RAW Review- 19th January

Hello! Its another RAW Review, and its the last RAW before the Rumble- and it was Raw Reunion as well with the promise of all of your favourite stars from the past coming together for one big super show. Forget the fact it was the last RAW before the Rumble- what everyone wanted to see was a load of people who weren't going to be at the PPV! Right? RIGHT?!

Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, Authority, John Cena and The Kitchen Sink Promo
For once Brock's talking didn't reach excruciating levels of unbearable-ness. I liked Heyman trying his best to talk Brock down at every opportunity, because in my opinion Brock should have been booked as an Authority agent gone rogue after he won the Belt given he was "Plan C". Cena has another new T-Shirt, bringing his total to 42. Overall the segment was a good way to set up the Main Event and the permutations even though bringing so many elements into one talking segment means nobody can really get in an amazing level promo- even with the best talkers in the business such as Heyman.

Bray Wyatt v Daniel Bryan
This match technically went three segments, and was remarkably unremarkable considering some of the matches we've seen these two guys put together. The ad breaks harmed the match I suppose, and there was never really a great flow to the match- which can be put down to the Ad Breaks and Bryan's still relative ring rust. Its funny because it was around this time last year where Bryan and Wyatt put on a proper Match of the Year contender at the Rumble. Despite the interference being the reason Bray won, the fact he Pinned Bryan on his second match back- and first on RAW means Taker has given some sort of commitment to working with Bray at Mania.

KliDX Backstage Segment
This segment gave me the best idea ever, Miz eventually gets pissed with Mizdow outshining him and fires him- we then get a Couple of Months of Mizdow being an out of work stunt double coming out with a different guy each week.

Royal Rumble Panel
I hated this segment. All three guys can in one way or the other be considered a great talker- and I have no doubt these guys could have gotten the Rumble Match over had they just been told what to do and let them have free reign on the mic- actually with Flair that probably wouldn't be the best idea. Flair was also the reason why I assume Saxton was announcing, because if Eden or Renee were in there- there would be a sexual harassment case on their hands. Big Show coming out and knocking out Flair was strangely hilarious in my book- and of course Reigns was the hero, and I'm just hoping his limited involvement on RAW means he'll win the Rumble.

Dean Ambrose v Bad News Barrett
The Intercontinental Champion losing clean the week before a PPV, We're back in business. Ambrose has just come of a series of matches with Bray where he came off second best- and now he's beaten the IC Champion clean, how does that make BNB look?

Big E & Kofi v KiddSaro
This was nothing more than a token Black Win for Martin Luther King Day- call me cynical but thats a fact.

Just a reminder that this was at roughly 2 Hours in, and we had a grand total of three matches so far.

The "Lets Make Ascension look like Jokes" Segment
I Can see why some people liked this segment, it was a good pop and we saw some of the stars of the past. But as Punk said in "that" podcast- Who's going to be there tomorrow, with the exception the Outlaws- who's going to be there to put The Ascension over in a match- and I'm not even convinced the Outlaws will indeed be putting Ascension over the way they've been booked since coming up.

Paige and Natalya v Alicia Fox and Summer Rae
Nikki Bella coming on to JBL and JBL completely blanking her was unfortunately the highlight of this match.

Rusev v R-Truth
Its a Black guy on Martin Luther King Day, which also happens to be his birthday- and he gets killed in roughly 50 Seconds. Who said WWE was prejudiced against minorities?

Jey Uso v The Miz
This feud is almost as extended as the Wyatt v Ambrose feud- but instead of 20 Minute Stipulation matches we're getting 2 Minute throwaway ones.

John Cena v Rollins, Kane and Big Show
The match itself was pretty average, considering all of the pairings are ridiculously overused by this point there wasn't anything we haven't seen before.

The end of the match- and what followed almost made up for the near 3 Hours of blinding mediocrity. "Thats not Sting, Its a Picture of Sting" is possibly up there with the "Jannetty tried to Escape through the Window" in terms of completely stupid statements. I would have gone with Orton making the save, just because that was a waste of one of Sting's appearances in my opinion- because Orton could have easily fulfilled the same role.

I was expecting Cena to go back in the Ring after Lesnar had F5'd Show and Kane so he was standing tall going into the Rumble. I suppose the fact he didn't might be a double bluff with regard to the outcome of the Title match- but we'll wait and see.

Thanks as always for reading, this blog is a bit shorter than usual because of the lack of meaningful segments in the last RAW before the Rumble, So... Here's a White Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe:

• 150g salted butter, softened
• 80g light brown muscovado sugar
• 80g granulated sugar
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 225g plain flour
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 200g plain chocolate chips or chunks

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/170C fan/gas 5. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper.
2. Put the butter and sugars into a bowl and beat until creamy. Beat in the vanilla extract and egg. Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt over the mixture and mix in with a wooden spoon. Add the chocolate chips and stir well.
3. Using a teaspoon, place small mounds of the mixture well apart on the baking trays. Bake in the oven for 8–10 mins until light brown on the edges and still slightly soft in the centre.
4. Leave on the tray for a couple of minutes to firm up and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Have fun with the cookies, The Impact Reviews are going to be quite sketchy now, because they're on Friday (effectively Saturday) when Fulham are at Home I simply don't have the time to watch Impact until Monday/Tuesday when of course its RAW Review time. I hope you understand- and have a good week, and Stay Tuned for all of my blogs leading to the Rumble because there'll be a few.