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 The Snowman is a genius Follow @TheDocLOP QUESTION OF THE DAY 1: What did you think of Raw this week? QUESTION OF THE DAY 2: Give me your final picks – Who wins the 2015 Royal Rumble match and who wins the WWE Championship match? Pros I may as well be a mark for opening cluster segments featuring a ton of stars. Call me crazy, but that just never gets old to me. I'm a segment guy, 99% of the time, mostly because of the fact that the majority of matches are built through things that are said rather than things that are physically done. John Cena, sporting a cool new shirt, came out and interrupted the heels, and wound up in a match with something at stake for tonight that I'll watch because something is at stake. He's still an ashhole (stole that line from Swagger, I'll bet). Brock Lesnar being flustered suits the idea that he might lose the title on Sunday. It also gives credence to the idea that he'll just maul everyone, but such is the advantage of the triple threat scenario and the three different talents who all could make a legitimate case for winning the title this close to WrestleMania. That match has a lot going for it, chief amongst the reasons being the unpredictability. Raw's opening segment did nothing but add fuel to that fire. Daniel Bryan vs. Bray Wyatt was a match worth watching. To me, it's a rare thing to watch two full matches on Raw, but with the above mentioned Cena stipulation for the night and the rematch from last year's classic Royal Rumble encounter between Bryan and Wyatt, it was just such an occasion. The result provided the talking points, as Bryan going down was a wise choice to build sympathy for him heading into the Rumble and, thanks to Kane's involvement, to add heat to this week's Smackdown main-event (where something will again be on the line). Wyatt looks very strong. Nobody with an opinion that I trust seems to think Taker is coming back, but Bray sure does look good these days. If not Taker, then I have to assume that he's being positioned for something huge at Mania 31. The Legends Panel helps hype the PPV. As much as I'm a mark for cluster segments, I'm a snarky little smark for these “legend nights” during Mania season. My primary gripe is that they usually add nothing to the proceedings...and this is a time of year that should be all about the proceedings. Fortunately, HBK, Hogan, and Flair were asked to talk about the Royal Rumble, echoing a memorable segment featuring several legends asked about Cena vs. Rock II in 2013 that made me more interested in the forthcoming PPV. By revealing their favorites, they gave us a preview of the actual favorites. Big Show made his presence felt, too, and, though his words carried little weight with me, he confirmed that he and Roman Reigns will have a major impact on the outcome of the Rumble, with the future face of the company making it clear that he's a favorite while playing to his strengths as a heavy-hitting badass. Woooo, BROTHER, that was a Showstopper! Dean Ambrose won a match! It had just gotten to the point where I had begun to notice how much he had been losing when he had the ref stop his effort to take out Rusev last week. The underdog, Bret Hart circa 1994 (good vintage) role has been defined for the Lunatic Fringe. I'm rooting for him and Reigns to co-win the Rumble and give us a Shield triple threat for the title at Mania! A conditional mark in the “Pro” column for the Legend segment with The Ascension, assuming that the two guys make the most of their time in the considerable spotlight and use the opportunity to get over. I have not enjoyed the overall presentation of the new team, thus far, but they earned a loud “You Suck” chant from Dallas in a red hot start to the final hour of Raw. It's all about the follow-up. Sting makes his first Raw appearance, highlighting an exciting final few minutes of the show. Let me just state clearly how much I love that Sting has made two appearances and has been massively cheered both times. That's awesome and goes to show how much at least a vocal part of the audience pays attention to pro wrestling history. It has been a stroke of genius, thus far, pitting him in opposition to the Authority. I'm very pumped to see what happens with that story. They didn't necessarily need to end the night with Brock owning the yard, but that part certainly didn't have a negative affect on the segment. It created a sense that anything can happen in place of the boring handicap, six man tag formulas that WWE has emplyed so often in recent weeks. That was a very good Raw; a much better go-home show than I expected when I saw the hype for the “Raw Reunion” last week. Cons Cesaro's position sucks. I know that there are some folks out there that are happy that underutilized powers have combined to create Captain Swiss Kidd, but Tyson Kidd has less charisma than his ring boots and being saddled in a tag team with him is like being awarded the ribbon for 10th place at the county fair for the picture that you took of your beagle. The King of Swing deserves better and surely gets the vote for early 2015's award for most poorly used talent (Dolph Ziggler was the early 2014 winner, Daniel Bryan the early 2013 winner, and that's as far back as the award goes). A conditional mark in the “Con” column for the Legend segment with The Ascension, in the case of the two guys failing to make the most of their time in the considerable spotlight and not getting over. It's all about the follow-up. If it's not handled well, you may as well slap an “NXT” sticker on their shoulder pads and send them back to Orlando.
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