With Elimination Chamber in the rear view mirror The Rock’s sights are set on WrestleMania and John Cena.  But if The Rock and Cena thought they’d put CM Punk behind them, the Straightedge Superstar had other ideas, calling John Cena out and goading him to put his number one contendership on the line in a match.  And, as The Rock unveiled a new WWE Championship at the conclusion of the show, CM Punk made it clear to The Rock that his eyes are still firmly set on the title.

John Cena kicked off RAW with a smile, but he'd barely begun to tell the fans about what was next on the Road to WrestleMania before he was interrupted by former WWE Champion CM Punk, who came down to the ring accompanied as always by Paul Heyman.

Cena didn't deserve the title show, spat a riled up Punk, having taken the easy route by coming in at number twenty five in the Royal Rumble and throwing over the ropes "a couple of ham and eggers." "John Cena versus The Rock is déjà vu, I've already seen that television show" spat Punk at Cena. "It's a rerun, and I know how it ends - The Rock beats John Cena. You can't win the big one, John!"

"What I want you to do, John, is just walk away. You have something that doesn't belong to you. Just walk away. Turn around, walk out of my ring, walk out of my life. Just go away."

"I'm not going to just hand you a golden ticket," replied Cena, "but I'll let you earn it. A match, the big one, John Cena versus CM Punk. If I win, you shut your mouth, crawl back into the hole you cam from and go away.  If you win, then you're right, I don't deserve to main event WrestleMania. If you beat me, you'll deserve it.  I give you my word, if you beat me right here, right now, you can have my spot at WrestleMania."

"You just made the stupidest decision of your life," answered Punk, "but not tonight.  Because I got screwed last night I shouldn't even have to be in this position, So we'll do this next week."

And with that Punk and Heyman left the ring, all smiles and high fives, while Cena seethed behind them.  "You say I can't get the job done," shouted Cena at Punk's back, "well, I don't agree with you.  Next week I'll beat you, and go onto WrestleMania to beat The Rock and once again be able to say the champ is here!"

But at the end of the show it was the current champ, The Rock, who was played out to the ring by a marching band to celebrate retaining the WWE Championship over CM Punk at Elimination Chamber.   After popping the fans with a "Finally, The Rock has come back to Lafayette!", Rocky turned his attention to the shiny spinning WWE title draped over his shoulder.

"The Rock is going to WrestleMania, but The Rock is not going with this" he said, holding the title out at arm's length.  "I have deep respect for the WWE Championship, and for this title.  When this title, this belt, was unveiled eight years ago by a certain superstar - one of the greatest of all time - it worked.  And there were some people who thought this title was cool. But there are also some people who believe in Big Foot."

"To me, it comes down to this.  The WWE Championship should never look like a toy.  And it should never, ever spin." And with that Rock handed the belt over to one of the ring crew, telling him to take it backstage and make sure it goes into the Hall of Fame. 

"For me, to The Rock, when you see the WWE title, the championship title, whether you're a WWE superstar, part of the WWE Universe, or watching WWE for the first time, the first time you see the title it should inspire you."  Rock then began to pass around the ring, drawing attention to the velvet draped shape sitting on a podium near the ropes. 

"And it should be worthy of being worn around the waists of the greats, the men who inspired The Rock:  Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, Bret ‘The Hitman' Hart, or The Rock's good buddy, ‘Stone Cold' Steve Austin.  With that in mind, for Lafayette and everyone around the world, I give to you your new WWE Championship!"

With that Rock whipped off the velvet cloth and revealed a new championship belt, with a big bejewelled WWE logo front and centre, and Brahma bull side plates denoting the current champion.  "I wanted to create something that was timeless, something worthy of respect, and something that was flat out bad ass!"

Rock then turned his attention to WrestleMania, and who the challenger for the new title would be.  "CM Punk or John Cena?  I have my preference, for both personal and professional reasons. The man I want to face at WrestleMania is..." But before Rock could finish his thought John Cena's music played, and he came out onto the stage with a wry smile, seemingly inviting Rock to name him as his preferred opponent.

But suddenly, from behind, CM Punk emerged, swinging John Cena's spinner WWE Championship at the back of Cena's skull.  Cena fell hard upon the entrance ramp and Punk stood above him, golden title in his hands.  With a mocking grin Punk dropped the belt in front of Cena, raising his gaze to where Rock stood in the ring with the big new belt over his shoulder.  "I want that one" Punk shouted, pointing directly at Rock and the title.

In earlier RAW action Chris Jericho interposed himself between Sheamus and Ryback when it seemed the pair were about to come to blows while arguing about their loss to The Shield at Elimination Chamber.  Jericho, reminding the pair of his long experience with destructive factions, called on the duo to join him to face The Shield that evening, because against united opponents The Shield wouldn't stand a chance.

