WrestlingNerd Presents: WWE Raw Review 1/2/12 (It Begins is revealed...)

What up wrestling fans, I'm the WrestlingNerd bringing you another written review. Today, we take a look at WWE Raw on 1/2/12. Who was behind the "it begins" promos? Well, let's find out and start the review. 

We open up the show with the reveal of the It begin promos. It turns out to be Brodus Clay. He kills the entire WWE roster….and Skeletor….and the Cookie Monster. The audience seems pissed off. Laurinaitis teams up with Tony Montana and goes ape s*** with guns. That's also how the show ends. Well, I guess this review is over. What a kick in the balls, but you can't predict these things. I guess I will see you next week….

Okay, that wasn't funny. The real show started when John Cena showed up. He talks about how he wants to be himself and if people want to boo him, he's fine with it. He says he doesn't like Kane's approach since Cena won't embrace the hate. Kane's voice is heard throughout the building and says Cena will learn to embrace the hate and there's no way around it. That's how the segment ends. In many ways, a continuation from how Raw ended last week. It's more of the same old with Cena as of late. He knows people hate him, but continues to shrug it off because that's what all boy scouts do. The question is will he be consumed by the hate or will he actually embrace it. It does make you wonder. 

Match #1: Daniel Bryan vs Cody Rhodes

This was a pretty short match. It ended with Daniel got a small package for the victory. It kinda make sense to go with this booking since both guys can't go into the title matches this week looking weak. A small package victory doesn't make Cody look bad since it looks like it was sheer dumb luck. After the match, Daniel was going bat s*** insane as he kept mentioning to the audience that he's the WHC. Is it possible that Bryan is being consumed by the thought of not wanting to let go of the title, thus he pulls off some shenanigans to retain his championship? It's very possible. Guess we will wait and see what happens on SD this week. 

Winner via pinfall: Daniel Bryan (YES!!!)

Backstage where Miz complains to John Laurinaitis about the R-Truth attack. Laurinaitis says Miz kinda had it coming since he attacked Truth last month. Laurinaitis tells Miz he will have a match against Sheamus tonight. Laurinaitis says he will try to keep Truth at bay. Yeah, if you watched the show, how did that turn out? Miz tells Laurinaitis that he's a sitting duck. As Miz leaves Laurinaitis' office, Truth standing in the shadows and starts to do a duck impression. I think this gives new meaning to the phrase, shucky ducky quack quack. What kind of drugs was Booker smoking to come up with that? Don't answer that question. 

Match #2: Wade Barrett vs Santino

Wade cut a short promo in taking out Randy Orton and winning the Royal Rumble. Santino comes out and talks about the Santino Choo Choo Train, which was a mock to the Barrett Barrage. Leave it to Santino to come up with something completely ridiculous. Very short match. It ends with Wade hits Winds of Change. It was your basic jobber match. You really shouldn't be shocked in the booking of this match. By the way King, Angry Birds is overrated. Plants vs Zombies is much better, but that's just my honest opinion. 

I think Truth had a Elmer Fudd moment backstage. Be very quiet, I'm hunting awesomeness. 

We are about to get started with Miz and Sheamus match. The match never got started. Miz attacked Sheamus early, but Sheamus would follow up with about nine million arm shots to the chest. Miz decides to run away in the audience, but Mr. Unstable would arrive. Truth says little Jimmy doesn't like Miz and he needs to get GOT. Miz gets back towards the ring, but Sheamus greets him with a Brogue Kick. Once he leaves, Truth come down and gives him another water bottle attack. How is this attack not banned yet? Anyway, Truth leaves through the audience. This segment was brought to you by little Jimmy…..and the letter T. This was a replay of Truth's attack from last week, but it was to get people caught up in case they missed it during the holiday week. Miz vs Truth seems like it will happen at Royal Rumble. There was moments where Truth was trying to play to the crowd, but would also go back into his crazy gimmick. It's kinda bazaar. 

Dolph cut a pretty good promo backstage in which he talked about his greatness and how he will be the WWE Champion tonight. There was also a backstage scene with Eve and Zack Ryder. Zack acts like a goof as Jack Swagger says Ryder is a terrible US champion. Potential new rival for Ryder? I hope so or else it would kinda be a waste of time to push Ryder if you weren't going to do anything with him as champ. Roboinaitis arrives and says Swagger needs to earn a US title match, but they will both be in action tonight. It will be Mark Henry, Swagger, and Kane vs Big Show, Ryder, and John Cena in a elimination tag match. I wonder if Roboinaitis' logic circuits sense a big amount of bulls*** with this match? Probably not.

