This Week in WWE: AJ Lee Rattles Big Red Machine With A Look

Fail of the week: Michael Cole "the announcer" is involved in yet another wrestling angle After last week's poor 2.7 rating, the WWE predictably built this week's Raw around a returning John Cena who was permitted by John Laurinaitis to pick an opponent of his choice. As Michael Cole had just been busy running his mouth on the poster boy moments earlier Cena decided to get revenge by taking out his frustrations on the cocky announcer. It transpired later that Cena would actually have to defeat Lord Tensai in order to get his desired match-up and watching Cole act all smug and mighty on commentary again after having been terrified throughout the show was quite magnificent. What wasn't quite so magnificent however was what occurred moments later when Cena prevailed against Tensai and proceeded to humiliate Cole by pouring barbecue sauce all over him and spraying him with a fire extinguisher before forcing him to apologise to Jim Ross and Jerry the King Lawler on commentary. Whilst Michael Cole being embarrassed might have been amusing once, it is just all too sad and familiar now and given that he is still a full time announcer accomplishes nothing. Cole is not a manager like Jim Cornette who can retaliate by sending a monster like Yokozuna or Vader after Cena the following week and so the big pay off of this segment is simply that we get to have some "fun" by seeing an announcer being put in his place. This does nothing for any of the wrestlers on the roster who are desperate for main event opportunities nor does it make anyone more excited to see John Cena wrestle the Big Show at No Way Out. The promising news from all of this however was that CM punk managed to gain more viewers in his match with Kane than Cena's main event with Michael Cole. Maybe this will convince them finally that people want announcers to announce and wrestlers to wrestle. Dishonourable Mention: Hornswoggle dressing up as JR in yet another petty dig at the company's all time greatest announcer. Move of the week: Drew Mcintyre sends Sin Cara flying off the apron with a mid air knee to the chest - (Smackdown) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqovvOzWR0o Gaffe of the week: "1,000, episodes of Raw, man, that is a lot of... episodes." Announcer Scott Stanford smoothly promotes Raw 1000 on Superstars. This week in WWE history5 Years Ago: John Cena put in a miraculous performance to carry the incompetent Khali to an entertaining falls count anywhere match at the One Night Stand PPV. On Raw the following night, a disgruntled Mr McMahon forced Cena to defend his title against both Khali and Umaga in the main event in a match which Cena won after knocking Umaga out of the ring and downing Khali with an FU for the successful pinfall. On Smackdown, World Heavyweight Champion Edge defeated Chris Benoit in a non title match but his attempts to attack Batista during the Animal's match with MVP backfired as Tista defeated the US Champ in another non title match-up in the main event. 10 Years Ago: On Smackdown, a 20 man battle royal was set up with the winner earning the right to face undisputed champion The Undertaker at the King of the Ring PPV. It came down to Hunter and Hogan who both landed on the outside at the same time and were forced to compete in singles action later in the night in a match in which Trips prevailed. 15 Years Ago: Mankind ended up attacking Jim Ross with the mandable claw following a backstage interview gone wrong, Austin accepted Bret Hart's challenge for a 5 on 5 tag match in Calgary and Raw got a taste of ECW as RVD fought Tommy Dreamer in a math that ended with Paul Heyman jumping the guard rail and being beaten up by Jerry Lawler. Over on Nitro, Lex Luger defeated Hogan in a non title match but was beaten up by the NWO afterwards who mocked Luger's ambition to face off against Hogan and Dennis Rodman at the Bash at the Beach PPV. Meanwhile the main event tag match pitting Flair and Piper against The Outsiders resulted in a mass brawl that concluded with Sting protecting DDP from the NWO with his baseball bat and escorting him up to the safety of the rafters. It was a bad week for Raw in the Monday Night Wars as its Rating slipped to a 2.2 (its lowest share since April) and Nitro moved up to a 3.4 for an easy victory.