Commentators: Scott Stanford, Josh Matthews & Matt Striker
Championship's roll call: WWE Champion: CM Punk… World Champion: Daniel Bryan… Intercontinental Champion: Cody Rhodes… United States Champion: Jack Swagger… Tag Team Champions: Primo & Epico… Diva's Champion: Beth Phoenix
Tamina vs. Natalya: I'm not sure what's going on with the Beth Phoenix/Natalya alliance; I haven't seen the Glamazon on television in a while, must have missed an explanation for this. Nattie applies a wastelock and Tamina gets mad and overaggressively charges in the corner. Nattie takes over with a shoulderblock; Tamina mimics her father with a leapfrog/double back-chop comeback. Natalya takes over with a drop-toehold in the corner and a suplex onto the ropes; she applies an abdominal stretch but gets hiptossed out. Nattie stays on top with a clothesline and then rams her face into the mat. She then slaps on a reverse surfboard and roughs her up on the mat, but misses a legdrop; Tamina gives he the Superfly comeback (chops and a leaping head-butt). Tamina looks for a kick but Nattie ducks and tries the Sharpshooter but Tamina rolls her up into a nearfall. Tamina hits a Samoan drop and then heads up; she takes FOREVER to get there so Natalya is able to crotch her. I've asked my wife, it DOES hurt to get hit there, meanwhile, Natalya tries a superplex but Tamina shoves her off and flies like her father to get the pinfall. 3.5/10 Well Natalya jobs again but at least it wasn't in thirty seconds like on SmackDown recently.
Here is your winner… Tamina @ about 7:45 via Superfly Splash.
The entire Daniel Bryan/Big Show/AJ Lee saga from SmackDown is shown in a long highlight package.
Santino Marella & Mason Ryan vs. Curt Hawkins & Tyler Reks: Santino's silly strut around the ring cracks me up EVERY time I see it; well this is certainly a mismatched tag match. The Hawkins/Reks team needs a name. I still think that Ryan should team up with Ezekiel Jackson as a Powers of Pain heel team. Speaking of Ryan he shoves Hawkins across the ring a few times; well, Hawkins has lasted longer here then he did versus Brodus Clay (prerequisite mention). Reks comes in and fares no better against the mongoloid. Santino tags in and he and Ryan team up for that old assisted shoulderblock in the corner that he and Vladimir Kozlov did; I still don't get why they released him, he was fine (and over) with Santino, and the WWE needs tag teams, especially now that Air Boom is (probably) disbanded forever. Reks tries to take over on Santino but he hits a dropkick; he looks for a Cobra strike but Reks escapes to the floor. Hawkins tries to back-jump Marella but Ryan saves him and press-slams him out onto Reks. Back from break, Tyler takes over on Santino and drops some knees. Reks and Hawkins quick tag on the defenseless Santino; Curt with a snap-suplex, for two, so he applies a chinlock. Hawkins tries to ram Santino's head into Reks' boot (a classic heel tag move) but it gets reversed and Curt eats the foot. Clever. That move is rarely reversed. Hawkins tags in time to cut off the hot tag to Ryan. Reks beats on Marella and Hawkins tags in to showboat and drop elbows. They work over the back and the crowd is asleep, mainly because Hawkins and Reks aren't over, not because it is boring. Marella wakes them up with a Santino Stunner (split-legged stunner) and tags in Mason Ryan who runs over every "little girly man". He locks in a full nelson to Curt and then launches him into Reks, tumbling him to the floor, Ryan looks to finish but Santino (and the crowd) beg for a tag. Ryan obliges and Santino heads, in readies the Cobra (with puppet), gets the three. 5/10 The match was not too bad; I feel bad for Hawkins and Reks since they've been teaming for months and job to a mismatch babyface team to pop the crowd, pre-Raw. Well, Ryan looks good in a tag match since Santino took the blunt of the punishment and Reks and Hawkins controlled 90% of the match so it wasn't too bad.
Here are your winners… Santino Marella & Mason Ryan @ about 9:10 (broadcast) via Cobra strike pinfall.
Raw Rebound: Will John Laurinaitis screw over CM Punk at the Rumble?
Alex Riley vs. Jinder Mahal: Mahal is more over, due to beating Ted Dibiase and aligning himself with Wade Barrett against Sheamus. Mahal kicks him down and boots in the corner; Riley comes back and hits a running clothesline. A Stinger Splash sets up the reverse corner DDT. Mahal comes back with a high knee and chokes in the ropes. Riley seems to have lost some heat due to not being television for a while; Jinder plants him with a swinging neckbreaker. The commentators discuss A-Ry's new Converse wrestling boots, which have helped him move about the ring lighter, and thus aided his current television winning streak, don't get analysis like that anymore! Mahal slows the match down with an inverted chinlock. A-Ry builds momentum, breaking free, with clotheslines and a spinebuster. He looks for the Final Score but Jinder counters into a bodyslam DDT. Mahal immediately applies the Camel Clutch and Riley submits. 4/10 Well that was… brief, quick squash for Mahal to get him some of his heat back from losing to Sheamus on SmackDown last week.
Here is your winner… Jinder Mahal @ about 6:35 via Camel Clutch submission.
OVERALL 5/10 Not bad, less matches in lieu of more highlight packages, which is acceptable for this show since we are getting closer to the Rumble.
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