WWE: Why Monday's Raw Was Better Than the Royal Rumble

The 2012 installment of the WWE Royal Rumble failed to live up to the expectations of many fans, including myself. The World Championship matches left a lot to be desired.

While the Steel Cage match for the World Heavyweight Championship was a fun opening match, a lot of it seemed awfully similar to the matches Daniel Bryan, Mark Henry and Big Show have been putting on on Smackdown.

The match that saw Dolph Ziggler challenge CM Punk for the WWE Championship was, no doubt, a superb match. In fact, many consider it to have been the match of the night.

However, John Laurinaitis' involvement took away from the match. I think that part of the problem was that he was so prominent in the build-up to the match but played such a minor role in the match itself.

The 30-man Royal Rumble, in my opinion, was the biggest disappointment of the night. Like the rest of the pay-per-view, much of it failed to click and it didn't deliver the kind of excitement that was expected.

The swerve of Sheamus winning was well placed, though. While I wanted Chris Jericho to win, having Sheamus win caught the majority of fans off guard.

Raw, on the other hand, turned out to be very much the opposite.

For one, we saw two excellent television matches in Dolph Ziggler vs. Randy Orton and Daniel Bryan vs. CM Punk. Kofi Kingston and The Miz also put on a good match. The wrestling on this show surely satisfied a lot of fans who felt as if they had been let down by the Royal Rumble.

Even more importantly, we saw the advancement of two major stories.

Chris Jericho, after he seemingly failed to deliver on his "end of the world as we know it" omen for the Royal Rumble, made the impact fans had been waiting for by attacking WWE Champion CM Punk. It didn't give away too much, but it certainly pleased those fans who had been frustrated with Jericho's return thus far.

Perhaps the biggest buzz about this week's edition of Raw was the return of The Undertaker.

The Phenom mimicked Triple H's proposition from last year by silently challenging Hunter to a rematch by looking towards the WrestleMania 28 sign. Surprisingly, the "Cerebral Assassin" walked away from 'Taker's challenge. Like Jericho attacking Punk, this segment provided the excitement needed for the Road to WrestleMania without giving too much away.

In essence, the Royal Rumble failed to deliver the momentum necessary to begin WrestleMania season. For a PPV that is regarded as the "beginning of the Road to WrestleMania," that is unacceptable.

On Raw, the WWE bounced back by jump-starting the momentum. The matches that took place on Raw showcased the exciting wrestling that is characteristic of this time of year. In addition, by planting the seeds for two high-profile matches for WrestleMania, Raw gave us fans all the excitement that the Royal Rumble did not.