Pre-show notes:

- Before you read the Best And Worst Of WWE Raw column, make sure you check out the Best And Worst Of WWE SummerSlam 2012, my live event recap including exclusive photos, encounters with Sheamus and open, gratuitous mouth-loving for THQ and WWE ’13. It was a great weekend, and I’m pretty happy with how anecdotal the whole thing turned out. Give it a read, a comment, a like and a fourth thing of your choosing.

- When you’re done Social Media Ambassadoring that post, make sure to click the like button and leave a comment on this column. Those things mean a lot to the life of the report, so if you want to keep them going and not devolve into a crummy “ziggler went for a cover, jericho kicked out at 2″ thing, show some love.

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

- Also, don’t forget, the With Leather Pro Wrestling Community is having its first get-together at Chikara’s King Of Trios 2012 in Easton, Pennsylvania, so if you’re anywhere in the area or are coming in for the show, let us know so we can high-five you. It’s going to be a grand time.

Anyway, please to enjoy the Best And Worst Of WWE Raw for August 20, 2012.

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Pre-show notes

- Thank you for bearing with the semi-lateness of this week’s reports. I managed to attend SummerSlam live, so the report gets that cool live review feature some of you enjoy. The bad part about that is that SummerSlam is half a country and two time zones away from me, so I spent the entirety of Monday on a variety of airplanes. This report’s pretty long, though, so enjoy that, and I’ll have a thorough Raw report ready for you on Wednesday.

- Your comments, likes, tweets, Touts and whatever are appreciated. This column sorta lives and dies by your participation in it, so anything you can do to pitch in and spread the word is appreciated. Shout out to my Reddit homeboys, who I’d talk to all the time if I wasn’t 200 years old and could figure out Reddit. Somebody Reddit for me.

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

- If you read the report in its infancy earlier today, all the pages have been uploaded and the full thing is a thing. Enjoy!

So at long last, please enjoy The Best And Worst Of WWE SummerSlam 2012, sponsored by THQ. No, seriously.

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Hello, Internet wrestling fans!

As you’re reading this, I’m probably on an airplane back to Austin following a week in San Francisco and a weekend in Las Vegas SummerSlamming. That means the scheduling for the Best And Worst Of Raw reports will be a little staggered … Best and Worst Of SummerSlam should be up as early as Tuesday morning, and I’ll make sure to get a Raw report out quickly thereafter. Or maybe Raw first and SummerSlam on Wednesday? Let me know what would work best for you guys.

No Raw preview up as I’m writing, so I’ll make one up:

After an HELLACIOUS Perfect Storm at SummerSlam, WWE C.O.O. Triple H has a broken-ish arm, a newly-developed disdain for small children and a bone to pick with Brock Lesnar. Now that it’s Monday afternoon and Triple H is totally healed, what will The Game have to say on Raw? Also on the show, CM Punk does a thing.

Don’t forget our gimmick of giving the 10 best comments from the open discussion thread a spot in the Best And Worst Of Raw column. You can nominate a comment by replying to it with a +1. Those reports will be good, I promise.

WWE SummerSlam 2012 airs live on pay-per-view this Sunday night, August 19, from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The show begins with a YouTube pre-show match at 7:30 EST, and as always With Leather and the funniest community of wrestling fans online will be chatting about the show all night, so reading this post is a rewarding experience (whether you’re a wrestling fan or not).

The full card is below, highlighted by a Daniel Bryan versus Kane match pitting Brandon’s favorite wrestler against his girlfriend’s as well as THE PERFECT STORM, a weird subtitle given to a match between Triple H and Brock Lesnar.

1. Pre-show Match for the United States Championship: Santino Marella (c) vs. Antonio Cesaro

2. Triple H vs. Brock Lesnar, with Paul Heyman

3. Triple Threat Match for the WWE Championship: CM Punk (c) vs. Big Show vs. John Cena

4. Daniel Bryan vs. Kane

5. Chris Jericho vs. Dolph Ziggler

6. Intercontinental Championship Match: The Miz (c) vs. Rey Mysterio

7. WWE Tag Team Championship Match: R-Truth and Kofi Kingston (c) vs. The Prime Time Players (Darren Young and Titus O’Neil)

8. World Heavyweight Championship Match: Sheamus (c) vs. Alberto Del Rio

The most important thing you can do in the world is click the like button on the open discussion thread, especially if you drop a comment. It’d really help us out. And hey, for participating in tonight’s discussion by sharing the post with a like or a tweet, you’ll unlock the Damien Sandow Martyr badge. You’re welcome.

As always the 10 best comments from tonight’s discussion will be included in tomorrow’s Best And Worst Of WWE SummerSlam 2012 Live column. To nominate a comment for top 10 status, please reply to it with a +1.

Pre-show notes

- As always, you clicking “like” on this post makes you a great friend of mine. Be sure to leave a comment when you’re done clicking like, even if it’s a comment about how much fun you had clicking like.

- I’m leaving on a plane to California as you’re reading this, so if you live anywhere in the state, make sure you find me at SummerSlam (or SummerSlam Axxess, or tonight’s Giants/Nationals game) and say hi. You should also stop by the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles for Saturday night’s Tournament Of Nerds, where I’ll be a guest judge. It’s a benchmark of my life, so come give high-fives.

- Propers to Casey for his mad GIFfage.

- Don’t forget to follow along with the WWE 13 roster reveal stuff this Saturday, follow me on Twitter and be around for the SummerSlam open discussion thread, starting Friday. Damien Sandow badges will be had.

Anyway, enjoy this week’s report.

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Tonight’s Raw preview:

As SummerSlam draws closer, the plots surrounding the two World Championships have begun to thicken considerably. For the past several weeks, it seemed like the champions were well on the road to retaining their titles, handling their opposition with relative ease and a solid game plan, re-establishing their dominance at each turn. Now, though, WWE Champion CM Punk and World Heavyweight Champion Sheamus find themselves mired in circumstances potentially beyond their control as the summer classic approaches. How will the champs respond? (via WWE.com)

In other Raw news, ‘Jersey Shore’s’ DJ Pauly D will guest star, which should be f**king delightful.

A couple of reminders … I’m going to be in California this week for SummerSlam, and Burny’s going to be holding down the fort while I’m gone. I don’t do this enough in these wrestling columns and threads, but consider reading the rest of the site, would you? I usually work crummy wrestling jokes into places they don’t belong anyway. Even if you don’t like sports a lot, you’ll find something to enjoy. Anyway, me being live for SummerSlam means I’m going to try (key word: try) to have a Best And Worst Of WWE SummerSlam 2012 Live column ready to go before I board a plane on Monday morning, so look out for that, as well as our normal SummerSlam discussion thread opening this Friday.

Also, if you aren’t following me on Twitter already, make sure to do so and follow along with my WWE ’13 hands-on experience/live roster reveal thing on Saturday. Sure, you can probably find info about it on a forum somewhere already, but play along, jerks.

As always, the 10 best comments from tonight’s open discussion thread will be featured in tomorrow’s Best And Worst of WWE Raw report. To nominate a comment for top 10 status, please reply to it with a +1. If it’s a racist comment and it has like fifteen +1s after it, I’m going to use it as a top comment just to shame you and look like a hypocrite.