WrestleChat

Y2J. Image via Wikipedia

Welcome folks to this week’s edition of the WrestleChat.net Raw recap, as the WWE are only two weeks away from the Royal Rumble. Order within the company seems to be restored with this episode, as it was back to the good storytelling and the good bouts.

Raw started with a bang as Mick Foley starts the show, as the legend wants one last opportunity to wrestle in front of his children, and requested to do so at the 2012 Royal Rumble.  Before Foley could continue though, Vickie Guerrero comes to the ring with client Dolph Ziggler.

In what was probably one of the better interactions this fan has seen in some time, Foley and Ziggler bantered back-and-forth about Mick’s possibly entry into the Rumble. This was a great way for Dolph to build heel heat for himself.

For this fan, Dolph continues to impress with both his in ring ability and his promo skills, and it is probably just a matter of when the young lion holds gold in the company.  Ziggler has the very rare combination of looks, promo skills and skills in the ring, and he is easily can one day carry Raw or SmackDown for the foreseeable future.

Getting back to Raw, as the Champ C.M. Punk decides to interrupt the duo and continue his budding rivalry with Ziggler. Punk was brilliant as always, comparing himself with Mick Foley, as the duo are unconventional and have earned everything they have achieved thus far.

Punk vows to Ziggler that he will retain the WWE Championship at the Rumble pay-per-view, though the cards are stacked as Interim GM John Laurinaitis is in the corner of Dolph Ziggler. Just when fans are starting to feel good about the moment, out comes Laurinaitis with an announcement.

The Exec vows that he will be unbiased at the Rumble, while also announcing that Mick Foley will not participate in the 2012 Royal Rumble, much to the dismay of the WWE Universe.

In the Twitter site turns out to be a good source of information moment of the night, it seems as if Epico and Primo are now the Tag Team Champions, as the heel duo won the straps in a house show. This fan first saw the announcement on the Social Networking site, and was surprised the company decided to make the decision.

Team AirBoom decided to revoke their rematch clause for the straps, but fell for the second straight time to the heel duo. This can mean one of two things for the duo known as AirBoom, first is that it might be time for Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston to wrestle in singles action again.

There have also been rumors that Bourne maybe ‘Future Endeavored’ as the smaller statured wrestler seems to have no true rival to go-up against. There are plenty of people though who fans of Evan are, and there are feuds to be started as Justin Gabriel, Tyson Kidd and others are ready to challenge the star.

Raw goes backstage with John Laurinaitis and David Otunga, as Otunga hands the Interim GM a slip with a report on the status of one Zack Ryder. Chris Jericho was waiting outside to learn of his fate in the show tonight, and it seemed as if the star will be in the Main Event tonight.

Laurinaitis announces that Y2J will team with Punk and Bryan to take on the heel trio of Dolph Ziggler, Mark Henry and Otunga. It seems amazing to this fan, that by one extra bit of action, David Otunga has now worked his way up the ladder quicker than most stars do in one year.

By Otunga accepting the role as Legal Advisor on Raw, the young lion has twice picked-up victories on SmackDown, and now acting as one of the supporting cast members in the tag team Main Event. Yes it is a tag team bout, but still to be in the main spot is always a good thing.

Just a reminder for fans that SmackDown will be in Las Vegas on Friday, here is hoping the company can continue this good energy from the Flagship Brand this week.

Raw goes backstage to interview Zack Ryder, who is scheduled to battle Jack Swagger for the U.S. Championship. Long Island Ice-T is heavily bandaged after the brutal attack by Kane last week; the young lion was not going to forfeit his bout though, as he goes to the ring with Eve to take on Swagger.

Jack Swagger def. Ryder to win the U.S. Championship: There was no way that the stronger Swagger was not going to gain the victory over the battered Ryder. It was revealed later on that Zack was not cleared to wrestle, but that did not allow for the popular star to regain his strap.

As for Swagger, the former World Champion really didn’t need the U.S. Championship, but it is a nice reward for the improved promotional skills, while also building up heel heat for the young lion, so-who knows if the company is going to continue the feud with Swagger and Ryder but we will see in time.

Raw continued with a plug for the Rock vs. John Cena bout at WrestleMania, as tickets for the Granddaddy of all pay-per-views are on sale.

In the unnecessary segment of the night portion of Raw, Perez Hilton (don’t worry he really isn’t relevant) comes out to help introduce the Diva’s and help Kelly Kelly and Alicia Fox to gain a victory over the Bella Twins.

After a recap of what happened on SmackDown as Big Show barreled into AJ during his bout with Daniel Bryan last Friday, the show continued with an interesting segment with R-Truth, Wade Barrett, Sheamus and The Miz.

