LIVE Raw thoughts - October 24, 2011

11:07 - Another "curveball" by having Johnny Ace stop Miz & Truth from assaulting Cena. I wish they would just out and out show us that he's helping these guys, but they just can't prove it.

11:02 - "The patented waterbottle to the skull." Never thought I'd hear it.

10:50 - Here's another problem with WWE's writing lately: It's all build with no proper payoff. They spent weeks building up Nash and the text situation. Was it directed at Punk? Was he sent by Triple H? Was it about getting the title on Del Rio? All of this time went into this mystery, only to discover that he sent it himself -- something that made absolutely no sense and didn't pay off any of the possibilities. Then there was the Punk/Triple H feud, about whether there was some sort of conspiracy. Again, for weeks they were building up this idea, only to discover, "hey, nope, there's no conspiracy!" So Punk looked like a jerk, and they fought for no reason. Now we have Miz and Truth making all of these random attacks, but who are they with? Are they in cahoots with Nash? With Ace? With Del Rio? And at this point, there have been so many twists and turns -- most of them illogical -- that there wouldn't really be any impact from any revelation.

10:42 - So this whole thing is leading towards Cole vs. JR for the announcing job? What are the chances they just let JR win this thing? Or is it just another opportunity to humiliate JR? At this point, Cole would be better off as a heel manager or authority figure anyway.

PS - that Greatest Rivalries DVD looks f'n AWESOME!

10:29 - By the way, for what it's worth, I don't think it's Melina's fault that Morrison is getting jobbed out. If anything, I think his Twitter rant about how incredible she is did him in. It's really too bad, though. I've often said that Morrison is a truly unique talent. I legitimately believe that there's nobody else like him on the roster.

10:27 - Where is all of this JR/Cole stuff going? And why is it even an issue? Is there anybody out there who wouldn't prefer that the announcers just sit back and call the match? If Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon had announced during this era, how many times would they have wrestled by this point?

10:25 - I'm shocked John Morrison can even bring himself to smile when he comes out at this point.

10:20 - For the most part, I think Beth Phoenix and Natalya have lost more than they've won since turning heel. Especially Nat.

10:12 - Not to sound fanboy-y, but CM Punk nailed it out of the park (while Cena and Triple H both struggled). That was great stuff (and great Back to the Future and Simpsons references). However, the question remains -- if Punk is moving onto a feud with ADR, and Triple H is dealing with Nash, why oh why did Punk eat the pin? Yes, they incorporated the loss into the storyline, but it would have worked even better if Punk's loss was held against him when he wasn't even the one pinned. I really, really hope this means they're back to building up Punk and letting him do what he does best. And for the love of God, keep him as far away from Triple H as possible.

10:01 - You know, that WWE Championship gets a lot of criticism, but damn -- it does look like it would REALLY hurt if you were hit in the face with it.

9:52 - Just think, a year or so ago Dolph Ziggler was having losing feuds with John Morrison and Daniel Bryan. He was jobbing to them on a weekly basis. Now the two of them are losing matches like it's going out of style, while Ziggler is setting the company on fire. What a difference a year makes.

9:44 - I defend John Cena a lot, but I didn't really enjoy that promo either. He was a bit too all over the place, and his mix of humor and intensity didn't work. And he tried to get too many jokes in at once. By the way, I like the black shirt color-scheme, but I'm surprised he debuted it at Vengeance and not at the much bigger event, Survivor Series.

9:41 - That was a pretty damn exciting match. I suspect that Sheamus was supposed to connect in the face with that kick, but I'm glad he didn't try to pin him when it didn't work. Great awareness from Sheamus -- way to think on his feet.

9:30 - Odd observation but I'm disappointed that Christian is spiking his hair again. The flat, slightly messy hair worked well with his heel character. He looks a bit too neat now.

9:25 - This entire show has been action, replay, new action, replay of everything, new action. Seriously, it's not even 9:30 and we've seen TWO replays of something that happened at 9:15.

9:24 - It occurs to me that a couple of weeks ago, Raw had a really fresh and interesting feeling during the walkout. That was interrupted rather prematurely by Vince McMahon. Yet the entire opening half hour of Raw has been devoted to the Triple H/Kevin Nash saga. Has anybody else even appeared on the show?

9:20 - I love how casually security asked, "Does he have a pulse?" Like, was that supposed to insinuate that Nash killed him?

9:14 - So are we supposed to feel bad for Triple H here? He's constantly hitting people with sledgehammers. I kinda felt that was a weak opening segment. I don't want to sound overly anti-Triple H here, but it just felt like it was a lot of rambling. He seemed unfocused and unsure of what to say (which isn't surprising, the script probably dramatically changed mid-promo). And again, do fans have an emotional attachment to the Triple H/Kevin Nash friendship? Everything we've heard about them being close has happened years ago, off camera. Therefore, the betrayal doesn't connect with many fans (myself included).

And is it me, or has ANOTHER CM Punk storyline been absorbed by Triple H? Wasn't Nash supposed to return to put over Punk? Now he's feuding with Triple H, with absolutely no resolution with Punk.

9:07 - The problem with this Triple H/Kevin Nash story is that the two have never been allies on screen. It doesn't resonate the way Triple H/Shawn Michaels and Triple H/X-Pac has.

9:03 - It occurs to me that Kevin Nash has returned, I believe, as many times as Triple H has wrestled this year. I think we can stop pretending that it's this super shocking thing.

8:46 - After a one week reprieve, I'm back! Before getting to our pre-Raw discussion, here's an anecdote. Have you ever gotten really, really stressed and high strung, but really for no reason whatsoever? I feel that way right now. Nobody did anything to me and nothing bad happened, yet I can't help but feel really high strung at the moment. All day, really. I needed to relax a bit, even if it's just psychological, so I stopped by a couple local places to see if I could find one of those relaxation shots (similar to 5 Hour Energy). I couldn't find one, so I thought a beer would help. So now I'm drinking a beer. Thank you, places that don't carry the relaxation shots, you've now driven me to drink (just one beer, though).

Now, onto the pre-Raw discussion. I didn't see last night's show, but it exemplifies what many have been saying for quite some time. Namely, that CM Punk's treatment has been less than stellar. You'll remember, I've defended his storylines quite frequently, nothing that we should wait to see how everything plays out. Yet, in this storyline, he seems like the ONE person who's not being protected -- yet he's the one who should be protected most. Triple H, Miz, R-Truth, Nash, even Johnny Ace....they're all being protected more than Punk. I understand the need to build strong, intriguing heels, but they have a rare opportunity to make a mega star out of Punk, yet they're not presenting him as the star. Triple H came out second (tradtionally -- but not always -- the spot reserved for the bigger star), Punk ate the pin, and the post-match action focused on Nash's attack on Triple H. Pathetic.

On an unrelated note, to prove that things are being booked with no logic whatsoever, how about Miz and Truth helping Del Rio win last night? Are we supposed to forget that they beat the tar out of him last month?

Let's see what happens on tonight's show. Check back in 10 minutes for my LIVE thoughts.