Hello 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, last weeks Raw was either really bad or good depending on who you ask, my opinion was that it was awful, one of the worst in recent memory, which was a shame since Extreme Rules was such a good PPV, rumor has it that tonights show was written THREE TIMES, with the final script being approved last minute, let’s see what goes down tonight. Quick recap, Brock Lesnar “broke Triple H’s arm” and John Cena VS John Laurinaitis will go down at Over The Limit, so we’ll see where they go from there.
Anyone who’s followed this column the past few weeks knows my take on Lesnar, I don’t care he’s back and I don’t want him back, I just can’t keep interest in a guy who’s going to be leaving after his big WrestleMania pay day. My opinion, I think they could use this time spent on Lesnar to build up other guys who could be main event material if WWE cared enough to give them time, this is also the same reason I was so against the WWE bringing Dwayne back. That being said, I apologize for the little rant, time to get back on track.
Hopefully tonights Raw is much better then last weeks, we’ll find out soon enough.
We start the show off recapping last weeks confrontation between Lord Tensai, John Laurinaitis and John Cena, where all three men picked Cena apart.
John Laurinaitis comes out to the ring and talks about being the “undisputed leader and authority figure of the WWE” he says Cena deserved what he got, he won’t apologize for it and that’s only the beginning of what’s going to happen to Cena. He then goes on to say that anybody who makes fun of his voice will suffer consequences, he goes on to talk about his time in Japan. CM Punk interrupts Laurinaitis and heads to the ring. CM Punk says that considering Laurinaitis claims to be the genius behind the People Power movement, but he still doesn’t have a clue what they want to see, he says they don’t want to see him, they don’t want to hear about his time in Japan. Punk then runs down Laurinaitis for attacking Cena. He says that the only reason Laurinaitis was in Japan because there wasn’t a territory or a promotion who wanted to see him wrestle. He called Laurinaitis a joke. He continues to run down Laurinaitis calling him stupid, ugly, has no friends and he’s a toolbox. Laurinaitis said if he wasn’t training for Cena he’d pummel him to the ground. Tonight CM Punk goes one on one with Lord Tensai. I enjoyed the segment, more so because of Punk.
Big Show is walking around the back, heading toward the ring for his rematch with Cody Rhodes. Big Show wins by count out after Cody takes his belt and walks off, very lame match with a worse ending. After the match Big Show called Cody back out there, he tells Cody not to make him come back there after him, Eve comes out from the back looking DAMN good! She tells Big Show to apologize for making fun of John Laurinaitis’s voice backstage. Big show shrugs it off and gives a half hearted “sorry” apology, Eve says she didn’t tell him to say sorry, she says to apologize again, Big Show “apologizes for making fun of John Laurinaitis’s voice” and walks off with Eve giving a smirk.
It’s announced that tonight Sheamus and Randy Orton will take on Alberto Del Rio and Chris Jericho in a tag match.
Kofi Kingston is coming out to the ring next, being accompanied by R Truth. Vickie Guerrero comes out screaming “excuse me” she announces Kofi’s opponent, Dolph Ziggler, he comes out with Jack Swagger. Jack Swagger interfered, allowing Ziggler to pick up the win, pretty decent match, glad to see Ziggler go over, regardless of how it happened.
Up next, Michael Cole is going to interview John Cena, who’s “not in the arena” yet looks remarkably like he’s backstage. Cole asks for an update from Cena on his arm, Cena says theirs no permanent damage and he’s still cleared to wrestle, he has to get his arm drained twice a day and that there are doctors who “strongly suggest” he doesn’t wrestle for a few months, Cena said there is nothing keeping him from getting in the ring with John Laurinaitis. Cole asks if Cena is surprised Laurinaitis didn’t get contacted from the WWE B.O.D. Cena says they called him and that Cena told them not to do anything to him until after Over The Limit. I missed a lot of what happened after that because the video and audio went crazy until the end. But the last I heard was that in 13 days Laurinaitis can’t ban Cena from the building, in 13 days Laurinaitis isn’t a suit, he’s the opponent, and he will kick his ass.
Kelly Kelly and Layla and walking the halls, they’ll be in tag team action next. Their opponents are the random team of Maxine and Natalya, Beth Phoenix is at ringside doing commentary. Natalya has gone from heel to face and back to heel in a matter of weeks. Layla and Kelly get a quick win on Maxine and Natalya, Kelly or Natalya didn’t even get in the match.
Up next, is the tag team match. Alberto Del Rio and Chris Jericho against Sheamus and Randy Orton. Pretty funny, I’m not a fan of 3 of the 4 people in this match. Jericho and Del Rio win, pretty good match with some good time given to it. Sheamus went for the Brogue Kick on Jericho, Jericho moved and he hit Orton, Sheamus then turned right into the Codebreaker for the win. After the match Sheamus attempted to apologize to Orton, Orton hit him with an RKO.
Backstage John Laurinaitis is talking to Eve, saying he thinks Shows apology earlier was insincere. Eve walks off and Del Rio and Jericho start lobbying for title shots, Orton cmes in and attacks them both, Sheamus joins in the fight, Orton and Sheamus start arguing about what happened in the ring.
Brodus Clay is coming out next, he has new lighting. He has a new name for his fans, they’re now called “The Funkateers” wow… Anyway, Brodus’s opponent is The Miz. Miz comes out and says instead of being in a WWE Title Match he has a match “with this” Miz called Brodus King Hippo, LOVED the “Mike Tyson’s Punch Out” reference. Brodus wins in a match that was longer then I thought it would be, not to mention Miz got most of the offense in. Brodus Clay is getting real old, real quick. The ONLY good thing about him and his character now are Cameron and Naomi.
Up next, we have a recap of what happened last week with Brock Lesnar and Triple H, we’re going to get an update on the condition of Triple H. Lesnars music hits, no sign of Brock. PAUL HEYMAN COMES OUT! Heyman says he is out there as the representative of Brock Lesnar, Heyman says that Lesnar feels betrayed by the WWE Universe, Lesnar asked Heyman to go out to the ring to read his “official statement” it says he came back to bring legitimacy to the WWE, and he was rewarded with the same politics that caused him to leave 8 years ago. Heyman says Brock Lesnar quits because of what happened last week with Triple H not agreeing to the terms Laurinaitis agreed too. This crowd is terrible, there was hardly any cheers or boos for that matter throughout the entire segment. Lets be real though, Heyman was reading Lesnars “official statement” because the WWE realizes that Brock can’t be given a live microphone and they didn’t want him butchering a segment with his horrible microphone skills.
Up next we have CM Punk VS Lord Tensai. CM Punk is walking to the ring and Laurinaitis comes out, he says instead of a one on one match CM Punk will be in a handicap match against Lord Tensai and Daniel Bryan. Tensai and Bryan get the win, Bryan knocked Punk down from the ropes and Tensai was able to capitalize, using the mist claw to get the win. Tensai is useless, he can be shown the door and I don’t think anyone would care. After the match Bryan attacked Punk, locking in his YES! Lock. The referee was finally able to get him off. The show ends with Bryan screaming yes with his arms in the air.
Overall, I thought it was better then last weeks, which is nothing to write home about, still wasn’t a great episode, Paul Heyman being there was great, sadly the crowd was awful. But on the plus, Brock Lesnar is gone for the foreseeable future, won’t shed a tear for that.
CM Punk was great as always, always awesome listening to him put Laurinaitis in his place.
No Zack Ryder again this week on Raw, and yes, I will continue to bring that up because It’s a disgrace how they’re not using him, AGAIN.
I give this show a 2/5 rating, slightly better then last week, the terrible sounding crowd didn’t help at all.
Thank you for reading this weeks column, I hope you enjoyed it, check back next week for yet another edition of A RAW Opinion.
They’re really serious about Tensai, aren’t they? Hope they don’t mess it up!
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It was an ok show. Agree that the crowd was horrible. Great to see Paul Heyman. Over the Limit looks to be shaping into a good PPV.
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Aside from Cena/Laurinaitis (Which I’m fully not expecting to end clean) it does look like a pretty solid PPV.
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Cena/Laurinaitis will probably be the main event which is disappointing. I’d rather see Punk/Bryan in the main event slot.
Yeah, it definitely won’t end clean. I imagine Tensai or someone else will interfere on Laurinaitis’ behalf.
