MagicianCamille

Honestly, I thought it was Batista that interfered at the end of the main event until that first close-up shot of Mason Ryan's face. If I was doing commentary, I would've blurted out, "OMG, IS THAT...IT'S BATISTA!!' and ruined the whole segment.

I thought the exact same thing. I could have sworn it was Batista. Then they gave the close up and I saw it wasn't and started wondering who it was.

Wiki tells me Mason Ryan, the Batista clone JO was talking about a while ago. Very interesting.

I loved Raw tonight. All the matches were great, the promos were good, Lawler's involvement was minimal, and they found a pretty good ending to the main event. I think everyone expected a match ending in a Nexus beatdown but with Nexus being banned from ringside it had me guessing up until the end.

I think we're back on track after the past couple of weeks with the lackluster Raws.

Matt Hardy sure looked out of shape (fat) and slow on Impact tonight.

Yes, I watched Impact. It wasn't good. There was a good tag match between MCMG and Beer Money, but that was the only bright spot.

Pretty disappointing Raw. Can't think of any bright spots. CM Punk's "JUST KIDDING" promo at the end was one of the worst things I've ever seen. How did he fool anyone? What was the point of that at all? It wasn't funny, it wasn't suspenseful, it was just idiotic. It was in bad taste as well, let's not forget Owen Hart died doing a similar stunt when his safety harness failed.

Matches tonight weren't too good either. I guess Morrison/Sheamus was all right.

They had Lawler wrestle again. Gah. I never want to see him in the ring again. He's old. He's slow. 15 years ago this was true. It's even more true now. Stop. Having. Lawler. WRESTLE.

The initiations all night were pretty stupid too. I hope this is just a result of Cena's injury changing the short-term plans, and that this angle actually goes somewhere soon.

EDIT: Oh I'm sorry, I forgot about HBK coming back and Chin Music'ing ADR. That was a bright spot. I am so glad they didn't have him talk though...he said all he needed to say when he retired, and awkwardly again when he received his slammy.

I'm hoping tonight on Raw we really see CM Nexus kick off.

A few things...

Kevin Nash doesn't know anything about wrestling. He criticizes the WWE's youth movement because he thinks 50 year old way over the hill wrestlers such as himself should be holding world titles in professional federations.

What horrible booking! No championship match is advertised...then Mr. Anderson, who has been suffering concussions, goes through a grueling match with a giant in Morgan, wins...and then gets to face hardy that same night for a championship title? AND WINS? How pathetic does this make Hardy look, that he couldn't beat such a battered and disadvantaged opponent. Ohhhh Russo, you are awful at your job.

2011 is definitely off to the right start. I didn't think Edge/Kane was a great match (horrible finish, I mean, both his knees were off the ground before 10 so why did he get counted out...), but I'm glad this boring feud should finally be OVER. The IC match was pretty good. Restarting the match did make sense because it made Dolph upset, and Vickie had to make it up to him by putting him in the WHC contender match. But why was Cody Rhodes in this match? He's never even held a mid-card title, nor has he been a main-eventer like Del Rio has. I'm glad Dolph is heading to the main event, it's well-deserved and I've been beyond tired of the Smackdown main event scene lately.

Big Show and Wade Barret feuding ought to be interesting. Big Show never puts anyone over though (he was throwing all 3 of his opponents around...that was ridiculous) so I'm wondering what the result will be.

Mysterio/Del Rio was okay. I don't know if that's the end of their feud though since it wasn't a clean win.

http://www.wwe.com/inside/wwefeaturepage/features/11towatch2011/

Interesting list. I'm surprised Skip Sheffield is on there as he hasn't been in the ring in what, 5-6 months? I wonder if they seriously plan on getting him involved when he returns.

I'm also wondering what they're going to do with Big Zeke when he finally returns to Smackdown (according to the internet he won't be on tonight's show). There's a few guys he could feud with...Cody, Drew (unless he is actually face turning), maybe Swagger...I'd like an Ezekiel Jackson/Jack Swagger feud actually. Swagger should be back in the world title picture and Ezekiel should be on his way too.

I heard that Cena and Orton were allies recently, which shocked me a lot as the Cena/Orton rivalry was one of the hottest around a couple years back.

Oh I wouldn't have called them allies. Barret was trying to use Cena to screw Orton out of the world title, Cena played it straight. Cena and Orton hugged when they thought Cena was leaving the WWE, which was weird. It was weirder when he returned THE VERY NEXT WEEK.

I know we've all been bummed out about the (un)creative direction of Smackdown lately, well, I came across some pretty interesting spoilers for the Smackdown taping this week from 411mania.

