By Jason Powell

Dot Net Members are listening to my 58-minute audio review of WWE Raw and recent interviews with Bobby Lashley and Shawn Daivari. Join us on the ad-free version of the website by signing up for membership via the Dot Net Members' Signup Page.

WWE Raw Hits

Kane returns: Okay, so I'm not sure what was up with the welding mask. I assume he wore that so that he could set up a grand unveiling of his new look. Regardless, it was a strong return. WWE teases us for weeks with videos, yet it still managed to feel like a surprise. It will be interesting to see whether he was coming for Mark Henry (the man who put him on the shelf) and John Cena just got in the way or if he's going to play a heel character. I vote for the latter, but creative may feel otherwise.

Triple H promo: What's the difference between the Holy Shit and Oh My God awards? Anyway, Hunter got the ball rolling on the build toward his WrestleMania 28 rematch with Undertaker. He told viewers that The Streak ended at WrestleMania 27 because Taker was carried out of the building and hasn't been seen since. He made his case for losing the battle while actually winning the war. Sure, it made his match with Kevin Nash feel like an afterthought, but didn't it fit that description already?

Dolph Ziggler vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Zack Ryder vs. Daniel Bryan: A rare stretch of good wrestling. It seemed like there was a chance that this match would close out the show because WWE's attempt to get one of the wrestler names trending took much longer than they must have anticipated. Ziggler and Ryder eventually trended, but I wonder if there were some nervous people backstage who were fretting over the possibility that they would have to outright lie or admit that none of the names trended. By the way, to everyone who helped make those names trend last night, thanks for killing the fun.

The Miz and Alberto Del Rio vs. C.M. Punk and Randy Orton: Good booking. They put heat on the heels without making Punk look bad. They also established that Punk could fall victim to the numbers game during the TLC Triple Threat match.

WWE Raw Misses

Overall show: Perhaps this level of campiness appeals to the masses, but the crowd's dead reaction to most of the segments seems to indicate that's not the case. I can tell you that the awards aspect of the show did nothing for this viewer. Getting roughly two minutes of wrestling during the first 90 minutes of the show was painful. I'm not an advocate of all wrestling all the time like people within the industry like to suggest online writers are, but this was ridiculous. Give me 88 minutes of quality material and two minutes of wrestling and I won't complain, but instead we were treated primarily to a bunch of idiotic awards and a match that was joined in progress. They managed to sneak in some hype for TLC, but after sitting through this show, the idea of paying to watch WWE programming was stomach turning. Please remind me to take the night off when WWE brings back this wretched concept again next year.

C.M. Punk and the John Laurinaitis video: I got a kick out of the video and the campy song they used. By the way, Dot Net reader Glenn Andreas points out that the song is Stan Bush's "The Touch" from "Transformers: The Movie." The problem was that while I'm sure this got a lot of laughs backstage, the live crowd's reaction indicates that it sailed over the heads of casual viewers. As fun as it is to pick on the Dynamic Dudes gimmick, Punk and creative would be wise to make the Laurinaitis focus be on the middle management suck ass description that Punk laid out so well during the recent promo with the great "Office Space" reference.

Big Show vs. Wade Barrett: Big Show looked good going into TLC, but why did it have to come at Barrett's expense? Anyone could have played the part he did. It's hard enough to take him seriously with all of the "Barrett Barrage" talk, and this did not help matters. His brief attack on Randy Orton during the tag match set up the finish nicely, but it wasn't enough to undo the damage of watching Big Show toss him around like a rag doll during this brief match.

Tony Atlas: I loved the laughing bit when he did it during The Abraham Washington Show. Apparently, WWE creative either forgot that people stopped watching NXT. Actually, they were probably more concerned with making themselves laugh, which seemed to be a common theme last night. The laughing gimmick not only didn't get over with the crowd, but it produced catcalls and felt like it was never going to end.

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