Raw's Buzz kill, Bryan vs Cole & Over the Limit

It's been an interesting week with a lot going on in WWE. I'll start with the recent episode of Monday Night Raw hosted by Buzz Aldrin. While he deserves much respect for his accomplishments in space exploration and NASA, his Raw hosting job was lacking oxygen. The unfortunate thing was he added basically nothing to the show, and it was very obvious WWE was thinking they'd get a publicity moment out of his moonwalking in the ring. Didn't work so well. Buzz had trouble with his lines several times, couldn't really get the WWE Universe too excited, and even got drowned out when trying to introduce Gail Kim and Evan Bourne. It's almost like Mr. McMahon was calling the people in the truck and screaming at them - "Enough already! start Bourne's music I can't take any more of this!!" Kind of like the silly ads WWE ran trying to mock GEICO and other commercials. At least it once again gave something for Santino, Hornswoggle and Great Khali to do on Raw.

So who will take over as the Raw GM next week? That's going to be an interesting move. It could be a former wrestler, could be Linda McMahon to promote herself a bit for her Senate aspirations. Could be Vince McMahon returning to form, or maybe good ol' Stone Cold Steve Austin. And what about The Rock? He was supposed to host at one point but never came around. Would be great to see him in the GM position, but that's extremely wishful thinking.

Aside from some bad skits and Buzz Aldrin's issues, Raw was textbook in its approach to promoting the upcoming PPV. Nobody really lost who is heading into a big PPV match, they either were part of interferences or won against guys who won't be competing at OTL. Batista interfered in Cena's match against Sheamus, so Sheamus still hasn't really been defeated by Cena. Orton got attacked by Edge while fighting Jack Swagger, so Swagger didn't lose cleanly heading into his World Title match. The Undertaker part was interesting. He keeps lingering around for bits here or there, but hasn't appeared on Smackdown since WM26, only Raw. Strange.

We also have learned of a few new matches added to the OTL card, with Eve defending the Divas title in her first ever PPV appearance against Maryse. Also, R-Truth will battle Ted Dibiase. In a nice surprise, Dibiase has aligned himself with the original Virgil who accompanied his dad to the ring. Pretty cool to see him back again, and will be interesting to see how it plays out. I see someone else stepping in and eventually taking Virgil's job away. Maybe the currently injured Ezekiel Jackson?

Another problem with Raw, Bret Hart shouldn't be winning the US Title. I sort of get the reasoning behind it. Give him a big title win in Canada, after he had been screwed out of a title in Montreal years ago. That makes sense, but the way he won it was not really by his own wrestling, it was due to the assistance of The Hart Dynasty. Sure it builds up their feud and upcoming match against Jericho/Miz but it weaknes the US Title and Miz's title reign. Will they be retiring the US title after that, or holding a tournament to determine the champ after Bret retires? Maybe Hitman will just retire with the belt and it will no longer be contested. If that's the case, why have 2 womens titles?

Gotta admit the best event of the week so far has been seeing the Daniel Bryan and Michael Cole altercation on WWE NXT Tuesday night. Striker had both Bryan and Michael Tarver in the ring to discuss their recent eliminations by WWE management last week. Both guys said it was strange that management eliminated them, not a Pros poll. After a big rant, even calling out The Miz, Bryan turned his attention on Michael Cole, saying he's the only guy who won't admit he's got talent. Bryan ended up attacking Cole outside the ring, slapping off his headset and knocking Cole to the ground for a few kicks. It resulted in refs pulling Bryan away and Cole very heated afterwords. He said he was planning to press charges. Will be very interesting to see if that incident somehow gets Bryan back into the WWE because he showed the intensity and "IT" factor or fire that a superstar needs. Cole will not be happy if that's the case, but that certainly made for some good WWE TV. (In case you're wondering, Darren Young was the latest NXT rookie to go)

Coming up this week, we're still leading up to the Over the Limit PPV on Sunday in Detroit, MI. Thursday's Superstars has yet to announce matches on the WWE.com site. Smackdown will feature Big Show in action against Intercontinental Champ Drew McIntyre. Expecting Matt Hardy to get involved somehow, or Show to win that one heading into OTL. Drew McIntyre will also be in action at OTL as he defends the IC title against Kofi Kingston. Enjoy the close of the week and keep an eye out for my upcoming Over the Limit predictions!