5 Things To Expect on WWE Monday Night Raw

"WELCOME TO MONDAY NIGHT WRAW!"~ Vince McMahon. It's the final Monday Night Raw of the year coming from Washington D.C. for the third straight year. You can expect another quiet crowd tonight because the Washington crowd is not that good whatsoever and if you need example go-ahead look at the go-home show to WrestleMania 29 on the WWE Network. The once in while appearing WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar will bless us with his pressence tonight. Also one of the greatest tag teams in professional wrestling history Edge & Christian will be hosting Monday Night Raw. I think tonight's show is very important for the WWE as a whole and for the build towards the Royal Rumble PPV. Here's five things to expect on the 12/29/14 edition of WWE Monday Night Raw.

1.) Edge & Christian 

You think you me? I always enjoyed that theme song. Here's a idea to start Raw tonight. Edge & Christian do their entrance coming through the crowd or they can go old school and come up through the stage with The Brood music. It's going to be nice to see Edge & Christian especially Edge since he's on of those legends that rarely comes on the show as often as the other contracted WWE Legends. It's been the running trend lately Seth Rollins will come out and interrupt E & C in-ring promo and whine and complain about The Authority no longer being in power. Who knows maybe we'll see some of those silly hats their wore during the Attitude Era or they'll bring back the kazoos. Either way it will nice to see both Edge & Christian and tonight should be a fun night.

2.) The Ascension 

They're coming the fiery and powerful tag team from WWE NXT will make their main roster debuts TONIGHT on RAW. Who will be the first casualty for The Ascension? The video vigentte for The Ascension haven't been earth shattering to be completely honest with you, but I'm really looking forward to seeing The Ascension tonight because I'm a big fan of their tag team. Alot of people are clamoring for NXT Superstars to come up on the main roster and tonight and heading towards 2015 you'll see change in the WWE presentation I totally believe that and it starts with The Ascension tonight.

3.) Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena III 

The anticipated final battle between Brock Lesnar and John Cena will come to a head at the Royal Rumble. Brock Lesnar laid out John Cena during his Steel Cage Match with Seth Rollins a couple weeks ago. There's some storyline question that I have with this pairing heading towards the Royal Rumble. Ok Brock is back. Why? All we knew about Brock Lesnar before he became the WWE Champion is that he was "Plan C" for The Authority to take the title away from John Cena. Cena is the only person that holds the power to bring The Authority back. There needs to be a in-ring promo between John Cena & Paul Heyman tonight and it will be interesting to see if Paul Heyman brings up that very association Lesnar & The Authority had before they lost their power at Survivor Series. How do you bring The Authority back? Brock will come out during the show who knows maybe John & Brock have a full out brawl in the same building they had a bloody fist fight in 2012.

4.) Bad News Barrett 

I think it should be noted that tonight WWE is having a "WWE LIVE" show in Richmond, Virginia. Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt are advertised for this very show. There's star power left out of this show. We have Brock Lesnar, Edge & Christian and The Ascension on the show tonight, but something to really spice things especially with it being the final of Raw of the year we see the return of BNB! Bad News Barrett has been out with a shoulder injury for six months and I think it's the perfect night for him to come back. Dolph Ziggler is the right guy for Barrett to feud with. Alot of people are riding the wave of momentum of Dolph Ziggler, but "I'm afraid I've got some bad news!" Ziggler will have to deal with a dose of reality and a feud between Ziggler & Barrett to start 2015 is the right way to go for the WWE.

5.) Randy Orton? 

It's time! I'm keeping this one short and sweet. Randy Orton will be make his WWE return tonight and will seek his revenge on Seth Rollins & JJ Security. Calling it right now.

Follow Me on Twitter @JoshLopezCSR

Raw Talking Points For Christmas Edition of Raw

Raw had its typical holiday offering last night. There wasn’t a ton of significant things as it basically just continued a number of existing feuds. The typical diva’s Christmas costume 6-women tag match. We had the new holiday tradition of the Miracle on 34th Street fight. Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt destroyed many Christmas themed items. Hulk Hogan was the host of Raw dressed up like Santa and he was his typical boring self. If you’re into Hogan, you probably found it fun. If you have had enough of Hogan this was evidence of why you do. Still we found some talking points from this holiday for the most part throwaway Raw show.

