I am happy for the MIZ and I look forward to watching next week.

Glad to see a hard worker and a fan get the belt.

It was great when CM Punk showed up. His facial expressions when Cole and Lawler talked were hilarious.

I knew the second Miz had his anxiety attack, he was cashing in. He is awesome. Never thought I would say that but he is.

that last 15-20 minutes of raw was the most exciting tv of the year. i just wish the bryan-dibiase match had been 5mins instead of 2 so that ortons first match would have ended after 11. when i saw how much time was left, it gave away miz was coming. still it had me on the edge of my seat with my heart thumping. i liked that there was actually some drama in the match. i wouldnt say im a mizfit, but i actually got a little emotional after he won. u could feel his emotions through the screen. when miz won mitb, i thought it could work out better for him if he failed to cash it in, but i think last night worked pretty damn well. i think this could be better for orton too, he lost alot of steam being a side player in the cena-nexus story.

I still remember a couple of years ago where yourself become an anti-miz and would bash him everytime he's on screen. [I also remember you writing about divas fighting over Miz on ECW years ago.] Now the guy is the WWE champion. He is indeed awesome

After the Orton-Cena hug, I truly thought Cena would come back at the end and turn heel, helping Barrett pin Orton.

Not excited about the MIZ being the GUY. This headed into the Wrestlemania ramp up is poor timing on the WWE's part. Now do we think Miz is really, really a Main Eventer at the biggest PPV in the WWE? No of course not. So he has to drop the belt sonner rather then later unless they go with the dreaded triple threat which I hate. Let's pray this is a one week abiration. Also how long did Orton hold the title? Very short reign for the new fan favorite. So next week I guess Barrett says he's un firing Cena and he'll have to face every member of Nexus in a guantlet at TLC. If he wins he stays if he loses he's gone for good.

I'm sorry, but the Nexus schtick has gotten old. I too have been watching the WWF/WWE since the 70's and it is time to move on with them. They need to get the new blood flowing like this Jackson charcter.

Being an Orton fan,at least if Orton is gonna drop the belt it was to Miz and not Barrett.I feel Wade hasnt earned it like Miz.

But i do feel though that Miz and his fans better thank HBK nad Batista for retiring and for HHH and Taker being out most of the year w/ injuries though because if it wasnt for that hed still be a mid carder.

Cena's "farewell" promo went a little long, but I can see the guy really enjoys being the "face" of the WWE and his fans, so it wasn't all bad.

What was bad was The Miz coming out of NOWHERE and winning the championship belt. I think the look at this girl's face, http://twitpic.com/39e9kw, pretty much sums up my thoughts about him winning last night. It was just like, huh?

Honestly, my opinion on both The Miz and Cena are biased since I'm a huge Barrett fan and I think he deserves to be champ, but I'm curious to see how this plays out. Will the WWE have Orton take revenge or will the Nexus slowly break The Miz down for the Championship... or is someone else waiting in the wings? Interesting.

My prediction is that Cena will be back in time for the Rumble.

Oh, and can the WWE finally reveal for the RAW GM is? I can't stand Michael Cole and his "Cole Miners." Ugh.

Wow, Teddy Stigma and Ravishing Rick have appeared with Bischoff and McMahon in the same week. Too bad Teddy didn't return the favor and trash the TNA belt...er....title on WWE TV just like Madusa did to the WWE Women's title.

I think Cena said it best "Karma is a bitch" Barrett got what he deserved and so did The Miz. I'm happy for the Miz just like I was when Eddie G. and Chris Benoit won their first WWE titles.

Since super Cena was "fired" one can only hope that TNA will follow suit and really fire super Dreamer.

Is Tommy Dreamer the Brett Favre of pro wrestling? Both of them should retire already.

Speaking of retirements...I was watching the old AWA on ESPN Classic and saw a young Eric Bischoff interview Baron Von Rascke. I guess the Baron was to the 1980's what Ric Flair is now. A guy who should have hung them up a while ago and saved their legacy in wrestling from the beating it was/is taking from hanging around too long.

