December 31 , 2012 Monday Night RAW results The December 31 , 2012 Edition of RAW is a Professional wrestling television show of the WWE ' s RAW brand , which was taped on December 29 , 2012 at Verizon Center in Washington , D . C . . Summary . On the last night of a long , wild 2012 , it ' s only fitting New Year ' s Eve on Monday Night Raw kicked off with something . . . AWESOME . And the host with the most ( and lest we forget , a WWE Universe - deemed ' nice guy ' ) , The Miz , certainly started the evening in high style with a blockbuster announcement from Managing Supervisor Vickie Guerrero : It would be a ' Champion ' s Choice ' night , in which all reigning champions would defend their titles against an opponent of their choosing . Miz ' s guest wasn ' t lacking in the ' must - see ' department , either , as The Awesome One summoned none other than John Cena to his couch for a powwow in our nation ' s capitol . The Cenation leader was free to address the recent goings - on between himself , AJ Lee , Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston , but no sooner had Cena given an RSVP to Dolph and AJ ' s planned ' New Year ' s Toast ' ( yes , he ' s going ) than Team Rhodes Scholars crashed the party . Neither the host nor the guest had much appreciation for the interruption , though , and after a few moments of jaw - jacking , a match was made . The WrestleMania XXVII opponents would unite in a tag team contest against the immaculately groomed goons of Team Rhodes Scholars . It wasn ' t exactly a happy New Year ' s Eve for Team Rhodes Scholars , who concluded their 2012 in disappointing fashion when John Cena and The Miz brought their braggadocio to a screeching halt in Washington . Despite the pedigree of their opponents , however , the Scholars didn ' t let Cena and Miz waltz away with a victory in 2012 ' s waning hours . Sandow and Rhodes put up a stiff resistance against the WrestleMania XXVII headliners , as the brainy tandem attempted to isolate Miz and keep Cena out of the equation . But the strategy fell short after Miz withstood the brainiacs ' barrage and tagged Cena into the contest after stopping Rhodes ' momentum . The 10 - time WWE Champion went to work in high style , shaking off a Disaster Kick from Rhodes and dropping Sandow like the New Year ' s ball with an Attitude Adjustment to earn the victory for himself and his mismatched mate . Leave it to the mouthy United States Champion to kick off Champion ' s Choice night . And in his continued conquest against the United States , Antonio Cesaro decided to select an opponent he felt truly embodied the U . S . : Sgt . Slaughter . Packing Old Glory at his side , the WWE Hall of Famer certainly looked ready for the occasion , and he gave Cesaro a good licking or two in pursuit of The Swiss Superman ' s championship . But the powerful polyglot won out in the end , escaping the Cobra Clutch and unleashing a one - two punch of the Very European Uppercut and the Neutralizer to seal Slaughter ' s fate . Cesaro followed the contest up with an unsportsmanlike demonstration of his might , executing a second Neutralizer on his prone opponent to send an emphatic statement as his title bout with The Great Khali Wednesday on WWE Main Event approaches . What better way for Team Hell No to ring in the New Year with a little bit of rock ‘ n ' roll ? The bickering buddies wanted to defend their titles against The Shield for Champion ' s Choice night , but with the black - clad squad otherwise engaged , Kane and Daniel Bryan instead selected 3MB as their opponents . And the rockers certainly showed up for the occasion despite being unprepared for a title match . 3MB used the numbers game to their advantage by tossing Bryan outside the ring and letting Jinder Mahal ( the only bandmate who was not competing ) to get in a few cheap shots on the submission technician . Heath Slater and Drew McIntyre attempted to capitalize by separating Bryan from Kane , but the strategy fell short when the ' No ! ' man tagged in his hulking other half . Once summoned , Kane proceeded to clean house and closed the book on the band in short order . The Big Red Monster mercilessly pounded McIntyre with a Chokeslam before tagging Bryan in to provide the final shot with a flying headbutt , bringing the bout to a close . And , in a demonstration befitting the contest itself , Team Hell No celebrated the win with some apropos air guitar on the titles . If CM Punk ' s 2013 resolution is to hang on to his WWE Title for a little while longer , the odds of The Voice of the Voiceless retaining his mantle just got a little bit slimmer . Sitting pretty — but injured — at 407 days as champion , The Straight Edge Superstar descended upon our nation ' s capital to refute his doubters . This time , though , Punk brought his personal physician along to illustrate the severity of his injury . Despite the champion ' s assertion he would be ready to compete against Ryback , the doctor would have none of it . Upon further review , he declared The Voice of the Voiceless would be unable to defend his title on the Jan . 7 Raw . And while the champion was visibly irked by this development , there was one individual who took even greater issue with the doctor ' s decision : Mr . McMahon . With 2012 ' s final hours ticking away , The Chairman gave his last decree of the calendar year : The champion would undergo a final evaluation by WWE officials to determine whether he was ready to compete . And if Punk was truly unable to go , Ryback ' s replacement opponent would be . . . Paul Heyman . Happy ( ? ) New Year , CM Punk . Dolph Ziggler and AJ Lee may have had a big New Year ' s toast planned for the WWE Universe , but before Mr . Money in the Bank could make it to his big year - end party , he had to make it through a good old - fashioned scrap with Sheamus . And The Celtic Warrior certainly had no intention of letting The Showoff waltz into the waning moments of 2012 , unleashing the full bounds of his strength upon him in a reprise of one of the year ' s most hard - hitting contests at No Way Out . No championships were on the line this time around , but you wouldn ' t have known it from the way the two Superstars battled . Ziggler ' s wiles matched perfectly with Sheamus ' power throughout the contest , though The Celtic Warrior eventually gained the upper hand after a series of brutish power maneuvers . Showing no quarter and gaining momentum fast , Sheamus took