Raw Review - 8 May, 2012

With college out of the way for the summer, Monday nights enable me to stay up and watch my beloved Raw. With Raw airing at 2am over here in Ireland, staying up can be difficult enough, especially when raw itself is a disappointment.

Last summer had its moments with the whole CM Punk storyline, but after around mid August things started to go downhill and staying up to watch Raw just wasn't worth it.

That what it was like for me last night – it just wasn't worth it. Last night reminded me that I actually hate staying up to watch Raw. While it sounds like a good idea at first, I soon learn to regret it.

Maybe next week I'll learn to watch the replay of Raw the day after. Maybe not. My asshole of a conscience generally convinces me that it will be different this week.

Anyway, on with the review...

John Laurinaitis and CM Punk

Even if I didn't watch this at 2am I still don't think I would have enjoyed this segment. It started off fine, but soon just began to slip as the minutes went on. While Laurinaitis can be good to watch, at times he can become a wheezing blur who just says the same thing over and over again.

Even Punk coming out didn't seem to liven up the segment grab my attention that much. It was all just very... drab. Also, throughout the segment I was wandering why Punk was wasting his time with Laurinaitis when he should have been concentrating on his match with Daniel Bryan. I was hoping with only two weeks left to go until Over The Limit that they would try and get as much Bryan/Punk build-up in as possible, but alas, I just ended up getting my hopes up.

Cody Rhodes vs. Big Show

Ugh. Haven't we seen enough of this feud. Honestly, I was so disappointed to see Big Show come out after Cody Rhodes – I just automatically thought that this feud was over and done with.

What's there left to do? There's nothing in this feud to make it go on any longer. It has simply run its course. Yes, Big Show deserves his rematch clause, but the fact that Rhodes left the ring and counted himself out shows that there is still more to see from these two men. Unfortunately.

Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston

I COULD be all cynical here and say 'Wow, haven't seen this match before!', but these two do work well, and to be honest I was just happy to see Ziggler in again. It may have been against another midcarder who's he's beaten countless time before, but it's a win nonetheless.

Maybe this means that Ziggler and Swagger will be put in the Tag Team title picture. I really wouldn't mind that to be honest, anything to get him away from Brodus Clay.

Layla & Kelly Kelly vs. Natalya & local athlete. What's that? She's under contract with WWE? Ma...xine?

Seriously though, I totally forgot about Maxine, and totally forgot about NXT as well. It was definitely odd seeing her on Raw, but thats not to say it was odd in a good way, I still stayed in my transfixed state on the couch.

Layla looked pretty good in this match. Natalya didn't do much. I hardly paid attention to Maxine. I wish Kelly Kelly would go away. Hmmm, I might review all the Divas matches like this.

Sheamus & Randy Orton vs. Chris Jericho & Alberto Del Rio

At first thought I expected this to lead to a Chris Jericho/Randy Orton feud, but thankfully that wasn't the case. And I only say thankfully because I just don't think it would have been that great to watch.

Anyway, this tag team match led to something else entirely. This pretty enjoyable match played host to a fun filled ending which later led to a Fatal 4 Way match being announced for Over The Limit.

Now, although I think this was pretty rushed, I still think that it came off well. Also, having Jericho and Orton in this mix will surely make the World Heavyweight Championship match at Over The Limit that bit more exciting.

Brodus Clay vs. The Miz

Wow, things are going down hill for The Miz aren't they. The man who main evented WrestleMania XXVII is now at a stage where he was beaten by the Funkasaurus in just a couple of minutes. Still though, I can't say I'm surprised either.

Maybe its what The Miz deserves at the minute, because all he did in his match with Brodus was apply loads of chinlocks. Hopefully this means that Ziggler can do something else now while Miz gets beaten by Brodus, because I honestly think the Showoff deserves better than the Awesome one at this stage.

Paul Heyman Returns

Even though I heard that Heyman was at Raw (thanks Punk), I was still delighted to see him. Granted, I'm not Heyman's biggest fan and will be the first to admit that, but it was still great to see him on Raw.

Sadly though, I don't think his return will be fondly remembered in years to come because the whole segment was just very underwhelming. Thanks to the unbelievably quite Greensboro crowd, the whole return just left a lot to be desired for.

Yes, Heyman's promo was good, but the whole time I was wandering why the crowd was so quiet. Surely some of the older fans would have been able to make a noise, right?

Anyway, with that said, I look forward to seeing Heyman's involvement in this Lesnar storyline.

Lord Tensai & Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk

Where to start? Firstly, I don't know why Bryan was only used for the last 15 minutes of the show. He should have been involved in some kind of segment with Punk beforehand, you know, to hype up their upcoming match at Over The Limit.

Secondly, my patience with Lord Tensai is starting to run thin. Another lacklustre performance from him. I'm not going to say that maybe his style is more suited to Japanese wrestling because I saw him wrestle in Japan and I still thought he was pretty bland. He just doesn't do it for me.

The ending didn't come off very well, as a lack of communication Tensai and Punk kind of messed it up a bit. I think that move sums up Raw this week though – it was all just very... BLEH.

Here's to hoping that the go home show before Over The Limit is much, much better.

Stray Observations:

• I didn't mention John Cena's segment because there really wasn't a whole lot to say. It was good. That's all.
• Maybe Big Johnny will forgive Big Show if he apologizes Jesse Jackson style.
• The commentators really should have reacted more to The Miz losing to Brodus Clay. I mean, he is a former WWE Champion after all.
• I said it before, but man, that crowd was really quiet. Probably one of the reasons why Raw was so bad this week.