Match #3: CM Punk vs Dolph Ziggler for the WWE Championship 

This was hands down the best match of the night. Both Punk and Dolph know how to put on a good match and they are making it work out pretty well. The finish comes when Punk rips off the turnbuckle padding. Laurinaitis arrives and tells the referee to fix the padding. During this time, Punk locked in the Anaconda Vice and Dolph was tapping, but no referee to end the match. Punk tries to get his attention, but Dolph is back up and tires to hit the Zig Zag. Punk scouts it and counters it. Dolph ended up hitting Laurinaits on the ring ropes. At some point, Punk goes off the ropes, but Laurinaitis pulls down the ropes, thus making Punk fall outside the ring. The referee makes a ten count and Dolph wins the match via count out. That was a mouthful. I apologize if my explaining it was confusing as hell, but everything happened so fast and visual aids are always better. Check out the actual match to find out what happened. What it all boiled down to is Laurinaitis screwing over Punk for a second week and Dolph gets another victory over Punk. After the match, Punk is pissed off while Dolph is celebrating with the WWE Championship. I like how none of the commentators mentioned that Dolph isn't the champion because of a count out victory, but who cares? I would talk more about this, but there would be another scene involving this later in the night, so I will save it to then. 

Winner via count out: Dolph Ziggler; CM Punk is still WWE Champion

Match #4: Bellas vs Kelly Kelly and Eve

The match sucked. Plain and simple. There was mistakes left and right, it didn't flow, fan service up the ass. Yeah, it was pretty horrible to watch. Even the small package was screwed up since it looked like Eve had to intentionally throw the match just so her shoulders would be legally down. The finish comes when Bellas do the switch out and get a small package. These matches are really starting to get old. Do something new!!!

Winner via pinfall: Bellas

Backstage where Punk confronts Laurinaitis. Punk says he's tired of being screw over by Laurinaitis. John says he won't tolerate that attitude and Punk is just being a sore loser. He tells Punk he will defend the title at Royal Rumble against Dolph, but Laurinaitis will be the special guest referee. Punk says if Laurinaitis screws him out of the title at RR, he will beat him like a bitch. Why do I get the feeling parents of America will complain about this bit? Anyway, now we understand why the Punk/Dolph match ended the way it did. They wanted to set up a rematch between Punk and Dolph and once again stack the deck against Punk. I can see people being pissed off in how it makes tonight's title match filler since they will do it again at the PPV, but it's classic build up. Although, it seems kinda odd that Punk and Laurinaitis are the focus while Dolph is just that random third guy. It's possible Dolph will walk out with the WWE Championship at RR, but I can also see Punk with a trick up his sleeve to make sure he wins the match. 

Okay, now it's time for the It begins reveal. I promise, no more jokes. The lights go off and it's…..it's…..IT'S!!! Are you sure you're ready for this? Okay, enough screwing around. Chris Jericho is posing on the ramp and he has made his return. He is playing towards the crowd as the fans are going nuts. The commentators are completely speechless at the return of Y2J. Jericho keeps playing to the crowd. He continues to get the crowd excited and it seems like he's ready to talk. Instead, more padding. Jericho keeps this going for a while. He gives high fives to the audience members in the front row. It seems like he will finally talk, but leaves the mic on the ground and just leaves. Okay, well the first thing I want to do is this…

That clip never gets old. Yeah, so Jericho was my #1 choice behind these videos and my little prediction turned out to be right. The other thing to bring up is the return itself. I can see some people being very upset or angry that Jericho didn't say a damn word. Well, here's the way I look at it. Jericho has been hyped up for the last six weeks. Now that he's here, let him get into his character slowly as opposed to just rushing it and saying who he's going after. Build it up and take your time. WM is April 1st, so what's the damn hurry? I think people were more upset that he didn't talk or explain his motives or reasoning behind his return. By saying nothing, it sets up the possibility that Jericho is a heel and just Rick Rolled the entire audience just to fool you. I personally prefer Jericho as a heel since that's where he shines the most. Plus, Jericho remaining silent hypes up next week's show. I am sure plenty of people will want to tune in and see what Jericho has to say next week. I'm definitely invested in what Jericho has to say. There has to be a connection behind what the videos were saying and why Jericho has returned. At the end of the day, I can see people being pissed off that he didn't talk, but I thought it was a brilliant move since it adds more suspense to his return as Jericho gets into his new character. The funny thing is the IWC wanted the promos be about Jericho. Now that it has happened, they are complaining in how the scene was delivered. Amazing. IWC got what it wanted, but are still throwing a fit.  Once again, is the IWC every satisfied? Just be happy Jericho is back and you will get your answers in the next few weeks/months. You never get all the answers in one night since pro wrestling is storytelling. Jericho and WWE are building this up, so I don't expect all the answers in one night. I think people really forget that aspect sometimes. Never gonna give you up, Never gonna let you down. Never gonna run around and desert you….

