The outcome was never really in doubt but, as I said, Miz gave Sheamus a good match and Sheamus racks up a good quality win after hitting the Irish Cross at about the 6.5 minute mark. **1/4

Backstage Segment - Eh, nothing particularly good here except that they're building some pretty good tension between Big Johnny and Teddy Long. The office comments were kinda stupid and the presence of Aksana contributed nothing whatsoever. Thumbs In The Middle

2. Kofi Kingston & R-Truth vs. Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger - Short but solid match between these two teams. I have a feeling that they're just biding some time with Dolph Ziggler right now and he'll be part of the WM MITB match. The match had some good action, mostly form Kofi & Ziggler as they continued to show that nice chemistry that they have. Kofi hit some of his signature spots that the crowd popped for. The ending comes at the 3.5 minute mark when Kofi takes a thumb to the eye from Ziggler, with the ref's back turned, before hitting the Zig Zag to get the win. **

Ron Simmons - They replayed the video presentation announcing Ron Simmons' induction into the WWE Hall of Fame. As usual, the video presentation was very well done and featured some of Simmons' finest moments, including his winning the WCW World Heavyweight Championship from Vader nearly 20 years ago and some footage of his time with Bradshaw in the APA. I wasn't a huge fan of Simmons, but he was a hard worker and was actually pretty solid in the ring, especially for a powerhouse. Thumbs Up

3. The Great Khali vs. Drew McIntyre - A complete waste off time and just flat out poor use of McIntyre. N/A

4. The Big Show vs. Mark Henry - Pretty good match between these two big men. Some will hate it, of course, because of the simple fact that these two are big guys. However, the match told a good story with these two briefly getting back into their feud. For me, the highlight was Mark Henry talking trash to Show while beating him down. Henry is really able to pull stuff like that off extremely well because he has that physical presence to pull it off. Cody Rhodes interrupted the match and showed a clip of Show's sumo match at WM 21, which was pretty embarassing. Show turns his attention back to Henry and Henry delivers an impressive looking body slam before hitting the splash. I was surprised to see Show kick out of it and he quickly came back and delivered WMD before running out of the ring after Cody Rhodes. Since it was announced that Shaq won't be wrestling at WM, it looks like they're building Big Show against Cody Rhodes. **1/4

5. Ezekiel Jackson vs. David Otunga - Far too short to rank but it had some nice, physical action while it lasted. I was a little surprised to see Otunga get the win on SD!. I figured Big Zeke would pick the win up since Otunga won their match on Raw this past Monday. Otunga hit his finisher, which looked very impressive when you take into account high high in the air Zeke was, to get the win. N/A

CM Punk Interview - I enjoyed this brief interiew. Punk seemed very relaxed and laid back here. His refusal to talk about Jericho until he was face to face with him was a nice touch as we know a good promo between the two is coming. Punk's jokes on Bryan were light hearted and the one about suing for copyright infringement if Bryan shaves his head as he did while on his SES crusade gave me a chuckle. Thumbs Up

6. CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan - I thought this was a fantastic match with an overall fantastic ending. The live crowd definitely appreciated the quality of ability both men brought to the ring and both men just flat out looked like superstars in this match. Both of them hit some high impact moves and delivered some good near falls. I was initially upset when Sheamus came down and threw Bryan back into the ring, allowing Punk to land the kick to the head and get the first pin. However, I was very relieved when Big Johnny came down and demanded the match be restarted due to Sheamus' interference. Bryan & Punk went at it again for a while before Bryan gets the win with a modified roll up by holding onto the ropes. As he celebrated, Teddy Long came out and demanded the match be restarted. The match progressed on for a while longer and both Bryan & Punk showed great tenacity during the superplex spot. Bryan kept coming back and trying it while Punk kept knocking him off. Bryan eventually hits the superplex and is about to flip over when Punk locks in his leg & arms. Bryan sorta does the same thing and both men look as though they've locked half of a small package on the other. The ref makes the count but both their shoulders are on the mat. Big Johnny congragulates Bryan and declares him the winner by raising his hand while Teddy Long does the same thing with Punk. Watching JL & Teddy get into a heated discussion was funny and the crowd was really into it. The match was great, every bit as good as their match on Raw a few weeks ago. They delivered a helluva match that kept both champions looking strong and ultimately left us still wanting more. ****