1. Adam Rose Turns Heel on the Bunny: After a loss to R-Truth the Bunny still in his neck brace, after a couple attacks from Kane in the past week, he goes to comfort Rose after the match. Rose put a real serious beat down on the bunny. He would take off the Bunny’s neck brace and would continue the beating after the Bunny tried to escape to the outside. The highlight of the segment was the crowd chanting for Rose to throw the Bunny into the guardrail one more time. The crowd was not having any sympathy for Bunny, which was the goal of the segment. So Adam Rose is suppose to be a heel but at least on this night in Minnesota he was a face to this crowd.

2. Fandango Gets a Win: This was more about where Jack Swagger is in terms of this company. The new and improved Fandango is not exactly setting the world on fire. Swagger had almost all the offensive moves until the end. Fandango landed some kicks, went to his top rope leg drop, and actually got the win. Poor Jack Swagger has fallen down since his resurgence with his original feud with Rusev.

3. The Night for The Shield: Rollins and Cena kicked off the show and Rollins after a win last week in a cage match with the help of Brock Lesnar, Cena natural gets his win back this week after Hogan made the match for his good buddy John Cena. Roman Reigns was paired with the Big Show and was booked terrible only able to get a count out win after hitting Big Show with a superman punch over the announce table. Big Show really seems to have little interest in helping Reigns get over. Dean Ambrose meantime in the Main Event once again losses to Bray Wyatt in your typical Christmas Street fight. Overall, it was not a great night for the former members of the Shield.

4. WWE Announcers Continue To Fail: I could bring up many examples of why this is true every single week but I have a specific example this week. Natalya was in a match with Brie and she had Nikki in her corner. During the entire match, Tyson was wearing a Nikki Bella hat and there was zero reference to it the entire match. Even in the post match where Natalya pushes Nikki off the apron and notices the hat Tyson was wearing after that. She takes it off and throws it away. Announcers made zero reference to this so if you missed it can’t blame you.

5. Piper’s Pit Isn’t What It Use To Be: It was kind of a pathetic attempt at nostalgia with Roddy Piper showing up and his guest was Rusev. Piper mispronounced his name and predictably introduced Ryback who had a bow on him no less and he attempted to attack Rusev but he was able to escape. Ryback was over with Minnesota crowd so it looks like the C.M Punk comments have not affected Ryback and his face push of late. Seeing Piper and Hogan at their age is more sad and pathetic than any sort of nostalgic feel good moment.

The match quality on this show was pretty good overall but some questionable booking and little plot advancement. The biggest note was Rose heeling on Bunny and I am not even kidding about that. I didn’t hate this show but if I had missed it, I can’t say that much happened I needed to see. 

5 Things To Expect on WWE Monday Night Raw

From all of us here on Condo On The Moon from James, Chris and myself we'll like to wish all of you a merry Christmas and a wonderful new year. We're on the verge of the second to last Monday Night Raw of the year. WWE is in Minneapolis tonight which is a big wrestling town, so expect a rowdy crowd tonight. Hulk Hogan returns to WWE to serve as "Ho-Ho Hogan" which means he'll probably be the special guest GM for the night. We're on the road to the Royal Rumble and let's see if the WWE builds anything for the Royal Rumble tonight. Here's five things I think we all should expect to see on tonight's Monday Night Raw.

1.) Ho-Ho Hogan 

We sure seen alot of Hulk Hogan in 2014, maybe more then we needed to, but tonight Hogan is back on the show and we'll probably see him as the general manager of Raw for this week. Hogan will probably cut a in-ring promo and then he'll be cut off by Seth Rollins. It's the new thing now when you have a special guest manager on the show, Rollins will come out and cry about being screwed over in his current storyline and then he'll say that the Authority needs to come back. As we're on the road to the Royal Rumble I think Hogan may set up some series of Rumble Qualifying Matches. I brought that up last week, but they needed to recap everything that happen at TLC. I only brought up this scneario up because obviously you want to have the fans tune into the three hours of Raw each week right, and one of the issues I had with the Rumble Match last year was that the WWE didn't go out of the way to show the fans that there's a series of guys who can be favorites to win the Royal Rumble Match. I'm just throwing that idea out there and maybe it'll happen maybe it won't. Who knows maybe Roman Reigns joins Rollins & Hogan in this in-ring promo that starts the show.