The Shield, however, showed no desire to lose their first official match on RAW¸ and despite their relative lack of experience compared to their opponents Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns once again impressed, working efficiently as a unit to defeat everything Sheamus, Ryback and Jericho could throw at them.  It was Ryback who suffered the most, the big man finding himself isolated from his corner for much of the match, beaten down by a succession of quick tag team moves from The Shield.

But when Ryback finally broke free to tag in Jericho all hell broke loose.  While Jericho launched himself with vigour at Ambrose, Sheamus dived across the ring to cut off Reigns when he attempted to intervene.  Jericho soon had turned Ambrose over into the Walls of Jericho, but with Ryback down and out at ringside no one was able to stop Rollins as he leapt atop the turnbuckle and dived off, landing a flying knee right onto the back of Jericho's head.  Jericho fell flat on his face, and Ambrose was quick to roll him over for the cover.  Immediately after securing the victory, however, The Shield had to run for safety through the fans as the angry Sheamus attempted to extract some immediate revenge.

In other RAW action Mark Henry continued his momentum since returning from injury by demolishing Sin Cara before Great Khali, of all people, came down to the ring to attempt to put Henry in his place.  That didn't work out well for the Punjabi Playboy.

The Miz managed to get one back over United States Champion Antonio Cesaro, defeating Cesaro in a non-title, no-DQ bout, using some chairs Cesaro had introduced to the ring against the Swiss wrestler, before forcing Cesaro to tap out to the Figure Four leglock.

Jack Swagger also came off his big win at Elimination Chamber with another victory, this time over Tag Team Champion Daniel Bryan.  But of more interest were the pre-match comments by Swagger's mentor Zeb Colter, who couched Swagger's WrestleMania challenge for the World Heavyweight Championship held by Alberto Del Rio in nasty anti-immigration terms, describing Swagger as the "real American" who'd stand up and fight to "regain the heart of America!"

The other half of the WWE Tag Team Champions, Kane, was also on the losing side of the ledger when he suffered an RKO and defeat from Randy Orton. A backstage argument between Kane and Daniel Bryan which left both men unassisted by the other during their matches seems to be indicating the wheels have all but fallen off Team Hell No.

World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio faced Money in the Bank contract holder Dolph Ziggler in a non-title match, and Ziggler often looked moments away from securing a potentially huge victory over the current title holder.  But Del Rio's made of championship material, and he fought his way back into the match to eventually force Ziggler to tap out to the Cross Armbreaker.

But immediately after the bell Big E. Langston stepped into the ring and slammed Del Rio down with the Big Finish.  Ziggler then grabbed the Money in the Bank briefcase, and made to hand it to the referee to cash in his title shot.  But Ricardo Rodriguez leapt forward and snatched the briefcase from Ziggler's hands, running at pace up the entrance ramp.  AJ Lee was in hot pursuit, catching up with Rodriguez to grab the briefcase before sprinting back down to the ring.  But Rodriguez's delaying tactic had served its purpose, and before AJ was able to return the briefcase to Ziggler's hands Del Rio had recovered enough to knock Ziggler down with a well timed enziguri.

Also on RAW Vickie Guerrero summoned Paul Heyman down to the ring for a "huge announcement", but neither Heyman nor the fans were particularly impressed when the announcement proved to be Guerrero appointing Brad Maddox as her assistant due to his "services" in revealing Heyman's attempts to keep the title around CM Punk's waist. 

Heyman made to leave the ring but was stopped dead when Vince McMahon appeared on the big screen, reminding Heyman that he'd promised to do anything McMahon asked in return for adding the "Rock loses the title on DQ or count-out" stipulation to the WWE Championship match at Elimination Chamber.  "But I'm not going to fire you," advised McMahon, "that'd be too easy.  Instead next week, and let me remind you I'm just two weeks out from hip surgery, I'm going to come down to the ring crutches and all, and I'm going to fight you, Paul, one-on-one!"  Heyman reacted with stunned shock, while Guerrero and Maddox looked on with laughter.

Raw Results:

• Mark Henry def. Sin Cara
• The Miz def. United States Champion Antonio Cesaro (non-title, no-DQ)
• World Heavyweight Champion Alberto Del Rio def. Dolph Ziggler (non-title)
• Brodus Clay, Tensai & Naomi def. Epico, Primo and Rosa Mendes (mixed tag)
• Jack Swagger def. Daniel Bryan
• The Shield def. Chris Jericho, Sheamus & Ryback
• Damien Sandow vs. Kofi Kingston (no contest)
• Randy Orton def. Kane