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WWE: A Week After the Best Raw in Recent Memory, the WWE Flopped Once Again

Posted: Feb 8th 2012 By: mikeiles

When deciding whether or not you like the weekly WWE product, it's generally helpful to wait some time to make a full judgement. It works for me as after taking a step back from my immediate emotions, I can make a more sound judgement.

After thinking about last night's Raw, I can honestly say it was one of the worst in recent memories for a number of reasons.

Last week's show was great, even though, the majority of the show did nothing to progress the ongoing storylines. Last night, the WWE went to the other end of the spectrum and chose to focus on storylines at the expense of the product in the ring.

Let's begin with a general overview of the entire show. The show featured two incredibly boring tag matches, another round of Daniel Bryan vs. The Big Show, and too many promos. At least the show was saved by an entertaining main event that walked the line between chaotic and entertaining.

The show opened with Triple H making his way to the ring in his usual green tie to explain why he refused The Undertaker's challenge. HHH has always been good on the mic but this promo lasted entirely too long.

I felt like he kept repeating himself numerous times and it nearly lasted 20 minutes. That's way too long for a monologue to begin a show. The 'Taker recorded video was nice and finally gave clarity as to why he was challenging HHH again after beating him.

Next on the show's lineup was another bout featuring Bryan and Big Show. Honestly how many times is the WWE going to feature these two men going at it? Bryan could be having great matches instead of having to work with the lumbering Big Show.

The John Cena segment seemed like just a cheap ploy to get him on TV for the week. Carl Edwards' acting was just awful and it's pretty bad when the WWE needs to go back to a promo from last week's show in order to fill time.

David Otunga's segment was made to fill WWE's weekly requirement of a squash match. I guess if Brodus Clay isn't available, using the Royal Rumble winner is the next best thing. The only bright spot was Otunga's styling shoes.

Many people were happy Chris Jericho finally spoke more than one sentence (myself being one of them). Jericho can still cut a great promo and he obviously didn't want to go all out on his first major mic time but you still felt like there should've been more from him.

I will give the WWE credit for having CM Punk come out and not say a word. Having Punk give Jericho the silent treatment and his ensuing tantrum was a great role reversal for the Y2J character.

Up until this point I believe I counted at least two or three advertisements for the main event. It's one thing to let us know what we have to look forward to, but there's no need to shove it down our throats.

Speaking of shoving down our throats, after giving up the social media thing for a few weeks, the WWE cranked up the Twitter plugs during last night's broadcast. It's less than what it used to be but there's still no need for Michael Cole to bring it up every time it pops up on the screen.

Another thing I will give props to the WWE for from last night's show was the Cena Wrestlemania video. For all the heat Cena gets, he really is the ultimate company man.

He does a lot for the WWE behind closed doors and even though I'm sure he gets bothered by some of the negativity from fans, he seems to be doing a great job of rolling with the punches.

As far as the Diva tag match goes... Well it was your typical Diva's failure of a match.

Prior to the main event, the WWE featured another viewing of the 'Taker promo from earlier. Couldn't they have just allowed all the matches to go for a few more minutes instead of showing us rerun material?

Sticking with the bash WWE, praise WWE style that's been featured in this article, I will say the company has turned the Laurinaitis character around the past few weeks.

He's gone from boring interim GM to actually being somewhat entertaining. His attempts of brown-nosing and seeming like the good boss are amusing at some times, especially with how others have played off him.

With the Cena-Kane feud seemingly ending at Elimination Chamber, couldn't the WWE come up with a better gimmick than an ambulance match? It essentially will turn into what we saw at the Royal Rumble; a street fight.

As bad as the show was up until the main event, the saving grace of the show was the "Six Pack Challenge."

Having six men in the ring at the same time sounded like it could've been extremely chaotic given the quality of wrestlers in today's sport. The competitors did a fairly good job of not spreading the focus of fans too much.

The final segments had the number one ingredient for an entertaining match; drama. The close near falls/tapouts kept us fans on the edge of our seats and Jericho stealing the match was definitely a R-Rated caliber move.

The final moment of Jericho imitating Punk with Punk's title was a great way to send off the show.

Oh wait the show kept going?

That's right, the WWE felt the need to force a Kane-Eve promo after the climatic ending of the main event.

Kane has been one of my favorite wrestlers since he debuted in 1997 but this segment was absolutely god awful. Kane's transformation from "embrace the hate" mentor to creepy stalker was a terrible move for the WWE.

The first reason it's a terrible move was due to how they handled the Kane-Cena feud last week with Kane running away from Cena. So Cena hasn't embrace the hate, yet Kane runs like a dog with its tail tucked between its legs and now decides to attack a woman.

We don't need Kane to attack a "defenseless" Eve in order for him to get heat. Attacking the number one superstar on the roster does more than enough to make Kane the bad guy.

After the great show last week, the WWE honestly fell flat on its face last night. I know Vince McMahon wants to focus on the entertainment aspect of the company, but the product in the ring can be just as entertaining as a promo.

Last week's show proved that the WWE could still be entertaining and have wrestling featured as well. Instead of building on that momentum, the creative team simply made a bundled mess of ideas and threw it on national television.

Even the most jaded fan has to expect better from the WWE.