Welcome to the first RAW Opinion of 2013, after taking a break due to the Holiday season, not only is Raw live once again, but so is A RAW Opinion. I’m Joe and I am back to taking you through this weeks WWE Raw. A huge show is in store this week, CM Punk defends the WWE Championship against Ryback, and if you somehow missed the 20 million promos for it, DWAYNE IS BACK!
We start this weeks show off with John Cena walking down to the ring. He talks about what he did at the end of last weeks Raw dumping fake poop on AJ and Dolph. He then talks about Dwayne being back, almost pandering to him. AJ and Dolph come out and talk, they go back and forth, Cena challenges Dolph to a match, Big E. Langston takes the microphone and accepts for Ziggler.
Dolph Ziggler VS John Cena is our first match of the night. Great match between the two, typical Cena ending however. Big E. Langston and AJ both get tossed from ringside, the referee gets knocked out and Big E. comes back and delivers his finisher to Cena, Cena kicks out after a new ref comes out, Cena hits the Attitude Adjustment for the win.
Divas Championship match, Eve Torres defending against Kaitlyn. Not a bad match, Kaitlyn gets the win by count out after Eve took her title and left.
Team Hell No VS Team Rhodes Scholars up next, non title match which means Cody and Damien will probably win. Pretty good match, Team Rhodes Scholars do get the win.
Randy Orton VS Heath Slater. No surprise, Orton wins, but I was surprised about how much offense Heath got in. I don’t know why or how the hell Slater is getting so much air time.
Wade Barrett VS Santino up next in a non title match. Ricky Steamboat is in Santinos corner after an altercation earlier tonight. Wade Barrett gets the win.
Antonio Cesaro VS The Great Khali up next. Antonio Cesaro gets the win after hitting The Neutralizer. VERY IMPRESSIVE!
Sheamus VS Jinder Mahal, really? More 3MB? Yawn. Sheamus wins.
TLC match up next, WWE Champion CM Punk defending against Ryback. Great match, quite a few scary moments for Punk with some of the bumps he took here, Punk retains the title after The Shield took out Ryback.
Kofi Kingston going one on one with Big Show. Kinda surprised that the TLC match wasn’t the main event, but I guess it makes sense since the show will probably end with a Punk/Dwayne face off. Big Show gets a quick win, not even a minute.
CM Punk comes out from the back, he goes to the ring and takes a microphone, this should be good. He goes on a HUGE tirade, Dwayne eventually comes out and pretty much says Punk is scared, blah blah blah. Both men go back and forth. Very intense stuff at the end, the show ends with Dwayne giving Punk a Rock Bottom.
Overall, great show, I really liked how many matches they had this week. I didn’t like seeing 3MB so much tonight, I don’t see why a guy like Zack Ryder can’t get on TV seeing as how he’s more over then those clowns.
I give tonights show a 3.5/5 I can’t wait to see what happens next week on Raw.
Ringsidehustle.com 
Dolph’s got a shiner.
LikeLike
Nice match! Props to both guys.
LikeLike
Loved the match, but hated the “vintage” Cena ending.
LikeLike
Good guy won. I’m happy.
LikeLike
It’s bad enough that Cena defeated Ziggler again, but he won even after getting attacked by Big E. Just once I’d like to see WWE throw a curve ball and have Cena lose cleanly to a heel.
LikeLike
Cena only kicked out due to how long it took for the new ref to come out there. It’s a spot that’s a wrestling staple designed to have the crowd pop just like it did last night.
LikeLike
RKO’s everywhere!
LikeLike
Sheamus literally kicked his ass!
LikeLike
I was kinda hoping Ryback would do The Jackhammer on Punk there.
LikeLike
BOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LikeLike
LOL!!! Didn’t know the “O”s would do that!
LikeLike
That better? lol
LikeLike
Thanks!!! 🙂
LikeLike
Punk’s an asshat.
LikeLike
Punk is GREAT!
LikeLike
And an asshat.
LikeLike
Punk called himself God…holy shit (pun not intended).
LikeLike
But is he a “GAWD!!!”?
LikeLike
Great show. The opening match was fun, Ceasro was very impressive (as always) and the TLC match was very good and the finish with the Shield was pretty creative. I’m glad they allowed Punk to go out and cut a long promo before Rock. I loved the comments he made about guys like Daniel Bryan being forced to do stupid gimmicks and how little jimmy gets more airtime than Tyson Kidd. Even though I fully support Punk in this program, I’ll admit that Rock held up his end of the deal by toning down his comedy. I especially like how he got very intense at the end after he said those tatoo jokes and even praised Punk’s abilities. Rock showed great intensity when delivering that rock bottom out of NOWHERE. I gotta admit that I love the contrast and this week’s promos alone should add a few thousand buys. You have one of the biggest stars of all time against a man who is in the prime of his legacy building years. Even if Rock wins (which I wouldn’t like), it’s imperative that Punk comes out of this match on an even playing field with Rock. Realistically, if they do promos like this for the next three weeks, this show should at least do 300,000 N.A. buys.