Final Thoughts - This was a much better show than the last live SD! we saw around the holidays. The only real complaints I had about the show was the waste of time that was Khali vs. McIntyre and all the Raw recapping. I get that it's WM season, it's just there's too much Raw stuff mentioned & hyped during these live SD! specials. The opening promo was solid and there was some good wrestling action overall. Sheamus vs. Miz was a good solid match that saw Sheamus get a quality victory and keeping him looking strong as we move towards WM. Kofi & Truth vs. Ziggler & Swagger was a short, but fun tag team match that packed a good amount of action into the time they were given. Show vs. Henry was good in my view and it told a good story. I just hope Henry's recent string of unsuccess isn't a sign of things to come because he's progressed too damn far and has been too damn good to go backwards now. The tension between Johnny Ace & Teddy Long is interesting and I'm thinking that they're laying the foundation for the Bragging Rights ppv a little further down the road. If they're going to bring it back, then it's nice to see that they're actually starting to work on a brand rivalry, which they haven't done before. The main event between Punk & Bryan was another fantastic outing that only made me want to see more of them down the line. The action was great and they did a great job of making both men look strong as, just like in their first match, we're left with questions as to who is "better" and the sense that they're both quite capable of beating the other. Just a very well wrestled and evenly matched contest.

Grade: B+

 

[¡Roján!]

Smackdown was very good this week as we officialy kick-off the real Road to Wrestlemania.

I enjoyed the opening segment, but alcohol and lack of sleep played a huge factor in that. Watching it again this morning, it didn't really feel right. Why the hell did Miz come out? I get that they wanted to set up the consequent match but, it's not as if the match needed it. This wasn't a real feud, it was just a match on Smackdown. It didn't need any backstory. Anyway, as for the promo it was good. Daniel Bryan's fantastic mic work is becoming a regular occurence and I'm glad he's getting huge heat. He's succeeding in his role and I never thought he would. The Miz, like I said before, was just out of place. Unless they are eventually going to put him in a tag team with Bryan or have him in his corner at WM, I really didn't see the point. I also felt like they could have touched upon their past history, a little more, maybe with The Miz explaining why he was such an asshole to Bryan in NXT.

After the commercial break, the aforementioned Sheamus vs. The Miz came on. I was thoroughly surprised at how great it was. Honestly, I wouldn't mind these two going at it again in the near future. The Miz needs to be drafted to Smackdown, and if he does, a feud between Sheamus and The Miz could be right on th cards. I am, however, not feeing Sheamus' new finisher. Finlay hit it so much better.

The Kofi-Truth vs. Swiggler tag match was fine. A triple threat tag match between these teams and Primico would be fine by me, as long as it's proceeded with a Kofi push. My love for Kofi is probably not sane, and don't even get me started on my love for Christian. Also, would it hurt to give Truth the mic everytime he's on TV? His pop keeps getting less and less which isn't good.

Ron Simmons in the Hall of Fame... DAMN.
Santino's backstage segment... DAMN.
The Great Khali vs. Drew McIntyre... Eh...

Drew McIntyre shouldn't be putting up with this shit. I hope this angle leads to some sort of push for him. I've been liking his recent work but he has fallen off the radar quite a bit. He's the chosen one, for pete sake.

Speaking of falling off the radar, I'm glad Cody Rhodes is getting a solid feud for Wrestlemania instead of just being placed in a Money in the Bank match. It is, sadly, against the Big Show, however, and I'm not convinced they'll pull off a decent match. Granted, if there is someone who can get a good match out of the Big Show it probably is Rhodes, so I'll reserve judgement. I hope it's for the IC title, just so it can be kept a little relevant. Saying that, though I do wonder what has happened to the proposed Cody vs. Goldust and Shaq vs. Show feuds. I suspect Shaq will feud with Henry but, I feel that we may have seen the last of the Bizarre on an in-ring basis.

Zeke vs. Otunga was very meh. Laurinaitis nailed the Teddy Long impression. I'll give him that. Otunga is my guilty pleasure, by the way.

CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan was just a out-right fan-freakin'-tastic match. The opening exchanges were beautifully done. I liked how Bryan dominated a large part of the match, something we haven't seen him do since being heel. Bryan looked aggresive and ruthless and definitely out-performed Punk. I'm also glad that they gave us the screwy-ending. It keeps the stigma of neither champ being better than the other. It also keeps the fans from seeing a finishing sequence which can be saved for a later time. I somehow think tis match could be better with Punk as a heel and Bryan as a face, but I can't really tell why. Anyway, a stellar match (best of 2012, so far) that weirdly made Bryan come out stronger. It was a refreshing change from the matches where he gets no offense in and pulls out a flukey victory.

Before wrapping up, though, I'd like to talk about the GM angle. I love it. I love a good Smackdown vs. RAW feud, and if the WWE can keep the feud going all the way to Bragging Rights, they could make the PPV great. I hope the angle has some sort of pay-off, as it has the potential to be great. I hope we get a cool segment where one show invades the other and takes over. Those sorts of angles are always memorable and bad-ass.

To sum up, Smackdown was great. Feud were established, feuds were furthered and Smackdown's part of Wrestlemania looks sound. Smackdown, no matter what the season always sticks to its formula: Mic work only when necessary and great maches. That's why I'm a blue guy.

 

[XXJJ]

Wow the Live Super Smackdown ratings tanked. They only did a 1.67. This probably kills any thought of making Smackdown live permanently.

The one thing I do find funny... The IWC loves to bash guys like Cena, Triple H, Orton etc whenever ratings drop. But when its the golden boy CM Punk they become very quiet and get defensive.

 

[Nate DaMac]

Wow the Live Super Smackdown ratings tanked. They only did a 1.67. This probably kills any thought of making Smackdown live permanently.

The one thing I do find funny... The IWC loves to bash guys like Cena, Triple H, Orton etc whenever ratings drop. But when its the golden boy CM Punk they become very quiet and get defensive.

Or, and just hear me out here, maybe it had something to do with WWE not even announcing that it was on Tuesday this week instead of Friday until the fucking day before it took place? Trust me, I'm no Punk fanboy. In fact, I think it's pretty ******ed to place blame for low ratings on any one superstar, but this is a result of poor advertising and little else.

 

[Brahma_Bull9]

WWE studios have made all of John's movies. John is a wrestler first, movie star (for the business) second. That's the difference.

Rock doing movies is like cheating on your wife. He does it for himself.
Cena doing moves for WWE is like taking your wife's asshole brother out with you. He does it for the WWE (his "wife").

Basically what I'm saying is that you are REALLY reaching with your Cena hate and it's sad. Cena has shown nothing except loyalty and drive for pro wrestling. Cena slept in cars and shit on his way to being a pro wrestler. Rock was handed a career and was talented enough to run with it.

Just look at the facts and their paths to becoming a wrestler.

Rock basically is focused on football until he realizes he's not going to make it, goes into the family business, uses his connections to get a great job, once he becomes a huge star, he leaves.

Cena ONLY wants to be a wrestler. In his teens he starts lifting to get huge to be one, wrestles on the indies, wrestles in OVW, works his ass off, puts everyone into every gimmick they give him.

Maybe it's because I can relate to Cena more having wanted to be a pro wrestler my whole life and not really having any other aspirations (until I was told by doctors not to ever take another bump again). I just don't buy Rock as truly loving pro wrestling. I buy Cena's passion.

Even though Cena's promo sort of relates to our little convo, we're derailing this thread.

First off all, the analogy doesn't work at all. Infact,in the Rock doing movies was better than Cena's experiment because he generated interest from actual independent major studios, promotion wasn't paid for by the WWE and he was being marketed largely to a crowd different from the WWE. Cena's movie was, and I'm assuming here, largely done by the WWE for reasons I don't know, but they paid for it and marketed it mostly to their own audience.

If anything one would assume Cena wanted to try a movie and the WWE made it happen for him. I'm sure they figured they would make money, but when it comes to movies, it looks like the WWE did more for Cena than the Rock.

Now you go talking about passion and this and that.... I'm not quite sure what your point is, sucks that you wrestled and didn't make it, but The Rock paid his dues. I don't even know if he had as rapid as an ascent as Cena... but it wasn't like he was handed everything. When you are born with his rare athleticism at his size, a lot of opportunities come more easily. You whole view is skewed by what comes off as jealously or bitterness, if I'm wrong sorry, but that doesn't make what you are saying less irrational or completely subjective.

