Raw - January 17, 2011 - Little Rock, AR

Raw kicked off with John Cena making his 1st in-ring appearance of 2011. As Cena was speaking of taking down CM Punk tonight & winning the Royal Rumble to get the WWE title back in his hands, WWE Champion The Miz & Alex Riley showed up to have their say. In the middle of that, The Miz announced that the Royal Rumble match will not have 30, but 40 participants in it this year! As Cena & the Miz continued to exchange words, CM Punk and his new Nexus appeared, announcing that they too will be in the Rumble match. Afterwards, Nexus began to assault Cena until Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov came out to help. Moments later, the Raw GM announced that in the Punk-Cena match, Nexus would be barred from ringside.




Santino & Kozlov stayed in the ring after the break, for they were scheduled to defend their WWE Tag Team Championship against the Usos. A good match, but after Kozlov knocked Jey Uso out of the ring, it allowed Santino to execute the cobra on Jimmy and successfully defend their titles.




Due to his success over the past few weeks, John Morrison was involved in a non-title match with the United States Champion Daniel Bryan. This match was one of many classics to come this year as both men gave it their all. However, one good knee to Bryan's head was just enough for John Morrison to come away with a big win. As the two shook hands in respect, King Sheamus came out and proclaimed he would throw both of them out of the ring at the Royal Rumble & headline WrestleMania.




In a battle of #1 contenders, Dolph Ziggler of SmackDown took on Randy Orton. A great back-and-forth match, but as Dolph went for his zig-zag finisher, Orton countered it with a RKO and came away with the victory. But Orton would not have long to celebrate as The Miz & Alex Riley ran out and attacked Orton. Jerry "The King" Lawler tried to help out, but it wasn't enough, for The Miz was a mission to send a statement to Orton, 2 weeks before his title defense at the Royal Rumble.




Eve & Melina were at ringside with Micahel Cole as they witnessed the match between the Divas Champion Natalya and Maryse. Natalya proved to be too much for Maryse as she became another victim of the sharpshooter. After the match, Ted DiBiase came out in attempt to calm Maryse down, but she was so furious that she called him a loser & that he would never win the Royal Rumble.




Moments after Maryse dissed DiBiase, he issued an over-the-top-rope challenge to anyone in the locker room. Unfortuntely for him, the challenge was met by Mark Henry. After Henry made short work of DiBiase, the rest of the Raw locker joined in on the fun, but Mark Henry further proved his dominance as he gains momentum going into the Royal Rumble. But all was interrupted when Alberto Del Rio, driving in the arena on another classic car, continued to proclaim that winning the Royal Rumble was his destiny.




All night long, CM Punk preached the word "faith" to his Nexus members, and he was ready to show it against John Cena. Even though it's been a while, CM Punk showed no signs of ring rust against Cena. The two went back and forth until a mysterious big man showed up in the ring. With a smile on his face, CM Punk stood up and allowed the man to kick him straight in the face, thus causing CM Punk to win the match by disquailification. The rest of Nexus came out to confront the big man, but Punk held them back & put a Nexus armband on him. With the new Nexus now at 5 members, only one could wonder what'll happen next week on Raw, live from the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, MI.




*NEXT WEEK - Detroit will hopefully learned the identity of the 5th member of the new Nexus. Plus, it's champion vs. champion as the World Heavyweight Champion Edge of SmackDown takes on the WWE Champion The Miz. From the Joe Louis Arena, home of the 11-time Stanley Cup Champion Red Wings, it's MONDAY NIGHT RAW*