Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Noah Mark is back with his the latest installment of “The YES! & The NO! of WWE RAW.” Comment below and tell us if you agree with this week’s picks.
Complete WWE RAW Results (12/23)
WWE RAW (12/23)
Here are some quick thoughts about this weeks edition of Christmas Raw. Did you watch it?
The WWE Diva’s are awesome to look at. Not so awesome to watch wrestle.
12-diva’s Jingle Bells Match: The tag team division has been completely turned around. At one point it seemed like there was barely a tag team division. AJ Lee is the best women’s wrestler on the roster, why aren’t we seeing her in great matches. I guess I know why, because of Total Diva’s. That doesn’t mean there can’t be great woman’s wrestling. NO!
John Cena, CM Punk, and Big E. Langston victorious to end Christmas Raw
CM Punk John Cena & Big E Langston vs The Shield I enjoyed the match, Cena, Punk and Big E all out there. The end seemed silly though. Why would there suddenly be a disqualification, because the two illegal Shield members saved themselves from being pinned by Big E? It doesn’t make sense, but still the match was better than the Good Santa vs Bad Santa, which I thought for sure would close the show. Therefore it gets a YES!
The USOS vs The Prime Time Players: The match was fun to watch. Good tag team action YES!|
The USO’s and The Prime Time Players all celebrate after the match. Barf
The USOS & Prime Time Players Curtain Call Before the match Darren Young mistakenly refer to Austin Texas as Houston, to get some sort of heel heat, I didn’t have a problem with this. I did have a problem with after the match, The USO’s and The Prime Time Players all doing the Millions of Dollars dance. Here’s why I have an issue with it. This is starting to become a thing, with Superstars hugging after the match, we saw it a few weeks ago with the Michael Strahan, Miz, Titus O’neil segment. We saw it with Big Show, Rey Mysterio and The Rhodes. Forget about ruthless aggression, these guys are all becoming wimps! It’s OKAY for two fan favorites to dislike each other, and not hug at the end. I’m not saying they need to attack each other after the match… but I’m hoping it’s just a lighthearted Christmas episode thing, and not a growing trend. Although with the recent article of WWEshopping their television shows to TV Network’s including Disney. We might see everyone hug at the end of matches in the future. NO!
“Bad Santa’ full of Christmas Cupcakes
Good Santa Vs Bad Santa:It is what it is I guess. Mark Henry playing the good Santa, Damien Sandow playing the bad Santa with produced backstage segments contrasting the two. The announcers played it up as you would have expected. The whole concept is silly. Bah Humbug! NO!
Live Announcing: I would say it was a good thing that Michael Cole and JBL announced the show live from Stanford CT. (They had pre-recorded cut-in’s from the arena, but voiced most of Raw Live) it gave it a fresh feel, JBL made some topical references as he eluded to on twitter. The Batista announcement which clearly wasn’t scheduled for the show originally was added in, and the live commentary allowed for reaction from JB and Cole. Did you miss Jerry “The King” Lawler? I did not. YES!
@NEIL_MALONE@WWE@GoToBermuda pre taped? Not sure u noticed, our commentary was live. The Romo reference should have given that away.
“Santa Claus is an Illegal Immigrant” – Zeb Colter
The Real Americans vs Los Matadores: Another good tag team match on Raw. We saw the Antonio Cesaro swing, which if you haven’t’ seen live is an awesome thing to watch. With all the tag teams in the WWE, I think the WrestleMania pre-show match should involve all the tag-teams that one make it to the PPV. Perhaps the winner can face the champions. YES!
RAW OVERALL: NO! Call me scrooge if you will, but the over cheesy holiday wrestling show, should go on Smackdown! I think Raw looses it’s coolness by being lame. If Disney pony’s up the cash this could be what you see on RAW every week so get used to it! There was some good action on the show which I enjoyed, no real progression of WWE story lines but the big announcement of The Animal Batista, which was awesome to see.
