By Jason Powell

Enjoy the Dot Net Free Audio Week by listening to some of our normally member exclusive audio shows over the next few days. You can listen to my audio review of WWE Raw from earlier today in the Podcast Section. Check tomorrow morning's Dot Net Daily to find out which show will be available on Wednesday.

WWE Raw Hits

C.M. Punk and John Laurinaitis: Their verbal exchange at the top of the show was fun, and Laurinaitis is entertaining in small doses. I laughed out loud when he said Punk "doesn't want any of this." Throw in the way Laurinaitis cost Punk the gauntlet match later in the show and they're putting good heat on the interim Raw general manager. In fact, I was left wondering whether they are putting this much heat on Laurinaitis because they plan to have him wrestle Punk at the Royal Rumble. It would be the perfect place for that type of a match to happen, as the Rumble match sells the pay-per-view, so WWE officials can go outside the box with the title matches.

Big Show vs. David Otunga: Good use of Otunga. He's normally a channel changer, but putting him in there with Big Show and the one-armed gimmick was enough to hold my interest. In fact, I'm surprised they didn't drag this out a little longer and put a commercial break during the match. Mark Henry showing up to go after a one-armed Big Show was also a nice tough, but I question the idea of even using Henry right now given his groin injury. Why not give the guy some time off to recover and give the fans a short break from his character?

Alberto Del Rio and Ricardo Rodriguez: I also question why they felt the need to fly the wounded Del Rio in for this brief promo. Nevertheless, the entire hit goes to Ricardo for wearing the bow tie over his neck brace. Hey, sometimes it's the little things that crack me up.

C.M. Punk vs. Dolph Ziggler: I still can't take Jack Swagger seriously because he's been branded a jobber to the stars on Raw. However, I like the idea of opening up 2012 with what should be a hot match between Punk and Ziggler. I also got a kick out of the way Ziggler celebrated his win as if he had actually won the championship. It was funny enough that I'm not sure they succeeded in putting any heat on him, but the finish of the match was nicely executed with John Laurinaitis costing Punk the match yet maintaining some sense of plausible deniability in regards to screwing over Punk.

Overall show: I feared that the last two Raw shows of 2011 would resemble the campy Smackdown live holiday special. These shows haven't been the most newsworthy episodes, but they sure beat the alternative of campy Hornswoggle skits and other sports entertainment silliness.

WWE Raw Misses

Kane promo: I liked the verbiage that was used and the way it picks up where Roddy Piper left off in teasing that the fans booing are getting to John Cena. That end of things and anything that will make Cena play a more serious character are Hit worthy. However, I'm not big on the idea of the Kane character talking. His delivery was slow and painful, and I would rather have the masked version of the character be silent and mysterious. Whatever cool factor the masked Kane character had disappeared for this viewer, and I don't think I'm alone considering that the Chicago fans were busy chanting either "Let's Go Cena" or "C.M. Punk" as Kane talked. I couldn't help but think how great of a spot this would have been to introduce Jim Mitchell or a new mouthpiece character for Kane.

Booker T vs. Cody Rhodes: The presentation of Booker's return to the ring has been lousy. All it would have taken was a little nudge from WWE to make viewers view this as the return of a legend. Unfortunately, it already feels like he's just another wrestler. Worse yet, the match was very slow and did not leave me looking forward to their rubber match. Here's hoping WWE improves the presentation of Booker and the wrestlers themselves can draw people into the feud with some quality mic work.

R-Truth returns: Crickets. His attack on The Miz was intense, but the live crowd didn't seem to care. The segment felt very flat.

Zack Ryder and Eve: It's time for Ryder to go from being the lovable dork to a cooler character. WWE went against that last night by having Eve reject him when he got a little fresh after their mixed tag match. It's just a minor hit, but I do believe Ryder will have to be pushed differently in order for his character to be more than a flash in the pan.

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