The 3^rd December 2012 episode of Monday Night Raw starts with a video recapping the events involving John Cena, Sheamus, The Big Show, and Dolph Ziggler on SmackDown! (click here for our SmackDown! report) and hyping the continuation of that and other rivalries later on in this episode of Raw, followed by “Team Hell No” Kane and Daniel Bryan taking on “Prime Time Players” Darren Young and Titus O’Neil to kick off the show.

Before the match takes place however, Kane has something to say to The Shield, who are watching from the balcony. Kane says that the men think that they are tough up there, and that they claim that they fight against injustice, so he suggests that they head to the ring and they’ll give them something to fight about – The Shield do not move from their position however.

The match sees Bryan get the victory for his team, when Young attempts to take advantage of the distraction provided by The Shield heading closer, only for Bryan to reverse the pin attempt into one of his own for the 3-count.

Afterwards, The Shield jump over the barricade and start to attack Kane and Bryan, finishing it with a powerbomb to Bryan in the middle of the ring, and then leaving through the crowd once again.

After an interaction backstage involving John Cena and Sheamus, Tamina Snuka is pitted against AJ Lee in a match which sees AJ get the victory, when she rolls up Tamina for the 3-count.

Next up, CM Punk’s music hits and he makes his way to the ring with Paul Heyman, where Heyman talks about the WWE Encyclopedia, saying that he doesn’t like it as there is not enough information about the current WWE Champion, CM Punk.

He says to give credit where it is due however, he says that there is something that Punk and himself had been too busy to notice, which is the fact that this day being the 379^th day of Punk’s WWE Championship reign, at midnight he will tie with John Cena and the next night at midnight surpass Cena, as the longest WWE Championship reign of the modern era.

Heyman says that this means that Punk is the longest reigning WWE Champion of the past twenty-five years, and thus the WWE Universe will have to agree with him when he says that CM Punk is not only the WWE Champion and the Best In The World, but that there is now no argument of the fact that Punk should be front and centre on the WWE’s version of Mount Rushmore.

CM Punk takes over now and says that he stands there still being unfairly persecuted, and not given the respect that he deserves. He says that he defeated Ryback at Hell In A Cell, as well as Ryback and John Cena at Survivor Series, so he asks why he has to defend his WWE Championship against Ryback again at TLC in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match.

He says that it is because of the fans, insulting them at supposedly not being able to do things that last longer than his WWE Championship reign. Punk says that people keep coming up with reasons to claim that he is the WWE Champion through the interference of others, but he says that the truth is that if it wasn’t for Punk, none of the fans would be watching Raw each week.

Punk says that he is getting sick and tired of repeating himself, so he will say it one more time. He says that he has nothing to do with Brad Maddox or The Shield, but everything to do with being the hottest thing going in the WWE today, and anyone who can’t accept that should put their money where their mouth is and leave.

The Miz’s music hits and he makes his way out onto the stage, where he says that nobody believes Punk’s denials, as everyone knows the truth. When asked by Punk who he thinks he is to cast judgement on him, he says that he is the guy who took all the shortcuts possible when he was the WWE Champion, but at least he has the guts to admit it.

He says that everyone knows that Brad Maddox was in Punk’s back pocket at Hell In A Cell, that The Shield bailed him out at Survivor Series, and that if The Shield didn’t bail him out yet again last week, Ryback would have fed him some Punk.

CM Punk tells The Miz that if he wanted to come out and question his credibility, he can march down to the ring and he’ll prove himself to him right now, by putting his knee to The Miz’s face and putting him to sleep.

The Miz says that proving Punk’s credibility in the ring is exactly why he came out, as he says that they can fight at any time, but he came out to invite him onto “Miz TV” and take a lie detector test. After Paul Heyman clarifies exactly what The Miz wants and is called a walrus in return, the crowd chanting it at him too prompts Punk to demand the crowd apologise to his friend.

Punk calls it ridiculous, but The Miz points out that he is giving Punk a chance to clear his name and prove his detractors wrong about him not being the Best In The World, so he agrees to it.

Now, John Cena and Sheamus go against The Big Show and Dolph Ziggler in a Tag Team match which sees Cena get the victory for his team, when he hits Ziggler with an Attitude Adjustment at the same time that Sheamus hits Show with White Noise, for the 3-count.

After a segment where another fan fails to become Damien Sandow’s apprentice, Santino Marella makes his way to the ring and attempts to ask Sandow “How many sea-shells she sells by the sea-shore”, only for it to result in a match between the two instead.

The match sees Sandow get the victory, when he avoids Marella’s falling headbutt attempt from the top rope, followed by him hitting Marella with the Terminoose for the 3-count.

After an interaction backstage involving Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero, and an interaction involving Vickie Guerrero and Brad Maddox, Sin Cara takes on Alberto Del Rio in a match which sees Del Rio get the victory, when he puts Cara in the cross-armbreaker, forcing him to tap out.

Next, Vickie Guerrero makes her way to the ring and introduces Vince McMahon, who proceeds to make his way to the ring too. The segment that follows results in McMahon intimidating Vickie into making the match between Dolph Ziggler and John Cena at TLC to be a Ladder match for Ziggler’s Money In The Bank contract, and adding that if the lie detector test proves that Punk was lying about the involvement of Brad Maddox and The Shield, Paul Heyman will face Ryback next week.

Now, Brad Maddox is pitted against Randy Orton in a match which sees Orton get the victory, when he hits Maddox with an RKO for the 3-count. Afterwards, The Shield hit the ring and attack Orton, finishing the attack with a powerbomb to Orton in the middle of the ring and then leaving once again.

After an interaction backstage involving Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero, an interaction involving Vickie and Paul Heyman, and an interaction involving Vickie and John Cena, Kofi Kingston and R-Truth are set to face Wade Barrett and Antonio Cesaro in a Tag Team match.

Before the match takes place however, Teddy Long makes his way out to the stage, and turns the Tag Team match into a Fatal Four-Way match for the United States Championship (as a result of a Twitter fan vote), which sees Cesaro get the victory and retain his title, when he interrupts Kingston’s pin attempt by lifting him straight into position to hit the Neutralizer for the 3-count.

After a video recapping Brad Maddox’s interference at Hell In A Cell (click here for our Hell In A Cell report) and The Shield’s interference at Survivor Series (click here for our Survivor Series report), The Miz hosts “Miz TV” with his guest CM Punk (accompanied by Paul Heyman) and a lie detector test.

After insults are thrown back and forth, when the time comes that The Miz asks whether Punk worked with Brad Maddox at Hell In A Cell and The Shield at Survivor Series, The Shield hit the ring and interrupt everything, ending the test before an answer and attacking The Miz.

After The Shield hit The Miz with a powerbomb in the middle of the ring, Kane and Daniel Bryan make their way to the ring and start to fight them, but losing in the numbers game until Ryback’s music hits and he makes his way to the ring to even up the odds.

Both sides end up fighting through the crowd, while in the ring CM Punk stands tall over The Miz and pushes him out of the ring with his foot. He starts to celebrate in the ring too, but is surprised by the reappearance of Ryback, who hits him with a Shell-Shock.

Ryback grabs a ladder and steel chair from under the ring, hitting Punk with both of them, before finally grabbing a table from under the ring, setting it up inside it, and putting Punk through the table with a powerbomb.

Ryback celebrates in the ring, as Raw goes off the air.