Match #5: Big Show, Zack Ryder, and John Cena vs Mark Henry and Jack Swagger

Notice I didn't write Kane in the match. Well, Kane wouldn't show up. David Otunga would arrive and inform the ring announcer that Kane will not be competing tonight and it will be a handicap elimination tag match. Show and Henry get themselves DQed because of a steel chair, so it was shortened up rather quickly. Henry is still on light duty. Most of the matches were pretty boring and lackluster outside of the Punk/Dolph match. The finish comes when Ryder is struggling with the Ankle Lock. He tags in Cena and Cena kills Swagger. Cena and Ryder win the match. After the match, Kane's music hits. Cena pays attention to the entrance ramp, but Kane comes out from under the ring and attacks Ryder. Cena realizes this and tries to save him, but can't do anything against Kane. Kane takes out Cena by suffocating him. I guess Kane's new finisher is death. There's a point Kane can continue to attack Cena, but turns his attention to Ryder. He grabs him and wants to pull him under the ring. Oh no, Kane's gonna rape you, bitch. I like how King and Cole refer to the hole as the abyss. Someone has been watching TNA. It's the vortex of death, somebody help Ryder!!! It's Super Cena to the rescue as he pulls Ryder out of the hole and saves him. The show ends with fire coming out of the hole as Cena and Ryder look on. A fire pit? What is this, Super Mario Bros? Anyway, I like how Swagger actually put up a fight against Ryder. If the plan is for Swagger to to be the next #1 Contender for the US title, it makes sense for him to hold his own against the US champ. As for the Kane attack, it was interesting. It shows that Cena is having a tough time going up against Kane, thus maybe he has no choice than to embrace the hate as oppose to rise above the hate. Yes….let the hate flow through you and join the dark side. To be honest, I think I would've preferred for Jericho to end the show the way he did as opposed to Cena/Kane. This is just a minor issue, but it doesn't really matter. Still, I thought the scene was a bit campy since it seemed like a bad horror film. When Monsters Attack. 

Winner: John Cena and Zack Ryder

Overall Impression:

l have mixed views with tonight's show. The in-ring action was very lacking tonight. Outside of the Punk/Dolph match, there wasn't' a whole lot to check out. Most of tonight was dedicated to the promos/segments. I liked Jericho's return since it adds more mystery for what are his real intentions, but there was a good chunk of this show where it did seem to drag. I think the first hour didn't offer much since it addressed the two major SD angles and the Miz/Truth angle. Not a lot of new things to report, so that's where I lose some interest. The show did pick back up when the WWE title match started. Then we took a step back with a pretty bad divas match, then Jericho's return, then an uninteresting main event. Although, I did like how the show ended. This is really a mixed bag sort of evening. I can see a lot of people not happy after tonight. I wouldn't call this an entertaining Raw since I've see much better from WWE, but there was a few interesting moments here and there to keep my interest. I personally thought last week's show was a lot better. For the most part, I can't recommend the whole show and mainly recommend the Punk/Dolph match, Jericho's return, and the ending to get the basics for this week. Still, they have set up next week's show pretty well. Jericho might reveal why he came back and what is his plan, more stuff involving Kane and Cena and there should be something involving Punk and Laurinaitis. I think the entire show was dedicated to Jericho's return, despite the fact he didn't say anything. Jericho is very skilled at what he does and he will make his character work in any way possible. He's just that talented. I am sure there is a connection with Jericho and the videos, but it would've been silly to answer all of those questions tonight when we can build it up Well, we'll see what happens in the next few weeks. Jericho is back, so that's good enough in my book. That's going to do it for the review and I hope you enjoyed it. As always, tell me what you thought of my review or tonight's show. I will see you guys and girls on the next WrestlingNerd show, see you next time.