Yeah, a good Raw from start to finish. Usually I flip around quite a bit (especially during football season), but last night's show consistently held my interest.

Cena's promo was excellent. I'm not a fan of the guy, but he gives it his all, and he gets it. He's had the best year of his career, I think, between the Batista feud and the Nexus program.

Punk really added a lot to the show, and Lawler seemed livelier then he has in ages. Ever since Cole started doing his heel gimmick, the King's seemed lost, as if he can't understand why he's the face announcer and not the heel. And a golf clap for Punk for pointing out what a terrible dancer Eve is.

My absolute favorite moment of the night, though, was after Miz pinned Orton, and they immediately cut to a little girl in the crowd with the same look on her face my 3-year old gets when I tell her she can't have a cookie. Fantastic.

Hey Kev when do you expect Cena back when he is done shooting his movie after the Royal Rumble perhaps i like the way the WWE showed all the kids disappointment and the one kid who had a mean look on her face .

Good for Miz. Inject some new blood into the WWE World Title mix. Plus good for Stigma for getting on both WWE and TNA. Jobs are scarce out there, so you gotta go where the jobs are.

WWE Champion The Miz! Kinda makes me wonder what would've happened if the fans had voted for then-ECW Champion CM Punk to wrestle Viscera at Cyber Sunday 2008...

It was his selection by the fans (presumably because they wanted to give the babyface Punk an "easy" win) that led WWE to pair him with fellow option John Morrison as a tag team, and it was there that both men proved themselves as truly valuable commodities to WWE.

Good for the Miz. I remember him from his Real World New York days when he used to pretend to be a professional wrestler named the Miz. All around good story. I'm proud of him.

Bummer about Melina with Morrison. I guess that mean's she's going to stop calling me.

That was probably the best MITB cash-in match yet. This wasn't just a champ is unconscious, challenger hits his finisher, done deal. The way Orton fought back, they had me genuinely believing that Orton will prevail and Miz will become the first MITB challenger in history to lose. Short, but fantastic match, even going all the way to Orton entering his finishing routine of setting up the RKO and then Miz's victory ended up seeming like the surprise! Awesome!

Will jhon cene be back on raw and what about triple h and vince

The era of awesome is here! Let the party begin! I'm so, so glad that Miz was able to cash in his shot and win the title. I was so afraid that they were going to make him the first one to lose after cashing it in.

I know you referenced it in your post, but Kev, could you comment in more detail on exactly how the Miz caused you to do a 180 degree turn with your opinion of him?

For me, the Miz has gone from a guilty pleasure to must-see TV on Monday nights. For the last few months, and really, since he first called out John Cena, he is the main reason I tune in on Monday nights.

I'm not stupid enough to think that he'll still be the champ come Wrestlemania time. I see his first reign lasting no longer than the Royal Rumble. But, given all the crap he's put up with in front of and behind the curtain, he stayed focused and worked his butt off. He deserves everything positive that comes his way.

Congrats to The Miz. He is the champ and he is AWESOME!!!

Hey Kev,
I agree, that was a great RAW, especially the last quarter hour or so! But I could have sworn that I saw the ref count 3 when Barrett pinned Orton. I'm pretty sure that Cena didn't get there in time when he pulled Barrett out of the ring...You clearly see the ref count twice and then right before Cena pulls Barrett off, the ref hit the mat a 3rd time with Barrett still on Orton at that point. No one said anything but I'm almost positive that's what happened.. Did you or anyone else notice that??

OK, Eck......ya basically cried in your column because Orton kept the title and Miz didn't cash in at Survivor Series........are ya happy now???

When Miz first came in to the WWE, I was not one of his fans and it has literally taken years for me to like Miz. I thought that within months of his debut on Smackdown in 2005 or 2006, I was pretty sure he was going to get the dreaded future endeavoured... oh how wrong I am now. Congrats Miz! You deserve it after everything you have done.

