Embrace Hatred (Raw Ep 973 reviewed)

Monday Night Raw Began with Kane talking about him embracing hate, ruining down the crowd and people watching at home. He then brought John Cena back into the rant after about 3 minutes of ranting about the crowd’s failings. Kane then said “When you chant Cena sucks, you’re really chanting I suck”. (Are we trying to get the crowd on Cena’s side again? That ship has sailed.) He then went on to Zack Ryder, about how he almost dragged him down to hell (AKA under the ring).  John came down to fight of Kane as a hero.  They exchanged blows as they fought to the locker room, and then to the outside. Cena looked like he would knock Kane down a 4 foot drop onto some wooden panels. However Kane fought back, then tossing Cena into some steel pipes. Cena grabbed a crowbar and hit Kane, Kane returned with an uppercut, which knocked Cena back into the pile of pipes, He goyt up after about 10 seconds, and Kane had gone. Throughout the night, Kane would stalk Ryder, Ryder had asked Eve out, who had a match with Beth, however this never went ahead, as Kane’s music played as Eve was in the ring. Ryder came down and left the arena with Eve, he put her in a car, however the tyre was flat. Ryder would resort to changing the tyre.  This would be played during the match of Cena vs Ziggler, Kane would attack Zack and chokeslam him down the drop that he himself could have fallen down at the beginning of Raw. Cena would try to come to the parking lot, however Ziggler would hit him with a sleeper. Eventually Cena hit Ziggler into the stairs and ran to the area to Zack’s aid. Kane would jump Cena and choke him out.

Well this looks like a great storyline, Kids will be cheering Cena on to vanquish Kane, However I and I think a lot of fans will be cheering Kane on. (Post a comment, Cena or Kane?). And by the way, no winner was decided, Well I assume it was Ziggler.

The first match of the night would be “The Great White” Sheamus tag teaming up with Santino Marella, The y would take on Jinder Mahal and Wade Barrett. This was obviously promoting the Smackdown rivalry between Sheamus and Jinder and Wade. I immediately thought Santino was a joke to give Sheamus a big momentum, when he would “hot tag” to Sheamus. Also a Royal Rumble promotion match,. Wade and Barrett dominated Santino, until Santino countered a rear neck choke followed by a Santino Stunner, to which he Hot Tagged to Sheamus. Sheamus landed his Irish handgrenades, followed by Knocking Wade Barrett of the apron, He delivered a brogue kick to Mahal, However he tagged to Santino, who would then pull out a hand puppet of a cobra and git Jinder Mahal with the Cobra, this would earn them the win.

I was shocked and disappointed by the tag, as I believed Sheamus would win, that was the shock. The tag match was very well, until Jinder got up and let Santino hit him. Jinder poorly demonstrated this, he needs to practice making his groggy state more realistic.

Backstage Miz would complain to John L, to which John would ignore stating all of his responsabilities, with the announcement of Brodus Clay returning. He also refused Miz’s bodyguard, and told hom to find his own. Miz would ask Mason Ryan and PeR (Primo Epico and Rosa, the Mexican version of MnM) all who would laugh at him. Miz then enlisted Ricardo to insult Truth and lure him out. Truth came out and intimidated Ricardo to singing, he asked for one more time, however Ricardo pelted the mic from truth, which resulted in Truth landing his signature on him. Miz would emerge from the crowd and assault Truth, Truth would begin to fight back, which lead Miz to flee.

I looked forward to this, As I thought Brodus was an excellent heel, he needed work but was very good.But before the Match, The 1^st hall of fame inductee was announced. It was none other than the rated R superstar Edge. The second inductee would be the most formidable faction in wrestling, The 4 Horsemen. Younger generations will not know them, these guys were the crème de la crème of the business. They Join Edge in the class of 2012 Hall of Fame

Edge has accomplished so much in his career, one of the best heels in the business, The best Undertaker rival of all time, and not to forget a great damn tag team competitor. Edge I will never forget. His 1^st wwe championship match will stay with me forever. The 4 Horsemen were the best in the business, Its about time they get their spot in the hall of fame.

