Monday Night Raw – January 14, 2013: Raw’s 20th Birthday

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Date: January 14, 2013
Location: Compaq Center, Houston, Texas
Commentators: Michael Cole, John Bradshaw Layfield, Jerry Lawler

A mash up of all the Raw openings (complete with original images) open things up. Cool stuff.

We get a clip from Bob Barker on Raw.

Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett

Kane vs. Damien Sandow

Kane pulls him in to start and fires off the uppercuts. Side slam gets two but Kane goes up for the clothesline and Sandow bails to the floor. Damien sends him into the apron to take over and hits the Wind-Up Elbow for two but jumps into the chokeslam for the pin at 1:58. Ok then.

Divas Title: Eve Torres vs. Kaitlyn

Rating: D+. This was better than any of their other matches but at the end of the day I have no reason to care about either of these girls anymore. Word on the street is that Eve is gone after this so I guess this is the passing of the torch. Am I supposed to care more now because Kaitlyn wins after not being able to win the title after like four tries? At least they finally did the freaking switch.

Donald Trump bought Raw once.

Brodus Clay vs. CM Punk

We get a package on moments involving vehicles on Raw.

Sheamus vs. 3MB

Mike Tyson was on Raw in 1998. That was huge to put it mildly.

Cody Rhodes vs. Daniel Bryan

Cody pounds away a bit, JBL asks about caterpillars, Cole tells us facts that no one cares about, the NO Lock ends this in 75 seconds.

Dolph Ziggler vs. John Cena

A Downward Spiral into a Stunner gets two for Ziggler but Cena grabs a slingshot to send Dolph into the cage. Ziggler tries to climb but Cena rams him into the cage to take over as we go to a break. Back with both guys on top of the cage but Cena falling down to the ropes. Ziggler dropkicks Cena back into the ring for two to take over. Apparently during the break Cena was out but Langston blocked his feet from hitting the ground in an impressive power display.

Ziggler runs the ropes to hit a running DDT off the second rope for two more. These near falls are awesome. AJ freaks out and breaks the announce table before climbing the cage. The distraction lets Langston come in with the briefcase but Dolph clocks him with it by mistake. A very fast AA gives Cena the pin at 16:35.

Rating: B. Good match here but Cena beating Ziggler is old news at this point. To be fair though, this is a huge show and you should have Cena win on something this big. The guy is the most popular star in the company (well, regular star in the company), so having him featured and winning at a show this important is fine.

Results

Wade Barrett b. Randy Orton – Bull Hammer

Kane b. Damien Sandow – Chokeslam

Kaitlyn b. Eve Torres – Spear

CM Punk b. Brodus Clay – Anaconda Vice

3MB b. Sheamus – Slater eliminated Sheamus

Daniel Bryan b. Cody Rhodes – NO Lock

John Cena b. Dolph Ziggler – Attitude Adjustment

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