WrestleChat

Welcome fans to the end of 2011 edition of the WrestleChat.net Raw recap, the Flagship brand has a ton of surprises in store for many of the Superstars, as there maybe change coming in 2012? There were indications that the New Year may belong to the Heels, but as

Future Heel Champion in 2012? Image via Wikipedia

always stay tuned.

Airing from our TV screens from Chicago, Illinois; it’d seem as if the Flagship brand was going to start with the Second City savior. In the unfortunate surprise of the night, it turned out to be Interim GM John Laurinaitis entering-wearing Punk’s shirt and making fun of the reigning champ.

Before the GM could get too far into his speech, out comes the real Punk much to the delight of his hometown crowd. All of the talking between the two led to a gauntlet bout with three stars to challenge C.M. Punk.

Punk didn’t want the night to end their though, as the ‘Voice of the Voiceless’ challenged the exec to a match later in the night. Surprisingly enough John agrees to end the segment between these two rivals.

In what was more of a pleasant surprise Booker T defeated Cody Rhodes in the first real wrestling action of the night.  This fan figured that Rhodes was going to continue his dominant ways with the 5-time WCW Champion.

Of course the company had to keep the feud between Rhodes and Booker fresh, so what better way than to allow the legend a victory over the young lion. Stay tuned to see what will happen between these two men, as somehow the company will use this feud to push Cody to new heights.

Cut to a backstage segment of Zack Ryder thanking John Cena for helping the Ryder revolution. Instead Cena gives the young lion all the credit for winning his first championship with the company. While interacting with a fellow WWE fan on twitter (follow me @StacyPodelski) I felt that eventually if Cena does turn heel a feud between Cena and Ryder is in order-as always stay tuned!

It was at this time that the opponents for C.M. Punk in the gauntlet bout were announced; as Jack Swagger, Dolph Ziggler and Mark Henry all will challenge the champion. With the stipulation of the bout being if any of these men beat Punk they will challenge for the WWE Championship in 2012.

We go again to the back where John Laurinaitis books a bout with David Otunga and The Big Show, where Show is asked to tie one hand behind his back. Of course the World’s Largest Athlete first bragged he’d be able to beat the Harvard Law school graduate in that matter, which gave the exec the idea.

In the second action of the night Zack Ryder/Eve def. Tyson Kidd/Natalya. It was a decent bout, but there is no way that Ryder, who has been on fire as of late is going to drop any matches right now. One could especially figure that the faces were going to win when you see Kidd and Natalya in the ring.

Sadly for Tyson he has still not yet gone beyond the status of jobber within the WWE. Kidd has talent that can help elevate any division within the company, and here is hoping in 2012 there will be a good feud to help the young lion out.

At this point of Raw that John Cena calls-out Kane in order to get an answer from the monster for his actions in the past few weeks.  Instead of the monster, the resident WWE Superman receives a response from The Miz, who still has unfinished business.

For the Awesome One, he wanted to end 2011 with a beat down of Cena-who never turns down a challenge. These two didn’t grapple for long before the WWE Universe got to Miz, who disqualified himself.

The disqualification served as a perfect spring-point for one R-Truth to return to the company, as the former heel came out to get revenge on his new rival. It was a brutal beating that the Truth gave to Miz, and it should be interesting to see what direction the company will take Truth with this return.

Big Show vs. David Otunga in the one hand tied behind his back bout, before things could get interesting out comes Mark Henry to spoil the match. Just when fans feel that Henry is going to destroy his rival, Daniel Bryan comes out to distract the World’s Largest Man.

It seems with all the chaos from this bout, the company is staging a three-way rivalry between Show/Bryan and Henry. Here is hoping that the WWE will allow Daniel to hold the strap for a while, as fans have only started to see the potential that the young lion can bring to SmackDown.

In the internet rumors come true segment, Alberto Del Rio will have to miss action in the ring thanks to a groin injury. Things have been swirling around Twitter that the Mexican Aristocrat will be missing time, and that turned out to be true.

Here is hoping while ADR is taking time out to heel, he will also gain more dimensions to his game. The whole “It is my destiny” thing has worn out its course with fans, and sadly no one is buying his heel heat any longer.  Stay tuned to see how Alberto reinvents himself when he returns.

So it was Gauntlet time as C.M. Punk was able to defeat Jack Swagger before taking on Dolph Ziggler. In probably the surprise of the night in Round Two was Ziggler defeating the Second City Savior to earn a shot at the WWE Championship.

Of course the victory came with a price, as both Vickie Guerrero and John Laurinaitis caused enough interference to allow the young lion to gain the victory.  Glad to see Ziggler though propel into to the Main Event spotlight.

Ziggler has been someone to keep an eye on for quite some time now, and has impressed this fan for some time. Dolph could easily be the main guy on any brand, and here is hoping the WWE can continue to build this young lion the right way.

This fan does not feel that Dolph will win next week, but rumors have swirled for a while that poor ratings have surrounded Raw as of late. Maybe the company will allow a Dolph heel reign to help lift things, as always stay tuned.

Raw ended with Kane coming out to explain why he has been attacking John Cena in the past couple of weeks. The Big Red Machine feels as if the fans are living a lie, thanks to the “Rise above hate” campaign the WWE has launched.

According to Kane, the world is a hateful place and that he will help Cena to embrace his hate. Obviously the plan of action with the WWE is to get the monster to help John regain face time with the fans. The plan worked as the monster was trying to lead the WWE Universe to Cena Sucks chants.

Sadly that plan failed; as the WWE Universe responded with let’s go Cena chants (with some Cena Sucks chants sprinkled in). The last Raw of 2011 ends with Cena hanging his head low, as if he couldn’t respond to the hatred of Kane.

Stay tuned, as the rivalry between these two men have only just begun. Also hopefully you all will stay with me as I’ll be bringing a special WWE House Show Recap to WrestleChat.net. Tomorrow the company will be at Madison Square Garden, and this fan will be there and bring you all a ton of content from the night!

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