I think that little girl with the Sour Puss face at the end of RAW was a "plant"! Just ticked off at her parents for taking her to RAW instead of the Beauty shop for her Pink Hair Extensions!

The expression on the faces of the fans said it all when The Miz won the WWE title. The Miz as WWE champion? Really? People are going to tune out in droves.

What's so great about, "I'm the Miz and I'm awesome."? He might as well steal a little red corvette and party like it's 1983.

I thought the WWE was onto something when they crowned Sheamus champion. Now there's a wrestler with talent who knows how to use it. But alas the WWE has scraped the bottom of the barrel. I know I've said it before but last night the WWE had its David Arquette moment.

Somehow I have a bad feeling that Miz will have a JBL like reign and hold the championship for ten months, possibly a year. If that's the case then wake me up when this long national nightmare is over.

Kristina, I saw that girl's face last night on RAW and cracked up. If looks could kill Miz would have burst into flames where he was standing. :)

Absolutely pathetic. His last feud was with Pee Wee Herman for god sake...

He is a piss-poor excuse of a world champion, the worst WWE Champ since The Big Show.

Miz? Really

Great to see Miz with the strap. Curious to see if Morrison will gain enough momentum to feud with him.

then I Guess that teddy Stigma is my new hero for what he did to laycool

Any chance this begins a Morrison miz fued with wwe championship hype? I would love to see that. Morrison deserves better and hopefully he will get a shot soon. Morrison always seems to put on a good match. It might be a good time seeing that cena and triple h are out for Now and of course it would need to be done before wrestlemania. Seems logical to me but maybe that's just me rooting for it

ZOMG, that girl in the audience looked like she was just told she couldn't go to a sleepover. That look was my favorite part of Raw.

I think the WWE may have turned the corner for the better. My guess is they fired a bunch of writers last week and the new batch actually cared about the product.

The Miz is much more deserving than Sheamus. Good for the Miz...better for the WWE.

I'm surprised about the amount of 'haters' for The Miz on here. Most people, including myself, are pleased to see the WWE do something a bit different for a change. I do agree however that The Miz getting this title reign if RAW had it's full roster would be unlikely.

Also, the little girl's 'devil eyes' in the crowd is getting more mentions than the title switch..... And so it should, it was AWESOME! See what I did there?

It seems to me that the truly great champions are the ones who win unexpectedly. Would Stone Cold have been as big of a star if, instead of winning his first championship from HBK after a long and tiring match at WM 13 (?), he'd just attacked him after a Raw rematch and claimed the title?

Eventually, I think someone who wins Money in the Bank is going to have to not win the title. As it stands, MITB is essentially a championship rain check. They've proven that it can be dragged out for a while, but there's got to be an end game. It takes a bit of the excitement away when you know exactly who is going to take the title, if not when. The biggest problem is that is delegitimizes the new champion. As they are written, could The Miz have beaten Orton? Probably not. When it comes to the rematch, will Miz be able to win without cheating?

That said, naturally on the Monday I decided to sleep in and skip Raw, something worth watching happens. I'm glad to see that The Miz got the push, given that the alternative was Barrett. I'd like to believe that this means Nexus will be put on a back burner to slowly die. I'm all for fast-tracking new talent to become stars, but the amount of power and (seemingly) influence Nexus has hasn't been seen since HHH became a member of the McMahon family.

Hey ... I liked Gail Kim giving John Cena a good bye hug. She has given them to me before, but then I was not leaving WWE nor was I on TV. :).

I was really starting to get into The Miz even before he won the WWE championship because of his mike skills and developing charisma. This guy reminds me of The ROCK in his early days... I know many of you will strongly disagree but I can see The Miz growing even bigger now than he is in the main event card especially with a solid feud with Orton. One thing I like about The Miz is that he is captivating and comes across as confident in his abilities. He's not such a great in-ring worker but he's got a lot of energy that he brings into his fights and feuds... I can also see Morrison winning the king of the ring tournament and getting a big push. This is probably his last chance to break into the Main Event . Melina will probably become his manager again and I won't be surprised if he turns heel... It's nice and refereshing to see new faces going up the ladder in the WWE. This alone for me is a reason to watch.

