We have just come off the heels of another 3 Hour RAW. This show was centered on the Slammy’s! And all the efforts that WWE made fell completely flat with the live crowd. Returns by Mick Foley, Triple H, Lita, Christian, Tony Atlas, Road Dogg and Rey Mysterio hardly garnered any response from the crowd and sucked the life out of what should have been a great show to see live. The only response given by the crowd was for the great return of Kane which I will talk about in detail later.
Maybe it was the poor first segment which nearly made me turn my TV off and go to bed. JR forgot his rap lines which felt awkward and embarrassing. Michael Cole didn’t help matters by mocking JR all the way through the disaster. Then to rub salt in to the wounds, Cole mocked him for the rest of the show by calling him for not remembering his lines. This was uncalled for, and it also made the situation a bigger farce as he used the words ‘lines.’ This instantly suggests a script and breaks the wall of reality within the show. For something that was supposed to be created on the spot by Booker T was simply made false by Cole insinuating that JR forgot his lines. He could have quite easily said that he couldn’t rap but that would be too good for JR these days, and as if Cole needs anymore heat.
Punk giving Mr. Laurinaitis a special tribute video looking back at his Johnny Ace days was pure gold. This did so much to bring fans back in to the product as many people on Twitter looked to be on the verge of switching over and watching the Premiere of Fear Factor. The segment with the goofs of the year was also a nice touch showing that WWE can admit mistakes and don’t make their usual efforts to cover everything up.
Triple H made his return on the one week where Kevin Nash wasn’t there! Why wasn’t he there? He flew to England to give us a 2 minute promo of pointlessness so why couldn’t they have at least had a battle of words before this Sunday? Triple H seemed more focused on The Undertaker than Nash and the way that this rivalry has been promoted who can blame him?
Then we were treated to an excellent 4 way match between Cody Rhodes, Dolph Ziggler, Zack Ryder and Daniel Bryan. This was great to see mid-carders who all have the potential to be big name players soon given a chance to shine in the ring at the same time. I liked the finish of the match and it lead to the match between Ziggler and Ryder at TLC well.
Cena and Rock won an award for their recent altercations. However, Cena played the crowd by making them feel he was in the building when he wasn’t. It was a nice move and another way of Cena proving his point about Rock’s commitment to the WWE. It was a move traditionally used by a heel and Cena is still showing slight signs of becoming that little bit more edgy.
We had a tag team match which ended with CM Punk having his arm trapped in a ladder by Del Rio whilst Miz mocked him. The segment was done well and made them both look like a threat to Punk’s title after his destruction of them both on the previous weeks show.
We then cut to Cole explaining how to vote for your ‘Superstar of the Year.’ He explained that he was voting for The Miz but in fact he actually voted for Randy Orton. Personally I found this hilarious and if JR was on the announce table then I would have expected him to get his own back by calling Cole’s inability to use a computer. But hey, were stuck with Cole and I’m getting closer to that mute button on my remote.
Mahal might have been literally kicked off WWE TV by Sheamus last night as we gladly didn’t have to sit through that pointless match.
We were treated to another creepy video for the 2nd January and this time it centered on the small girl. Many people have expressed their thoughts that this can only now mean Stephanie and Shane making their return. Granted, it seems to be losing its feel as an Undertaker video but I also don’t seem to link a dark creepy video to that of the children of Vince McMahon. Either way, it’s creating discussion and that’s exactly the idea behind it. I’m sitting on the fence at this stage but I don’t know many people who won’t be checking out the 2nd January edition of RAW.
Then we had the main event between Mark Henry and John Cena. Henry looked to be claiming a clean victory over Cena until the stage exploded and out walked Kane. Not our normal bald headed dentist but a rip off of the Predator! His mask looked to be a cross between a welder’s mask and the Predator’s with insect eyes! “THAT’S… THAT’S GOT TO BE KANE!!” Vince’s classic line from Badd Blood 1997 was ringing in my head as he entered the ring and choke slammed John Cena with quite some intent. Thankfully Kane removed the mask and showed a new version of his older design with the mouth piece left open but with a texture which seemed to resemble that of melted skin. It was an incredibly impressive display and a great return for a character which has been stale. I highly expect Kane to show up on SmackDown and do the same to a big star there such as Randy Orton as his video packages kept showing some of the big stars in WWE. Another small thing which I really thought was well done was the stitch marks on his attire over his chest. These stitches were in the same position as where they would be if someone had a post mortem. Not a massive thing but a good attention to detail which will likely fall in to his character over time. I hope WWE don’t lose the momentum with Kane here as it is very dangerous to have him go straight for John Cena but I’m definitely interested in the direction they are taking.
Did you enjoy the ending to RAW? Is it worth putting on this Slammy event? Do you think Cena will be left off the TLC card entirely? Let me know your thoughts at beansontoastuk@msn.com, on Twitter @BeansOnToastUK or leave a comment below!
