The Doctor's Weekly WWE Raw Recap: The 138 Things We Learned, Loved and Hated

The go home Raw heading into Royal Rumble is in the books, and now all that stands between anyone and the second biggest day of the WWE year is Friday Night SmackDown.

The Cena/Kane and Punk/Laurinaitis/Ziggler feuds were given some nice progress while Ryder suffered a kayfabe broken back from a chokeslam which sent him crashing through the stage.

R-Truth defeated the Miz, meaning the self-proclaimed "must-see WWE Champion of all time" has to enter the Rumble at Number one, while we had yet another week with no Divas match on the card.

Brodus Clay got another easy win, this time over Heath Slater with William Regal filling in on commentary. Despite being flattened last week Regal actually put Clay over, I wonder where this is leading?

Chris Jericho finally broke his silence, declaring "The World as you know it will come to an end" at the Royal Rumble.

It was the first time since his return that he was met with a mixed reaction right from the get go, meaning his heel persona will probably start to show through a bit more in the coming weeks.

Tonight's Raw was hot and cold. There were moments I thought were really good and moments I thought were awful. Overall I would say this is an average show at best, and considering it was the go home Raw before the Rumble I was a bit let down.

Each week I recap Raw with a long list which is equal parts humor, recap, revelations, speculation, predictions and results. So please sit back and enjoy this week's list of the 138 things we learned, loved and hated from Monday Night Raw.

1. The show starts off with CM Punk coming to the ring.
2. Punk sits down in the middle of the ring.
3. He talks about his title match with Ziggler.
4. Punk mentions Ziggler's name and the crowd boos pretty hard.
5. Punk calls John Laurinaitis a failure as a wrestler and an executive.
6. Apparently these are facts on Wikipedia.
7. Punk says "It's pretty hard to ref a match with two broken arms."
8. He invites Johnny Ace to come face him
9. I wonder if JL really has a purse for his balls?
10. Punk says if JL won't come meet him then he will come looking for him
11. John Cena comes out. Kind of strange but I'll go with it.
12. Cena is not looking happy at all.
13. Cena says he is sick of hearing Punk ramble
14. Cena also has a bone to pick with JL for screwing Zack Ryder out of the US title.
15. He also wants a match with Kane tonight on top of facing him at the Rumble.
16. Wow, he also wants him to resign as the interim GM of Raw.
17. This could get interesting.
18. Funkhauser is in the house
19. He goes through his whole job title again with Punk going "Huh?" in the background.
20. He says he is not backing down from anything.
21. Ryder will get a match with Kane in a falls count anywhere match.
22. If Cena gets involved Ryder will never get a shot at the US title again
23. Punk and Cena will also be in a tag team match right now
24. Their opponents are Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger.
25. Punk's reaction when he heard Vickie's voice was priceless.

26. Ziggler's new shirt is a V-neck, how appropriate
27. Swagger is the only guy in the match not wearing his own shirt.
28. Punk is still wearing his shorts while he wrestles, bit of a call back to how he wrestled early on in the indys.
29. I wonder how many times Johnny Ace has been ticketed for texting while driving?
30. Ziggler does a little strut that kind of reminds me of Ric Flair.
31. If Ziggler keeps improving he could be the next Flair in terms of being a cocky heel who can back it up.
32. Does Vickie always wear stripper boots?
33. I just thought of something. Cena is one of the few people in the business who wears wrestling shoes instead of boots.
34. He should get a line of shoes from Nike for wrestlers, I think it would be the first wrestler endorsed shoe.
35. Swagger talks some trash to Cena after a swagger bomb, a lot more guys are talking trash in the ring, I like it.
36. Cena pulls an AA out of nowhere but he is too hurt to make the cover.
37. Punk and Ziggler both get the tag and they collide.
38. Punk puts him down with his high knee, bulldog combo.
39. Punk almost gets the win with a high kick.
40. Laurinaitis gets on the apron and yells at Punk which provides enough of a distraction for Ziggler to roll him up and pin him.
41. Punk wants Johnny Ace to be a WWE superstar for one night and face him tonight.
42. He accepts!
43. This should be hilarious, and not in a good way.
44. Jericho is shown backstage all hyped up and we learn we will get a Jericho highlight reel tonight.
45. Smart money says he still says nothing.
46. He gets a decent pop despite weeks of playing the crowds.
47. King reveals that Jericho will be in the Rumble.
48. Now I am hearing some more boos.
49. Jericho is trying to shush the crowd before he speaks.
50. He runs up the ramp saying "wait one second" then he returns with a shirt cannon.

