WWE Monday Night Raw 1/30/2012 - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

That said...the match itself was the absolute, big, throbbing, veiny swinging dick. It was a match-up designed to make internet wrestling writers absolutely sopping and as the wet spot on my couch can attest, it totally worked. Both wrestlers know how to work, and more importantly, how to work with one another, and used the match to showcase a styles and pacing that you don't often see in WWE these days, with Bryan in particular using a variety of slow, well-placed submissions, even making sure to work over Punk's perpetually kind-of-injured elbow.

Best of all, if you managed to tune out Cole and Lawler's rambling, you were treated to an actual story within the match itself, as Punk attempted to shore up his claim to being "The Best in the World," with Bryan meeting the challenge at every turn, a sly nod to Bryan's days in ROH, when he used to claim to be "The Best in the World." Great, great stuff.

I still think that Jericho's return and bizarre meta-heel gimmick were absolutely brilliant, and he's still my favorite wrestler ever, and I still think that he's in incredible shape and I can't wait to see what he does next. I even dig that he came out, gave Bryan the cheap win and nailed Punk with the Codebreaker. The problem is that it all came too soon.

Jericho's concerted campaign to convince the crowd to see him as a villain was working, even though the large majority of fans wanted nothing more than to cheer his name. But it was working because each week Jericho went a little further, goading the audience and punishing them for their expectations of what should happen on a wrestling show. The heelturn wasn't complete yet though, as evidenced by the crowd reaction during the Royal Rumble, where they cheered Jericho just as loudly as they did Sheamus. I'm confident that Jericho will get his heat eventually (if that's what he wants...), but it's a shame that WWE didn't hold off just a little longer to make his attack on Punk really sting.

If you had asked me yesterday afternoon whether I'd like to watch a Kofi vs. Miz match, I'd probably have said, "What? Who are you?" followed with, "How drunk are we going to get first?" before finally concluding, "Yeah, if Storage Wars isn't on, sure." So, imagine my surprise when the two's match was actually a well-wrestled, exciting affair.

No, it wasn't an instant classic, no one will look back at it as a clinic in technical wrestling and I still have no idea what Kofi's Riddler-inspired tights are all about, but it was good match from a couple of guys who are clearly learning and improving their craft. The match did exactly what it was supposed to do, legitimizing Kofi and seeding a possible sneaky upset from Miz during the build-up to the Raw Elimination Chamber Match next month.

I love a good technical wrestling match - I could watch dudes twist one another's wrists around in different directions for hours on end if my lady didn't have episodes of Real Housewives of Wherever-the-Shit she needed to get through. But even I recognize the tremendous appeal of big muscley dudes beating the hell out of one another.

This week, that particular joy was brought to us by John Cena and Kane, who one night prior put on a match at Royal Rumble that I was absolutely, totally fine with, albeit a little disappointed by the double count-out finish and wacky Zack Ryder stuff at the end. But that's what made their Raw confrontation so great - there was no Zack Ryder. I like Ryder, and I think that there's definitely a way for WWE to make money off him, but acting as Cena's damsel-in-distress isn't it, especially since it keeps us away from what we really want to see: Cena clobbering a fire-controlling libertarian with a set of steel steps.