By Mark Gessner

- Alex Riley was the best he's been on Raw in a long time on the mic tonight. The video package showing the damage Miz has done against John Cena over the past few months was excellent, but you come to expect that from their top of the line production team. Cena did well in explaining why he chose an "I Quit" match for their WWE Championship match this Sunday at Over the Limit. With the exception of Cena saying the stupid line of "I'm the Miz and I have testicles" while listing things Miz would never say, it was a decent opening segment all around.

- C.M. Punk beat the United States Champion clean, he must be staying with WWE and signed a new deal. Hopefully, you can detect sarcasm. Really good TV match between Punk and Kofi that made me interested in seeing what they could do with more time on a pay-per-view, like for example the one that's coming up in six days and had two announced matches going into tonight's Raw. However, beating the U.S. Champion apparently gets you a WWE Tag Team Championship match. Punk's promo putting over the New Nexus after the match feels a few months too late but maybe WWE can somehow recapture the heat that the faction used to generate.

- The Kelly Kelly and Kharma interaction has been intriguing since Kharma's Raw debut. Every week Kharma beats down a Diva or two but Kelly escapes her wrath. I have a strong feeling that the pay off to this will be Kharma saving her biggest beat down to date for Kelly but we'll have to see how it plays out going forward.

- On another Diva note, if there was only Brie Bella or only Nicki Bella, and they we're not identical twins, would they still be employed? They're both lackluster in the ring and charismatically challenged. I welcome any argument from anyone as to why either of them would have a job with the WWE if they were not twins.

- I took Spanish throughout grade school, high school, and have worked in restaurants and bars for nearly a decade where the majority of the kitchen staffs have been Hispanic. I have a general grasp on what wrestlers such as Rey Mysterio and Alberto Del Rio are saying when they do their promos in English but end their sentence en Español.

If you have never taken the language in school or are not Hispanic and don't know the language, does it intrigue you or annoy you when wrestlers do their promos in half English and half Spanish? And even if you are Hispanic or understand the language, does that make you more interested in the wrestler? Plus, there are different slang terms in Spanish based on the country you are from so it could not even register with those who speak the language. It has just always been a pet peeve of mine with Hispanic wrestlers and their promos.

- Mysterio vs. Del Rio was another really good TV match. Del Rio getting disqualified for Ricardo Rodriguez taking the 619 was a weak finish, but aside from that it was a good match that helped to get over Del Rio's offense with the Raw viewers who don't watch Smackdown (which based on their ratings recently, is over one-third of the viewing audience).

- R-Truth seems to be on a pattern of on-week, off-week, on-week, off-week, etc. since turning heel. He turns on Morrison with the "smoking attack," and then bombed on the mic the following week. He attacked Morrison from behind and delivered a solid wrestling beat down, and then the following week was talking about hospital food in a "what the hell" kind of moment. His post match beat down of Rey was good and it will be interesting to see how their match goes at Over the Limit.

- Please let Sunday be the last of the Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler feud. Let Lawler go over clean. Have Cole reveal the next night on Raw he's the Anonymous GM and have Jim Ross take his rightful spot as the play-by-play announcer for WWE's flagship show, Raw. Hell, at this point, I'll take Josh Matthews as the lead play-by-play announcer. Just get Cole and King away from each other after their match this Sunday.

- Say what you want about their work rate, but I like WWE putting the Tag Team Championships on Kane and Big Show. They give off the aura of being dominant big men, but will still put over younger talent and make them look good in the process. Kane along with J.R. on commentary made Mason Ryan look the best he has in his short WWE career two weeks ago.

Most wrestlers approaching two decades in the business attempt to cling to their spot and you'll have to kill them to take it. Cite TNA or Impact Wrestling or whatever their current company name is that even employees of the company are unaware of, for example. As a bonus for DotNet Members (it's only $5.50 to join a month if you sign up for the yearly membership, sign up here), check out this hilarious thread in the DotNet Forums.

- Curious choice by WWE to have Jack Swagger as Cena's mystery opponent in the main event. Half a hour before the match, Swagger showed signs of a face turn by walking away from Cole during the contract signing after Cole. Looked like they were setting up Swagger to destroy Cole at the PPV but with him being the person that Miz selected to face Cena, maybe that won't happen and Swagger has been removed from that storyline completely.

- Cena did a good job in making Swagger look as good as he could look in a loss. Swagger got in a lot of offense and was made out to be a serious threat versus the WWE Champion. If Cena were to walkaway from Over the Limit still as champion, a program with Swagger could be very entertaining and something I'd want to see.

- Following the Zack Ryder and John Cena backstage interaction, I joked on Twitter that Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins would debut on Raw as the "Major Broskis" following their reunion on Superstars this past week and destroy Cena. Dare to dream. Zack Ryder can draw money and Curt Hawkins shows promise as well. WWE's tag team division is weak at this point and hopefully the two reuniting will lead to them getting a strong run on TV as a tag team. Again, dare to dream.

- I absolutely loved Miz's promo following the match talking about ways he could make Cena quit. I do not understand though why it was necessary for Cena to get the upper hand on both Miz and Riley and take them both out with the pipe. If Cena is going over, which is nearly a guarantee because Cena does not quit and always "overcomes the odds," why not make the challenger look dominant going into the PPV? If this is the typical wrestling foreshadowing of the loser at the PPV looks good on the TV show leading up to it, I will gladly accept that. I don't see that happening, but hopefully it will.

Thanks again very much for clicking the link that brought you to my "Mark Out Moments" for Raw. If you have any thoughts, questions, comments, or critiques, feel free to email me at kliq4life28@gmail.com or tweet me at @MarkGessner. I will be back tomorrow for the second ever, "Gessner's Ground and Pound" with a look at this past weeks news in MMA.

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