Royal Rumble & Hot WWE Divas get RAW
By Kevin Nelson
This week’s edition of RAW took place in Little Rock, Arkansas, as John Cena returned and announced that he was going to win the Royal Rumble and move on to Wrestlemania and win the title.
At this point the Miz interjected and whined about not getting enough respect or credit. At this point, Miz said the “odds are against him because there is now 40 men in the Royal Rumble as opposed to 30.”
CM Punk interrupted and said that he had a better chance of winning since all the members of Nexus are entering. Nexus then came into the ring and attacked Cena and just when it seemed he would get another beating, Santino and his tag team partner Vladimir Kozlov entered the ring to help Nexus. At this point, the anonymous RAW GM announced that for the main event the John Cena vs. CM Punk match, Nexus was banned from ringside.
The tag team titles were on the line as the USOs upset the champs (Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov) two weeks ago in a non title match, but this would be the champion’s night as Santino hit his finishing move the ever hilarious “cobra” to seal the victory.
Next was a nontitle match featuring the US Champion Daniel Bryan facing John Morrison as the match featured top rate wrestling as it went back and forth until Morrison used his athleticism to secure the victory. After the match, a show of sportsmanship as Morrison shook hands with Daniel Bryan.
Next was a match featuring two number one contenders as Randy Orton (number one contender to WWE Title) vs. Dolph Ziggler (number one contender for WWE World Title).
The match was once again top notch as Ziggler show a lot of promise as a future champion. Orton would get the victory in a hard fought battle. Afterward the Miz and Alex Riley attacked him and Jerry “the King” Lawler.
The Miz was not taking any chances, in his upcoming title defense against Orton at the Royal Rumble. At this point, it was announced that the Miz and Edge will face in a non title match next week on RAW: Champion vs. Champion.
Next was a WWE Divas title on the line as Natalya faced the gorgeous Maryse (can you tell I love her) and defeated her by submission. Afterward, Maryse blamed Ted Dibiase for her loss. Dibiase later challenged anyone to an over the rope challenge and Mark Henry came out and obviously Dibiase couldn’t do it. After that nine other superstars tried to get Mark Henry over the top rope but couldn’t.
Next was the main event in a hotly contested matchup that had the match going back and forth with Cena than Punk getting the upper hand. The match ended with an anonymous man came in distracted Cena and Punk hit a big move. Then this anonymous man gave CM Punk the boot. So Cena was disqualified. After it was revealed he was the newest member of nexus.
Raw aftermath
As the WWE is trying to book better matches, what is starting to become lost with the company is building up there pay per views.
To learn of changes to a PPV, two weeks before it is on is not a way of building up a card. What I would do is to build it up the Royal Rumble at your previous paid event, then announce week by week the contestants. With only a couple of weeks, we are just learning who is in the Rumble.
At this point it is only a handful.
As well as having a newcomer, there needs to be a buildup of some kind for a newcomer by showing video of him training. Like when Razor Ramon or Carlito entered the WWE…there was a lot of buildup.
Another thing doing a champion vs. champion is good but it should be built up over a couple of weeks. Although the WWE matchmaking is improving they still need to build up matches, better to help maintain interest on the PPV scale.