51. He teases every side with it before putting it down and grabbing the camera and filming with it
52. I am starting to get bored with this crap.
53. He points to his TV and a countdown starts for five seconds before playing a video of some of Jericho's highlights.
54. He speaks!
55. He says Sunday at the Rumble it will be the end of the world as we know it.
56. His music hits and the lights go out as we see his light up jacket going into commercial.
57. Was it worth the wait?
58. That's a rhetorical question.
59. Truth will face Miz tonight. Sweet.
60. We get a nice Rumble video package.
61. Eve and Zack are talking to Mick Foley backstage.
62. Foley tries to give him some advice for dealing with Kane.
63. Cena walks up and Ryder tells him to stay out of the match so he can get a rematch.
64. I think Ryder may be a little salty towards Cena after getting him involved with Kane.
65. Ryder is all taped up because he has a "Back injury."
66. I really like that top mask Kane wears during his entrance, adds to his sadistic image a bit.
67. Kane gets an early advantage.
68. He is really working over Ryder's back.
69. This is like a glorified squash match for Kane.
70. Eve looks all hot and bothered over this.
71. A Ryder chant breaks out but it isn't enough to help.
72. Kane Chokeslams Ryder through the stage!
73. I guess that's the end of the match. Good spot.
74. Kane turns to Eve and follows her back down the ramp
75. Cena appears at the top of the ramp and Kane bails through the crowd.

76. Seems odd that he would run away from a fight with Cena.
77. Cole and King are silent as paramedics assist Ryder.
78. Nice segment to advance the feud with Kane and Cena and it opens up the possibility of Ryder and Cena not getting along later on.
79. Damn, those are some slow paramedics.
80. Eve blames Cena for Ryder getting hurt before she gets in the ambulance with him.
81. Josh Matthews is trying to talk to Cena about this but he just gets the mic slapped back in his face.
82. Cena stares at the camera, shaking. I guess he's pissed.
83. Embrace the hate Cena.
84. Either that or he really has to got to the bathroom.
85. After commercial Jinder Mahal and Sheamus are set to face off.
86. Is it bad that I really don't care who wins.
87. Barrett comes out to sit in on commentary.
88. Barrett says Orton will be returning on SmackDown.
89. I guess WWE decided not to use him as a surprise Rumble entrant.
90. Surprisingly, Barrett does not try a post match attack.
91. Ha, even Sheamus is surprised he is trying to walk away.
92. Barrett's shirt is weird.
93. Miz is backstage talking about his match.
94. I must say I am shocked to hear him mention John Morrison during his promo.
95. Truth walks up pretending to be a guy from Market Research named Eric Fleisher.
96. HAHA! Miz gets in his face and Truth starts yelling "My Name is Fleisher!"
97. Johnny Ace and Folger's Soldier break it up.
98. JL makes the stipulation that whoever loses is the number one entrant in the Rumble.
99. Truth is priceless.
100. I am starting to think that Pepsi logo on Punk's shoulder is subliminal advertising, I just saw a picture of him and then all of a sudden I had a pepsi in my hand and I don't remember going to the fridge.

101. Well played Pepsi, well played.
102. Awesome, Regal is on commentary.
103. They replay his dance off with Brodus from SmackDown.
104. YES! Here comes Clay.
105. I love this guy's entrance music.
106. Clay is wearing a snappy new white track suit and black hat.
107. I am a big fan of the dancers too.
108. Slater is laughing his butt off at ringside.
109. We get all the trademark trash talk during the match as Clay gets an easy win.
110. Who else wants Regal on commentary on Raw permanently?
111. I really hope JL wears his Dynamic Dudes attire to the ring tonight.
112. I love these new Cheetos commercials.
113. WWE's 2007 Rumble rewind featured about ten guys who are no longer with the company, several of whom are with TNA.
114. Just noticed they have the section of stage that collapsed taped off.
115. I like Truth's new "Little Jimmy Says" shirt.
116. Truth and Miz have a decent back and forth match with both men getting in plenty of offense.
117. Truth hits his finisher out of nowhere and Miz is now the number one entrant in the Rumble.
118. Lawler tells us Ryder has a broken back.
119. I wonder how long WWE is planning to write him off TV for? A broken back is not something he should be able to recover from quickly, even if it is kayfabe.
120. Johnny Ace is backstage in some ridiculous robe getting ready for the match.
121. Otunga walks in and hands him a fax, I wonder if it is something saying he can't compete for some reason.
122. Ugh, Ghost Rider was bad enough, why do we need a sequel?
123. WWE grants over 200 wishes a year for the Make a Wish Foundation, probably 100 by Cena alone.
124. It would be hilarious if Laurinaitis came out with the Road Warrior spikes on.
125. Someone made a pretty cool sign with Punk saying "It's Clobberin' Time."

126. Nice, he comes out wearing the "Future Endeavored" shirt.
127. Cole actually mentions some of Laurinaitis' old rivals like Stand Hansen and Dr. Death Steve Williams. Rest in peace Steve Williams.
128. Otunga reads the fax saying that the board is upset with JL's decision making lately.
129. He is now under review and will receive an evaluation next week to see if he gets to keep his job.
130. Triple H is the one conducting the review.
131. I guess he can't screw Punk now.
132. JL apologizes and says Foley is in the Rumble and that he would have called the title match down the middle anyways.
133. JL is backing out of the match, but Otunga will replace him.
134. Otunga jumps Punk and starts beating him up.
135. Punk comes back and slaps on the Anaconda Vice.
136. Punk delivers a GTS to Johnny Ace and Ziggler runs in and hits the Zig Zag from behind.
137. Ziggler is looking strong heading into the Rumble.
138. He stands over Punk as the show goes off the air.

Thanks for reading and please fell free to share your thoughts and additions to the list below. Also, check my profile on Sunday for live Royal Rumble coverage.