Dolph Ziggler loses the IC title but become s#1 contender for the WHC, and Wade Barret makes a permanent move to Smackdown, attacking the Big Show. Full spoilers here: http://www.411mania.com/wrestling/news/168769/Complete-WWE-Smackdown-Taping-Results-%28SPOILERS%29.htm

Normally I would NEVER read WWE spoilers but after last week's Smackdown I started to wonder if I should even tune in. With these...creative changes I'm actually really interested in the brand again.

Hmm, I would assume we wouldn't see singles matches for the world titles at Elimination Chamber. The last three years (including No Way Out in '08 and '09) both titles were defended in EC matches. I'm expecting the same this year. There's definitely enough guys on Raw for it. Not sure about Smackdown.

For Raw I'd say we'd see Miz, Morrison, Cena, Orton, CM Punk, and Sheamus. Perhaps we'd see the match come down to Miz and Morrison, with Miz sneaking out the win and finally setting these two up for their very own main event...at Wrestlemania. That match Morrison should totally win of course.

For Smackdown I can only think of Edge, Kane, Alberto, and Rey. I guess McIntyre might get a good enough push to sneak into the event between now and then...maybe Swagger too. I don't even care enough to predict who might win this match or what will happen at Wrestlemania. The Smackdown brand is going nowhere right now.

Needless to say I'd be far more excited for the WWE title match if it went that way.

Yeah pretty good Morrison/Miz match, I hope their performances got through to the higher-ups in the WWE and we'll start to see these guys getting proper main event slots. I also liked the Cage match at the end, CM Punk betraying Wade Barret and Orton getting back in the title picture. It's a shame that King Sheamus hasn't won a match yet though. Didn't care about the Diva, tag, or random Alberto/R-Truth matches at all.

Also I was rather surprised that they even acknowledged what happened at the house show. They rarely acknowledge house shows and it seemed unnecessary, after all Cena was attacked last week on Raw. This was a very strange return for Wade Barret...yeah he was gone for a couple weeks but sometime last week in a match you guys didn't see he injured Cena and is now back on Raw. What?

I'm a bit disappointed with how the first Raw with CM Nexus went though. Last week it seemed pretty obvious that Barret was out and CM Punk was in as the leader. This week there all of a sudden appeared to be some confusion, with Nexus appearing to show respect towards Barret as a leader. I'm hoping this was just Barret being played. Obviously he was being played by CM Punk but where do the true loyalties of the rest of the guys lie? I know with Cena being injured that this new angle probably didn't go the way it was supposed to, but still, I had a different idea of the situation going in.

So I think other than that things went as we all thought. Morrison lost his title match, and now Miz/Orton is set up for Royal Rumble, leaving Morrison free to take part in the Rumble itself.

Also, a random prediction for Wrestlemania...I think Dolph Ziggler is going to drop the IC title between now and then and be our MITB winner. At least, that's what happened in My Universe.

Smackdown is so stale right now. It's just the same matches, same feuds, same endings. They need to shake things up.

Yeah TNA wrestlers have to work multiple jobs to keep themselves afloat. I'm pretty sure I read about one of the TNA Knockouts working at a Hooters and she got recognized and it was embarrassing for her. TNA is pretty horrible all around. Treatment of workers, storylines (lol), booking, everything about TNA is of the devil.

Haven't heard of Mason Ryan...if he's a younger Batista though I'm sure he'll be a good addition to the roster. Smackdown could desperately use some new blood, especially now without Kaval or MVP.

Oh man, right when Cena's plotline finally gets interesting he gets injured. Wonder who's going to step up and feud with the new Straight Edge Nexus faction.

CM Punk is my freaking hero. I thought tonight was gonna be a bad Raw because of Miz/Lawler but CM Punk just saved the show and has me stoked about wrestling again.

So what are they going to do about the entrance themes now? Also, does this mean Nexus is now Straight Edge? CM Punk doesn't tend to get along with anyone who isn't.

Well that's because Shawn Michaels put his career on the line in a match and held true to the stipulation, unlike Cena who shows up the following week and is re-hired in 3 weeks.

Yes I know it's kayfabe.

I DO NOT want Kaval back in TNA; he'll only be buried even worse than WWE could ever try. I still see Kaval returning back to WWE in a different capacity much later.

It's a shame too because it's not like Kaval is a really young guy, he just looks it.

EC.

Christian: This is the outcome I truly want at the end of the Royal Rumble. I want Captain Charisma to be the last one standing at the end of the Rumble and to challenge Edge for the WHC. I wouldn't have Christian declare that right away, have Edge be happy about Christian winning, and try to get him to go challenge the Raw Champion but when Christian begins to realize that Edge is setting him up because he is scared that Christian could beat him and that is why he wants him to challenge the Raw champ, Christian changes his mind and goes after Edge which would end at WM 27 in a TLC match.

