They did a fair few bits to develop some storylines, no idea why they're doing it when the Rumble's around the corner. Maybe for after Mania but still wasn't too bad, not many matches or segments killed it.
I thought the return promos were brilliantly done and kept us guessing until the last minute, which is why I definitely tuned in today. However, the problem was that if you have already kept people on suspense for a particular date(Jan 2nd in this case) for 5-6 weeks, well then it is simply anti-climactic and bad booking to use yet another uneventful script for the day advertised. I don't have anything against Jericho turning heel, but he should have done it in a more definitive way. The crowd wasn't angry at being trolled, they were just dead -- so in that sense I think it was very ineffective.
Way too much focus on Kane/Cena and it's interesting to see what's next.
I don't think the problem is the focus, as much as them not doing anything with the time allocated. They need to further the feud, so they should actually be doing something with the time. I mean, a good old fashioned beat down would be the best thing, since that way you can at least have Cena cut a promo about their problems, but how is Cena supposed to be angry at Kane when all Kane does is weird stuff? Maybe annoyed, but hardly angry. The booking just needs to get better
Like last week, the premise between the promo and their attempt to get Kane to appropriate "Cena sucks" as a catch phrase was fucking BRILLIANT, but the delivery was awful. The crowd was really hot when Kane came out, and there were duelling chants between Cena supporters/haters, but Kane kept on going and going, it was unnecessarily verbose, a word salad and kind of pointless. By the time Kane actually got to the climax of the promo("Cena sucks"), the crowd was *completely* out of it and dead.
If the promo had been written better I think with that premise it could have been very powerful creatively, and would have done a lot and given the feud an interesting twist("rise above hate); the twist being that Kane is basically trying to allure Cena into being a heel(with Cena trying to stay face and "rise above the hate") just before his mega-match with Rocky -- that would be a fantastic 2 month feud before Cena heads to Mania. Basically you get a tease at the heel turn but still leave things open ended in a major way for Mania where something big can happen.
The pieces are definitely there and there is a lot of potential on the roster but I feel it is being mismanaged and wasted.
