Get ready for the most exciting 65 seconds on television!

Pre-show notes:

- My screencap guy bailed on me (and I’m writing this from Not My Computer, so I don’t have a reliable source for a torrent… AND WWE Fan Nation got turned into the SANTINO MARELLA SAYS FUNNY WORDS TO PEOPLE channel so so much for THOSE clips) so until I get a late-in-the-day e-mail, the pictures and such are courtesy of WWE.com. Sorry about that.

- Comments are loved and appreciated. So are “likes”. Clicking like is even easier than commenting, so hit that like button if you’ve got a second. It makes me look important and well-liked!

- Follow us on Twitter @withleather, follow me personally @MrBrandonStroud and like us on Facebook.

- Additional reading: UGO’s Raw Report. I would kill to be able to get up my column as efficiently as Aubrey Sitterson. It takes me four hours just to get through the Jinder Mahal parts.

- A.J. pic featured… within? Wait, what?

Please enjoy the Best And Worst Of WWE Raw for February 2, 2012.

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Down by 3 points to Carl Edwards in the Sprint Cup Series standings, Tony Stewart won the Ford 400 – the final race of the Chase – yesterday to tie Edwards, marking the first time in NASCAR history that the season ended at a draw. Fortunately for Stewart, he had 5 wins on the season to Edwards’ 1, which means that Smoke is the 2011 Sprint Cup Champion. And that’s awesome for Stewart and his fans, especially how he won in dramatic fashion after sucking for a good chunk of the year, but nobody cares about that today.

The other, much more scandalous story out of the Homestead-Miami Speedway is that First Lady Michelle Obama and Vice President Joe Biden’s wife, Jill, hosted a barbecue for some military service members and their families before the race, and that’s awesome because I love anything that honors our soldiers and shows them some appreciation, whether it be some ribs and burgers at the racetrack or slow grinding against Mila Kunis.

So of course when Michelle and Jill – we’re cool like that – were introduced to the crowd before the race, they were booed. YOU GOT YER POLATICKS IN MAH VROOM VROOMS!

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I think we all agree that America’s NASCAR drivers are the world’s top athletes. Taking that as a given, the only thing surprising about this video of Carl Edwards kicking a field goal at Sun Life Stadium earlier this week is that he managed to do it in a Dolphins jersey.

Edwards should start his own “Shaq Vs.” show where he goes around trying to beat people at the least athletic aspects of sports. “Driving” and “kicking” can be episodes one and two, and he can fill out the season with “riding in a golf cart”, “changing into bowling shoes” and “beating the Houston Astros”.

[via From The Marbles]

Everyone was waiting for NASCAR to throw the book at Carl Edwards after this flip of Brad Keselowski last weekend in Atlanta. It didn’t happen, as Edwards was slapped on the wrist with three weeks’ probation. More interesting than the almost-non-reaction from The Powers That Be over there was the reasoning behind it.

Edwards escaped a more serious penalty of suspension, presumably because NASCAR wanted to protect its relaxed “boys, have at it” attitude of allowing drivers to police themselves on the track.

NASCAR announced in January it would loosen its stance on aggressive driving and allow drivers the opportunity to settle scores on their own. The policy wasn’t tested until Sunday, the fourth race of the season, when Edwards returned to the track down 153 laps and spent at least one lap intentionally trying to wreck Keselowski.–USA Today.

So, in short, Edwards intentionally crashed into a guy to get a lap back, and the brass collectively shrug their shoulders. HOW AWESOME IS THAT? But honestly, I like that NASCAR is putting the rules into the drivers’ hands. It makes for less hard feelings, not to mention better racing. Video of the wreck is after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »