Dolph Ziggler

With a special three-hour Raw, WWE had an opportunity to present a special go-home show to Sunday's Extreme Rules. That extra hour could mean lengthier matches, or more contests. Instead, the show featured the typical amount of wrestling featured in a routine two-hour episode and an overabundance of promos, segments and video packages, many of which were unnecessary. Perhaps the writers thought this should would actually build toward Extreme Rules, which at this point only has five announced matches, or maybe episodes like this show the lack of depth in the WWE roster.

Fans had many expectations heading into Sunday night's Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, fueled largely by Internet speculation. Rumors had been running rampant of returning superstars, changes to the world title matches and the addition of undercard bouts to round out a four-match card. In the end, some of the expectations proved true while others ultimately failed to materialize. Two injured superstars returned from injury -- albeit in an in-ring segment rather than matches -- while Santino Marella proved doubters wrong and Jack Swagger defended his United States Championship for the first time on pay-per-view.

Next month's Money in the Bank pay-per-view's signature namesake matches are shaping up to be a tale of two very different cities. On Monday's Raw, the first four participants in the Money in the Bank ladder match for a WWE Championship contract were announced: John Cena, Big Show, Kane and Chris Jericho. The stipulation was placed on the match that only former WWE Champions could be entered into the contest. Friday night's Smackdown featured five qualifying matches, with more promised for next week's live show.

If Paramount Pictures is searching for the perfect new summer blockbuster, they may want to take a look at "The Curious Case of Alberto Del Rio. " After failing to defeat Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Championship at Money in the Bank, many believed -- and several hoped -- Del Rio's time in the title picture had come to a close. Randy Orton was returning from injury, bringing back another legitimate main event star and filling a void at the top of the card. But WWE showed it wasn't quite done with the Del Rio experiment yet. Del Rio defeated Rey Mysterio soundly, earned a rematch for the world title and declared he was above the competition and wouldn't compete until his next world title match at SummerSlam.

I despise Teddy Long's performance as a general manager. Anyone who has listened to From the Rafters Radio has heard multiple rants on the subject. But I give the devil his due, and on tonight's Raw, Long played his role well. His on-screen appearances were kept to a minimum, and the decisions he made "off-screen" were a nice way to recognize and even troll the thoughts of the Internet fans, who have long mocked Long's fascination with tag team matches. It's true that Long's character had a hankering for multi-man contests, and that shined at full force tonight, as Raw featured three tag team matches.

WWE Championship defenses are a rarity on Smackdown. In the promotional build to CM Punk defending the title against Kane in the main event, WWE advertised it has been four years since it last happened. That alone made tonight's Smackdown feel special. Add to that the well-hyped return of Sin Cara, and it seemed apparent WWE actually cared about getting people to watch the blue brand this week. The result of that main event, though, will be a source of consternation among wrestling fans and Internet-writing purists.

It was the perfect final tableau for all players involved in the WWE championship triple threat match at Survivor Series.  CM Punk retained the title over Ryback and John Cena. Ryback, the massive monster on the rise, isn't hurt by not winning this match. The fact that he wasn't pinned preserves him as a credible threat. The NXT trio of Dean Ambrose, Roman Reigns and current champion Seth Rollins, all dressed in black, attacked Ryback and sent him through a table. This is beneficial because it adds an element of mystery (Why did they attack?

WWE "go home" shows always seem to be the most scrutinized. Often, pundits will cast away the past several weeks of television and focus most on the last Raw before a pay-per-view event, often with the same question -- did this show make me interested in buying the pay-per-view? While it's a fair question, perhaps its a skewed way to look at it when you are analyzing just one isolated show -- in particular, the closing moments of that show. If we were to do that for this past episode of Raw, then the closing segment did a very good job of creating interest and generating buys for the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view coming this Sunday.

As Sheamus walked down the RAW ramp to follow John Cena, he called Cena's promo "bizarre. " That it was. It did seem like Cena was at his most loose and comfortable, being goofy and interacting with the fans, talking about people's Sunday mornings and afternoons. What confused me was that this was among the very last images we saw six days before the Royal Rumble -- though the segment was saved by a locker room brawl in the ring, setting up the Royal Rumble match. I can't help but think of John Cena the campy, goofy joker vs. John Cena, the serious Superstar with a point to make.

"This debate is completely ridiculous. There's no reason for a debate. " It's an election year. We all know how the McMahon family loves itself an election year. But I think it's fair to say Big Show sufficiently covered all the bases with those two sentences. On Friday's Smackdown, Big Show defeated Randy Orton to become the No. 1 contender to Sheamus' World Heavyweight Championship. On Raw, the two were engaging in a debate, arguing about the Big Show's body odor and whose finishing move is move devastating.