2.) Steel Cage Fallout 

Last week's Steel Cage Match between Seth Rollins and John Cena was one of the best main events of Raw this year. I'm surprised that Rollins won that match becuase I thought maybe the WWE wanted to go with the angle where Cena once again takes out everybody on the roster to make a "statement" to Brock Lesnar. I think we may see a match between Seth Rollins and Ryback because it didn't happen on SmackDown, or we can see some type of tag team match between John Cena & Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins & Big Show. As much as people want to think that Roman Reigns is being shoved down our throats, we seen ALOT of Seth Rollins on WWE Programming recently. What will John Cena do? Brock Lesnar is not advertised to appear on this show tonight which is strange to me because since Lesnar has return to the WWE in 2012, every single time the WWE has been in Minneapolis, Lesnar never shows up. Cena can probably a verbal sprawling with Paul Heyman I think that would be a great in-ring segment and pose the question as to how can Paul Heyman get into Cena's head as the road to WrestleMania begins?

3.) Bray Wyatt/Dean Ambrose Continues ? 

Something's got to give in this feud here right? We seen a TLC Match and a Boot Camp Match between both of these gentleman and after last week's SuperSmackDown LIVE it seems that the feud between Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose will continue. Here's the question I pose to you the fans of Condo On The Moon. What does Dean Ambrose and Bray Wyatt do at WrestleMania? More importantly where's the conclusion to this feud? I think we may see the conclusion to this feud either the first Raw of 2015 or at the Royal Rumble in some type of gimmick match. What gimmick match will it be? There's been some reports about a potential Bray Wyatt/Undertaker program at WrestleMania and who knows maybe that program can brews out of a Casket or Buried Alive Match at the Royal Rumble. I think both Bray Wyatt and Dean Ambrose has great futures ahead of them, but we'll see what happens on the show tonight

4.) Ryback vs. Rusev 

This is the perfect feud for both Ryback and Rusev at the current stage of their career. I think that a Ryback and Rusev program can go from now to WrestleMania. Especially when it comes to the Royal Rumble/WrestleMania season alot of people get lost in the shuffle and it's very unfortunate. I don't know if they'll have the United States Championship Match at the Royal Rumble or both men will be in the Royal Rumble Match. I think both Ryback & Rusev are underrated and underappreciated for what they can do in that ring. Rusev laid out Ryback on the stage on Super SmackDown LIVE. I hope what comes out of this feud is more characteristics from both Ryback & Rusev in a Heel and Face perspective. I think that the Big Guy will seek some type of retribution on Rusev tonight, but I don't think it will happen I think Lana will come out and cut a promo and then Ryback interrups and then Rusev runs away.

5.) Roman Empire 

The return of Roman Reigns has been endured with anger and frustration from the smart wrestling fans. A lot of people and yours truly doesn't believe that Reigns deserves to be in the main event of WrestleMania this year. Here's the thing we say that he doesn't deserved to be in the main event because he's being shove down our throats like Batista was last year, but in this case I don't feel that Reigns deserves to be in the main event of WrestleMania this year because it's not his time yet and he's still young. I think we may see another match between Reigns and Fandango. They're going to build Reigns up the moon and we have no control over it. I want Reigns to succeed I'm a fan of his I got his t-shirt at home and I love the slogan on shirt "One Versus All". I hope Reigns has a great career and I just think right now it's too much too soon that's my only issue with Roman Reigns.

Hope you guys enjoy Monday Night Raw tonight and I hope you guys and girls have a wonderful christmas and a wonderful new year. 2014 has had it's ups and downs and I think in 2015 things will get alot better for the WWE and it will be a fun ride to WrestleMania 31. I hope you guys enjoyed this preview and we'll talk to you later on in the week.

Follow Me on Twitter @JoshLopezCSR

Follow Condo On The Moon @CondoOnTheMoon

Condo On The Moon Podcast 42: Happy Holidays

This is our last podcast of 2014 we look back on the year in wrestling for WWE, ROH and TNA. We talk about what NXT is doing right and WWE isn't. It has been a pleasure talking wrestling with you for the majority of 2014 and look forward to continuing to do it for 2015.


Thanks to Chris Walder and Josh Lopez for their help with the podcast. Also thanks to the folks at ROH that have provided us with lots of chances to talk with their talent this year. We wish them the best of luck in 2015. Also Adam Cole get well soon.

You can catch our podcast over on Podomatic and listen via I-Tunes from there if you are unable to listen to it here.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.

