Tha Raw Report

Heading into last night's show, I was very interested in seeing how WWE would follow-up on a great three-hour "Raw." How would Jerry Lawler respond to Michael Cole's interference in last week's main event? Would this be the week Triple H returns to challenge King Sheamus? Would Randy Orton return to challenge The Miz?

Answers:

By shaking Cole's hand (by order of the Anonymous G.M.) And then by setting Cole up for an RKO.

No.

Yes. And Orton's return worries me.

I worry about how the Miz-Orton program will affect Orton's character going forward. It's bad enough that Miz pinned him to win the WWE title on "Raw" two weeks ago, but Miz will almost certainly beat him again at TLC.

Orton has been built up well over the last few years, so maybe a loss to Miz won't affect his Superstar, main event status - but it still pains me to think about Miz beating Orton again.

Orton has all the tools, and they took the belt off him too quickly. That Miz was the person he dropped it to, makes it much, much worse.

Perhaps they'll protect Orton at TLC - table matches can lead to fluky finishes, after all. And he was protected last night too, when Miz attacked Orton from behind, before Miz eventually bailed out of the ring.

Even associating Miz with Orton, though, rubs me the wrong way. (Randy Orton: "The Miz and I are a lot alike." Noooooooooooooo!)

Other thoughts on the show:

- Lawler is OVER. He received a huge pop when he confronted Cole to start the show. Taking that into consideration, and that Lawler and Miz had such a good match last week, (as well as my concern that a loss to Miz may affect Orton's credibility), if I were Vince McMahon, I would have booked a Lawler-Miz rematch for TLC, instead of Orton-Miz. I think that would sell some PPVs. You've got to run with what's hot.

- We didn't get the return of Triple H (although Sheamus planted the seed during his coronation ceremony promo). What we got was a solid exchange between the new King and John Morrison, a continuation of the feud between the two King of the Ring finalists. I'm glad to see the feud continue - they delivered in both of their previous encounters.

- A note on Triple H: every time Hunter takes an extended break (it's been a handful of times), fans get worked up in anticipation of his return. Of course, once he's back, those same fans get sick of him after, say, two weeks. The problem is that every time Triple H returns, whether he becomes WWE Champion or not, he becomes the focus of the show.

Given his age (41 - thanks Wikipedia!), and injury history, I think he'd be better served as a PPV attraction who only wrestles five times a year (just throwing a number out here).

WWE should continue their youth movement, which includes guys like Barrett, Sheamus, Del Rio, Danielson, Miz, Kingston, Morrison, McIntyre, Rhodes, etc. It'll pay off in the long run.

- Cena continued his assault on Nexus by first entering David Otunga's and Husky Harris' hotel room, and taking out Harris. Then, he interfered in the 4-Way Tag title match, helping Santino and Vladimir Kozlov win the titles.

Finally, Cena attempted to give Wade Barrett an Attitude Adjustment on the announce table, after Nexus walked out on their leader. Barrett escaped, however, and confronted the rest of Nexus backstage. They told him that he needs to re-hire Cena next week or else Barrett is out of the group.

- WWE advertised an "exclusive" interview with Wade Barrett (which did not end up happening). Were there other media agencies clamouring for the interview?

- David Otunga doesn't know how to eat a cheeseburger.

- An unnamed bodyguard accompanied Tyson Kidd to the ring for Kidd's match with David Hart Smith. (According to PWInsider, the bodyguard worked as Jackson Andrews in developmental.) The match was fine, I suppose, but the bodyguard didn't even help Kidd (the heel) pin Smith (the babyface). Instead, Kidd won clean.

Considering the finish, I'm sure fans won't be demanding a re-match between the two former members of the Hart Dynasty, but I would like to see these two work a PPV match, without the TV time constraints.

Both are grossly underutilized right now, although the addition of the bodyguard suggests they have plans for Kidd.

- Smith's delayed superplex on Kidd was impressive.

- The promo for TLC is horrible. Way to go WWE -- trivialize the use of tables, ladders, and chairs by making it a cartoon. Is that promo supposed to sell PPVs?!?!

- For Dan-e-o ...

When predicting the winner of the 4-Way Tag Team Title Match, CM Punk said, "I really like this team of Yoshi Tatsu and The World's Strongest Man ... they're so loveable."

- I laughed out loud at Santino's Ultimate Warrior impression.

- More funny: there's going to be a "Tag Team of the Year" Slammy awarded next week.

- The "KFC Yum! Center" sounds like an arena name from Baseketball.

- Why does "Raw" need two "geek-gets-the-girl" storylines?

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