WWE Raw: HBK Returns, Undertaker Cuts His Wig, Ryder Taken out Again and More

Monday Night Raw opened up with Kane vowing that someone was going to leave in an ambulance by the end of the show.

As soon as he said that, I knew that it would be Zack Ryder.

In the ring, all six competitors from the Elimination Chamber match are behind podiums. The WWE Universe was going to be treated to a debate.

Jerry Lawler asked each superstar why they were going to win with each wrestler giving a different answer.

They varied from Punk saying because he was the best in the world, Ziggler saying he was better than everyone and R-Truth because of spider stew.

Kofi Kingston went into how he was no longer going to be overlooked and Miz basically said the same thing he’s been saying for the past year.

Chris Jericho went into CM Punk but Punk wasn’t listening and made a joke about Jericho finishing seventh on Dancing with the Stars.

The segment ended when Kingston hit Trouble in Paradise on Jericho.

With the exception of R-Truth being hilarious and Punk and Jericho interacting, this segment kind of bored me.

Chris Jericho vs. Kofi Kingston

Chris Jericho picked up the victory with the Codebreaker. I thought this was a good match that saw some nice back-and-forth action and kept a good pace throughout.

Jericho has still got it in the ring. It was hard to tell last week with five other men in the ring, but one-on-one with Kingston really showed that he could still go.

Kingston looked great in the ring and performed very well. I feel Evan Bourne was holding him back in the Air Boom tag team.

I’m kind of glad he was suspended again.

Kingston really has been overlooked for too long and he showed that can perform great in the ring with a main-event star like Jericho.

While I doubt Kingston will ever be WWE champion, he can at least make a great challenger for it.

Backstage, Shawn Michaels bumped into Triple H and they hugged. I just hope this won’t turn into another corny D-Generation X reunion.

Elsewhere, John Cena is with Zack Ryder. Cena doesn’t like it that he’s there, but Ryder can’t stay away from Eve.

Cena told him to stay there and he’d bring Eve to him.

Yeah, because staying backstage worked so well at the Royal Rumble.

Staying backstage, John Laurinaitis is glad to be back. David Otunga had some good news and some bad news.

The good news was that he still had his job. The bad news was that it still wasn’t permanent.

He had an idea that would get Laurinaitis the job of general manager of both Raw and SmackDown, but the plan isn’t revealed.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I would not want to see Mr. Excitement in charge of both shows.

Randy Orton vs. Big Show

Randy Orton won the match by disqualification when Daniel Bryan hit him with his title belt. He then knocked out the Big Show with the title.

This was a decent match that was the basic one-on-one match featuring the Big Show.

I really liked the DDT Orton did; it was quite cool to see.

Both performed well and it made for a watchable match. I found Michael Cole’s commentary very interesting.

After burying Bryan for months, he was all of a sudden putting him over like he was the best in the world. Then after he knocked both Orton and Big Show out, he started to bury him again.

Michael Cole really just needs to go away.

Shawn Michaels then made his way out to the ring. You can’t have WrestleMania without Mr. WrestleMania but he was there to call out Triple H so he can accept the Undertaker’s challenge.

That brought out Triple H and he said that he wouldn’t face the Deadman. He would have to destroy him to beat him and he wasn’t going to do that.

Michaels called him a sellout and a coward, but Triple H still wouldn’t accept the match.

They and the Undertaker were the end of an era and the Deadman was the last one left. He wasn’t going to take out the Undertaker because he meant money.

The Game looked Michaels in the eyes and once again denied the challenge.

Shawn Michaels walked out and another Undertaker video started to play.

It was in the same place as before and it featured the same footage, but it had Triple H’s speech from last week inserted.

Undertaker declared once again that it wasn’t over and that vengeance would be his. This time, though, he started to cut his hair.

Overall, I really enjoyed this segment; it was quite good Triple H didn’t bore the hell out of me like he did last week and Shawn Michaels delivered a great promo, especially towards the end.

The Undertaker video was good as well, especially the end when he started to cut his hair.

I guess that’s how they’re going to explain his lack of hair.

It makes me wonder, though; is this a signal that the American Bad Ass is returning?

Dolph Ziggler vs. R-Truth

R-Truth picked up the win with the rollup of doom after Dolph Ziggler decided to do a bit too much showboating.

I was really looking forward to this match because I figured that it was going to be quite good. Instead, WWE cut it short and ended it with a rollup.

I do like how it ended, though. Ziggler has been “showing off” too much lately and maybe with this loss; he’ll stop doing it so much.

Ziggler is a great talent but this showoff gimmick is getting out of hand.

As for R-Truth, I’m still loving the crazy character but I think it’s only a matter of time before he’s teaming up with Santino Marella.

Speaking of Santino Marella, he’s backstage with Zack Ryder. He was going to give Ryder some tips on love and Valentine’s Day when he gave him a garlic breath strip.

Did this segment really need to happen?

Tamina Snuka vs. Brie Bella

Tamina got the win when she hit the Superfly Splash. This was your typical Diva’s match that saw the No. 1 contender squash the unimportant wrestler.

I’m liking the Tamina/Beth Phoenix storyline here, it’s just too bad that it’s only going to last until Sunday.

A video of the Rock is then shown. I took this opportunity for a bathroom break.

I returned just in time to see John Cena save Eve from Kane. Eve was so happy that he saved her that they made out a bit.

Turns out, though, that they did it front of Zack Ryder.

Quite the interesting development in the Cena/Kane feud.

I got a feeling that this is the beginning of the end to Ryder’s push, though.

Remaining backstage, Ryder is rolling away when Eve stopped him and explained herself. It was just the heat of the moment, but she only saw Ryder as a friend anyway.

Oh no, the dreaded friend zone. WWE Raw is literally a soap opera now!

CM Punk vs. The Miz

CM Punk picked up the win when Miz tapped out to the Anaconda Vise. This was a decent match but I expected better.

I was hoping that this would be a great match since both wrestlers are very talented in the ring but unfortunately, John Cena is more important than the main event and the WWE champion.

John Cena then made his way out to end the show.

He apologized to Ryder and declared that Kane had a great plan, but that it didn’t work on him.

He’s comfortable with who he is and he won’t embrace the hate.

That brought out Zack Ryder. He managed to make it to the ring where he slapped Cena across the face. He yelled at him and Cena pretty much knocked him to the ground.

Ryder left as Kane appeared on the Titantron. Cena was still in denial, but he has, in fact, embraced the hate.

Kane thrived on hate, though, and that will lead to victory at the PPV.

Kane then appeared on stage and tossed Ryder off of it.

More very interesting developments.

Cena was quite good on the mic here and I loved how Ryder smacked him in the face.

It really adds to the “I got you to screw over your friend” aspect of the feud.

Hopefully, Ryder can come back strong, though, after being buried in this storyline.

Eve just needs to go away. She really drags down everything she’s involved with.

I’m very much looking forward to the ambulance match; it should be quite intense!

Overall, I really don’t know what to think about this episode of Monday Night Raw.

I found it very strange at times with the show going up and down in terms of quality throughout the night.

It wasn’t a bad show nor was it a great show. At the end of the day, I suppose this was an overall good show.

The good segments really overshadowed the lackluster ones.

I’m looking forward to the Elimination Chamber this Sunday; let’s hope SmackDown can pull out something good two days before the event!