5 Talking Points Coming Out of WWE Raw

Last night's WWE Monday Night Raw had alot of gaining interest with the events coming out of the WWE TLC PPV. The road to the Royal Rumble began last night with special guest general manager Chris Jericho. Brock Lesnar made an impactful return to the WWE and John Cena took on Seth Rollins in a Steel Cage Match. Here's the five things I took away from last night's Monday Night Raw.

1.) Fox News Announce Team 

You ask the regular wrestling fan, Who got you hooked into professional wrestling? My answer is always Jim Ross, I started falling in love with wrestling/sports-entertainment because the story telling aspect from the ring and also on the commentary. I know that Michael Cole, JBL and Jerry Lawler is trying their best to put on a entertaining performance every single week and it's alot to cover with the bevy amount of programming the WWE producer, but last night was another reoccurance of the JBL show where he talks over everybody and it's the constant back and forth barbing between him and Cole and then again Jerry tries his 1990's one liners which are outdated and once again you sit three hours of Raw and once again you don't get anything from the announce because they don't give you a reason to care about the stuff that goes on WWE programming. I go out of my way to find the positives in wrestling and now with being a wrestling analyst I'm more paying attention to what's in the ring and I decided to mute the commentary. Unless it's a in-ring promo I mute Raw because I don't know anybody that would want to listen to Bill O'Reilly, Mitt Romney and Wolf Blitzer for three hours I just throw my hands up in the air. I can be enjoying the show for what it is, but listening to announce team is like listening to a three hour news radio show and I honestly think it's the commentary team that drags these shows down.

2.) Roman Reigns Short and Sweet 

Coming out of WWE TLC, I was really feeling that Roman Reigns was going to be treated like Batista and I'm glad that Reigns got the pop he got last night. Roman Reigns came down during a in-ring promo with Fandango and spear Fandango and then Big Show came out and what made Reigns stand out to me last night, was that Reigns was short and sweet to his point he warn Show "Don't come down here unless you want to get punch in the face" What happens? Show comes down to the ring and Reigns gives him the superman punch. I think we'll see Roman Reigns vs. Big Show program heading towards the Royal Rumble and WWE Fast Lane. WWE will throw as many "Big" performers towards Reigns direction to prepare him for Brock Lesnar. To avoid the same thing that happen with Batista last year, try to go out of your way to convince the fans that they're multiple people that can really win the Royal Rumble match and try to not make it so freaking obvious. Also what will help Reigns is that while he's trying to get his character down, have him cut as short of promos as he can possibly can plus keeping the bad ass persona. I liked what I've seen from Roman Reigns last night and we found out that Reigns will be in a match on SmackDown tonight we'll see what happens on Super SmackDown Live!

3.) Raw Is Jericho! 

I enjoyed seeing Chris Jericho on Raw last night. I don't know why you need 23 minutes to set the hook for the two main events of the show, but the promo wasn't that bad until John Cena came out. Rollins may have a good point when he called Cena a coward especially with his "white meat" baby face persona and then he goes out there and question Rollins man hood and acts so tough when tells Rollins oh go to the corner let the big boys talk. WOW YOU'RE TOUGH BRO I'M SUPPOSED TO BE SCARED OF YOU LOL. I enjoyed the interaction Jericho had with Rusev and Lana because he was trying to point out the characteristics that we don't know about Rusev and Lana even though he was treating Lana like Stephanie McMahon. I kinda wish we do see a Ryback/Rusev program that intrugies me alot. I don't get how everybody was moaning about the bevy of stipulations in the Jericho/Heyman match and i'm sitting back during the show and i'm like why are making a big freaking deal over a stipulation when the match is barely even going to happen. Overall with the nice 70's rock references and old school Jericho promos I enjoyed seeing Jericho. I'm not sure if they're are going to do another Jericho/Fandango program, but hopefully Jericho is effective the next time he comes back to the WWE.

4.) The Beast is Here!

