Tuesday, March 13, 2012

3/12/12 RAW

Ratings:
Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler: ***

Mark Henry & David Otunga vs. Santino Marella: *

Brodus Clay vs. Jinder Mahal: N/A (squash)

CM Punk vs. The Miz: *3/4

Randy Orton vs. Jack Swagger: **
__________________

Reviews/Thoughts:
In Cleveland for this RAW. Wonder if Miz will wrestle and get a win....

Rock and Rap concert on RAW! Woohoo! Obviously that means Rock and Cena will entertain.

And Cena starts the show! OH SNAP, rapper Cena is back! Thuganomics time, complete with Word Life music! Cena's got the Mark Price jersey. Ohhhh...LeBron reference! I so miss this every week. See, this is the Cena a lot of guys wanted, not some tame Fruity Pebbles Kung Pao Chicken person. This was gold.

Did Cole just say attitudinal? God, he said it at least three times throughout the show! Stop making up words!

Ziggler continues to impress me. I'm a huge fan of his in-ring work, and I hope he continues to deliver many more great moments throughout the rest of his career. He's already drawn comparisons to HBK. Love the counters in his match with Sheamus. Nice spot where Sheamus went for the Celtic Cross, DZ countered into a crucifix pin, then Sheamus power countered back into a CC attempt. Didn't really work out, but it still looked very good. Has DZ's Rocker Dropper ever put anyone away lately? Sudden Brogue Kick ended it.

Meanwhile, DB and AJ watch RAW from the skybox. So much for getting a lot out of him. Good work by AJ to show that tolerating demeanor, yet one can easily tell she's intimidated.

Teddy Long and John Laurinaitis will have teams represent them at Mania. I'm assuming this is for the right to run both RAW and Smackdown. All signs point for Johnny's team to win. Not sure what Long would otherwise do right now. Maybe he can ref again. But his GM act has been stale for a while.

Otunga captains Johnny's Mania team. Like that was a surprise. Too much damn body oil, David! Johnny changes his mind and makes it a handicap match. Mark Henry! Guess he's also on Team JL for Mania. Teddy Long gets a pop coming down to ringside?! And he shoves Johnny again! Let's keep Teddy physical! I mean, if he goes back to reffing, he can be the next Earl Hebner (not in the Montreal fashion, though). Mark Henry comes in off the blind tag (a good one, too, because even I missed it the first time) and puts Santino away.

Kofi got nuked post-match, as did R-Truth. So now we likely know who Teddy's representatives are for the Mania match.

Miz will be on Psych this Wednesday. Good for him.

The Eve and Zack segment was awkward. Then you throw Beth in there -- and it got even worse. Ugh.

Nice pop for Miz as he goes to Johnny's office. Miz faces Punk to be able to get onto Johnny's Mania team. Oops.

Funksaurus is back! I honestly can't tell on TV if he's really dangerous to work with in the ring. Only seen squashes. Same thing here tonight, but now Brodus just does a regular splash instead of a crossbody. It's a better splash than the one Henry gave to Kofi earlier in the night.

HBK and Taker encounter. Taker still wearing the hooded coat; I've read he'll reveal his new look at Mania. Taker messed up on the promo, saying April 21 instead of April 1. But whatever, it's still a great segment. Lots of tension. Nice spot where HBK backed up and almost wanted to deliver the Sweet Chin Music to Taker. HHH and HBK meet on the ramp. DX crotch chop! Hmm....

James Roday of "Psych" is the guest ring announcer. Not bad on ring announcing. Miz gets a pop in his hometown. Punk comes out to a good pop as Jericho watches in the back. Not bad here. Miz loses again. Sucks to be in your hometown....

Jericho cuts a promo after the match. Brings up Punk's real life situation about his father being an alcoholic. Gotta love how the real-life stuff gets woven in. Punk played it very well, almost like Jericho's gotten inside his head.

WTF. Otunga law office advertisement? Oh good grief.

Orton and Kane look like they are gonna collide at Mania. Tonight, Orton goes against Swagger. Finally, Cole correctly calls Orton's snap powerslam a "powerslam" and not a "scoop slam." Orton wins via RKO. Kane ringpost pyros and red lights!

Show ends with Rock's concert. Vintage guitar! The largest sellout crowd in WWE history in Cleveland? I'm assuming that's for RAW only. Wow, a Teletubby reference. Rock's awesome.

Rock's songs = epic win. Enough said. But Rock, leave rap for Cena. Seriously. This isn't karaoke hour.

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