Monday Night Raw (Febrary 7 Episode) Random Thoughts

The February 7 episode of WWE Monday Night Raw opened with the Chairman, Mr. McMahon coming out to the stage to make an announcement. When Vince comes usually something big happens, but last nights appearance didn't make any sense to me. His big announcement was....."next week I'm going to announce who will host Wrestlemania in Atlanta!" In my opinion that was a bust. It should have been something along the lines of "Next week on Raw, the Chairman, Mr. McMahon has a huge Wrestlemania announcement!"

While Mr. McMahon was still on the stage Randy Orton comes out and goes to the ring. He speaks about how he's going to win the WWE championship but is interrupted by CM Punk. The Chicago native reveals via a video clip from two years ago his reason behind costing Orton the WWE title. Does anyone remember when Orton as leader of Legacy punted Punk? His (Orton's) actions pretty much cost Punk the championship. Punk has waited all this time to get his revenge. This was a great segment in my opinion.

A melee broke out and Orton ended up breaking Punks nose but was beat down in the process by the New Nexus.

During the commercial break apparently the anonymous Raw GM sent an E-mail to his "boy" Michael Cole who read it. To ensure that Nexus will not run roughshod tonight each of them will be in matches with other Elimination Chamber participants.

The first match had Mason Ryan representing Nexus versus R-Truth.

Truth really botched his "What's Up" mantra by asking the folks in Milwaukee, "GREEN BAY, WISCONSON, WHAT'S UP?" Major faux paux, wrong city Truth, "What's Up with That?" Needless to say Michael Cole really picked up that and eventually during the match the fans were chanting, "MILWAUKEE, MILWAUKEE!" The camera picked up Cole leading the chant. Go figure.

Ryan gets the win by making Truth tap out to some sort of leg hold. The ref overturned the decision because Ryan continue to destroy Truth after the bell.

In a Diva's match, Gail Kim, Tamina and Diva's champion Eve Torres faced off against Melina and the Bella Twins with Natalya at the announce table. I thought the announcing, especially Cole arguing with the former champ overshadowed the match itself and although the camera was pretty much on the action, the focus was on what was being said at ringside. However, Torres, Kim, and Tamina got the victory.

Backstage segment with Punk and Nexus. Punk is proud of Ryan's actions and tells the rest of the group that tonight is not about wins and losses but about weakening their Elimination Chamber opponents. Otunga questions going up against Sheamus but Punk reminds him to "have faith."

I thought that was a good segment.

Next match has Michael McGillicutty versus John Morrison. The huge push continues for Morrison who gets the win but is sprayed in the eyes with something after leaving the ring by the Nexus leader.

Cole continues with his Lawler bashing and asks him (Lawler) "You're proud of winning the Raw Rumble last week with Cena's help?" To be honest, I'm really over Michael Cole and his commentating style. I'd like to see him gone from the program.

Out comes The Miz to the ring. As per his routine, Cole continues his "bro-mance" for The champion by talking about his abilities, charisma, etc. Makes me want to puke.

Miz invites Lawler to the ring, tells Riley to leave because he doesn't want Lawler to feel uncomfortable. They go back and forth verbally for a few minutes. After a bit, Miz misses at sucker punch on the King, who connects with one of his own. Back comes Riley and the beatdown begins. Ted Dibiase also comes in to join the beating. Daniel Bryan comes in for the save

Michael Cole them condemns Bryan for coming to Lawler's aid calling him a nerd among other things. The E mail alert goes off and now we have a tag match ordered by the Raw GM between Bryan/Lawler and Miz and Dibiase.

Riley joins the announce team and calls Bryan by his given name "Bryan Danielson"

It was a back and forth match but in the end Bryan takes Miz over the top rope leaving Dibiase and Lawler in the ring. Lawler lowers the strap and drops his trademark fist from the second rope and securing the victory for the team.

The push here is Lawler's dream to have his first Wrestlemania match after being with the comany for 18 years. He wants to win the WWE title and defend it at 'Mania. I don't see this happening, but it is a pretty decent mid line story.

King Sheamus comes to the ring dressed in his royal duds. Josh Matthews stops him before he makes it to the ring and asks him his opinion of Mark Henry's comment about his deserving to be in the Elimination Chamber. Sheamus was not even aware of those comments and quite frankly I don't recall hearing them either. Needless to say, Sheamus put down Henry about his size and other unflattering comments.

Out comes Henry looking angry. My first thought on this was, "Is this Punk's message to Otunga to "have faith?"

Henry destroys Sheamus with not one but two World's Strongest Slams. Otunga stands proudly over the fallen Irishman lifting his fist in the air as other members of Nexus watch on a backstage monitor. It appears it was a set up from the get go by Punk to take out King Sheamus.

Alberto del Rio comes out driving a 1929 Mercedes Benz classic. His opponent is Santino Marella. del Rio applies his arm lock and Santino taps out for the loss.

Next is, "Excuse Me" Vickie Guerrero with Dolph Zigglar. She says "Dolph will enter the Chamber as the World champion." The crowd is booing loud and it is hard to make out what the "couger" is saying, but thank goodness John Cena comes out to a huge pop.

He says he has an apology from R-Truth. It seems Truth was celebrating Green Bay's SuperBowl win to long and was thinking he was still in Green Bay." Cena plays the crowd and says "We are in Milwaukee, home of Pabst Blue Ribbon, and Laverne and Shirley."

Vickie is upset that she's not getting the respect they deserve and says if "we don't get the respect we're leaving." Cena rallies the crowd even more with the chant, "GO Pack Go, Go Pack Go!" Zigglar and Guerrero exit the ring. It's always amusing when Cena does these type antics.

Cena gets serious and tells Nexus he knows what they are up to tonight, but he's still here. He's going to kick Punk's "Elimination Chamber" and if Nexus comes out he will kick their "Elimination Chamber" too." Cena says he's punching his ticket to Wrestlemania.

Main event John Cena versus CM Punk. Cena purposely gets disqualified with a blatant low blow to Punk. McGillicutty and Otunga face off with Cena in the ring while Mason Ryan attends to Punk on the floor. Jerry Lawler hands Cena a chair repaying him for his assist in the Raw Rumble last week.

The program goes off the air with Cena standing firm in the ring, the only member of the Elimination Chamber not "injured" or "weakened" by Nexus during the show.

Overall it was a good show. Some high points and some low points, but not the worst Raw I've ever stayed awake for. Looking forward to Vince's "big" announcement next week.