Posted in: Mr. Tito
TITO RISING - RAW Review & Grade - Kane Returns, Slammy Awards, TLC Hype, and more
By Mr. Tito
Dec 13, 2011 - 12:25:01 AM

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The "Excellence in Column Writing" is upon us, as yours truly, Mr. Tito, is back to deliver more Monday Night PUNISHMENT! You have to wonder how many times that I've actually produced columns reviewing Monday Night RAW. Let's see here... About 50 times per year from 1998 to 2006, and then reviewing RAW recently with Blog is Tito and the recent Tito Rising columns... Holy cow!

Yeah, I've put on the Tito mask many times in my life for you, the lovely LordsofPain.net audience. Much like Kane has returned to his masked character tonight. Yeah, it was a nice run without the mask from 2003 through earlier this year (I think on that timeline?), but Kane looked like such a badass with the mask and long hair.

Good to see him reprising the old look, as we're going on 14 years of Kane's character... Seriously, poor Glen Jacobs has busted his ass for the WWE and has been a consistent performer for the McMahons to enjoy. Still, I'd argue that the potential has always been there for Kane to be bigger. Point being, where else will you find a guy close to 7 foot tall who is that agile as a wrestler?

The Katie Vick stuff and then the unmasking by Triple H was terrible stuff that completely weakened the character through 2003 and then the Undertaker demolishing Kane at Wrestlemania 20 didn't help matters. It was nice to see Kane get a recent World Title run, but I wonder if the WWE missed the boat on pushing Kane harder when he was in his 30's rather than now in his 40's.

BUT - Good to see Kane back, with the long hair to boot. I was wondering why he had a welder's mask on, but he took it off and it was all good... Actually, I initially thought we were getting swerved with the way his hair looked when he talked into the ring, thinking it could have been the Undertaker. Stupid me, Undertaker is covered in tattoos.

Will Kane go back to the Smackdown roster or will he become a RAW wrestler? Furthermore, John Cena vs. Kane feud in the works? It's not like we've really seen that match-up before...

In my opinion, the WWE is WASTING Triple H. For one, I personally like Kevin Nash. Yeah, I've banged on him in my columns/blogs from time to time, but you'll never hear me argue that he can't be effective in the right spots. For whatever reason, Triple H sees major money in his feud with the 50+ Kevin Nash. With due respect to Nash, today's WWE fans don't care for him. 2003's fans were not that into the Triple H vs. Nash feud, and that was 7 years ago.

Triple H is SUCH a talented in-ring performer, and I don't think even he knows it. Why is he messing around with an old friend when he could mix it up with John Cena, Miz, Alberto Del Rio, CM Punk, Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, Wade Barrett, Sheamus, Daniel Bryan, and many many more. The WWE roster is LOADED right now. Why doesn't Triple H want to have good to great matches with those guys?

Instead, he'll ignore a rematch with CM Punk (yeah, I said it), and he'll keep wrestling his old friend in Kevin Nash. Triple H isn't getting any younger and it's an utter shame to see him wasting that great in-ring talent. WWE could use a strong performer to push this loaded roster to great matches, along with mixing it up with veterans to show everybody how it's done (Wrestlemania 27 versus the Undertaker was GREAT!).

I don't get it... I don't get why Triple H has all of the talent in the world and chooses to waste valuable Pay Per View opportunities with a 50+ wrestler that today's WWE fans don't care for.

As I was watching the Cody Rhodes vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Zack Ryder match, I Tweeted that I thought that we were witnessing the future of the WWE and that I hoped that their 9:15 to 9:30 quarter hour did well in the ratings. I've been pretty high on Dolph Ziggler and Cody Rhodes for a while... With Ziggler, I see Barry Windham and that's a compliment. Wrestling comes easy to Ziggler. With Rhodes, I see a guy who "gets it" about pro wrestling and seems to be a great in-ring performer.

How is it that Dusty Rhodes was able to produce 2 great wrestlers in his son Dustin Rhodes (Goldust) and now Cody Rhodes? Completely remarkable...

Overall, I liked the Slammy Awards theme of the show, but mostly because the WWE aired clips of the past year's activity. WWE doesn't do enough, in my opinion, to acknowledge its history, even just a few months ago. I laughed when the WWE tried to sweep Wrestlemania 17 under the rug when they were hyping Wrestlemania 27's Triple H vs. Undertaker match-up. Huh? They put on a 5-star classic 10 years earlier and you have absolutely no reason to use that for hype?

Hopefully with Dolph Ziggler's attack on Zack Ryder for the "#trending" award, I would give the WWE Creative Team props for letting Ziggler carry around Ryder's award to taunt him. That, and it's a throwback to the 2-time Slammy Award winning Owen Hart, who proudly carried his Slammy Awards with him and proudly displayed the awards on his tights.

And finally... Although it wasn't the main event (many were criticizing the WWE for this match's placement but they didn't realize Kane's return was in store for the Cena/Henry main event), I liked the psychology of the Randy Orton/CM Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio/Miz match. It hyped the TLC Pay Per View quite well, as Barrett attacked Orton during the match and Del Rio/Miz began to team up to inflict pain on CM Punk.

At TLC, the WWE would be wise to have a massive heel beatdown on CM Punk between Del Rio and Miz... Then, when the timing is right, Miz or Del Rio gets accidentally hit by the other and then the match becomes a free-for-all. Simple, simple formula... However, I wouldn't mind if Miz and Del Rio did more work together... YES, I'm arguing for a HEEL stable again!

LAST WORD: I enjoyed the show, overall... It was a LONG show, but I liked the pacing of the 9-11 hours of the 3 hour show was quite good. I enjoyed the matches and I thought that the WWE hyped the TLC Pay Per View well. Can't complain... B+.

JUST CHILL... TILL THE NEXT EPISODE!

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