Powell's Blog: The Rock and The Shield, C.M. Punk and Ryback, Aces & 8's unmasking, Bobby Roode and Austin Aries, Brooke Hogan and Bully Ray could make a super baby

By Jason Powell

-Finally getting over the cold and flu that left me delusional and angry late last week. Now I'm just angry and less delusional as a result of a second string quarterback who hasn't quite mastered the art of the forward pass. The Vikings wanted to use Joe Webb at wide receiver, but they determined he couldn't catch. Think about that for a moment. How bad must he have been to make them think he was worse at catching the ball than he is at throwing it? Okay, so the Vikings went from 3-13 to 10-6 and shocked this diehard fan by making the playoffs. It was a good season and thankfully NHL finally got its act together in just enough time for me to switch from wearing Vikings shirts to Wild shirts. No clothes shopping! My girlfriend is not pleased. Let's get to the wrestling.

-TNA got the new year off to a ho-hum start with the first live television show of 2013. The Mike Knox reveal wasn't all that shocking to online fans, though perhaps a former WWE undercard wrestler being unmasked packed more of a punch for casual viewers. Well, probably not. At any rate, I always liked Knox and I'm happy to see him and Luke Gallows find new life in TNA despite the fact that Aces & 8's still feels like its dragging along and isn't really going anywhere.

-I'm much more excited about tonight's WWE Raw show. The return of The Rock and a C.M. Punk vs. Ryback TLC match for the WWE Championship. This looks like a hell of a way to kick off the new year for WWE. As I mentioned this morning, it feels like WrestleMania season begins tonight. Furthermore, it should lead into yet another hot show, as Raw will celebrate its 20th Anniversary next week.

-What will they do with The Rock? Will it be revealed that The Shield has been working for him? Rock might enjoy the challenge of turning the WWE fans against him and getting them to cheer John Cena at the same time. It would be a shocking move, though it could leave The Shield in an awkward place once Rock goes back to propping up tired Vin Diesel and Paul Walker car flicks. Yes, I'm still pissed that Luke Hobbs did the job in Fast Five. Doing the job to Riddick in Pitch Black would have been just fine (but not in the awful sequel), but why was the cool Hobbs character neutered by mush mouth Dominic Toretto? I know it's Diesel's flick, but a draw would have been better booking.

-Where were we again? Oh, Rock and The Shield. Never say never and it would be a fun way for Rock to ride off into the sunset if this is his final run with WWE. If nothing else, I could The Shield trying to make it look like they are work for The Rock early on. It would be a logical way for C.M. Punk and Paul Heyman mess with Rock and make it seem like Rock is responsible for their interference in tonight's TLC match.

-If Ryback isn't winning the WWE Championship tonight (and I don't think he is), then the key for WWE is to once again come up with a finish that doesn't make him look bad despite coming up short in yet another WWE Championship match. My longstanding prediction of Ryback winning the Royal Rumble and somehow challenging Big Show instead of the WWE Champion is still in play. I'm not sure how they get there, but the fact that Show is in the midst of a throwaway feud with awkwardly turned Alberto Del Rio right now makes it feel like Show is just in a holding pattern for something at different heading to WrestleMania.

-I'm not a fan of the way Bobby Roode and Austin Aries are hamming it up in their feud with one another. I'm sure they are having a good time playing off one another, but they have to know that it's killing their heat. How are viewers supposed to take them as serious threat to Hardy's TNA Title at Genesis when they clown around together and then get beat up by Hardy in a one babyface against two heel situation? Here's hoping TNA does something to get that straightened out on Thursday's go-home show for Genesis.

-Can we just forget the closing segment of last week's Raw with crap being poured onto Dolph Ziggler and A.J? Seriously, WWE, no followup needed. Let's just pretend like it never happened and move forward. White shirts in wrestling were traditionally a telltale sign that someone was about to bleed. Now those same white shirts are a sign that someone on the WWE creative team watched too many episodes of Double Dare as a kid.

-Hulk Hogan does realize that suspending Bully Ray gives him more time to lay the wood to his daughter, right? I'm fairly certain I'm the only person alive who cares about this storyline. I'm just intrigued by the type of super human baby these two could produce. Bully Ray's calves combined with Brooke's Bo Jackson-like thighs? This kid could break the squat lifting world record by age six.

-In case you're wondering where the ROH television reports have gone, no, I haven't gone on a Chris Shore-like slump where I just stop covering the show for some ungodly reason. Rather, ROH decided that if WWE and TNA weren't going to produce "best of" shows during the holidays, they would produce enough for everyone by delivering three weeks worth of best of material. Granted, they aired some Final Battle matches, which is a nice touch, but there hasn't been much in the way of new programming. I believe that changes this weekend, so I'll get back to reviewing the show on a weekly basis week.