*OFFICIAL* Raw Discussion Thread: February 18th, 2013

[Majin HoHo]

United States: Live, Monday Night, February 18th, at 8/7c on the USA Network

United Kingdom: Tuesday Morning, February 19th, at 1AM on SkySportsHD3

Where
Bridgestone Arena
Nashville, TN

What to Expect
-Who left the Elimination Chamber PPV as the true People's Champion in their mind, Punk or the Rock?
-Who is the number one contender for the World Heavyweight Title going into Wrestlemania 29?
-Did Del Rio overcome the Giant Big Show?
-Sheamus/Ryback and Cena, were they able to fend off the Shield or were they victims to injustice?
-Did Kaitlyn fight off Ms.Super Fly after the Chamber and retain the title?
-Miz, was he was awesome enough to win the United States Title from Cesaro after the Chamber PPV?
-Where does Dolph Ziggler go from here, leading into Wrestlemania?!

[RyPrax]

ONCEINALIFETIME(TM)

[Awesome]

We finally have a new WWE Championship... and I don't like it. (Also, according to WWE.com, the guys from "American Chopper" helped with it. - WWE.com: The making of the new WWE Title: How the WWE Championship was reinvented in 540 days)



What I really wanted was to return to the Attitude Era belt, that one just always looked the best to me.



As for the rest of the show, I got the impression from Cole and Lawler at the start of the Cesaro/Miz match that it would be for the United States Championship, yet it obviously turned out not to be.

I guess they are building it up to a WrestleMania match between the two, but doesn't so many matches between them lately dilute the interest there would be in it?

Despite my dislike for the new title, I liked how they handled the end of Raw, having Cena come out and end up being nailed from behind by Punk with the old title, and then Punk throwing it near him and telling The Rock that he wants the new title.

I did think that the stare-down between Punk and Rock lasted too long before Punk left though.

[narcolepsy]

Not a big fan of the new belt, don't like the blacked out center.  Didn't think it played well on camera as it's very dark and looks a lot more understated than the spinner belt (obviously).  Based on the generic template the WWE is selling on their website, it looks like they will change the sideplate logos based on who is champ rather than putting a nametag on it which could be interesting (and they can charge the customer to buy all the logos for their replicas).  Also, I think the belt as a whole should be a little bigger.  While the spinner belt was a little ridiculous, it fit the body of the wrestler.  This new belt looked like a little toy on Rock's shoulder.

As for Raw, the only thing that I find interesting is where does the Shield go from here...have to think they become tag champs soon since that division has fallen apart and Team Hell No is heading for a break up.  If the tag belts aren't going to be defended you might as well give it to the Shield for the next 3 months.

When Rock brought out the new belt, I though it might have been temporary because of the brahma bulls on it. I was hoping that they would set up a triple threat match at WM with Cena/Punk/Rock all walking in with their own respective belts and the winner gets to keep theirs and that CM Punk had his own design that was better than the spinner and the brahma belt.  However, it seems like the Rock's belt is the one that leaked on the internet 6 months ago so that's probably unlikely.

[chappers]

There's no need to bring back the attitude era belt, its been and gone and it will always be one of the designs for the WWE Championship, whether I like the design or not, I'd rather they do something different. Personally, I'm not a fan of the new design, it hardly looks that much different to the former design, parts of it seem incomplete and in general it looks incredibly tacky, like many of the belt designs in WWE right now.

[Adampro123]

I don't know how i feel about the championship but i do know it seemed kind of dark on TV i think the black behind the WWE logo hurts it. But it's nothing new and i do like it better than the old title.

[Leonardo Lunchbox]

That new title smells. I would have kept the old one, noone spun that shit for years until the Rock did last night.

[RyPrax]

I didn't like it at first but I like how it looks over the shoulder and I like the idea of the buckles on each side changing depending on who's holding the belt. But in terms of making it look less childish than the spinner belt, I think they failed.