 

[¡Roján!]

Wow the Live Super Smackdown ratings tanked. They only did a 1.67. This probably kills any thought of making Smackdown live permanently.

The one thing I do find funny... The IWC loves to bash guys like Cena, Triple H, Orton etc whenever ratings drop. But when its the golden boy CM Punk they become very quiet and get defensive.

Pretty much what Nate said. It's interesting to note, that if you combine the rating for the live Tuesday show with the 3.257 million who watched the replay on Friday you've got a huge rating. I think the WWE will learn its lesson next time around and promote it a little more.

 

[Tired0FthePeople]

Wow. Bringing Cena out during the Rock's promo really made (in my opinion) The Rock look like he cant hang with Cena. If I had no idea who these 2 guys were, I would totally think the Cena character just made the Rock character look weak as hell. And it didnt help that Rock stumbled and bumbled so much after Cena left. He couldnt get his lines right. And pointing out that Rock had his promo notes written on his wrist REALLY didnt do Rock any favors. Cena came off as the superstar in this fued and the Rock kinda looked like he didnt even belong in the same ring as Cena. Again, this is what I would think if I didnt know who these two were. Cena came out and in 3 minutes made the Rock's entire 20 + minutes on Raw look weak as fuck. LOL. Im a so-called Cena hater...so its bad that I would even feel this way. Holy shit man I might actually have to start liking Cena a little bit. Rock didnt hang with Cena tonight at ALL. Holy shit I feel like my world is about to end lol.

 

[Peoples_Champ]

Every week, Cena has given me more and more reason to be behind him. This week was no different. What he said in 30 seconds was more hard hitting than anything Rock said in over 20 minutes. His closing line about "continue trending..." was the bulls-eye in my opinion.

 

[18dionlyone]

lol oh boy oh boy..Cena 2 Rock 0.. my god Rock needs to step it up man..slipping hard lol he came out and he literally bored the hell utta me..Ive never..AND I MEAN EVER been a fan of the rock..even at his height ( I was a hhh fan) but jesus christ....Rock got stuck tonight lol. Cena pointed out the notes on his wrist..aka the tattoo lol. then the whole "go back to trending line" just stumbled rocky to pieces...I was always rooting for cena at mania but if i wasnt before i def will now...Its good to see finally people are seeing what ive been saying all along..Rock is a catchphrase one trick pony...go back and watch his boring promo..all he did was open up old catchphrase about fruity pebbles and boots to asses..and was trying to be a twitter ****e...this abortion went on for like 20 mins..then cena came out in within 3mins shut the rock DOWN! I dont car ewho you root for..if you like rock good right now he needs the support but dont hate on those of us who choose not to root for rock...mabe some of the 2 million followers can write better material for rocky for next time all hail cena lol

 

[[cL]]

Wow. Bringing Cena out during the Rock's promo really made (in my opinion) The Rock look like he cant hang with Cena. If I had no idea who these 2 guys were, I would totally think the Cena character just made the Rock character look weak as hell. And it didnt help that Rock stumbled and bumbled so much after Cena left. He couldnt get his lines right. And pointing out that Rock had his promo notes written on his wrist REALLY didnt do Rock any favors. Cena came off as the superstar in this fued and the Rock kinda looked like he didnt even belong in the same ring as Cena. Again, this is what I would think if I didnt know who these two were. Cena came out and in 3 minutes made the Rock's entire 20 + minutes on Raw look weak as fuck. LOL. Im a so-called Cena hater...so its bad that I would even feel this way. Holy shit man I might actually have to start liking Cena a little bit. Rock didnt hang with Cena tonight at ALL. Holy shit I feel like my world is about to end lol.

