Nick’s 1/18 Raw Review: The Good, The Bad & The Wrestling

The opening segment was great. I know a lot of people aren’t big fans of The Undertaker cutting a promo longer than 10 seconds, but I think it worked very well in last night’s case. The less The Undertaker talks, the more you’re compelled to listen to him when he actually does have something to say. The audience has heard people like DX, John Cena, Stone Cold, The Rock, etc, all have their issues with Vince McMahon, but we’ve rarely heard from The Undertaker where Vince is concerned, so The Dead Man’s promo last night was a very interesting change of pace.

Additionally, I like how creative weaved The Undertaker/Shawn Michaels situation into the current Vince/Bret Hart angle. The two stories meshed well together in that opening segment, and I now anticipate both the arrival of Bret Hart on next week’s show and the furthering of the work between ‘Taker and HBK. WrestleMania is still 2 and a half months away, so the match between HBK and ‘Taker does NOT have to be set in stone anytime soon. I like that WWE continues to tease the match, as gives the viewers a stronger reason to tune into the show every week, to see whether or not "tonight will be the night that the bout becomes official."

Lastly, I liked the strong rub that both Legacy and Kofi Kingston received last night from John Cena. Logically, it made sense to book the tag match between Legacy and Cena/Kofi, but at the same time, it was just smart booking from a push stand point. Anytime Cena is involved in a segment or a match, it’s automatically high profile, so it was great to see those 4 guys mix it up last night as both Legacy and Kofi were in need of something meaty to work with.

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