Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of A RAW Opinion, I’m Joe and as always I take you through this weeks episode of WWE Raw, I apologize about last week, my computer was acting up and I wasn’t able to put up the column, this weeks show is a THREE HOUR special and promises to be big.
We start things off with John Cena and Brock Lesnar signing a contract for Extreme Rules. Teddy Long comes out first, he welcomes us to the official contract signing for Extreme Rules, he introduced John Cena first. He introduces Brock Lesnar, John Laurinaitis comes out asking Teddy what he’s going, Brock isn’t there yet, him and Teddy go back and forth a bit, Laurinaitis tells Teddy to tell Cena to leave the ring, because Cena can’t hear him himself… Stupid. Laurinaitis continues talking and EDGE IS HERE!! Edge goes to the ring, he says that he’s not supposed to be there tonight, actually in a few days he won’t even be under contract anymore, he tells Cena he’s here to talk to him, but not THIS John Cena, he doesn’t know who he is now, he wants the Cena who was his greatest rival ever, the John Cena who threw him off a ladder through two tables. Edge told Cena that Lesnar doesn’t care about anyone except himself, including the fans, he only cares if they line his pockets. Edge said Cena better wake up because if he doesn’t It’s a slap in the face to guys like Shawn, Taker and himself, he’s not asking Cena to beat Brock Lesnar, he’s telling him to beat Brock Lesnar. GREAT segment, how Edge being there didn’t leak I have no idea, but WOW what a surprise!
Chris Jericho comes out next for a match, his opponent is Kofi Kingston. I was surprised with the length of the match, it went on really long, Jericho got the win. What I don’t understand though is why CM Punk didn’t show up and just beat Jericho down bad. Jericho got on the microphone and said he had a “gift” for CM Punk tonight.
Brock Lesnar video up next, don’t care.
CM Punk being interviewed, asking him his thoughts on what Jericho said earlier, Punk said the “gift” Jericho gave him was a basket of alcohol.
Lord Tensai up next, his opponent is R Truth, they show a video of Tensai with words from earlier, he talks in Japanese so you can’t tell what he said. Squash match, Tensai wins, eh who cares, he’s boring now.
Kane walking around backstage, he’s coming out next to give Randy Orton a message. He talks about what he did to Ortons father, Orton interrupts Kane and says he had to return the favor, PAUL BEARER! He’s tied up to a wheelchair, it looks like Orton rolls him into a freezer and shuts the door. Kane says he could care less what Orton does to Bearer, Kane is leaving the ring, Orton attacks him and they go at it, Kane runs off through the crowd.
Alberto Del Rio is up next, he’s in a tag team match with Cody Rhodes against Big Show and Great Khali, this match should suck… Went on way too long, match wasn’t anything special, Cody went for the tag but Del Rio walked off allowing Show and Khali to get the win.
Brock Lesnar arrives, Josh asks him where he was earlier on, when the contract signing was supposed to happen, Brock pushes Josh up against the production truck he then tosses him around.
Beth Phoenix comes out next, she’s defending the womens title VS Nikki Bella. Eve comes out next, she’s apparently been named administrative assistant to John Laurinaitis, she announces that she’s making this match a Lumberjill match. Somehow the match spilled outside and nobody did anything, Beth looked like she hurt herself going to the outside of the ring, Nikki Bella gets the win! She’s the new divas champion, looks like Beth might legit be hurt, not good, looked pretty bad.
Apparently they’re playing an angle backstage where CM Punk was “drinking” John Laurinaitis wants him in the ring next for a field sobriety test. Jericho demands Punk be stripped of the title and it is given to him, Teddy says if Punk fails the test he will be stripped of the title and will face further discipline, CM Punk comes out from the back he walks to the ring pretty wobbly, he drops the title on the mat a couple of times. He fails saying the alphabet backwards and walking a straight line miserably and the cops in the ring left, Punk hands the title to Teddy, Teddy is about to give it to Jericho, Punk says he wants one more chance at the test, Punk starts doing the alphabet backwards while walking a straight line front and back. He gets to the final letter and attacks Jericho, beating the hell out of him.
Another Brock Lesnar video, and I care less then I did before.
Sheamus VS Mark Henry up next, Daniel Bryan is the special guest referee. Pretty dumb match, Mark Henry gets the win after a VERY fast count by Daniel Bryan. Sheamus attacks Bryan after the match, Bryan threw his shirt at Sheamus and Sheamus attacked him. Bryan gets the upper hand and locks Sheamus is the YES! Lock!
Primo and Epico in a tag match up next, their opponents are Zack Ryder and Santino. Wow, I was very surprised, Santino and Zack get the win. I figured Zack would have lost for the team. Ryder was SUPER OVER! WWE REALLY needs to take better notice.
Kane walking backstage, he passes by the freezer and opens it, he wheels Paul Bearer out, he says he came to save Bearer, for him, he wheels him back inside the freezer and shuts the door again. Alright, first off… How the hell did Bearer not freeze all the time he was in the freezer? Second, that was a dumb segment.
