Last night's Raw - we missed the last half-hour or so of it (say from just before the John Cena promo onward), but I caught up on it online - was easily the weakest Raw of the New Year, much more reminiscent of the directionless nonsense that ended 2009. With a 20 minute send-up of the Jerry Springer show in honour of Raw's guest host, that ended up being exposed as a farce and therefore not only was it a lousy 20 mins. but it served no purpose, a clumsily-executed injury angle on Bret Hart, a match that could only hurt one of Kofi Kingston or Ted Dibiase since both needed some momentum coming up, it was a strange night, and not a turn for the better, right down to the minimal hype for the Elimination Chamber PPV, whose undercard, 5 days away from the event, remains incomplete to say the least. The few things I can compliment are:
- The testing the waters on a Randy Orton 'turn'. It would surprise me to see him turn, as he is so inherently unlikeable, but that seems to be where they're trying to go; his tension with the Legacy either way is excellent and I enjoy the teasing out of this story.
- Batista's satellite promo with John Cena; he plays an excellent, scary monster heel, and the recent failures in that category - Kane, Snitsky, Heidenreich, Mike Knox - should take note. Batista and Sheamus are excellent examples of how this role should be played.
- Antonio Inoki's Hall of Fame induction - a Japanese legend who truly deserves to be honoured amongst the sport's greats; vastly underappreciated outside of his native Japan, this man is a hero in his own country and it would be an understatement to call him the Hulk Hogan of puroreso. Congratulations Inoki.
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