"I'm ... not keeping my title, am I."

Tonight, on the With Leather WWE Raw open discussion thread:

The countdown to the 2013 Royal Rumble is just about up, with WWE Champion CM Punk making final preparations for his title bout against The Rock and legions of Superstars lining up for an opportunity at a World Title at WrestleMania. But while the Rumble lineup slowly gestates, the rivalry between Rock and Punk threatens to runneth over at any moment. Following their brawl last week, the Royal Rumble is looking to be one of the most personal pay-per-views in a long time, and here are five ideas we have for the final Raw until the powder keg blows. (via WWE.com)

Five-point preview:

1. IMPORTANT NEWS: Tonight we’re debuting our tiered WWE Discussion commenter badges, so if you’ve been on the fence about joining in on the conversation, now’s the time. More information about that is at the bottom of the post. Trust me, the badges are glorious, and you’ll want them all.

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Pre-show notes:

- Comments, shares, likes, and especially Reddit submissions/up votes are appreciated. I will also accept Pinterest shares, if you are reading this and are Destiny.

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

- GIFS courtesy of Jerusalem at Punchsport Pagoda.

- If you’d like to laugh at something wrestling-related that ISN’T the Best and Worst of Raw report, make sure you check out my thorough gallery of old WCW promo photos. Part 2 is going up tomorrow, so check back for that, as well.

- (tomorrow is my birthday, don’t tell anybody)
(and don’t feel like you’ve got to fill up the comments section with birthday messages, just share these columns and stuff.)

- I am going to be LIVE AND IN THE HOUSE AND THE ST. LOUIS ANARCHY REP IN THE REY DE VOLADORES TOURNAMENT for National Pro Wrestling Day in Philadelphia on February 2. If you want to hang out and say hi and see some great wrestling, come to this thing.

- Due to time restrictions I’m not going to be able to throw a Jack Swagger Of Mars into this week’s report, but all that means is that you’ll get a double-shot next week. Or I’ll just write all the middle chapters at once and put them in a big finale piece. Whatever you wanna do.

Until then, please click through for the Best And Worst Of WWE Raw for January 14, 2013.

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Pre-show notes:

- Comments, shares, likes, and especially Reddit submissions/up votes are appreciated. The Reddit thing is big. They kinda side-eye me if I ever try to submit the column myself, so if you’re a big wig at the Squared Circle cracker factory, help us out and get the column in front of Redditors.

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

- GIFS courtesy of Jerusalem at Punchsport Pagoda.

- If you haven’t been reading The Best And Worst Of TNA Impact Wrestling … what’s wrong with you? You can check it out every Friday afternoon at With Leather, courtesy of the lovely and talented Wrestling Bro Danielle Matheson. It features 80% more references to Butt Stuff than the Raw column.

Anyway, welcome back. Please click through for the Best And Worst Of WWE Raw for January 7, 2013.

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WWE’s Royal Rumble 2013 goes down on January 27, and I think I speak for everyone when I say the best part of a Royal Rumble match is when they herd a wrestler in front of a green screen and tell him to explain off the top of his head why he’s gonna win. Very few things make a wrestling fan feel like a kid again like Hulk Hogan pointing with an open palm and yelling about vitamins in front of a horrible yellow background reading HULK HOGAN.

To prepare for the Rumble, I’ll be putting up a retro Best And Worst report (or two), but step one is the celebration of these promo montages. When the mid-90s hit they went the way of the dodo, but I’ve put together a gallery of some of the best from 89-96. If you only watch one thing, watch the video where swank 1995 Pamela Anderson gets weird voicemail messages from Doink the Clown about how he’s gonna nail her when he wins the Royal Rumble. Hell, even if you don’t like wrestling, watch that one.

Enjoy. If I missed one of your favorites, be sure to post it in our comments section below.

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*distance above hate risen may vary

Pre-show notes:

- Tonight’s Raw carries two major narratives: 1) What will happen when Chief Operating Officer Triple H returns to Raw to give Executive Vice President Of Talent Relations and Interim General Manager Of Raw John Laurinaitis a job evaluation even though Laurinaitis was the one who got Triple H fired from HIS position as Raw GM because sometimes the GM has more power than the COO and sometimes he doesn’t, and then there’s a board of directors and ah f**k it, I’m going to mark this part out and 2) which championship will Royal Rumble winner Sheamus choose to challenge for at Wrestlemania?

Also, we may get appearances by a returning Kharma, a possibly returning Road Dogg and/or something awful where Mae Young shows up to make out with Hacksaw Jim Duggan. The Royal Rumble was weird.

- Poll:

- It will not.

- Programming Note: Due to some technical and personal issues I don’t really want to get into, there won’t be a Best And Worst of Royal Rumble 2012 up today. The Raw report is still going up tomorrow as always, and I’ll make sure the Rumble review is up as soon as possible.

Pre-show notes:

- Welcome to our first ever WWE pay-per-view open discussion thread! The concept has worked really well for Raw, so we’re trying it out for the Rumble. And hey, worst case scenario we get like four wrestling posts in a row up on the weekends when nobody’s reading. We’ve got a special bonus set up for anyone participating in tonight’s discussion, so be sure to actually read this part!

- Poll time. Who’s taking the 2012 Rumble?

- We’ve got a new commenting system set up that’ll allow video/image posting privileges for top commenters and works YouTube style, with the newest comments first. That leads us to:

ANNOUNCEMENT: As mentioned earlier, we have a special award for all you hardcore WithLeatherheads who join in tonights discussion — following on the heels of the Archer Sploosh Badge, we’re introducing our first badge for the best and most active commenters of the night. You’ll know when you’ve unlocked it. You’ll be making this face: >=(