Less than 24 hours ago, The Rock showed that "he's still got it" with a win over John Cena. The Undertaker ended an era with Triple H. C.M. Punk retained the WWE Championship against Chris Jericho. John Laurinaitis is now the GM of both Raw and Smackdown. It's the night after WrestleMania and anything can happen! Read on for my thoughts on the show as it happens.
I can't be the only one kind of ticked that they're giving away a WWE Title match after asking us to pay for one last night. They're moving on from such a great match that quickly?
With NXT performers in the room, does that put Laurinaitis in charge of them, too? (I'm guessing the show will continue as is either way)
WWE's kind of saying that John Laurinaitis and The Rock are more important than Cena, Punk, Sheamus, etc. here.
That said, it makes sense to start with Rock while everyone's curious about where he goes from here.
Looks like we're in for another chant-fest.
Remember this in a couple of years if he goes back to movies as Dwayne Johnson.
I think the psychological term for some of Rock's lines is "anally fixated".
Funny stuff in places.
Hmmmm. Good tease for the future with Rock. Makes the WWE Title important.
We just went from Cena's emotional speech on his future to Santino Marella.
I get the feeling we're eventually going to a Ziggler/Swagger feud.
As over as Santino is right now, I don't see any reason for him to lose the title here.
If we didn't already have heels for tag champs, I'd be very down for a Ziggler/Swagger run with the gold.
Good move. Santino keeps the gold, and tension is built between Ziggler and Swagger.
EVEN BETTER! Brodus is actually doing something now.
Complain about his limited matches all you want. Brodus is over and that's what WWE should care about.
A Funkasaurus and a Cobra.
Interesting look for Tensai.
Glad they acknowledged his WWE past. He legitimately did pretty well in Japan.
Whoa. He looks like a killer.
He's in pretty good shape. Quite quick for someone his size.
Why can't we get crowds this good more often?
If I'm not mistaken, that was his finisher in his last WWE run.
I was cool with Tensai until the claw. That was a little ridiculous, but they played it well.
And of course, the WWE Title's in the middle of the show instead of headlining. That makes sense in the context of where stories have been, though.
I'm expecting something cool with Cena in the main event segment.
Wait... if Henry wins, that would put both titles on Smackdown, wouldn't it? Part of me would mark out for a Sheamus/Henry unification feud, but giving him the title after Punk retained at Mania would be very anti-climactic. Title changes should be mostly saved for big events.
I like Henry as the big, brutal bully.
You'd think Miz would get the WWE Title match since he scored the pinfall.
Henry's vocalizations are great. I think he could believably destroy just about anyone.
I dig the "Yes" chants. Hopefully WWE rebuilds Bryan after last night.
Hypothetically this match is good for those casual/lapsed fans tuning in who know Henry but not Punk. Maybe those people become Punk fans after this one?
If this wasn't a title match, I think I'd want to see Jericho interfere and cost Punk to set up a rematch at Extreme Rules.
I like this crowd.
Punk's an iron man (which is appropriate given his recent Marvel interview).
If someone had a MITB briefcase right now, Punk would be in trouble.
Intriguing story. I don't know how smart it is to
Jericho has the best jackets.
Even the heel's against drinking to excess and DUIs.
HAHAHAHAHA. Yeah that'll be on the botch reel.
Damn. Jericho just sold that rematch for me.
Heels do bad things to set up babyfaces getting their revenge. This isn't a difficult concept.
This is much better than Del Rio being stuck in a 12-man tag.
"Daniel Bryan" indeed. Where the heck is he?
This is the best crowd in the world.
They're STUPID for giving away Sheamus/Del Rio on TV with 4 days of build. That match should be massive.
Oh. That's why his mic messed up.
Oh my God. AJ's got a black eye, doesn't she?
Edit: Apparently not. That would have been something, though. I thought they were doing an angle where Bryan abused her after his loss.
I'd boo that skinny goof, too.
Thanks for reminding us that Rhodes isn't the Champ anymore.
They're screwed here. Both Kofi and Rhodes should be elevated these days.
BOO. This match was going well.
Why put over Show at Rhodes' expense? What does that do for anyone long-term? I guess they could have Rhodes dig deep and have a comeback win for the title.