Everyone in these forums, who I have encountered knows for a fact that I am anti-Cena. I am TeamBringIt all day long and half the night. Thats just what it is.
So, with that in mind, i'm flabberghasted at what happened tonight. Within 3 minutes, Cena came out and made Rock to look silly, laughed and left. Slyfox recently told me, "assume everything is a work". So I am. The problem that I'm having is, ok, so I assume this was a work and it was planned to have John Cena come out....and i'm trying to wrap my mind around this and I just can't. It would have made sense to have Cena come out diss Rock and, then Rock come back with some crazy something....but it seemed to me to be a total interruption that Rock wasn't expecting at all. I know Sly, I know...assume it was a work..and I'm trying to man, I really am, but something about what happened tonight doesn't sit right with me. Sure I'm a Rock fan and he got owned tonight and maybe what i'm feeling is disappointment. Fine, i can live with that, but right after Rock's music hit, their was a close up and Rock seemed legit upset. Rock seemed like he didn't know what the heck was happening after Cena left.
When have you EVER....and the Rock means EVER seen the ROCK stumbling over lines?
When have you EVER seen the Rock missing a beat? Sure he's been gone a while but for him to stumble as much as he did after Cena walked out of that ring tonight...its either a work and a set up for something else to which i say, he's a better actor than we are giving him credit for, OR....
Or...
Cena legit interrupted Rock's promo kayfabe and messed him up completely.
If he did have his promo notes on his arm and was strictly going by that, it would have totally messed him up...
CRAP...man, I can't believe that happened.

The entire IWC discussed at length last week, what Rock would have had to do to destroy Cena this week. Kill all of that Twitter crap, stop worrying so much about trending and basically what he needed to do, was do live, that promo he did outside of his house that one time. That would have been enough.
But of course thats not what happened...even before Cena came out, he was just hurling line after line out for the crowd to chant. I kept waiting for him to say something incriminating...i kept waiting for that ddaaaannnnnnnggggg moment.
and It happened.... it just happened TO him.
To me, what Cena did to Rock tonight was worse than what Rock did to Cena at Summerslam.
And thats saying A LOT.

 

[The Eighties]

Excellent Raw tonight I felt. The opening promo with Punk and Jericho was solid gold and sold their match as the pure wrestling feud of the big 3, which is great as Mania now has 3 very distinctly different main events.

Punk vs Bryan wasn't as good as their other matches but still good, and I'm liking the GM's feud and Jericho's attack on Punk was well executed.

The video package on Taker/Haitch was well presented like all WWE videos and I'm looking forward to what HBK has to say next week to further this angle.

The triple threat tag title match was pretty decent and it was good to see the actual tag team go over. I am not sure what Kane's chokeslamathon was about nor do I care.

The Smackdown tag match and Divas matches were weak filler and I especially hate the fact Henry is becoming a jobber again, although Cody's feud with Show is entertaining.

The Rock's promo felt like it would never end, he briefly started focusing on the actual feud with Cena when he talked about no one fighting for him or the guys from the past, but there was so many pauses and so many silly chants, not to mention all the boring twitter trending crap, it was as if Rock was so busy having his own personal fun with the crowd that he forgot to stay on point with the actual angle he is in.

It wasn't until Cena arrived and cut him up that Rock got really emotional, if he was acting then he needs to get out of the action b movie business and get a drama role as he looked and sounded close to tears and then when he tried to rebound by yelling his nicknames he sounded flustered and flubbed his lines, seemingly getting confused.

I don't think I have ever seen such a long overrun and I wonder if Cena was sent out there to get Rock to take the promo home.

 

[AdrianCLE]

It ended exactly at 11:20, he hit the nail on the head we're tired of it. This shall continue next week proceed.

 

[JWGunslinger]

Only one thing mattered on Raw tonight for me and that is the build for Jericho vs Punk at Mania. I've been waiting patiently for the epic build to really spark and tonight it happened, their back and forth was just the mic gold I was hoping for and it was brilliant on both of their parts. On top of that Jericho attacking Punk after the Bryan match took it up a notch and made things even more serious, I loved seeing him bring back the Lion Tamer from his early days. Now I just pray that Jericho wins the title at Mania so we get to see more of his excellence in the main event until he goes back to touring with Fozzy.

 

[DirtyD79]

The whole CM Punk versus Daniel Bryan angle is a classic example of everything wrong with WWE these days. Here you have a match that by all means should be headlining a pay per view. The two top champions of each brand sells itself. Sadly it's being wasted just to promote yet another crappy overplayed corporate powerstruggle storyline between two non wrestlers. And they kill it by showing it every show just to have it end in shenanigans. Look, I know perfectly well ya gotta sell the sizzle too but if you wait too long that steak is gonna be rotten and full of maggots. CM Punk wasn't kidding, Vince McMahon truly is a millionaire who should be a billionaire and bullshit like this is why.