Daniel Bryan, winning three Slammy Awards competing in a match, appearing in the Championship Ascension Ceremony, was without question the star of the show. His hometown crowd chanting YES! YES! YES! and DANIEL BRYAN! throughout the beginning of the Championship Ascension Ceremony. Going back earlier in the night to his first Slammy win for Superstar Of The Year. On stage The Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels. He announces the Superstar of the year is Daniel Bryan. We were all expecting fireworks to occur during that interaction. HBK even exited stage right a perfect set-up for a “surprise” superkick from out of nowhere! But there was no Sweet Chin Music. Just a humble acceptance speech by Bryan for his Slammy Award which he refereed to as The “HB Swizzle” award, Michaels naming it that just before presenting the award. Bryan did mention if it wasn’t for Shawn he wouldn’t be in the WWE. Likewise if it wasn’t for his interference at Hell-In-A-Cell he would be the WWE Champion. Although there was no physical interaction here, that wouldn’t be the last time these two interacted on the show.
See this is why I can’t shake off fighting the Daniel Bryan cause, he belongs in the main event. Heck this article uses his YES! and NO! and lord help us all if Daniel Bryan ever appears in a “NO!” portion of this article. Some people might say, he was in his hometown and had an extra kick of support. There may be a bit of truth to that, but I feel that there are just some hot wrestling towns. Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and apparently Seattle. After what transpired later in the show who knows what will happen the next few months. I’m excited! YES!
Championship Ascension Ceremony
John Cena showing why he is in fact the face of WWE.
Former World Heavyweight and WWE Champions appeared all in the ring for the Championship Ascension Ceremony. As I said earlier the crowd was going crazy for Daniel Bryan. While Triple H was talking up the match, and the championship, the Seattle crowd chanted YES and Daniel Bryan to the point where Triple H gave them what seemed like at least a minute of chanting and Yessing and clapping. This crowd was on fire for Daniel Bryan. Triple H introduced both Orton and Cena. The crowd did not want to hear what Orton had to say. There were boos and boring chants. Then Cena took the mic. More boos and cheering mix. Then Cena begins to speak and prove why he is the face of the WWE. These days with everything being very planned and scripted, Cena played to the crowd and included Daniel Bryan in the conversation, he compared Randy Orton’s rise to success to Daniel Bryan’s. The idea was Bryan didn’t have a father and grandfather to get him in to the WWE, he did it by working. Cena turned practically the entire crowd around and behind him., shouting out his past opponents, HBK, CM Punk, and putting over that the only fair shot Daniel Bryan had was the one with him. Brilliant, this is why he is where he is. The end was something I haven’t seen in the WWE in a long time. It was an awesome chain of events excuited perfectly. Cena and Orton shake hands as the World Heavyweight Championship and WWE Championship are hoisted up. Orton gets in a cheap shot, the two are down on the mat fighting. Orton and Cena get pulled apart to their corners. CM Punk gets shoved by Orton causing CM Punk to start attacking Orton. Triple H throws down CM Punk, who retaliates with a knockdown of his on on The Game. HBK Superkicks CM Punk, setting up Daniel Bryan to
The Authority and John Cena look over A fallen Randy Orton. A great segment to end raw.
WWE Reminding us what they are capable of, a Powerful and compelling end to Raw.
deliver his running Knee on HBK. Orton tries to RKO Bryan but instead gets shoved into Stephanie McMahon knocking her down. Triple H runs to Stephanie’s aid, and then gets up and pedigrees Randy. The show closes with The Authority and John Cena looking disappointed over Randy Orton on the mat. What a great segment. This is what WWE used to do on a regular basis. Twists and turns, these chain-reaction action segments. YES!
Quick Mentions
Dean Ambrose vs CM Punk – Ambrose vs CM punk was a Pay-Per-View quality match with a great dissension in the ranks tease when Dean Ambrose wanted Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins to head to the back so he could finish the job by himself. Punk gets the win shortly after that exchange, although Punk loses out to the numbers game and gets a great spear from Reigns. YES!
The Wyatts – With a chip on my shoulder because of Daniel Bryan’s demotion, I don’t think I appreciated Bray Wyatt’s amazing performances over the last few weeks. They are great, and compelling. YES!
