4 Ups & 8 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw (Dec 14)

3. Holiday Ham

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When Raw opened with The Miz in the ring as part of a Dirt Sheet segment and reading from a faux holiday book, there were mixed emotions abounding.

Hearing the late Howard Finkel’s voice introducing the segment (as he did in the past) was endearing. But seeing Miz doing the same segment he and John Morrison did 12 years ago gave you a feeling of dread. The story, “The Nightmare Before TLC,” meant we could get a decent tale or a horribly cheesy one.

Thankfully, AJ Styles and Morrison (and Miz) hammed it up to the Nth degree, with JoMo portraying a Braveheart version of Drew McIntyre. It was so over-the-top that it couldn’t but be funny, as if everyone knew the material was cheesy and dull, so they turned up the ham to compensate – and it worked.

Even the stuff with Miz ad-libbing that he was going to cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase, and AJ throwing a Christmas tree at Sheamus worked. As far as holiday-themed segments go, this one wasn’t bad at all.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.