This weekend I’ll be in Los Angeles, California, for WWE’s SummerSlam 2012 pay-per-view, and one of the coolest aspects of that is that I’ll be around at SummerSlam Axxess for THQ’s hands-on experience with/live roster reveal of WWE ’13. For those of you who don’t know, THQ’s WWE series is more or less the Madden of wrestling games, and this year’s edition is set to feature one of the biggest talent rosters ever, including a bunch of guys who were around in the late 90s when you probably watched. For those of you who DO know, yes, I am going to ignore almost everything they tell me to do and just stand in the middle of Axxess making local indy wrestler create-a-wrestlers.

Anyway, here’s the important information: I’ll be tweeting my thoughts and impressions of the game as well as up-to-the-minute roster information (come on, Damien Sandow!) on my personal Twitter account all weekend, so be sure to follow me @MrBrandonStroud.

If you guys have any questions you’d like me to ask the developers, drop them in our comments section here and I’ll try to get them answered. This is going down at Axxess, too, which means I should be within shouting distance of Dolph Ziggler if you want me to scream something to him about his Ass Cape. But no, seriously, the folks at THQ and WWE are awesome to let me take part in this, so let’s make it a big deal.

Pre-show notes:

- Be a pal! If you read and enjoy the column, be sure to click the “like” button, share it with your friends on Twitter and drop me a comment below. I’m like [ ] this close to doing Best And Worst Of Impact reports, so if you want to see those, nudge me in the right direction.

- I was at this show live, so this week’s report will be a little different. More on that inside. All of the pictures contained inside (and that one of Ziggler’s LIVE ASS ROLL) were taken by me, so if you want to use them or share them somewhere else, go for it, just don’t be a dick about it. Toss me a link somewhere.

- We’re organizing our first With Leather/Best And Worst Of WWE Raw Column Appreciators Club live meet-up! If you’re going to be anywhere in the area of Easton, PA in September, consider stopping by CHIKARA’s King Of Trios to watch Meng wrestle Ebessan and hang out with me, Destiny, THESTINGER, prestigious wrestling blogger Tom Holzerman and the rest of the crew at a still technically unapproved UPROXX network event. RSVP on that page and be our friend. I’ll make you a sandwich.

- Casey made a few GIFs for the report but I dug the live DIY approach as I was writing it, so I didn’t use any. A big thanks goes out to him anyway, because he’s awesome and works too hard for the amount of credit I give him.

Please click through to enjoy

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Quick programming note: I’m going to be live at Raw tonight in San Antonio, so moderation in tonight’s discussion will be especially light. If you leave a comment and it doesn’t show up, it’s probably because you tried to share a link and our comment system thought you were one of those “cool colemn [sic] CHECK OUT COOL HALF-PRICE T-SHIRTS AT THIS LINK”. Good news: tomorrow’s Best And Worst column may have more JOHN MORRISON #1 OF signs in it.

Tonight, on Raw’s Shawn Michaels gets beaten up by Brock Lesnar and ALL BETS ARE OFF Appreciation Night:

I can’t get no respect around here!

Sure, Rodney Dangerfield said it first, but WWE Champion CM Punk echoed the statement with gusto last week on Raw, airing his grievances that The Rock — and, by extension, the WWE itself — hasn’t afforded him the proper reverence as champion in recent weeks. It was a strong argument, but The Second City Saint’s night didn’t exactly get better thanks to Raw General Manager AJ Lee’s decision to place him in a Triple Threat WWE Title Match at SummerSlam against both John Cena and Big Show. Elsewhere, the inimitable Miss Lee turned the tables on her volcanic ex, Daniel Bryan, and Alberto Del Rio made a bold proclamation that didn’t exactly pay dividends for him on SmackDown. What awaits these competitors on the next episode of Raw?

Ahahahah somebody actually wrote that.

As always, my 10 favorite comments from tonight’s open discussion thread (when I get home at like 1 AM and pretend to read them) will be featured in tomorrow’s Best And Worst Of WWE Raw column. To nominate a comment for top 10 status, please reply to it with a +1.

Pre-show notes:

- Thank you guys for always taking a minute out of your day to drop a comment on these reports. I know I bug you about it in the pre-show notes a lot, so even if you just post “good jorb” down there it means a lot to me. Shares on social media are the only way to keep these columns circulating, so make sure you click the “like” button and share this week’s thing on Twitter. If we can get likes and Twitter shares going as reliably as the comments, we’ll really be somewhere. Don’t make me make you Tout again.

- Thanks as always to Casey of Hammerlock Dialectic for gifs. Be on the lookout for another Wrestling GIFs Of The Month special later in the week.

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

And now, the Best and Worst Of Raw 1001 (July 30, 2012), no longer lovingly presented by Tout.com.

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