LIVE Raw thoughts

11:02 - WWE Champion The Miz! Who woulda thunk it two years ago? Honestly, aside from Rob Van Damm's title win at One Night Stand, this was probably the cleanest Money in the Bank cash in we've ever seen.

10:59 - Loved Punk's "Well this looks very familiar." Although I feel like Miz won't succeed.

10:58 - Orton RKO's Barrett, retains, Miz cashes in.

10:55 - The irony of the announcers' discussion: Didn't CM Punk's first World Title reign end because he couldn't make it to the ring to defend the title? Further coincidence: Wasn't it because of an Orton punt?

10:43 - I'm not sure if Daniel Bryan will win the King of the Ring, but I do think he'll make it to the finals. In looking at a list of the competitors, how awesome would a Mysterio/Bryan finals be?

10:42 - Unrelated, but I kinda love this shirt:

http://www.80stees.com/products/Rather-Be-Playing-Pac-Man-T-Shirt.asp

10:30 - So does anybody get the sense that they're actually going to do what everybody was predicting last night? Between Cena laying on his face act REALLY thick, to Orton repeatedly complimenting Cena, to Orton guaranteeing that Barrett doesn't leave the building with the title, to Miz no-showing his match....it's got all the makings.

10:27 - Wow, are they finally doing what I suggested, like, over a year ago and reuniting John Morrison and Melina as an on-screen pair? It's about friggin' time! Although I have to say, for an ACTUAL couple, they just displayed some very awkward chemistry.

10:24 - FOUND THE SECOND TABLE LEAF!!

10:18 - "Now Nikki Bella" - Michael Cole. "UGH!" - CM Punk.

10:10 - I wouldn't have said this last night, but the dude is totally turning heel tonight.

10:07 - Ways you can tell WWE has been PG for a long time: Hearing Cena say "Sucks," "Bitch," and "Hell" are actually a bit edgy.

9:59 - How long before people read into the fact that Cena didn't mention Rock?

9:47 - I love the teases that Miz might cash in the briefcase. Remember when Edge finally cashed in his contract? He gave up a victory over Flair and purposely got himself disqualified. His logic? Why exhaust himself when he's cashing in his contract later? I see the same thing going on here. They want us to be thinking, "Maybe Miz is conserving his energy so that he can cash in his briefcase in the main event."

And Punk continues to be commentary gold. His remarks about Riley being under the influence were great.

9:40 - Maria, Beth, Rosa, and now Tamina....how many times are we going to do this Santino/romance angle? And what is with the numerous backstage pretapes in a row? And Randy needs to shave his head.

9:35 - Oh, in addition to Thanksgiving stress (I can't find the damn second table leaf!), I'm also going to be working on my Smallville column. A lot on the plate tonight!

9:30 - CM Punk's facial expressions during the commentary is worth the price of admission. And man, didn't we just have a 3 hour Raw last week?

9:15 - CM Punk as announcer = the greatest thing ever. That is all.

9:10 - In regards to Kyle's comments last night, I didn't see the PPV, but I heard both title matches failed to deliver. This is disappointing because: (a) Edge is really catching fire as a face, and this match would have gone a long way for him if he and Kane hit a home run and (b) the John Cena/Wade Barrett/Randy Orton angle has been on such an incredible roll -- especially after last week -- that it REALLY needed to be lackluster to get almost universal panning. As I said in my prior post, there were a lot of directions that the angle could have gone, and I don't think most people expected this. I am intrigued about where they're going to take this tonight, but a lot of people don't have that sort of patience.

One thing I do hope they do is follow up on this R-Truth thing. If nothing else, this could be Randy Orton's next feud. I don't particularly like Truth, but I am interested in his actions. He goes from trying to talk sense into Cena, to stirring the pot with Orton, to offering to do a hit on Orton in order to assist Cena. There's certainly something to that, and I hope they follow up.

9:02 - Yes, I am doing my Raw thoughts this week, and I'll provide my thoughts on last night's booking. Oh, I'll reply to Kyle's insightful comments in my prior post as well. Just off to a late start due to some Thanksgiving preparation stress.