WWE Raw thoughts, 2012-03-19

This was a surprisingly good raw, I thought. Maybe it's just because I'm trying to focus on the positive and Rise Above Hate.

The opening promo by Punk was probably his best promo as a face. I'm still not a fan of the storyline, but it was sold well by both guys. Jericho's line "But your sister..." was pretty awesome. What I found really interesting though was the juxtaposition of the Punk promo with the Rock video segment, because of a discussion I was having with someone earlier today about "vulgarity" in wrestling.

I've often criticized Rocky and other Attitude guys by roughly paraphrasing their promos as "I'm cool cause I said 'ass.' Tee-hee, get it? 'Ass!'" and he thought this was inconsistent with my amusement at this story, wherein John Cena's mother reacts to Rocky's singalong about her with the line, "If you're starving for sex that badly, then go fuck yourself!" Of course, what I'm criticizing about those Attitude-style promos isn't the use of naughty words, but the reliance on extremely tame not-quite-vulgar language as a crutch to distract from how bland and uninteresting the promo really is, just like storylines use SHOCKING SWERVEZ!! to substitute for genuinely interesting stories.

This was on full display on the show tonight. CM Punk used "vulgarity" in a very effective way to help sell the intensity of his feud and put over how pissed he is at Jericho. Then soon after that we had Rocky saying "ass," because saying "ass" makes 12-year-olds giggle. Language is a tool like any other, it can be used skillfully and effectively to build a storyline, or it can be used clumsily just to get a cheap reaction.

- Rocky wasn't on the show much tonight. Just the prerecorded video segment, only about 30 seconds in front of the live crowd, no live promo. Are they worried about the reaction he'd get from the Philly crowd? Or do they think his promos suck as much as I do? I can't imagine that's true.

- John Cena-Mark Henry was a very good match. Kind of short and formulaic, but well worked by both men. In my dream world Big Mark is still inducting fools into the Hall of Pain.

- Daniel Bryan-Zack Ryder was another short but good match. Bryan and AJ continue to be very entertaining together. The Ryder rally seems like a good use of the crowd that's already there waiting to get into the arena anyway.

- I'm assuming that they wouldn't put the Ryder stuff on TV if he wasn't going to end up on Teddadore's Army. So that leaves two more spots on the face team - who is left to fill them? Great Khali? Hornswoggle? Ezekiel Jackson? The Usos? I'm still hoping for Miz, personally.

- The Aksana-Vickie Guerrero brawl was pretty awesome. Good showing for both of them. Vickie is always great, until they try to change her role.

- The Randy Orton promo was a whole lot of nothing, but it was cool to see them resurrect the old interview position.