"Cena might be hanging it up, but he'll call out The Rock first".
Yeah, that won't be the last time they investigate the Titanic. It's the "ECW reunion" of shipwrecks.
Speaking of ECW, anyone remember this guy's talk show?
I enjoyed Washington as a talker, so they could have something there.
Miz vs. Ryder makes sense after last night.
I like Miz goading the crowd on. A lot of performers seem to forget the crowd aspect of the match.
More reinforcement that matches aren't as important as promos with the announcement on Cena.
Didn't expect a Jane Eyre reference tonight.
I like Ryder being more serious but still using the crowd to build momentum.
I think it might have done more to put Ryder down than build Miz up given his long losing streak and the commentary against him.
Another match they'd be crazy to give a clean ending to.
Nothing says "this is a serious moment" like Cena's wardrobe.
Cena can cut a good serious promo when given the chance.
Cena's a pretty good talker. He has people waiting for what he'll say next.
GREAT interaction with the crowd. The true greats can work the crowd into their promo well.
Ha. Obviously Miami's been reading the dirt-sheets.
Fun moment with the "YES" chants, though Cena supporting a heel's kind of... odd to say the least.
CHRIST, what a reaction.
That music is so sick.
I just hope Lesnar's still got it after his health issues that caused him to leave UFC.
Lesnar's a guy the Cena-haters can get behind. Very smash-mouth, "Attitude Era"-esque guy.
God I have waited so long to see that again.
There's your set-up for post-Mania WWE. Looking forward to what comes from here.
That's all for Raw. I'll be back for NXT on Wednesday. A news post is upcoming. Thanks for reading!
Chuck, did you have any inclination Lesnar would return on Raw? I heard "Lesnar" chants after I got home from class, so apparently others knew about it on some fashion. Maybe I missed the boat?
ReplyDeleteWhat are you making of this Lesnar/Cena fued? I personally expected Lesnar to go after Taker, but maybe Taker is doing his annual "only show up for 'Mania" strategy.
It's weird to me to think that if Cena doesn't turn heel, Lesnar attacking him would make it seem like Lesnar is being built to be a heel, but yet he's being cheered insanely like he's a good guy. I know we need time to make this issue seem less opake and coalesce, but what do you make of this? What are you hearing?
It was covered around Mania weekend but nothing was a "sure thing" until pretty much before it happened. There were a lot of rumors flying around but nothing was known for sure until it happened other than that the two sides were in negotiation. There were also rumors of Batista, but I don't think that had much of a chance of happening. Sometimes it's tough to make a choice of what to cover because things can be so wildly off!
ReplyDeleteI know this much from the weekend: 1. He won't be working full time. He hated being on the road when he was a regular, so I don't see that changing now. (WWE's fine with that because he can make them a lot of money even as a part-timer). 2. I really doubt he's in great shape. There's a reason he had to retire from UFC. Some sort of serious abdominal issues that led to some one-sided losses when he was able to do MMA. So, I'm definitely not expecting the Lesnar from his WWE heyday. There's probably more to come in upcoming news posts.
Cena vs. Lesnar actually makes a lot of sense. They feuded years ago on Smackdown. In fact, John Cena's current finisher came from that feud. Lesnar had the F5, so Cena had the "FU". Interestingly enough, I seem to remember the current Lord Tensai involved in that feud somehow.
While Taker would make sense given the staredown at UFC, their past feud and some very legitimate heat between them, I'm thinking Taker's pretty banged up given how little we see of him these days. It wouldn't surprise me too much if he does just become a Mania season guy, and they even hinted on Sunday that that's the last we'll see of him in the ring. His status will probably be a developing story throughout the year, since it usually is. Since Cena's the top (full-time) guy in WWE, I see why they're going this route.
I think it will be like Rock/Cena with fans taking different sides. The crowd on Raw was REALLY heavy on the hardcore side given all the chants for Daniel Bryan. People want the return of the attitude the Lesnar character had when he first broke through in WWE. He basically showed up and destroyed people, though he later had some really good long matches too. He wasn't a kid-friendly merchandise machine in other words.
I doubt Cena will turn heel anytime soon. Though some argue that since people pay to boo him, he's already kind of a heel. I personally see "character alignment" as being based on who someone's facing, but to each his or her own.