By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

Originally Published last Monday after Raw.

Three Things That Must Happen On Raw Leading to the Rumble

(1) The Rock needs to get serious. Rock has deftly mixed comedy and seriousness in his first two weeks back on television building toward his WWE Title match against C.M. Punk at the Royal Rumble. However, next Monday's final Raw before the PPV needs to lean toward the serious side. Some comedy can help ease the final sales pitch into viewers's minds, but this needs to be Rock zeroed in on his target. "Six days. Time's up."

What would help would be that elusive mission statement of why Rock even cares about the WWE Title. When he's a billion-dollar box-office hit, has multiple movies in 2013 to line his pockets, and is only temporarily involved in WWE, why does he care about winning the WWE Title? Simply ending Punk's title run - snuffing out someone else's flame - isn't enough. How is the WWE Title going to make Rock's flame burn brighter? This question hasn't been answered yet; Monday's Raw would be a good start.

(2) Will someone step up and care about winning the Royal Rumble? Perhaps by next week, John Cena will be done taking a bowel movement the size of Papa Shango to focus on why he cares about winning the Rumble. Defeating Dolph Ziggler in a steel cage match this week should allow Cena to re-focus on winning the Rumble and getting the golden ticket back to the WrestleMania main event.

But, others need to step up. Namely, Sheamus, Randy Orton, Wade Barrett, and others like Kofi Kingston looking to reverse recent losing ways and suddenly be in the Mania Main Event mix. How about The Shield entering and vowing to take the Rumble hostage, win the match, and then crash WWE's "precious, little WrestleMania?"

WWE is coasting on Rumble match hype, with no one scripted to step up and show they really, really care about winning the Rumble. But, they should when the Rumble carries a reward of the big Mania spotlight that every person on the roster should be bending over backwards to get a piece of.

(3) Re-establish Big Show as a monster heel. Although not as important as #1 and #2, strong hype for Big Show vs. Alberto Del Rio could enhance the perception of the PPV, especially in the eyes of potential buyers who want to believe the entire card has potential to be good, not just one or two matches.

Show played the bumbling big-man at the end of his exchange with Del Rio on this week's Raw, which was necessary to tip the scale in Del Rio's favor when Del Rio is just starting out as a babyface, but the scale needs to tip back to Show next week. Perhaps a squash match victory while Del Rio is watching, or an attack on the now lovable, huggable Ricardo Rodriguez to get people to want to see Del Rio get revenge. Overall, the "other" top title match needs a strong heel putting the new babyface champion in jeopardy.

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