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I wouldn’t mind if Cena/Ace went on last if there was a cliffhanger. Like, if Lesnar and Paul E. came out and Paul turned on him.
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Yeah that would interesting to see but Over The Limit probably too early for Lesnar to return. I was thinking Batista or more likely Tensai would interfere.
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I thought Batista was going to be Cena’s opponent.
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I was at the show live and I apologize for the Greensboro crowd being kind of unresponsive. Lol. There were alot of kids there and all they wanted to do was see Cena (who did wrestle a dark match). I also noticed that there weren’t a ton of chants that took off. They would often start and then stop quickly. There were a few yes chants for Bryan, but they didn’t last long. I have a feeling it was a show that didn’t come off well on tv. Plus I hated Tensai being the main event. He is by far one of the most boring guys on the roster and no one reacted to him. People around me didn’t even know who Heyman was:(
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I’ve read reports that the crowd was hot all night and the sound was just bad. How buildings sound differently.
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Oh well I take that back! Lol I read a report that said the opposite. I will have to watch the videos on You Tube to see for myself. I had a great time though.
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Yeah, they said it just didn’t come off well on tv, that the building’s acoustics were bad.
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What a horribly boring show. Only good thing was Heyman’s return, and even that was “meh.”
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I think Heymans return having that “meh” effect was the lack of crowd response, I did hear a few ECW chants, but they were VERY faint and didn’t last long at all. I also think it might have been more effective if Lesnars music stopped and then Heyman came out to his own.
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I think one problem, or reason rather, for the crowd not reacting (besides them just being a sucky crowd, sorry Jeuron) is perhaps that there are just so many of these “mouth piece” “suit” characters on the shows right not.
Eve, AW, Ace, Teddy Long, Cole at times, HHH has gone corporate on us….and now, out comes Heyman to Brock’s theme, wearing a suit. Not that suits are bad, but it’s just that all these characters seem the same.
So, like you said, maybe if he had come out differently.
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Suit stable!
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Seems like if you’re name begins with J this show wasn’t for you! lol
Glad Heyman is back, Brock needs a talker so he doesn’t have to do as much acting. Also he was brought back so he can continue to make Brock’s storylines active as Brock won’t appeart every week. As Jeuron said, the crowd wasn’t that hot. Like ffs, I jumped out of my seat when Heyman appeared, and because the fans didn’t really respond, my brother was asking me why I was delighted to see Heyman back, lol.
Unsure about Punk losing cleanly as he’s WWE champ, then it was a handicap match so don’t really mind.
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I was the same. I was delighted to see Heyman back but the crowd didn’t react at all. I thought I hit the mute button on my remote, lol.
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haha. If it was a New York or Chicago crowd they would be buzzing for Heyman!
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In a way, I kinda liked it this way. He wasn’t treated like a hero for acting like a shit.
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Then again that’s good. But I think I meant more regarding the fans reaction, whether it was for or against him.
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But when that happens, the whole face/heel dynamic becomes even more pointless than it currently is.
Idea for a column: Imagine if WWE got rid of the face/heel dynamic and we just got a wrestler’s natural personality. What would it look like?
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I wouldn’t be surprised if CM Punk was forced to drop the title to Daniel Bryan as punishment for what he said on twitter.
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The crowd was shit, had they been hot the show would have come off so much better. There just seemed to be a sea of red and green Cena shirt which you know will always disappoint.
I seriously marked out when Heyman came out. Hopefully he will be speaking on behalf of Lensar going forward. He is great on the mic.
Anyone else think of the laptop GM when he said ‘And I quote…’
Dear WWE, when doing a broken arm angle, maybe wait until the following week AFTER the recipient has made his multiple appearances… This will avoid any future over the top backtracking in order to explain such situations.
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The holes in the broken arm angle are horrible.
So, Brock crippled HHH so badly, that he has to have a special mechanical brace (but no cast), oh, but he can remove the brace whenever he feels like it. He’ll also need surgery….weeks later. Currently, though, he’s in high spirits, is able to attend all of these events, and is still able to function in his day-to-day duties.
Hellfire and brimstone should be raining down upon Lesnar and his camp, but no. Instead, we’re going to get more legalities and the Board of Directors.
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HHH is Thor, so I’m not going to bring it up to him.
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