 

[MayorMcCheese]

The commentary on RAW this week was a joke.

In what should be a great match, all we hear is bickering and way to many voices talking and not paying any attention TO THE RING! We have WWE trying to push this GM Vs GM thing down our throats, and involving them in a match that has NOTHING TO DO WITH THEM!

Why on earth are Otunga and Santino getting involved?

To put this in perspective, would WWE ever use a Cena match to promote another angle? NO.

This furthers the belief that Vince McMahon does not believe in CM Punk, on twitter former WWE Writer Seth Mates always talks about positioning.

Even though Punk is WWE champion, he is not being POSITIONED as "The Man" if he were, this stupid bullshit going on around tonights match would not be happening. I wish WWE would wake the fuck up and stop trying to convolute everything and with the commentary get back to basics. CALL THE DAMN MATCH

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

I have to agree and disagree. Yes, the commentators do too much bickering and not enough match calling. That goes for MOST matches, not just CM Punk matches. It definitely seems like we're gonna have to listen to Cole rant and rave about how great Laurinitis is (if he starts going off like he used to I will change the channel again).

However, how does this disrespect CM Punk? Like I said, they do it through most matches, so maybe you could say it degrades the wrestling in general, but just CM Punk? Give me a break. All they're doing is using the Raw/Smackdown! champions as catalysts to start the feud between Teddy Long and John Laurinitis. Santino and Otunga were there simply as representatives for each GM outside the ring. It's likely they'll be involved in whatever match goes down to settle the GM issue. Bryan, Jericho and Punk are nothing more than pawns in this storyline. Why do you think they disappeared when things got out of hand between the GM's?

Does not believe in CM Punk? Get over yourself. Punk and Jericho did what they needed to do before and after the match with their promos/Jericho's attack. Bryan's feud with Sheamus was furthered with Sheamus' involvement in the match and will likely go more on Smackdown!

 

[Fire Marshall Bill]

The whole CM Punk versus Daniel Bryan angle is a classic example of everything wrong with WWE these days. Here you have a match that by all means should be headlining a pay per view. The two top champions of each brand sells itself. Sadly it's being wasted just to promote yet another crappy overplayed corporate powerstruggle storyline between two non wrestlers. And they kill it by showing it every show just to have it end in shenanigans. Look, I know perfectly well ya gotta sell the sizzle too but if you wait too long that steak is gonna be rotten and full of maggots. CM Punk wasn't kidding, Vince McMahon truly is a millionaire who should be a billionaire and bullshit like this is why.

You're right. CM Punk vs Daniel Bryan could be an amazing match that could possibly headline a PPV. However....it doesn't make sense storyline-wise right now so why give away for free what people would pay to see?! Hello short-sightedness....

 

[I Heart Cena]

What else is new. Cole is just plain dreadful, and Lawler is just plain uninterested. And he sucks as a face.

I cannot stand Cole's wimpy voice at all. And Lawler's heart isn't in it. Get JBL and Booker together. Let King retire. But please, no more squeaky voiced Cole or Matthews!

I understand the meshing of the storylines wrt CMP and Long. however. That's not a big deal.

 

[khrissr10]

I'm disappointed with the outcome of Rock's promo last monday night but what can I do if WWE wants Rock to pass the torch to Cena at Wrestlemania.

After watching Cena's promo last week I really felt that when he's saying his promo there's a little bit of jealousy on his side and he's only pointing out that Rock left WWE for movies. Granted that Rock left for the movies and he came back last year saying that he came back home and will never leave, I think Cena is hypocrite because there are times that he is leaving RAW for his movies as well and besides admit it or not if Rock didn't left WWE, "Who is John Cena?" now? He is fighting for the guys at the back but have he ever asked himself is there anyone he putted on top? Edge should not be included on the list because he's a solid performer way before Cena was hired by Vince.

Rock's promo last monday night could be a "work" or a "shoot" but if Cena is saying that he got a "legitimate" beef with Rocky why don't they settle it via "MMA" or "Shoot" fight. It doesn't making any sense to say things out and giving a shoot promo and telling that you have a legit hate on that person and yet you want to settle it out via Wrestlemania in a scripted match.