Well it was nice to see the WWE Champion brace us with his presence last night. I'm a fan of Brock Lesnar don't get me wrong, but he hasn't done jack crap for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. I never wanted him to be the champion and if anything I wanted him to have a Rock esque title reign, but that's not where we are right now. I don't understand why we need Brock to become champion just because he defeated The Undertaker at WrestleMania. Brock could have done the same thing with Cena and take him out and then at the Royal Rumble this year he would could have won the championship and then lose it to Reigns at WrestleMania 31. I liked the Brock interaction with Jerich it was short and sweet it was kind of predictable with the time slot of that match between Jericho/Heyman since it was during the half time of the Saints/Bears game. Brock also came out later that night and laid out John Cena during his Steel Cage Match with Seth Rollins and made a major statement heading towards their final battle at the Royal Rumble. Brock Lesnar will be back on Raw on December 29th in Washington D.C. It is what it is we'll see Lesnar one week and he won't be there the next week and I would be surprise if he shows up on any of the Raws toward WWE Fast Lane. Regardless it was nice to finally see Brock Lesnar and hopefully this expermient project comes to a end.

5.) Steel Cage Match

I personally enjoyed the Cage match between Rollins and Cena more than I enjoyed the Tables Match at WWE TLC. I find it interesting how Joey Mercury always finds a way to make himself busted open. I thought it was cool seeing Rollins winning the match after being made to look like a complete and other joke earlier in the show. The handshake between Rollins & Heyman was sure interesting maybe some foreshadowing just in case Brock doesn't head into WrestleMania as WWE World Heavyweight Champion. 25 minutes was the estimated time for this steel cage match and despite Cena's lack of in-ring skills these gimmicks matches does provide the outlet for Cena to hide his weaknesses. Overall good match I thought Rollins is gaining a lot of this as a heel due to Lesnar interference, but I think the WWE made the right choice with Rollins winning last night.

Overall I thought WWE Monday Night Raw was okay it wasn't earth shattering. We got a couple things confirmed for the Royal Rumble which I like. I like that they did hit everything they needed to hit with the fallout of the pay-per-view. I felt really bad for The New Day that Detroit was pretty bogus and for fans to say they want new characters and this and that and when somebody tries to do something different they shit all over it. I thought the commentary drag the show down for me. I always like Kane and now I like him more since he not only choke slammed the Bunny and Adam Rose he also tombstone The Bunny. I gave this Raw a C+ and I think that's fair we won't have balls to wall Raw's heading to the Royal Rumble especially since there's 5 weeks left, but we'll see what happens next. What's your thought's on last night's Monday Night Raw?

Follow Me on Twitter @JoshLopezCSR and my radio show @PWEShow

We're live with the Pro Wrestling Experience tomorrow from 10am-1pm CT on Chicagolandsportsradio.com talking about WWE TLC, NXT R Evolution, RAW + Royal Rumble. We'll take your phone calls 1-312-564-7375

5 Things To Expect on WWE Monday Night Raw

Coming off the heels of last night's WWE TLC PPV on the WWE Network, WWE heads to Detroit, Michigan as the road to the Royal Rumble begins tonight. We have a new Intercontinental Champion, John Cena is still the number one contender to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Dean Ambrose looks to rebound from Bray Wyatt, Miz & Mizdow are still WWE Tag Team Champions and "The Powerhouse" Roman Reigns is back. Tonight show is going to be very interesting than your usual PPV fallout show. Chris Jericho will be the special guest general manager for Raw tonight and WWE World Heavyweight Champion "The Beast" Brock Lesnar makes his return to WWE for the first time since Night of Champions. It's going to be fun a night and here's five things to look forward to on tonight's Monday Night Raw.

1.) Chris Jericho as Raw General Manager 

"Would you please SHUT THE HELL UP?!" Sorry I had to do that, tonight former WWE Champion and WWE Legend Chris Jericho comes back to the WWE to serve as special guest general manager for Monday Night Raw. It's always nice to Jericho on WWE programming, I wonder what he has instore for tonights show. Maybe Jericho sets up series of Royal Rumble Qualifying Matches I think that would be a great idea since were 6 weeks away from the Royal Rumble PPV. I think we may see Jericho start the show, but here's the thing I think we may see Seth Rollins come out and complain about losing to John Cena and maybe Rollins challenges Jericho to a match. I know it's out there, but I wouldn't be suprised if we saw Rollins vs. Jericho and then after the match Rollins + J&J Security attack Jericho and try to do the triple powerbomb and cue in Randy Orton's music, Orton returns and we start the Rollins/Orton program.