Hit up Page 2 below for the “NO!” of this week’s WWE RAW:
Here’s the latest installment of “The YES! & The NO! of WWE RAW.” I may have a different perspective than you since I was live at Raw this week at The Nassau Colosseum! Comment below and tell us how you like the column and if you agree with this week’s picks.
Daniel Bryan & CM Punk cut a promo before facing The Wyatts
The obligatory rematch between The Wyatts and Daniel Bryan & CM Punk, took place on Raw. First a promo from “The Beard & The Best” CM Punk discussing team names, and asking questions allowing Daniel Bryan to answer them with a “Yes!”. Daniel Bryan got a chance to say more than just the three letter word that will follow him for the rest of his career.
I love Daniel Bryan, and so does the crowd. In fact you could hear Daniel Bryan chants during the opening segment, proving once again that this demotion was not “Best For Business” But more on that in the “NO!” section.
Any match can be enhanced with the crowd behind you. When you have top stars like CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, the two most over Superstars at Raw, it can add just that little more energy to the match.
CM Punk made a comment about Triple H and the authority in the opening promo, and wouldn’t know it after Daniel Bryan was “Kidnapped” by the Wyatts. CM Punk was laid out by The Shield. I wonder if that marks the end of Daniel Bryan and CM Punk together, because I was enjoying that. Time will tell.
Who would have thought Goldust would be having great matches alongside his brother in 2013!
The Shield vs The Rhodes and Rey Mysterio
I have never been a fan of Tag Teams growing up watching the WWE. I must say however, though all the missteps, and bad booking since SummerSlam, The WWE has a great tag team division. This, of course includes The Shield and The Wyatt factions. Day in and day out these teams from The Veteran Golddust, to newer WWE talent in The Shield and The USO’s, are having great matches. I am thoroughly enjoying watching these teams work.
The Kosher Butcher!
The Kosher Butcher Superstars for Sandy Relief Auction winner, ” Charlie Tebele was interviewed by Jerry “The King” Lawler. When asked if he were to be a WWE Superstar, what would his name be. Charlie was prepared, with a blue T-shirt and a great gimmick “The Kosher Butcher” He even went as far to come up with his finisher, The Circumcision! At first the crowd didn’t know what to make of this. Not sure if this was shown on TV, but The Kosher Butcher had at least a dozen of his friends and family at Raw, all wearing their Blue shirts! Great stuff. Half way during the Xavier Woods match, and some further thought, the crowd broke out into chants of both “Kosher Butcher” and “Circumcision”, add that to the list of most bizarre Raw chants.
Great Stuff.
Hit up Page 2 below for the “NO!” of this week’s WWE RAW:
– WWEShop.com is now selling the 2013 Royal Rumble on DVD ($14.99) and Blu-Ray ($20.99).
– WWE might say publicly that they do not view TNA as competition, but TNA’s recent announcement that they are taking Impact Wrestling on the road has already resulted in action from WWE. WWE has reportedly began contacting a number of mid-sized arenas to put holds on them for future dates, in order to keep TNA from running those venues.
In the event that TNA starts running shows every Thursday, WWE, there is even talk of WWE changing their touring schedule and running shows on Thursday nights as well in similar markets that TNA runs.
– WWE will be inducting a celebrity into this year’s Hall of Fame class, rumored to be Cindy Lauper.
WWE taped this week’s SmackDown on Tuesday night from Jacksonville, Florida. Here are the results:
* Big Show is shown arriving on his bus. He comes to the ring and talks about how Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez are suspended. Big Show says the recent events between he and Del Rio are Booker T’s fault, which brings out the SmackDown GM. Booker announcers Big Show vs. Kane for tonight.
* Cody Rhodes defeated Kofi Kingston.
* The Great Khali defeated Titus O’Neil.
* Mark Henry came out and destroys Khali, which the crowd loved. Henry announces the Hall of Pain is back and he wants a spot in the SmackDown brand’s Elimination Chamber match. Booker came out and announced Henry vs. Randy Orton.
* Big Show defeated Kane in a quick match.
