By Will Pruett

- Kane’s entire act right now would be so much more convincing with a fantastic manager delivering his promos. Someone like “Sinister Minister” James Mitchell would shine begging John Cena to embrace hate. Sadly, Kane loses so much of his mystique when he talks.

- I liked the brawl involving John Cena to open Raw. Hopefully the quick does of action gave viewers a reason to stay tuned. It was a fairly hot opening segment, which I did not expect from Cena and Kane.

- Are the Raw and Smackdown writing teams attempting to make Jinder Mahal the opposite of himself? On Smackdown this week he came off as a solid mid-carder with a major match with Sheamus looming. On Raw, he looks like a total jobber. While I don’t love the act, he deserves better than to be jerked around like this.

- Sheamus is one of the biggest babyface stars in WWE and as close to creating a star as WWE has come in the last two years. He really shouldn’t be tagging up with Santino. I’m fine with comedy, but keep it separate from what should be serious superstars, please.

- John Laurinaitis continues to use his dry humor to crack me up, this week with the “Big Johnny” line.

- I loved the Edge Hall of Fame induction video. He is a truly deserving wrestler who was an absolute joy to watch for years. I was so sad to see him retire in 2011 and I’m just as excited to see him go into the Hall of Fame. I honestly had chills during the Edge video package.

- Kane followed Zack Ryder everywhere and lead me to believe that he was about to Heidenreich Ryder. This is not the best use of Kane.

- The good news is that Daniel Bryan got a win in a quick and convincing fashion over Kofi Kingston. The bad news is that a quick win came at the cost of what looked like a great matchup. There was no winning and I don’t mind building up Bryan on Raw.

- I’m interested in WWE going back to Daniel Bryan vs. Big Show on Smackdown so quickly, this time in a No Disqualification match. I enjoyed the matchup last Friday night and hope that they have a chance to top themselves this coming Friday.

- Brodus Clay’s debut definitely fits into the “so bad it’s good” category. Much like Flash Funk before him, the character is just so ridiculous that I couldn’t help but laugh. The good part of this is that I found it quite entertaining. The bad part is that this is definitely not using Brodus Clay to his full potential.

- Brodus Clay gets some bonus points for having pyro out of the ring posts, which I am always into.

- The Zack Ryder and Eve saga was irritating.

- The C.M. Punk and Jack Swagger match ended awkwardly to show just how much a bad call from a referee could affect a match. I get the point and appreciate the effort, but I don’t know if it is a story that needs to be told.

- Although Jack Swagger means nothing at the moment, he is still a fantastic wrestler. It’s sad to see how he is being used when you remember just how capable he is.

- I still maintain that WWE is stealing a Dot Net gimmick by running the WWE Countdown show on the WWE Network. If you want to hear the original that WWE is shamelessly copying, become a Dot Net Member!

- I was sold on the Hall of Fame with the announcement of Edge. Then, I saw the announcement of The Four Horsemen (Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard and Barry Windham were mentioned by name while Ric Flair was in the photo with them) and was even more excited. This is a great start to what I’m sure will be an amazing 2012 cast.

- I sincerely hope that WWE and TNA have worked out a deal for Ric Flair to appear at the induction of The Four Horsemen. It would not make since to induct the group without Flair there, so he must be showing up. Maybe this year he will keep his speech under three hours.

- R-Truth is supposed to be a babyface, but he cruelly picked on and bullied Ricardo Rodriguez. This segment was just awkward. WWE does nothing to put heat on Ricardo, so why would fans cheer when he is bullied for no real reason?

- Another week and The Miz and R-Truth’s feud just is not clicking.

- Chris Jericho delivered another memorable segment this week. I was laughing at his fake cry and the announcers did a nice job before and during the segment talking about how Jericho had been “overcome with emotion” last week. This was a nice sequel to last week’s appearance.

- Why wouldn’t Eve attempt to help Zack Ryder change the tire instead of sitting in the car? That’s pretty rude when you think about it.

- John Cena making fun of Dolph Ziggler’s “show off” gimmick is not exactly going to get it over. It’s like Raw is trying to be its own Mystery Science Theater 3,000 sometimes.

- For a guy that was following him all night, Kane took a pretty long time to get to Zack Ryder as he changed the tire. When he did get there, I didn’t appreciate the bump that Ryder took. In pre-taped segments WWE should really strive for believability more often.

- What is with the whole Kane’s hand to Cena’s mouth connection that makes John Cena pass out?

- John Cena is surrounded by two cartoon characters with Zack Ryder and Kane. This is not helping the perception that he is a cartoon character himself.

This show felt a little bit like an episode of Impact Wrestling with the breakneck pace and attempt to cram everything they could into it. When a wrestling show is crafted in that way, there is no real focus and that hurts the show. Leaving this episode, Kane and Cena, Chris Jericho, Punk and Ziggler and Ryder and Eve all seem to be of primary importance. That is just too much in the spotlight.

With everything that WWE tried to cram into this show, hype for next week was not a priority. Since nothing is spotlighted coming out of this show, I don’t see what will compel viewers to tune in next Monday.

Let's do some good old fashioned talking about this show! Feel free to email me at itswilltime@gmail.com or to follow me on twitter at twitter.com/itswilltime.

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