2.) Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena III

 After a very chaotic Tables Match at TLC, John Cena will officially head towards the Royal Rumble to take on the Beast Brock Lesnar for his WWE World Heavyweight Championship. I'm sure we'll hear a in-ring promo from Cena tonight and who knows maybe Cena will take on The Big Show again tonight and then after the match Brock Lesnar comes out and gives Big Show a F5 as a message to Cena. Or we can see Brock and Paul Heyman come out to the ring and have a face to face in-ring promo to sell the PPV which I don't think it's a bad thing. Especially when it comes to aftermath of PPV's you have to sell your audience as to why we have to wait six weeks for this next event. Either options works well for me and I'm actually looking forward the final battle between Brock and John Cena. I saw John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar at Extreme Rules 2012 live in person and I've loved all the other matches they partcipated in since that match, so this Royal Rumble match will be very intruging to yours truly because I'm not sure if Brock will be heading towards WrestleMania 31 as WWE World Heavyweight Champion

3.) Ambrose/Wyatt Fallout 

I loved the TLC match between Ambrose and Wyatt last night, but the finish to that match left me scratching my head because I don't know where these two guys go next. That's the big million dollar question we as fans have to pay attention to aside from the part timers because you know everbody says that the WWE only focuses on John Cena, but Dean Ambrose just main evented two out of the last three PPV's and WWE has also took their time to build stars like Ryback, Seth Rollins, Dolph Ziggler, Erick Rowan, Luke Harper and Bray Wyatt. You ask yourself out of all the part timers that we'll see at WrestleMania this year where do these guys fit into the card? I think Ambrose will come out with a full head of steam and anger and will take on Luke Harper on Raw tonight. If they want to continue this feud we can see maybe a Last Man Standing Match between Wyatt and Ambrose at the Royal Rumble. I think out of everything that came out of last night's TLC PPV this Wyatt/Ambrose feud is the only feud I still had questions about. We'll see what happens tonight.

4.) TLC Mid-Card Fallout + Royal Rumble Build 

I mention earlier in this piece that I would like to see a series of Royal Rumble Qualifying Matches. As far as the WWE Divas Championship feud between AJ Lee and Nikki Bella is concern, I think that we'll see AJ Lee vs. Brie Bella again due to the hair spraying incident that occured last night. As far as Dolph Ziggler/Luke Harper is concern I think both men will be in the Royal Rumble match. I see a rematch coming between Miz & Mizdow vs. The Usos at the Royal Rumble usually at the Royal Rumble the WWE always wants at least one Tag Team Title match on the show and with a rowdy Philadelphia crowd I think that would be a great opportunity to debut The Ascension that night. I think Rusev and Swagger will be in the Rumble match as well, we may see this match happen tonight in case they got nothing for Rusev tonight. Ryback/Kane enter them into the Rumble Match along with Big Show and Erick Rowan. We may see The New Day vs. Gold & Stardust again tonight on Raw. I'm always concern for mid-card guys during this time of the year, but I'll keep hope that some of these guys do get spotlight on the road to WrestleMania.

5.) Roman Reigns Return

"The Powerhouse" Roman Reigns is back. Here's the thing I'm a Reigns fan and coming out of the CM Punk Podcast and this Superstar of the Year fiasco, I really feel that this guy is going to be treated just like Batista last year and it's pisses me off to be honest with you. Reigns is a young guy he's not in the position Batista was in last year, but here's the thing whether you or I agree that Reigns deserves to be in the main event of WrestleMania is subjective. I want to hear from Reigns tonight and he needs to hit the ball out of the ballpark tonight because his promo last night at WWE TLC was absolutely attrocious. Do we see Roman Reigns vs. Big Show on the road to WrestleMania since the WWE is prepairing Reings for Brock Lesnar? I think we may see Roman Reigns vs. Kane again tonight and it is what it is there's nothing we can do about it, Daniel Bryan is not here and we're on the road to beginning of the Roman Empire. Believe That!

That's 5 things to expect on tonight's WWE Monday Night Raw. Tell me what you think? What would you guys like to see happen on Raw tonight? Follow me on Twitter @JoshLopezCSR for live coverage of Raw and check out my radio show "The Pro Wrestling Experience" every Wednesday from 10am-1pm CT on Chicagolandsportsradio.com

5 Talking Points Coming Out of WWE TLC

Let’s face fact TLC has a lot to live up to after the NXT special earlier this week. A similar feeling was in the air prior to the Payback event earlier in the year. It was said at that time that the main roster felt insulted and challenged that people though the NXT crew could put on a better show than they could. Payback turned out to be one of the better events of 2014 that was headlined by a wild match with The Shield vs. Evolution. This time around, you wonder if the roster will step up again. Most of the roster seems fairly insulted by Vince McMahon’s comments on the Stone Cold Steve Austin podcast. Most are aware of his comments about this generation being afraid to fail and that no one was stepping up and grabbing that brass ring. Something even Triple H had fun with after the NXT event saying he was all out of brass rings.