* Alberto Del Rio is shown outside in the parking lot, where he’s taken the wheels off Show’s tour bus. Show ran out to the parking lot but gets a bunch of paint dropped on top of him from the roof. Del Rio laughed and drove off.
* Jack Swagger squashed Justin Gabriel.
* Tensai beat Drew McIntyre by DQ when 3MB attacked him. Brodus Clay made the save for Tensai.
* Antonio Cesaro beat Sin Cara.
* Mark Henry defeated Randy Orton to earn a spot in the Elimination Chamber match.
In response to back-to-back attacks by World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio on No. 1 contender Big Show, SmackDown General Manager Booker T announced Tuesday night that he has suspended the Mexican grappler from this week’s SmackDown.
“Following the incidents last Friday on SmackDown as well as this week on Raw,” Booker told WWE.com, “it is my duty as GM to suspend Alberto Del Rio. He will not be in action this Friday night and will not be in the building.”
WWE teased in the announcement: “While there is no question these latest developments will make a profound impression on this week’s edition of the blue brand, one has wonder how it will affect the upcoming World Title Match between Del Rio and The World’s Largest No. 1 contender at Elimination Chamber.”
Earlier this week, MVP stated that he will not be a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble. That said, we’ve heard he is one of the former mid-card WWE superstars the company is interested in bringing back to fill out the roster later this year.
– Earlier this month, Richard H. Blood III (NXT star Richie Steamboat) filed a trademark application for the name “Richie Steamboat.” There have been recent reports that WWE was looking to call him up to the main roster with a different name, so we’ll see how this new trademark ties into that.
– Following up on our report from earlier this week regarding the release of WWE developmental wrestler TAC, we’re told that his controversial comments on Twitter were a big factor in management losing interest in him. Several months ago, he tweeted:
“Not one person in developmental or #wwe have the accolades that I do, yet they act like they are deserved something. #wwe you deserve more! Same generic cookie cutter wrestlers. ONE speaks out and he’s a REVOLUTION starter? Change is coming! #wwe you deserve it! #TAC REVOLUTION.”
He followed up by saying that he’s not scared of being fired, unlike everyone else in WWE that “plays it safe.” Those tweets were later deleted, but not before they were sent to WWE superstars John Cena asking for their reactions.
– WWE taped the following matches for this week’s episode of Main Event on Tuesday night from the AT&T Center in San Antonio, Texas.
* Antonio Cesaro vs. Randy Orton
* The Usos vs. The Prime Time Players
– WWE has reportedly released NXT star TAC (Brandon Carter) from his developmental deal. Carter’s NXT profile has been removed from the NXT Superstars roster page, but can still be accessed here.
– With Saturday Morning Slam moving to a new timeslot this weekend (10:30am), WWE has released the following video hyping the show:
Brandon Carter, a former offensive tackle for Texas Tech University who WWE signed this year to a developmental contract and now performs under the name TAC, posted a multitude of messages on his Twitter account Saturday criticizing the product of his employer.
As a life-long WWE fan and owner of over 900 action figures, Carter says the company’s shows have been “on repeat” for ten years and that fans deserve change. The football-player-turned-grappler wants to be the one to bring change to WWE, even going as far to put his job on the line.
“I am here to bring change to #wwe to give power to the people instead of telling you what to love #TACRevolution,” he wrote to a fan.
“Not one person in developmental or #wwe have the accolades that I do, yet they act like they are deserved something. #wwe you deserve more! Same generic cookie cutter wrestlers. ONE speaks out and he’s a REVOLUTION starter? Change is coming! #wwe you deserve it! #TAC REVOLUTION.”
Carter continued, “#wwe you deserve a REAL REVOLUTION. A revolution is not taking the mic from @JohnCena FOLLOW ME! I ill bring you to a REVOLUTION! #TAC.
“Everybody is afraid of getting fired and that’s why they play it safe! Thats why what you #wwe fans get is all the same old stuff
“Don’t you #wwe fans want something new? A real revolution? A real change? Demand it. I will lead you #TAC revolution.
