The Keg Stand: Five Things I Want to See on RAW Every Week

In my opinion, WWE Monday Night RAW (I don't care that it's called "RAW Supershow" now) has not been very enjoyable lately. I rarely watch the entire show without turning the channel and a lot of the main events are not worth watching live. I was thinking about what I want to see on RAW and I thought of five things that RAW needs to try to do every week.

Here are the five things I want to see on RAW:

1. Good opening promo/match to start RAW
2. Continuation of storylines that were in the previous episode of RAW
3. Something that people will discuss over the next several days
4. A good advertised main event that people will want to see
5. A good ending to RAW that will make you wonder what will happen next week

I thought of those five things before RAW last Monday and surprisingly, I think this week's RAW met all of the five things I listed.

1. Good opening promo/match to start RAW

This week, RAW opened with WWE Hall of Famer "Rowdy" Roddy Piper interviewing John Cena. It was an amazing interview and one of the best John Cena segments I have seen this year. Piper explained to Cena that Cena is the face of the WWE and yet he gets booed all the time. That is something that has been happening for several years but the WWE is finally starting to acknowledge it. John Cena referred to some of his "best" moments in the WWE including getting booed in Chicago at three different events (the 2006 WWE Hall of Fame ceremony, WrestleMania 22, and Money in the Bank from last July). Cena also mentioned Unforgiven 2006 in Toronto and ECW One Night Stand 2006 (Wow 2006 was a bad year for Cena). Cena was booed at all five events and I was a little bit surprised the WWE allowed Cena to mention them. Instead of trying to ignore the fact that their face of the company is getting booed, the WWE is starting to embrace it and make a storyline out of it. I thought it was an excellent way to start RAW.

2. Continuation of storylines that were in the previous episode of RAW

Last week, The Miz injured R-Truth. This week, The Miz ended John Morrison's WWE career. It's good to see The Miz getting another push in the WWE. I'm looking forward to seeing what The Miz is going to do next week.

3. Something that people will discuss over the next several days 

The interview with Cena and Piper was very interesting and definitely left a lot of questions. Mick Foley had a conversation with John Cena two weeks ago and Rowdy Roddy Piper interviewed Cena this week so who will be the next WWE legend to have a one-on-one conversation with Cena? Will this storyline end with Cena turning heel? Will this storyline help Cena get more popular or will he be hated more than ever? What will happen when Cena visits Chicago, a city he mentioned on RAW, in less than one month? I'm curious to find out what will happen next. I don't like Cena but his storylines are usually interesting.

4. A good advertised main event that people will want to see

The advertised main event for RAW was CM Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio in a WWE Championship match. The WWE won't have WWE Championship matches every week but it's good to see them giving the fans a main event that the fans are interested in seeing. When I was younger, the RAW main events were past my bedtime and since it was the Attitude Era, most of the main events were ones that I would have liked to see (DVRs didn't exist 11 years ago although I don't know why I didn't just VCR record them and watch them later). If an advertised main event makes kids upset that they will have to miss it because of their bedtimes then it is a good main event. If the kids say, "It looks like I won't be missing anything important. I'm gonna go to bed early tonight so I can do some studying in the morning...good night Dad", that means the main event sucks and the WWE needs to advertise better main events.

5. A good ending to RAW that will make you wonder what will happen next week

RAW ended with CM Punk retaining his WWE Championship after defeating Alberto Del Rio. Although Punk losing his title would have been a more interesting ending, CM Punk's win was somewhat controversial. Before the match, RAW GM John Laurinaitis announced that if CM Punk got himself disqualified, he would lose the WWE Championship. During the match, Alberto Del Rio exposed one of the top turnbuckles. Punk won the match after hitting the GTS but instead of Del Rio's head hitting Punk's knee, his head hit the exposed metal turnbuckle. If I were booking next week's RAW, I would have Laurinaitis announce at the beginning of the show, "CM Punk illegally won his match last week using an exposed turnbuckle and therefore I am reversing the referee's decision. CM Punk is disqualified and Alberto Del Rio is the new WWE Champion." I'm not sure that is going to happen but I believe there's a good chance that it might happen. Laurinaitis doesn't like CM Punk and I'm looking forward to seeing how he reacts to CM Punk's win over Del Rio.

This week's RAW was entertaining to watch. It wasn't one of my favorite RAW episodes in 2011 but it was a solid show. I'm hoping next week's RAW can be better and hopefully the WWE will continue to do the five things I want to see on RAW.