After a really good Royal Rumble, we start off Raw with John Laurinitis (The Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and Interim General Manager of Monday Night Raw) talking about how he's going to keep his job and announcing the Raw Elimination Chamber match. CM Punk interrupts him to do some insulting, including a great rendition of the “na-na-na-na hey hey hey goodbye” song. Then Daniel Bryan comes out to cement his heel turn by insulting CM Punk, and now Bryan is saying that he's a role model – shades of the Straight Edge Society?
Next to the ring is Sheamus, the winner of the Royal Rumble. He starts out by stating a few facts (Both Daniel Bryan and Punk have to defend their belts at Elimination Chamber, Johnny could get fired, Sheamus gets to main event Wrestlemania) and follows it up with a fantastic Irish saying.
As the Orton vs. Ziggler match gets set up, we start with Josh Matthews interviewing Wade Barrett in a sky box. Barrett claims that he's going to end Orton's career Friday on Smackdown. As the match goes on, they go back to Josh and Barrett several times. Dolph is going to be a main eventer before the end of the year. He will probably get an undercard match at Wrestlemania, and will be main eventing pay-per-views soon after. This is a mostly standard match, though Dolph gets a good amount of offense in before Randy Orton hits the RKO for the win.
When we come back we see Johnny Ace trying to make friends, leading to William Regal being amazing. Seriously, why isn't he on all the time?
Somebody call my momma! Brodus has a little bit of trouble taking his pants off, and Tyler Reks actually puts on a good fight, but the outcome is never in doubt. After the match we get a brief segment between CM Punk and Daniel Bryan, where Bryan is clearly being inspired by Punk's Straight Edge Society.
Their next match is CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan. They start out respectfully, shaking hands to start the match, with Bryan taking the offensive early on. The action goes out of the ring, with Punk barely making it back in before the ten count. Daniel Bryan is back in control when we return from the break, but Punk starts to turn it around with a Huracanrana from the turnbuckle. Bryan escapes a GTS by going to the outside, then intercepts a suicide dive with an upper cut, then going to the top rope for a drop kick followed by a two count. We get some fantastic counters, showcasing why these two are the champions. However, the match ends when Jericho interferes, attacking Bryan before performing a Codebreaker on Punk, giving Daniel Bryan a win by DQ. It looks like they're going to have the Jericho/Punk feud after all.
Mike Tyson is the next celebrity inductee to the WWE Hall of Fame. He deserves it more than some who have been. Drew Carrey comes to mind... What a travesty.
R-Truth joins the commentary team for the Kofi Kingston vs. the Miz. I love Kofi's new Riddler inspired trunks. Miz makes fun of Kofi's awesome handstand at the Rumble. This isn't a bad match, and R-Truth does a good job on commentary. They seem to have been struggling with what to do with Kofi for a while now. Hopefully the fact that he's going to be in the Elimination Chamber means they're going to push him. Kofi gets the win after hitting the Miz with a Trouble In Paradise. Kofi could be one of the top faces in the company. After the match, it looks like John Laurinitis (The Executive Vice President of Talent Relations and Interim General Manager of Monday Night Raw) is starting to get a little nervous.
Yay, a Divas match. Eve vs. Beth Phoenix for the championship. Eve is actually showing some of the emotional fallout fro Kane's attack on Zack Ryder last night. Beth squashes Eve pretty quickly, then Kane comes on the Titantron to taunt Eve and blame Cena for Ryder's injuries. Kane then essentially appears out of nowhere, leading to Cena coming out to come to Eve's defence. We get a nice brawl, but I hope they'll get a hardcore match at Elimination Chamber. Cena is clearly starting to embrace the hate as he uses the steel steps on Kane and is clearly enjoying it. Kane retreats, giving Cena his first victory in this feud.
Finally we get Triple H coming out to do performance review on Johnny Ace. HHH really knows how to work a crowd, and he shows it off here. Laurinitis gets some amazing heat when he's apologizing. I could barely hear what he was saying. And... Triple H almost starts his own Kiss My Ass club.
And then, while Triple H is about to fire Laurinitis... The bell tolls for him. And Undertaker comes out. He walks out to the ring, getting the biggest cheers I've heard in a long time, and circles Triple H. They have a five minute staredown, then Triple H pats Undertaker on the shoulder and walks out. I think I can see the story now – Undertaker is going to have to goad Triple H into having a match at Wrestlemania.
Before the last 15 minutes I would have said this was a good episode, but the fact that Undertaker returned makes this excellent.
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