WWE RAW, Jan. 31, 2011: Del Rio Decides, Chamber Made

Alberto Del Rio Chooses World Heavyweight Champion Edge at WrestleMania

Great opening segment, and it gives theSmackDown stars good hype for their show and their storyline on Friday nights. It was painfully obvious who he would choose, but it gave Del Rio more exposure on RAW if he is booked to more there in the upcoming Draft.

It does confuse me a little as to why Alberto is choosing his opponent now. Wouldn't it make more sense to choose following theElimination Chamber pay-per-view like past Royal Rumble winners seeing there is a possibility of a new champion following the event?


WWE Tag Team Champions Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov defeated Michael McGillicutty and Husky Harris (WWE Tag Team Championship Match)

Mediocre match, but certainly not bad. Harris and McGillicutty are still a little green in the ring so I believe it was a logical choice to keep the titles off of New Nexus for now.

Randy Orton's punt to Harris following the match wasn't bad, but it wasn't well done. Harris was kneeling in that 'punt' position for at least three minutes, so you would think he would of moved by then. I would rather see McGuillicutty punted, but the reason this was done was to have the three remaining members of New Nexus face Corre at WrestleMania.


United States Champion Daniel Bryan defeated Tyson Kidd (United States Championship Match)

Was this even a championship match? According to the website, it was, but having no entrances for either wrestler made it confusing and the match less meaningful.

The match would have meant more if they had been in a direct feud over the last few weeks, but WWE failed in doing that. The match had a lot more potential than it did and ended up being a total squash. This Bella/Kim nonsense was the focus of the match, which disappoints me.


World Heavyweight Champion Edge defeated WWE Champion The Miz with Alex Riley (Non-title)

Far less memorable than there match last week. These two have tremendous chemistry, but it was totally wasted on Cena's interference.

The match was fine while it lasted, but its matches like these that make Champion vs. Champion matches mean less. I would of preferred for Miz to get the clean victory, but we know that's never going to happen, right?


Lay-Cool defeated Divas Champion Eve and Natalya

I don't have much to say about this match, merely because it wasn't important and the fact I don't really remember much about it. Unless Kong will take it from her, putting the belt on Eve was a mistake.

She was randomly inserted in this feud, so why not give the title to Beth? The only reason I don't fast forward past Divas matches is due to the reason that I am highly anticipating the debut of Kong, and that should happen immediately.


Mark Henry and The Great Khali vs. The Usos in a Dance-Off

As The Miz would say, really? I'd rather see a match and dominate the Usos since dance-offs do not interest me and made this segment more pointless than it should have been.

Personally, I enjoy Mark Henry and The Great Khali in a tag team. I've been pushing towards this for months and finally gives them both something to do rather than random matches and segments every week.


2-21-2011 Vignettes

I can speak for most of the IWC when I say these promos have highly interested everyone and have created a lot of buzz. There is much speculation going around that it is either Undertaker, Sting, Kong, or HHH, but according to the arena website for RAW that evening, it is the return of the Undertaker.

The promo was movie quality and gives us viewers something to look forward to as we progress on the Road to WrestleMania. I have never been so excited to see one of these promos come so quickly.


Jerry Lawler defeated King Sheamus, John Cena, John Morrison, R-Truth, Randy Orton, and CM Punk in a Seven Man RAWRumble to become #1 Contender for the WWE Championship

Great match. Although I had a strong feeling Lawler would win following what he said to Ted Dibiase earlier in the evening, the contest did have some suspense at times.

It escalated the feud between Orton and Punk, and gave Sheamus more meaning being the last one eliminated. It was a logical choice to give Lawler the win as his feud with Miz was never officially finished. With lackluster matches all night long, this match wins Match of the Night.


Final Review

A disappointing show to say the least, but it was not terrible. It gave good backlash on Royal Rumble, and hype for the upcoming Elimination Chamber pay-per-view in three weeks.

However, no real reason was given for this whole Orton-Punk feud, so I'm looking forward to that. Match-wise, this show was very mediocre. Sometimes, more matches doesn't always mean more, and short matches (especially Bryan-Kidd) serve no purpose.