LikeLike
“I’ll admit that Rock held up his end of the deal by toning down his comedy.”
That was toning down his comedy? He said a lot of jokes…Punk’s promo was definitely more serious.
LikeLike
Well I think he did tone it down by the end. The final few minutes was fairly serious on both parts. As long as he’s still Rock then we are always going to see some elements of comedy in his promos. Just the way it is and the fans love it.
LikeLike
I don’t want Rock “toning down his comedy”. It’s what got him to the dance and it STILL makes the crowd pop.
LikeLike
Maybe it’s because I’m so biased towards Punk, but I hated Rock’s promo last night. This should be a fun feud, but it’s gonna be hard for me to enjoy Rock’s promos. This is definitely not the same as Rock-Cena. It’s different when he’s feuding with my guy and Rock’s the GOAT in my opinion.
LikeLike
Where’s Dr. Shelby when you need him?
LikeLike
Yeah the truth in his promo made in real which is very entertaining to watch. In terms of PPV buys, you’re probably right. It’s the starpower over everything that make people buy PPVs, WM proves that every year. Hopefully Punk can be that Cena starpower.
LikeLike
WWE needs that, because Cena deserves a break.
LikeLike
This was the first show I’ve really watched in a like a month. No, I didn’t watch for The Rock, in fact, I really wasn’t looking forward to his return. I’m sick of him, and others, popping up just in time for ‘Mania season, and getting top spots.
Anyway, I enjoyed the show for the most part. Cena/Ziggler was as good as always, but considering they were going up against the start of the BCS National Championship game, really thought it should have gone a bit differently, since we’ve seen “Ziggler’s buds get ejected from ringside, Ziggler messes up, Cena overcomes odds” half a dozen times it seems. That just tells me that the show wasn’t going to go any differently, so I should watch the game. Which I did, back-and-forth.
Punk/Ryback TLC was alright, except for the “we saw this finish coming for a month” predictability. Seriously, I like Shield, and Punk retaining, but shake it up for God’s sake! What if….when the lights came back on, The Rock was on the ladder with Ryback, and cost him the title, because he wants to make sure he gets to put boots to Punk’s ass at the Rumble? People will have to keep watching for a bit instead of switching back to the game. And you reward them, by catching up with the Rock backstage. He can say that he’ll tell everyone what that was about shortly. Maybe have a confrontation between him and Ryback, nothing major, because who gives a shiz about Ryback at this point.
Just do SOMETHING different.
(also people couldn’t say that Punk set this up to keep his title)
Obviously, I loved the Punk/Rock promo. Punk verbally murdered Rocky, assuring that this will be a whole different ballgame compared to Cena/Rock.
LikeLike
Taker behind Shield?
LikeLike
Well J I think you did watch it for The Rock. Even if you don’t realize it but there was just something in your mind that said ”I must watch Punk interact with THE ROCK”. You know it’s going to be interesting. Like my brother hasn’t watched Raw in probably 2 months, he watched it today because he wanted to see The Rock interact with Punk. Who wouldn’t want to see that happen? Look at how much discussion it has made people do. When was the last time you rambled that much on Raw opinion? I do agree Punk murdered Rock on the mic, it needed to happen IMO.
LikeLike
He didn’t “murder’ anyone.
LikeLike
Actually, I watched this week, because I didn’t work the night before, and was well-rested. 😀
LikeLike
Good show. Very good matches between Ziggler/Cena and Punk/Ryback. Punk’s promo was fantastic.
LikeLike
I’m so glad they’re not going the Cena/Rock route. Cena/Rock was great but Cena’s biggest advantage on the mic over Rock was ”you said you were never leaving…then you left”. With Punk it’s ABOUT the WWE title and his long reign. Punk really did show he can hang in there with one of the greatest superstars of all time. He OWNED Rock on the mic. I think I’m coming to a theory that a wrestler is more interesting depending on his opponent. Punk really showed he is probably the best in the world last night. People compare Punk to Austin Aries, can you picture Aries being that good in there with the Rock? See what I mean?
Good show overall and easily one of the best work in Punk’s career and you gotta thank The Rock a little for that.
LikeLike
Punk didn’t “own” Rock.
LikeLike
He actually did own Dwayne. CM Punk basically no sold his little jokes and insults and gave him HUGE dose of truth. And it wasn’t until then that Dwayne got serious.
LikeLike
He’s delusional.
Rock was able to give jokes and put over Punk as being good.
LikeLike
this is cool….what happens before the fans are let into the arena:
LikeLike
Interesting, is that Reigns in the left corner?
LikeLike
What’s Kaitlyn doing at ringside?
LikeLike
Probably…it’s The Shield and Ryback rehearsing their spot in the TLC match.
LikeLike
Raw got a good rating this week, 3.14.
LikeLike
Finally…
LikeLike