This all being said this card does the roster no favors on putting on a quality show. The two top matches see Bray Wyatt going against Dean Ambrose in a TLC match, which should be good. Bray’s best matches have been in situations like this where you throw the rulebook out the window. It could be the main event but more likely, it will be Seth Rollins taking on John Cena in a tables match. If John loses, he is no longer the number one contender. Brock Lesnar is scheduled to return on Raw tomorrow and likely will start to set up Lesnar vs. Cena III for the Royal Rumble. It will be the third WWE Championship match between the two in the last 12 months.

Where this card suffers are matches underneath the two main event caliber matches. Kane vs. Ryback in a steel chairs match could and likely will be a train wreck. Eric Rowan in his first real singles feud takes on the Big Show in a stairs match. This also could stink out the joint. Dolph Ziggler against Luke Harper is the one match that could steal the show. Their ladder match for the I-C title in Dolph’s hometown should be quite the spectacle.  Ziggler though after being booked strong at Survivor Series has found his way quickly back to the mid-card. WWE also has a terrible history of allowing the hometown hero to go over in matches. This also could be the last match of A.J Lee’s WWE career. Lots of evidence to suggest this including A.J on commentary slipping intentionally or unintentionally that Cole and JBL would miss her when she is gone. She tried to cover-up by saying after she was off commentary for the match they were calling, but it sure didn’t seem like that is what she meant.

So... what are the five things will expect coming out of this TLC event.

1. John Cena confirms himself as the number one contender for a returning Brock Lesnar on Monday. Seth Rollins is very good but I can’t see him getting a win in a high profile match over Cena. I also can’t see him cashing in on Brock Lesnar or attempting to on Raw the next night as been rumored for Monday. In the end, the WWE has proven repeatedly they only truly have faith in John Cena. Vince McMahon made the claim he is only guy in the last decade to grab the brass ring. You know those things C.M Punk called imaginary in his famous pipe bomb promo.

2. Good bye A.J Lee we will miss you. It seems pretty clear this time that A.J Lee is going to fail in her attempt to become a 4-time Divas Champion. It seems clear she in not long to remain in this company from a bunch of her recent on air comments when you read between the lines. The scariest thing of all is that leaves the Diva’s division in the hands of Nikki Bella. May the Lord help us all that like women’s wrestling with that being the case.

3. Dolph Ziggler goes back to the mid-card. I firmly believe that in terms of Dolph Ziggler pushes it has become a situation that is like that of the story of Lucy and Charlie Brown. The WWE is Lucy holding that football and we are Charlie Brown looking to kick that football. We foolishly believe she will not pull away that football this time. Even though she has for years now pulled that football away.  I have lost faith in the WWE having faith in Dolph Ziggler to be anything of significance. Even in winning the I-C title that would put him back to where he was at prior to Survivor Series.

4. Roman Reigns is not on this card. Still will the booking of this card set him up to return with a bang? WWE logic would be to hold everyone else back so Roman can make his big run to a title match with Brock at Wrestemania 31. That is kind of a cynical way to look at things but honestly in the back of your head it kind of makes sense with how the WWE thinks.

5. Will Punk Fans be heard in Cleveland? WWE since the C.M Punk news have avoided traditionally smart crowds to this point. When you consider A.J Lee might be in her last match and Ryback could be in a stinker of a match will this lead to C.M Punk chants and silly stuff in Cleveland. Does Cleveland even care with Johnny Manzel making his debut as starter for the Browns? Will see what happens but this could be one of those nights where the crowd might inject itself into the show.

I can’t imagine this show has a snowball’s chance in hell of topping NXT R-Evolution. I just don’t see it as TLC traditional can lead to just some bad matches due to the restrictions of so many matches having silly unnecessary gimmicks. Raw actually looks to be the more interesting three hours of viewing with Brock and Roman Reigns both scheduled to appear on the show. Get use to seeing a lot of Roman Reigns he even made an appearance on the NXT show to do an interview that had little to do with the event itself.

TLC won’t be worth your 9.99 but NXT already gave you your value earlier in the week.