control of the bout by clobbering Dolph with the Battering Ram and reversing The Showoff ' s leaping DDT into White Noise . Ironically enough , the bout turned south for Sheamus right as he was about to let the Brogue Kick loose on Ziggler , as Big E Langston interrupted The Irishman ' s signature strike . Ziggler attempted to capitalize , but was unceremoniously expelled from the ring by The Celtic Warrior . For a moment , it looked as though Langston would seek retribution , but before the two strongmen could clash , The Shield stormed the ring and laid waste to The Celtic Warrior . The assault earned Sheamus a disqualification win , but the victory turned out to be a Pyrrhic one when the men in black left the former World Champion in ruins , pummeling Sheamus with the triple powerbomb to bring his 2012 to a crashing close . Well , this was . . . unexpected . Divas Champion Eve selected Mae Young as her opponent for Champion ' s Choice night , but the challenger ' s evening was cut unceremoniously short before the match could even begin with the discovery that Young was with child ( again ) . That , of course , meant Eve retained her prize via forfeit . But before Eve could get her customary victory photo taken , Kaitlyn struck and unleashed a beatdown on the unsuspecting champion , leaving Eve no recourse but to fend off the attack and make her escape while opportunity afforded . While Eve left Champion ' s Choice night with title still in hand , it certainly seems Kaitlyn ' s pursuit of the butterfly - emblazoned championship will continue well into 2013 . Que pena , Ricardo . Although Alberto Del Rio ' s personal ring announcer couldn ' t challenge Big Show for the World Title on SmackDown , Show offered him another opportunity at the ' Big Gold Title ' on New Year ' s Eve . At least Ricardo got some sweet wheels out of the whole ordeal when he got to roll into the arena in one of Del Rio ' s luxury automobiles . That was about where the good news began and ended for Ricardo , though . Show made quite the display of dismantling the overmatched hype man , tearing Rodriguez ' s tux to shreds and tossing him to and fro about the ring . Rodriguez briefly looked poised to pull off the upset after he hit the giant with an enzuigiri , but Show rallied quickly and continued his dismantling of poor Ricardo . That is , until Del Rio decided to get involved . The Essence of Excellence swarmed the giant and came to his aide ' s aid , giving Show the disqualification win but allowing Ricardo to leave in one piece . We ' ll call that a win , all things considered . Old acquaintance was far from forgot on 2012 ' s final Raw when Kofi Kingston granted longtime rival Wade Barrett a rematch for the Intercontinental Title in the final Champion ' s Choice bout of the evening . Although ' The Wildcat ' fended off the Englishman ' s assault at WWE TLC , Barrett barreled his way to victory in Washington and brought his monthslong pursuit of Kofi ' s title to fruition . Kofi seemed to have Barrett ' s number at first , dodging the Brit ' s bruising strikes with his trademark agility and reversing Wade ' s momentum into offense of his own . For the majority of the contest , Barrett seemed to have no answer for The Boom Squad General ' s game plan , but the Englishman dug deep and tapped into his old - school fighting roots by targeting Kofi ' s torso . Wade used his fists , feet , knees and even the ring posts as weapons in his dismantling of The Dreadlocked Dynamo , finally persevering through a late - game rally by the champion and felling him with the Bull Hammer elbow to claim his second Intercontinental Championship . Amid the chaos of Raw , the WWE Universe did get one bright spot as the year wound down to a close : The Shield got a taste of their own medicine . With WWE Champion CM Punk unable to defend his title for Champion ' s Choice night , he instead convinced Managing Supervisor Vickie Guerrero into making a 3 - on - 1 Handicap Match between The Shield and Ryback . Unfortunately , the contest never even got started as the black - clad threesome swarmed their monstrous opponent before the opening bell could toll . The trio jumped Ryback before he could make his way down the ramp , eventually trapping him in the ring and using the numbers to their advantage until Sheamus ran down to ringside . The Celtic Warrior ' s bid for retribution against The Shield bore no fruit , though , as Ambrose , Rollins and Reigns continued their onslaught and kept the two strongmen down . With the odds of survival dwindling , Ryback and Sheamus needed a miracle . What they got was Randy Orton , recovered from his separated shoulder and looking for some payback of his own . The Viper , fresh and fuming , struck Ambrose with the RKO as Sheamus and Ryback expelled Rollins and Reigns from the ring , forcing The Shield into retreat for the first time . Might the trio ' s weakness have been exposed ? We will say this much : New Year ' s shindigs are certainly more interesting when John Cena is invited . The guest of honor for Dolph Ziggler and AJ Lee ' s New Year ' s toast didn ' t sit idly by after The Showoff and his skip - happy gal pal cued up a slideshow of Cena ' s less - than - best moments this year ( losses to The Rock and John Laurinaitis among them ) . He didn ' t even stay put when Ziggler un - invited him from the proceedings . Instead , Cena crashed the party in high style , offering some quips of his own before turning to more serious matters . The Cenation leader gamely acknowledged his shortcomings in the previous 12 months , but resolved to reclaim his rightful place atop the WWE mountaintop , throwing his name into the 2013 Royal Rumble Match as the first step to that goal . Regardless of whomever he had to beat , Cena promised he would be a champion once again . So with that said , Cena raised a glass of his own and offered a salutation of his own : To the happy couple , Cena proposed ' a prosperous 2013 to Dolph and AJ with the one thing that you are full of . . . And with one final gesture from Cena , a smelly mess rained down from the rafters , showering the couple and leaving them to stew ( literally ) in the final moments of 2012 . Happy New Year , WWE Universe . May it be free of People Power , scandals of any nature , broken arms , men in riot gear , Harold , rogue refs , attackers in blond wigs , untimely knee injuries , gigantic chairs and , of course , slop raining from the skies .