WWE RAW 7th January 2013 - The Rock Returns LIVE Discussion

[Crippler]

"Your arms are too short to box with GOD" WHAT? give this man a award.

 

[Andrew]

Boom. ROCK BOTTOM.

 

[chefboyardee]

holy shit that was hot.

 

[Crippler]

Well i know who won round one.

 

[John McHenry]

Meh kinda floundered for me at the end never really got the momentum again after the commercial break. Can't believe the lack of hype for the Anniversary show.

 

[Andrew]

So what exactly are we supposed to be "buzzing" or "Talking about"... The fact Rock delivered a Rock Bottom?

 

[Chris Dresdon]

Always love seeing The Rock and hearing from him but Punk won that war of words by a landslide. Rock had some good lines per usual, but Punk was firing on all cylinders since he picked up the microphone tonight. That's just my opinion though.

 

[John McHenry]

You know it is RUSSO like but that would be a damn good SWERVE! if you think about it.

It's the type of swerve we haven't really seen in awhile or somehow have a McMahon (not vince) attached to it.

 

[Troy]

Punk was on fire tonight, fantastic promo from him to start the year. Rock was never going to be able to follow that up. Good to see them have Rock hit the Rock Bottom though to get revenge for what happened last year.

 

[PHX]

So what exactly are we supposed to be "buzzing" or "Talking about"... The fact Rock delivered a Rock Bottom?

Really wish people would stop taking reports that say stuff like that to heart so much. Just sets you up to be let down.

But anyways could have done without most of Rock's comedy during that and thought Punk did much better.

 

[Big Red Jericho Punk]

I’m not going to go on about the usual thing about how CM Punk shut up the haters once again. That was the best ending in a long time and it was one of the best promos in the past ten years. CM Punk continues to deliver, that was brilliant every part of it. Hopefully nobody is going to complain because there is absolutely nothing to complain about that ending. The Rock was pretty lackluster but his presence and a few lines were pretty good. I’m used to the cheesy catch phrases by now, I’m sure he’ll step up his game coming up. Overall though CM Punk is the best thing going in wrestling right now and thats the biggest fact today in wrestling.

 

[Troy]

So what exactly are we supposed to be "buzzing" or "Talking about"... The fact Rock delivered a Rock Bottom?

That was the dirtsheets talking about that and pretty sure that everyone denounced them as stating the obvious again. They assumed that since it was the first show of the year on the Road to WM that they would up their game. Pretty sure that next week will be a bit bigger though because it is a milestone show.

 

[Brock Lesnar]

I'm starting to think Michael Cole actually thinks Randy Orton's finisher is called "Out Of Nowhere The RKO". FOR FUCK'S SAKE MICHAEL COLE THE RKO IS NOT "OUTTA NOWHERE" WHEN HE SIGNALS IT FIRST

 

[Dale]

I'm starting to think Michael Cole actually thinks Randy Orton's finisher is called "Out Of Nowhere The RKO". FOR FUCK'S SAKE MICHAEL COLE THE RKO IS NOT "OUTTA NOWHERE" WHEN HE SIGNALS IT FIRST

Fucking amen, I thought the exact same thing as it happened last night.

Okay, now onto the important part of the show and that was the finale, the "pipebomb" and Rock's return.

I don't care what anyone says nor thinks of my opinion but Punk's whole "pipebomb" promo leading up to the commercial break was so unbelievably average and meaningless i'm surprised at how much people were jizzing in their pants over it. It was just a whole load of random ranting yet again that served absolutely no purpose at all. Just stunk of trying to do something to make himself stand out on a night where people were going to be talking about The Rock being back.

Now, his post commercial break stuff was miles better than pre commercial break because he actually got onto the subject of The Rock and not letting him tear down everything he had attained just like he did with everyone else he beat. When Rock came out I really liked the way he got straight into it saying that in 20 days he was taking the title and then Punk not being able to live up to his promises of change and a revolution. Both guys serious faces helped the intensity of the promo aswell, not like during Rock/Cena when Cena was stood there with a goofy ass grin all the time. Obviously there were the insults but I did think The Rock did a good job of putting over Punk's title reign, him being dangerous and also the power of his GTS. Credit to Punk aswell for the way he spoke about The Rock returning and his movie schedule because one of my big worries about coming into this feud was that I thought it was going to be the same shit Cena said all them months about never being there, making bad movies etc. Like I say though, credit to Punk because he kind of delivered it in a different way where it was positive but still reiterated that he would kick ass no matter how often he would be there. If I wanted to be picky, one area they could have gone further into is when Punk responded to The Rock saying he mattered because they could have had Rock go on about Punk being second fiddle to Cena still.

Anyways, the actual confrontation between the two was very good, maybe not great but a very good opening exchange that wet my appetite for what's to come.

 

[Gimmick]

I forgot about the whole statement on how we'd be left 'talking' after Raw went off the air so I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. An awesome way to end the show.

Punk was pure gold on the mic last night. I loved the way he went through everything he's accomplished since winning the WWE title in 2011, and also we his attitude started to change. I never found the whole 'respect' thing to be enough as to why turn into such a bad guy, so I thought it was great that he added more layers onto his change in character. His comments towards The Rock were also extremely entertaining to watch.

I also thought The Rock was very good when he came out. He got a good balance between serious and comedic (even though I wasn't a fan of the 'cookie puss' chant) and did a great job of hyping up the match at Royal Rumble. After just one night this match has a great big match feel to it.

I didn't think it was a great Raw. The TLC match was pretty poor and the opening match between Cena and Ziggler was hurt due to Ziggler getting downed after yet another John Cena comeback, but the ending promo more than made up for everything.