Sounds like Christian's RTWM mode in SVR11. It's a good story but I don't agree that it should be a TLC match, it'd be far more meaningful to have Christian pin Edge.

I guess Kaval was criticizing the company on Twitter and had a bad attitude backstage. That is a shame.

Apparently, Kaval has been releases by the WWE.

Source: JR's Twitter

Okay there better be a damn good reason for this. Kaval is immensely talented.

Bleh, lackluster Smackdown. The Rey/Kofi vs Alberto/Swagger match was pretty decent. Hated how they did Kaval, he's immensely talented and a big part of what I look forward to with Smackdown. Drew is boring. Kaval is exciting. Also what was with that "I would never hurt you, Kelly" thing? He'd better not that would be assault. What an idiotic thing to say. Sheesh. I hope that's not what passes as romantic these days. "Hey, I promise not to assault you." "Wow, let's get married."

Cena/Ziggler...bad match. Really bad. Why? Because Ziggler dominated for 99% of the match, completely unanswered. This is NOT exciting television. I wanted Ziggler to win, or at least look good, and he DID, but I did not want to see him throw Cena around for 10 minutes and then for Cena to MIRACULOUSLY have all this energy out of nowhere and start AA'ing people and smiling like he didn't just get molested for 10 minutes. I'm glad CM Punk came in and chaired him, but damn, that match dragged on and had a lame finish. If you're going to put Ziggler over put him over with a back and forth exciting match with plenty of near-falls, not that crap.

Well it looks like Smackdown on Friday is a replay so I guess no new developments to hopefully get the sour taste of my mouth until next Monday. Also, Ezekiel was supposed to be on Smackdown this week. What happened? I thought he might come out after Drew put down Kaval but that unfortunately didn't happen. Remember, it was Drew that Ezekiel suffered a double count-out with during King of the Ring, so that would have made sense.

I want to believe you guys are right about Cena because that would make the most sense to anyone who's not a Cena mark...however I can't help having this bad feeling that Cena is on his way to the WWE title sooner rather than later. I can't see him actually going for the IC title at all, that'd be a step down. Kind of weird for someone who just won Superstar of the Year (twice in a row I think) to go from WWE title contender to Intercontinental Champion on the B show. The Nexus feud happened inbetween all that. By that logic the Nexus feud would actually take Cena backwards rather than forwards...seeing as how he won the feud, I just can't see it happening.

I hadn't considered the possibility that Morrison might have his title shot before RR, lose, and still get to be involved in the Royal Rumble. I'd be okay with that IF he won the Rumble, and got another title shot at Wrestlemania.

Lawler needs to stop getting in the ring period.

Raw tonight was all right. I hate the fact that they had Jerry Lawler wrestle again, and had him pin The Miz. We don't want to see old guys wrestle, this isn't TNA.

Cena/Ziggler was pretty good, didn't care for Cena ultimately prevailing though, and the "handicap" match for tomorrow sounds horrible. I hope there's more to this feud than just giving Cena a distraction while the WWE title program is running. I'm hoping this is leading to some sort of ascension for Ziggler. I personally don't like him but that's probably because he's such a great heel. He's definitely talented in the ring, no question.

I was also a bit disappointed that Morrison isn't getting the proper #1 contender treatment, same as Miz didn't get it by being put in the main event at TLC. Instead we had Lawler and Orton steal the show while Morrison was...somewhere off-camera. Now it's going to be Miz and Orton on Smackdown tomorrow. This tells me they aren't taking Morrison seriously and he won't win the title, or get a long-term angle for the title.

Now for my worst fear that I think has a good chance of coming true. The Miz will hold the title until John Cena saves the day and takes it from him. Then that could set up a WWE Champion John Cena Vs King Sheamus feud. Sounds boring and puke-worthy but I can see it happening. The WWE isn't going to keep Cena from the title picture for long, and who better to have him defeat than the most hated guy in the WWE, the Miz.

Btw, Ezekiel Jackson has been moved to Smackdown, so now I'm wondering if he's going to be in the WHC picture, or if he's just going to stay a mid-carder. I guess I can see him taking the IC title off of Ziggler, but I was hoping for bigger things for Ezekiel.

I didn't like the first ending to the Miz match. It was stupid, the referee has to see you go through a table. Second ending was fine. I'm just hoping Morrison takes the title at Royal Rumble and maybe we can see a Morrison/CM Punk feud or something.

I'm afraid the guy who will eventually take the title off of big bad Miz is gonna be John Cena though. It's what the kids would love the most.