“not afraid to get fired. It’s happened before. But if I don’t attempt to make a change in what I love, that means I failed all of you #wwe
“I’m sure right now people are squirming in their seats in Connecticut! But we all know what needs to be done #wwe #TAC revolution follow me!
“Don’t all of you want change?Do you feel like you’ve been watching the same show on repeat since ’02?Get behind me and we will make a change.
“I can’t lower your taxes, or bring you health care. But what I can do is bring change to what you love, #wwe #TACRevolution
“No one will stand up for what they believe in because they are a puppet to the “machine” I have cut my own strings to bring you change! #wwe.”
Posted November 17th, 2012 in News, WWE. Tagged: TAC.
Thanks to reader Archie for these live spoilers from Tuesday’s SmackDown tapings:
Dark Match:
* Jimmy Wang defeats Tyler Reks with a moonsault in a good match. Reks cut a heel promo before the match.
SmackDown, Airing Friday:
* Chris Jericho comes out to start SmackDown and says he will win the Chamber. Edge comes out to a big pop. He talks about spearing Taker last week. Jericho tells Edge to pick the RAW Champion for WrestleMania for his own good. The lights flicker and Edge spears Jericho.
* Kane vs. Dolph Ziggler takes place until Drew McIntyre comes down in a suit. Dolph tries to take advantage but Kane chokeslams him for the win. Drew comes in and hits his finisher on Kane but Kane reverses it.
* Rey Mysterio cuts a promo backstage and says he will win the Elimination Chamber.
* John Morrison & R-Truth vs. CM Punk & Luke Gallows is announced for tonight.
* Cryme Tyme defeated Trent Baretta and Caylon Croft in a good tag match.
* John Morrison is interviewed and says his ankle won’t make him miss the Chamber. Truth comes in and says he will win the Chamber but tonight, he and Morrison will beat Punk and Gallows.
* CM Punk and the Straight Edge Society come out. Punk cuts a promo and says he will win the belt at Elimination Chamber this Sunday. Tons of heat for Punk.
* Punk & Gallows vs. Morrison & Truth ends in a no contest. What looked like Undertaker’s pyro went off during the match, everything stopped but nothing happened. Match is restarted. Morrison was really playing up his ankle injury. The referee called for the bell when Morrison went to kick Punk but kicked the ring post and went down in pain. SES beats Morrison and Truth down until Rey Mysterio comes in for the save. They beat him down and pose in front of Rey to a ton of heat.
* Teddy Long is shown backstage. He says he will take action against Shawn Michaels for super kicking him on RAW. Mickie James comes in and Vickie Guerrero announces it will be Mickie vs. Michelle McCool next week with Vickie as the referee.
* Maria, Matt Hardy and The Great Khali vs. The Hart Dynasty is up next. The Dynasty gets the win when Natalya pins Maria. Maria walks up the ramp pissed off with Matt right behind her apologizing.
* Maria is shown backstage arguing with Matt Hardy about him letting their team down. Michelle McCool and Layla come in and make fun of them.
* Edge vs. Batista is next. No pyro for Batista, simple entrance but a big pop. Edge comes out to a big pop also. Batista stalls to start the match. Edge takes the mic and says John Cena was right about Batista. Finally they wrestle and it’s a good match. Edge spears Batista and Taker’s bell hits and he appears in the ring. Taker chokeslams Edge. Taker chases Batista off. Chris Jericho appears in the ring and hits the Codebreaker on Edge. Taker comes back out and stares down Jericho to end SmackDown after Jericho motions to the World Title.
New Japan Pro Wrestling star Kazuchika Okada is headed to TNA Wrestling, according to a message on the Puroresu Spirit Facebook.com page.
Okada, who is known as the Young Lion, will wrestle in the United States for TNA to gain experience until he’s ready to come back to New Japan and be a top competitor.
The official announcement reads:
As for the 22 year old Kazuchika Okada, NJPW has high hopes for the Young Lion as they plan to send him to train and wrestle for TNA Wrestling. The President of NJPW Sugabayashi has stated that Okada is still young and that the plan is for Okada to stay as long as needed for him to come back to NJPW and become a real contender. So at this time it looks like he may be in TNA for the next 2-3 years.