Our next match is Brodus Clay and Hornswoggle VS Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger, and apparently they’re taking offers for products to sponsor matches now, Taco Bell Doritos Locos Tacos is sponsoring this match. I think Hornswoggle and Brodus won, but I didn’t really pay attention because this match was stupid.
Yet another Brock Lesnar video and yet again I don’t care.
Contract signing is up next, I’d bet a million dollars this ends with someone getting beaten up. We have ANOTHER Brock Lesnar video package, Lesnar says we’re tired of Cenas “bull crap” I’m already sick and tired of Lesnar, I didn’t care about him to begin win, but damn, enough is enough. John Laurinaitis comes out for the contract signing, he first introduces “The new(old) face of the WWE” Brock Lesnar. He brings out John Cena next. Cenas music plays but no Cena, music stops and Laurinaitis doesn’t know where he is, he keeps looking around, mixed Cena crowd as usual, no John Cena for a couple of minutes, Brock picks up a microphone, “Come on out little Johnny” Brock says that since John hasn’t shown up but he wants a word with Laurinaitis, he wants and needs a few changes, he’s not happy about how things are turning out, he has some demands he wants Laurinaitis to sign, Brock Lesnar is absolutely BRUTAL on the microphone. Lesnar makes a ton of stupid demands, including Raw being renamed “Monday Night Raw, starring Brock Lesnar” Lesnar signs the contract, John Cenas music hits and Cena FINALLY shows up, ROCKING THE PADLOCK CHAIN!!! Looks like The Doctor(Of Thuganomics) IS IN! Cena wraps the chain around his wrist, he signs the contract, this might be the worst ending of Raw EVER, John Cena stood there with the chain around his fist, Lesnar got on the mic again and babbled something that would make Scott Steiner proud and then left.
I don’t know exactly what I missed, I was forced to watch a stream from Sky Sports since I was watching Rangers/Senators NHL Playoff game on my TV and from what I saw, Sky Sports cuts out A LOT of the backstage segments which is kind of dumb. From what I was able to see it wasn’t all terrible, it wasn’t a good show by any stretch, but I’m glad Zack Ryder finally picked up a win, albeit it thanks to Santino. Only good parts of tonights show I thought, were CM Punk faking drunk and Edge and Cena to start the show off. Everything else I didn’t think was all that great. If WWE was trying to get people interested in this PPV, it failed, bad.
That’s all for this week, thank you for reading the column, I hope you enjoyed it. (I know the column was better then Raw was lol) I’ll be back next week with another edition of A RAW Opinion.
Ringsidehustle.com 
Kofi’s impressed me the past couple of weeks. Perhaps he will be getting a push after the PPV.
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It looks like we might see an AW Faction soon.
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I fell asleep when Big Show/Khali showed, so my opinion on certain things is just from what I’ve read in a couple recaps now.
From what I’ve read, the Punk sobriety test seems excellent, and creative. Speaking of Creative, they finally told a story during a show with the “Is Punk Drunk?” angle, so points for that.
I also liked that Lesnar had some provisions for the contract, as most signings just have the guys sign and then brawl. Disappointed that there was no brawl, though, and also that Cena came out differently, since the story with him is supposed to be that he’s changed since his WM28 loss.
Also happy that Bryan got the upper hand of Sheamus, as that rarely happens it seems these days, heading into a ppv; they never create doubt for the face champions.
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Brock Lesnar on the microphone really made me not care about the contract signing, he’s so bad. I don’t know who’s worse, him or Sid lol. But they really are overdoing it on the whole Brock Lesnar thing, I lost count of how many video pieces they showed him in.
The Punk thing confused me at first, I was wondering when they did away with the breathalyzer test lol, but watching him do the ABC’s backwards while walking the line and then beating on Jericho was great.
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Was great to see Edge last night! Let’s hope his pep talk to Cena prompts the Champ into bringing back some of the old attitude!
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Only saw a bit of it, will be watching the rest in a bit.
I’ll give a detailed comment when I see the rest of it.
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We need changes, the way things are going on in raw is nt good.why d general manage always supporting only one side. Taking very wrong dicission.lm fed up wit it. This making people, wrestling fans all over d world getting tire of watching wrestle match, mostly Raw. Some thing much be done to change repulsive proviso.
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My favorite part of Raw was realizing Lesnar is advertising a tractor on the back of his shirt, lol.
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lol. He actually has something to do with them, like a partnership or something. Heyman tweeted a link few weeks back to a video on YT about it.
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I have the same tractor he’s advertising. I really feel like a part of Team Lesnar, lol.
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Finally watched the full show.
It was good IMO. I seem to be the only person who actually enjoyed it.
BTW, look how skinny Vince has gotten http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5f4K_7y3tU
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Nice video!
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You always are.