My only question is will they keep the Miz at a main event level for a long time or bump him down after a few months when HHH or John Cena come back? I am very happy for the Miz winning even though I am not his biggest fan.

Congrats to Miz - nice to see people can still earn things in this business by working your but off and not through politics...

did anyone else catch Riley drop the F bomb on the ramp while he and Miz were posing to close the show? cant believe that didnt get beeped out

when cena came out i thought randy orton is going to stay wwe champion.then the miz came out then every thing changed.whats going to happen nexus.

Miz should be champ for his entrance music alone..

I CAME TO PLAY!

Nah, but i like him. Orton will have it back soon to set up Orton-Cena at 'Mania.

I have been watching wrestling 4 over 30 years. I am dissapointed for what happenned to Cena, and how it happen. The match he lost and how he lost it with the interference of Husky, it was a set up orchestrated for Barret. I am very dissapointed for Cena leaving WWE. How wrestler(s) becoma champions, win matches (Nexus) remember what Cena says about win or loss on your own, no with outside help. My son and my daughter think the same way I am that is why we kind stop on watching wrestling .

Linda loses the senate race and now WWE went back to trying to entertain people. I'll be watching RAW again.

How anyone can bash Miz as a wrestler is beyond me. Kev summed it up perfectly, he paid his dues. He had to be the goofy "wannabe" when teamed with Morrison. His charisma and ability to own a mic spot is why he deserves it. Barrett is great, but the Nexus thing is a tune out. Sheamus is just Sheamus, that's why he deserves to job to Morrison.

I understand The Miz cashing in at the end of the show Monday night, but I think WWE would have been better served had he lost the match to Orton instead of winning the title. A p***ed-off Miz vs. Orton would have been a much more compelling story.

What was with John Cena's comment 'I'm going to go long and this will probably upset Billy Kidman' comment? Did I hear Billy Kidman? Is he working backstage in the WWE?

RESPONSE FROM KE: Yes, Kidman works as a producer with WWE and is responsible for keeping the show running on time.

The best part of Raw was CM Punk on commentary. I laughed out loud when Alex Riley came out in place of Miz and Punk said "Who is this?" Also, I liked when he called Maryse "Maurice."
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't one of the fans partaking in the "Cena sucks" chant wearing a Cena AWA-style shirt?

Also, during the Morrison-Kidd match:
Cole: "Morrison able to mold his body..."
Punk: "Wait, what?" That's exactly what I was thinking.

In response to Jason's comment, this was not the first time it was a quick, go in and pin the injured champion after one move. Back in 2006, RVD actually signed a match with John Cena for the WWE Championship when he cashed in MITB. Edge cost Cena the match, but that was the only real cashing-in match. With Melina and Morrison possibly back together, any chance we could see a MNM reunion when Mercury comes back? It would bring some more credibility to the tag division. Interesting note: if you had posted at the beginning of the year who all the champions would be at this time, would anyone have believed you? Kane (world champ), Miz (WWE champ), Dolph Ziggler (IC champ), Daniel Bryan (US champ), Natayla (divas champ), and Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel (tag champs).

Always felt that three guys are too much for a commentating team. This situation would work out much better if Lawler was limited to 2-3 lines for the entire show.

In my opinion the raw where the miz became wwe champion was the best this decade or ever!John cena has been my favourite wrestler ever since I started tuning into wwe I didn't really like the miz or think he was a good wrestler until the 2010 money in the bank match where I finally realised the miz's awesomeness.It was simply because he defeated some exceptional superstars like edge and randy orton.After that transpired John cens was still my favourite superstar until he recentely got fired.John cena will always be in my heart no matter how old i get.John cena is now gone for the moment although there has been speculation he might return as a man called juan cena.Or might just return as john cena but until then the new wwe champion The miz is my favourite wwe superstar