LIVE Raw thoughts - July 9, 2012

11:08 - It was a rightfully intriguing ending to an extremely weak episode of Raw (last week would've worked better as the go-home week).  And for all those people who said there's too much AJ....don't tell me that this week wouldn't at least have been a bit better if there were more AJ segments.

11:04 - Also, you gotta love the fact that the WWE Championship storyline ended the show.  Again!

10:58 - One highlight of tonight:  It's always awesome when Daniel Bryan wears his ring jacket.

10:52 - It's not a good ending to the Anonymous GM storyline.  But at least it's an ending.

10:49 - I'm confused.  Why don't they just put the lines on the screen instead of putting a print out on the keyboard?

10:35 - Come to think of it, why on earth is Kofi Kingston -- you're extremely over guy who can do absolutely amazing acrobatic feats -- not in a Money in the Bank match?  Now THAT'S outlandish.

10:29 - Actually, pretty cool promo from Eve.  Hit the nail on the head pretty effectively.  At least THAT story is building some intrigue.  Outside of the WWE Championship match, the difference between the feeling of anticipation going into this year and last year's Money in the Bank PPV is remarkable.

10:18 - The one match that gets more than 2 minutes has an ending that doesn't even make sense?

10:10 - By the way, I also hate how the announcers always seem to forget the countless times Cena has slammed Big Show when they're in the ring together.  Don't get me wrong -- they should absolutely sell how incredible that feat is.  But why not just push it as an unbelievable display of strength?  Why act like he's never done it before.  Didn't he did it, like, a month ago?

10:03 - John Cena's promo about the WWE Championship Money in the Bank match lasted longer than the tag match with the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank contenders.  How sad is that?  WWE has never been so transparent in their belief that the World Heavyweight Championship pales in comparison to the WWE Championship.  Yes, that's almost always been the case (but actually, NOT always) but they always at least tried to make the WHC seem just as prestigious.  Now they don't even seem to try.

And it's even sadder that the match with Christian, Ziggler, and Kidd gets NO time....yet Big Show and Kane got to bore the crap out of everybody for 5 minutes.

9:54 - According to one of the people I'm following on Twitter, there's been less than 4 minutes of in-ring action in the first hour of Raw.  That's pretty damn sad.  It's not unforgivable, however.  I mean, we've had some extremely light wrestling episodes that have been highly entertaining.  The thing that's killing me is that we've had, like, no action and a bunch of Santino backstage segments and Cole and Lawler arguing.  Not a great go-home show, so far.  Let's hope hour 2 is better.

9:46 - So we've had a really long opening segment, and each match has had at least one person who didn't even get a televised entrance.  And the matches have been, like, less than two minutes.  I have a bad feeling about tonight's show.

9:38 - Oh, I see.  Christian, Kidd, Ziggler, and Tensai couldn't get an entrance and their match lasted less than two minutes so that they could focus on some drama between the announcers.

9:34 - Kinda sad that NONE of the competitors in the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank ladder match are even worth an entrance.  Yeah, while the competitors in the WWE Championship MITB match are getting the main event slot.

9:29 - I'll tell ya' what.....I'll tolerate Santino's "comedy" skits throughout the night if they actually properly wrap up the Anonymous Raw General Manager storyline by revealing his/her identiy.  Deal?

9:27 - I don't think there's a less interesting main eventer than Alberto Del Rio.  Having practically Sheamus' entire title reign associated with him (despite God's repeated attempts to NOT have their match happen) certainly isn't helping.

9:20 - I don't recall an opening segment that turned around so significantly.  After my introduction -- where I sung the praises of AJ and this storyline -- I thought I was going to have to eat crow.  The promo got off to, shall we say, a really slow and rough start.  It picked up significantly, though, when AJ made her proposal (simply because the audience ate the hell out of it).  Then Bryan's arrival, of course, picked up the pace a great deal as well (I LOVED his "don't you talk down to my future fiance!" line).  The return of the Anonymous Raw General Manager was especially awesome.  It's been such a long time since we've seen the blinking lights and instant message sound that it was really cool seeing the classic interruption again.  Once this thing got moving, everybody -- from AJ to Punk to Bryan to even Cole -- seemed to eat it up.

9:17 - THE ANONYMOUS RAW GENERAL MANAGER IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!  YES! YES! YES!

9:06 - AJ's facial expressions are great.  Her look of concern and pain that brief moment after she introduced Punk, but before his music played.  Quickly followed by her happy expression of reassurance when his music did play.

8:55 - Yes, there will be LIVE Raw thoughts tonight.  But I am absolutely exhausted and may tap out and watch from the comfort of my bed.  I'll hold out as long as possible, though.

Over at Scott Keith's blog, they're getting awfully anti-AJ lately.  I'm in a whole different boat.  I absolutely LOVE the fact that she's becoming such a focal part of the show (in part because it brings more attention to the WWE Championship storyline, too).  And hey, they're kicking off the show with her too.  Love it.  And keep it coming.

Check back in five minutes for my thoughts throughout the show.