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Check out everybody clapping and smiling…. except Mark Henry, stood there arms folded not giving a fuck. lol
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Staying in character! Khali needs to sing more. lol
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Yeah…he’s think ”The fuck am I out here for?!” haha
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The funny thing is he’s supposed to be well-liked backstage.
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I enjoyed the show which is weird since I usually hate 3 hour Raws. Edge’s promo and CM Drunk were the best parts, IMO.
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Thanks for posting this Ray, everytime I went to watch it I was told I wasnt allowed to because of my location -_-
There’s a second video somewhere of Great Khali singing it again haha
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Yes it sucks, same happens to me so I try to find a non WWE Fan Nation one.
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I wonder why WWE discriminate from non-Americans lol! Vince seems to have lost a good bit of weight, glad he didn’t tear his thighs on his way out to the stage hahaha.
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I think Vince only looks skinny because he’s standing next to Mark Henry haha!
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lol..that could be true too!
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Aren’t moost RAWs before a PPV pretty disappointing? Once the match is set then it usually goes down hill.
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The RAW before Money in the Bank wasn’t disappointing.
The WWE screwed up last night. Instead of getting people more excited about the PPV main event, they might have LOST a few viewers. They should have played it safe last night and not promote the match so much. If Cena’s bloody mouth and Brock’s sit-down promo doesn’t get you excited about the match, nothing will.
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Money in the Bank isn’t a fair comparison. That was a very special PPV. Usually the night after a PPV is pretty good. Of course I’m saying in general, not always.
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Well this PPV and that PPV are both Chicago PPVs so I think it’s a little bit fair. This PPV has three HUGE main event matches….Money in the Bank only had one.
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You can blame lots of people from the UFC to the prdiovers to the restaurant showing the event for the lack of publicity. However your main gripe should be with the Concierge at whatever hotel you were staying at. The Concierge should always be able to get you an answer (to any reasonable question).
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It seems the tag division is turning into a joke again. I hate it when two somewhat established wrestlers are thrown together and expected to be a hot new tag team. Not into CoBro.
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CoBro kicks ass! Great name by the way!
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They should take the US title off Santino and do it properly then. They’re obviously a huge pop fest, so it would add some life to the tag titles, but that means Santino can’t be side tracked with his “more important” singles title. That’s just me tho.
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Perhaps, they are building to it?
I kinda want a “freak” stable with all the odd characters in it. Santino, Ryder, Clay, Hornswoggle, etc. Could be fun.
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Yeah, the new Job Squad
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The Freak Patrol!
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I wish Cena would tell Edge, “At least I’m still here every week! I know you can no longer compete, but what’s stopping you from showing up once in awhile as a mentor for the younger stars? I think this is maybe the 3rd time you have been on RAW since you retired. That was a YEAR AGO! Where have you been? I’ve been here every week…where are you? The Rock has been here more times in the last year than you.”
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Poor Paul Bearer, that’s twice he’s been killed now by his sons.
Khali looks terrible and in complete pain, why is he even still wrestling? I know WWE has him to promote to his Inida(?) audience but the guy can barely move.
Was it really necessary to put Josh Matthews on a stretcher with a neck brace after being thrown through a curtain? I lol’d I can see what they are trying to do with Lesnar but he’s far to uncomfrtable on the mic.
Anybody else agree that the last segement would have got over more if say, Paul Heyman was there making the demands and Brock just sat there nodding his head?
The Punk/Jericho segement was good. It was fun and much better than having Y2J ‘via sattelite’
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Kane: I love you.
Bearer: I know.
Khali needs to be a bodyguard, nothing more.
The Matthews deal was done to sell how dangerous Brock is.
Riley tipped Y2J off with Punk drinking. I wonder of Jericho will go after Riley if he loses at the PPV?
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Still, the guy got thrown through a curtain. I lol’d
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I’m sure there were knives behind the curtain.
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LOL I agree with you so much on this. Poor Josh Matthews can’t handle a bit of cotton curtain haha! And as for your comment about Paul Bearer – LOLOLOL! So true. Poor Paul.
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Heck, I still remember when Sting got legit injured when The Horsemen pushed him down in the ring. Looked like a normal bump and he was out like 6 months. Could’ve been a freak injury on RAW. Plus, Brock is stronger than any of The Horsemen.
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LOL! what injury did Sting have?! Never knew about this one.
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I think he tore his ACL. They just pushed him over and it was a freak thing.
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Here it is! FF to about 5:25.
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And when Psycho Sid broke his leg jumping from the second turnbuckle!
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I agree on the point about being surprised Ryder/Marella won. For me, I’d have had Miz cost Marella the match, would have made more sense considering they’re due to face off this Sunday. Was a genuine surprise to see both Edge and Paul Bearer there. Also, while I’m a huge fan of Beth Phoenix, the title change makes sense, especially considering the way Kharma left, with the Bellas abusing her.
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