The second match on wwe was Kofi Kingston vs D-Bry, as Kofi questioned how D-Bry beat the Big Show last week on smackdown, (if you didn’t see it, click the WWE Smackdown reviewed link on the right) This was by far the best match o f the night (However most people I know fast forwarded it) This match was back and forth from the get go, there was a bit pf a mistake, when Kofi whipped D-Bry into the ring, he stopped as B-Bry was climbing the corner to flip over Kofi, Kofi reversed a running strike but D-Bry countered his springboard cross body into the Lebell lock. D-Bry would then celebrate as he has done for the past week. Until Big Show Came down,  D-Bry said he was upset about the way the match ended. Big Show announced that the rematch with no DQ and no Ring Out, they shook hands, and stood face to face, Big Show uttered something, Although I couldn’t make it out. What did Big Show say? Post a comment with your response.

Brodus Clay made his return as Funkasaurus, he danced down to the ring with two girls, his opponent was Curt Hawkins, he fought Hawkins, often dancing around and gyrating his hips. Hawkins was put off by this. Brodus hit a big fisherman’s suplex, leaving Hawkins in the ring, he hit a big splash to Curt in the corner followed by cross body, which earned him the win. After the match he danced in victory.

WTF? Brodus came down dancing? Now really. He goes from a big tough body guard, to a funky fresh dancer. Scotty 2 Hotty got annoying and outdated, and so will Brodus in my opinion, admitting the girls he was with were very fine

CM Punk vs Jack Swagger was the fourth match, Lauranaitis would instruct Punk that if he was able to win, Swagger and Vicky would be banned from ringside at Royal Rumble. Lauranaitis would then hang out at ringside texting. This match was the second best match, it had Swagger and Punk exchange holds before a stand off. Punk built up some offense before attempting to hit an elbow drop, Swagger rolled out of the ring before Punk even jumped off. Swagger would gain the upperhand, pounding Punk with stomps and kicks, Punk would counter with a cross body and take control. Swagger would counter an Irish whip with his ankle lock, but pushed of by punk, Swagger would regain control with a kick to the knee of punk. Swagger would keep Punk grounded with holds, and proceed to throw Punk out to the floor by the announcement tables, Ziggler would move into assault Punk, however would be prevented by Lauranaitis , Swagger would be sent out and hit by a suicide dive by Punk. Swagger would soon regain control, hitting high impact moves on Punk. Punk made a comeback, but was short lived by Swagger, who again would hit Punk with a counter, Punk tried to build come offense, but Swagger would dominate again. Swagger would set Punk up for a superplex of the top rope, but would crash to the floor after a few shots from Punk, who would then delivered an elbow to Swagger, Punk earned a 3 count, but Swagger looked like he kicked out. I was shocked by this as normally superstars do not lose to average moves. The replay showed however that Swagger kicked out at 2. However Punk still was declared the winner.

I enjoyed the match until I realised it was a promo for the special referee match; this is why I feel it was the second best match.

Jericho came down to the ring in the same fashion he did last week. However this time after a cheering competition that quickly became boos, he high fived everyone at ring side, but then began to cry as he was about to speak. He left the arena because of this.

Jericho has not said a word in 2 weeks now, And as some have said, this is to make him a heel. After conversing with some fans, I agree that Jericho will interfere at Royal Rumble Championship match, then explaining his actions, most likely costing Punk the title. However I have an inkling that he will win the Rumble and continue his silence, when questioned about his title match. I also think, given his history, he will interfere with Cena vs The Rock. However I doubt this because of the promotion of this event.

Overall I will rate this weeks episode 7/10

(1 Ricardo’s cover of “La Cucucaracha”)

(2 Eve)

(3 D-Bry vs Kofi great match)

(4 Cena got pwned)

(5 Jericho on RAW)

(6 Funny R-Truth)

(7 “Big Johnny”)