This segment was brilliant, as it now allows for rivalries to build between R-Truth and Barrett and Sheamus and The Miz.

In probably the pleasant surprise of the night was when Teddy Long decided to give fans a preview of the Rumble with a mini-four way bout with the four stars listed above.  When the action between Miz, Barrett and Sheamus and Truth broke out, this action figured for sure there’d be a tag bout in the future.

Long surprised the fans by booking this mini-Rumble preview, and it actually made for a very interesting bout. Truth won the match, but Sheamus reminded us all why he will be a major player in the pay-per-view with a huge brogue kick on The Miz.

Cut to the back where a very angry John Cena storms into John Laurinaitis’ office, yelling at the exec for allowing his best friend Zack Ryder to compete in the show. The Interim GM made two announcements for John, putting him in two different bouts.

First the exec announced that the resident Superman will challenge Kane at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view (no cage match or anything, very disappointing). Second announcement was that Cena can gain a bit of measure of revenge by taking-on Jack Swagger in the upcoming bout.

As Cena came out for the bout, one could notice a very different man storming into the ring, as John looked like a man possessed by anger and hatred. John just completely started to destroy Jack, both in and out of the ring before the pyro and theme song of Kane interrupts the beat-down.

Kane is impressed by the emotions running through John right now, and by the time the two meet at the Rumble-Cena will have fully embraced the hate. Stay tuned, as the WWE Universe really responded well to this new aggressive side of John.

Will the company give the fans what they want and turn Cena heel? Or will somehow someway the resident Superman find a way to rise above hate-stay tuned!

In the: attempt to lighten up the mood: portion of the night Brodus Clay easily defeated JTG. So for those fans that aren’t fans of this new character will have to just buckle-up and learn to enjoy the ride. Rumors around Clay is that the young lion is in for a major push with this funky character, and you have got to give it to the guy…he does have some pretty sweet moves for a big guy.

Raw continued with what felt like the 20^th recap of Big Show barreling AJ to another state during the Main Event of SmackDown last week. Daniel Bryan finally comes out to address the situation, making Show like he is the bad guy in the whole situation.

Here is the thing though, why are you going to bring a 95-pound-person to a ring and leave her posted outside when you are battling a 400-pound giant. Bryan could have also easily run the other way, you know the way that his girlfriend wasn’t.

It seems as if with his latest actions, Daniel Bryan is turning more and more to the dark side, though his words were sweet tonight saying how he will show AJ how he feels about her this Friday on SmackDown in his bout with Mark Henry.

This fan is predicting for Bryan to do something heel-like in that bout, like not participate in the match against Mark Henry…as the World Heavyweight Championship means more to him than a girl. Stay tuned this Friday, as it will be the official heel turn of one Daniel Bryan.

Finally it was Main Event time, as Chris Jericho was going to see action in the ring for the first time in a year and a half.  It was slated to be Y2J, Bryan and Punk taking on Ziggler, Henry and Otunga but things broke down real quick.

With one action Chris Jericho started a feud that fans have been begging for, as the tag and running away from his partners immediately build tension with C.M. Punk. Tonight is only the first step, in what should be one of the most brilliant rivalries in a long time.

Punk was left to fight solo, when Mark Henry and Daniel Bryan started to battle each other outside of the ring, and eventually into the backstage area. While people were abandoning the champ, in comes Mick Foley to save the day.

Foley finally gets his one moment of glory, beating down on David Otunga hitting the DDT plus Mr. Socko for the victory. Before Foley and Punk could celebrate the victory, out comes John Laurinaitis to rain on the duo’s parade.

Since the legend wasn’t an official participant in the Main Event, the decision of Punk/Foley picking-up the victory is reversed. In the holy cow moment of the night, Punk imploded a pipe bomb on the exec before leaving the ring.

This is probably one of those YouTube moments that mere words cannot capture, just to try though; Punk basically told John that the exec is just jealous that he was never able to make it in the business.  Laurinaitis is jealous that Punk is able to gain the adoration of the fans through hard work, instead of just through looks alone.

The very intense segment continued with Foley and John confronting each other. The exec admits that he wants to screw Punk, as he is sick and tired of being disrespected and bullied says that he puts on the most entertaining show and is not appreciated for it-says that he is sick and tired before hitting Foley with a microphone

Raw ends with Foley left staggering in the ring, as probably many fans were left staggered by a very emotion filled Flagship brand. This episode is an improvement by leaps and bounds over what the company gave us last week.

Here is hopeful that this Friday continues the trend, thanks as always for checking in and as always stay tuned!

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