Monday Night RAW Review!!! (4/16/12)

Alright, so it's time to get down to business as usual and it means it's time to review Monday Night RAW!

So, RAW is coming from London, England and these crowds are always entertaining, and it was a great night.

CM Punk vs Mark Henry


It's been a while since we had a WWE Championship Match open up Monday Night RAW. This match was solid. It wasn't as good as the match they had the night after WrestleMania, but good nonetheless. This felt like a throwaway match to me and the No DQ, No Countout thing was meh. Because they spent most of the time in the ring, and barely used any weapons. But nonetheless, Punk retains.

And then Jericho comes on and keeps on making this feud interesting. There's a tape of Punk walking into a pub and now we know it'll be Jericho and Punk in a Chicago Street Fight at Extreme Rules for the WWE Championship. This feud keeps on getting more and more interesting by the week. It's something new every week and it keeps me interested. If you're not hooked into this feud, then I can't help you.

United States Championship
Santino (c) vs David Otunga


This was nothing more than filler, which really says what the United States Championship means to the WWE nowadays. But the match was a bit sloppy at times and almost forgettable. Santino retains, but I would like to see this actually turn into a feud where Otunga ends up winning the US Title in the near future. He got a good push leading into WrestleMania and the US Title could be the thing he needs to really get over.

Brock Lesnar Interview


Well, this was rather interesting. Lesnar's interview was ok. I agreed with some things and disagreed with some things as well.

He went a bit overboard saying things like he was the most dominant collegiate athlete or something along those lines, because both Kurt Angle and Bobby Lashley were better mat wrestlers than Lesnar in my opinion.

Then he said Cena wouldn't be the man if Lesnar hadn't left. This isn't entirely true.

Cena would've eventually taken over as the face of the company, but it probably wouldn't have happened as fast as it did. Lesnar leaving opened up the door for Cena in a HUGE way to emerge and become the company's top man.

Sounds like a bit of jealousy on Lesnar's part. Maybe if Lesnar had actually stayed in WWE, he wouldn't be so bitter and upset that John Cena is "The Man" right now. Because Lesnar was still a Big star before he left in 2004 and there's no telling where his career would've gone from there, but he chose to leave and try out for the NFL and eventually end up going to UFC.

But already off the bat, this feud is personal and I Love it. This promo not only made their feud so interesting already, but it really got the point across that Brock Lesnar really doesn't like Cena.

Kane vs Zack Ryder


Remember when Zack Ryder was the United States Champion and looked like a legit star? Me neither.

Ever since his involvement in the Cena/Kane feud, he's been forgettable and now he's pretty much a jobber and getting buried. I mean, first it was Miz last week and now Kane. Just remember that he didn't get any offense in this match. Let's move on.

Kane's little promo afterwards was ok. It helped to push along the feud rather nicely.



Daniel Bryan/Kofi/AJ Segment


YES! YES! YES!

I remember when people didn't like Daniel Bryan and his character was annoying. I defended him and said he got better each week and is over. But now it looks like his loss at Mania was a blessing in disguise. He's more over with the fans than he was when he was Champion, got a new shirt, and has fans all around the world saying YES! YES! YES! Not only is Daniel Bryan the best wrestler in the WWE right now, but his character is getting over like never before.

Take this segment for example. He appeared and the fans erupted in YES! Chants. And now he changed the name of his finisher to the YES! Lock. I don't know how long the YES! Chants are gonna be around for, but this segment was a perfect way to milk it a little bit.

Say what you want about Bryan, but the man is over and I love this.

John Cena Promo


*Sigh*

What happened to the John Cena that had personal barbs to throw at The Rock? What happened to the John Cena who slapped Brock Lesnar in the face last week?

Tonight, he came out and went back to cutting a cheesy promo. Pretty much what he said was: "Brock Lesnar is a Monster and even though I may get my ass kicked, I'm showing up to fight!"

Once again: *Sigh*

Just when I was starting to like Cena again, he goes back to cutting cheesy promos and showing off the good guy attitude. Now look, there's nothing wrong with that, but for god sakes at least come at your opponent. I was expecting Cena to come at Lesnar like he did with The Rock: Making it personal. Lesnar pretty much said: "You wouldn't have been shit if I didn't leave." And that is your best comeback? When Rock went in on Cena, he had comebacks. Where is that?

Well, they have a Contract Signing next week on RAW, so let's see if he acts any different.

Daniel Bryan vs Kofi Kingston


This was the best match of the night by far. The flow of this match was good, and that pace was average. It wasn't too fast, nor was it too slow to the point where you got bored. It was a very good TV match. Kofi continues to look like a Million Bucks even though he loses, and in the meanwhile Bryan gets the win and looks good heading into his rematch with Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Championship.

But he is showing more of a violent side when he went back to attack Kofi again. His YES! thing combined with his character is working for him. He looks better than Sheamus and he's the World Heavyweight Champion!

Brodus Clay vs Dolph Ziggler


This match barely got underway as Swagger got involved. Long story short, Clay squashed both Ziggler and Swagger and Brodus' dancers got into it with Vickie Guerrero. Forgettable segment really even though I really like Brodus Clay's character.


R-Truth as Sherlock Holmes


Maybe I'd care a little more about this if they had given Truth more than one segment. But whatever, Truth is funny, so it works.

Big Show and Great Khali vs Primo & Epico


First of all, Big Show and Khali as a tag team? o_O

Anyway, nice way of squashing the WWE Tag Team Champions....again, making them even more irrelevant than they already were.

No Cody Rhodes sighting? Hmm...

Extreme Rules Match
John Cena vs Lord Tensai


This match upset me in so many different ways, but I'll get to that in a second.


As far as the match goes, it wasn't anything special. Lord Tensai's first RAW Main Event against John Cena and he was ok I guess. I feel like it was a bit too soon because the man had what....2 matches? I would've much rather had Kane face Cena. But getting back to the match, I knew the pace was going to be slow, but sheesh! Tensai pretty much dominated the whole match. Face superstars don't get too much offense in these days do they?

Also, I don't see the point of an "Extreme Rules" match if there's nothing "Extreme" about it. There was nothing Extreme about this match at all. I mean they didn't even use a Chair for God sakes!

Now here's what got me upset. Why in the hell did John Cena lose? This has to be the most ridiculous thing I think I've ever seen. Lord Tensai has two wins under his belt and beat John Cena? Not only did he beat Cena, but he beat him clean pretty much.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think John Cena has a Pay-Per-View match coming up against Brock Lesnar. Right? I thought so. So, to get him ready for the match, he loses to Lord Tensai? I expected John Cena to go apeshit and beat down Tensai, Otunga, and Laurinatis sending a message to Lesnar. The show goes off the air with Cena standing tall giving him momentum against Lesnar.

But instead, the lasting image of RAW tonight is a guy that most people don't know, or care about. The lasting image of RAW was Prince Albert.

The only explanation I have for this is that they're going somewhere with Cena's character. Why in God's name would the top superstar in the WWE right now lose to guy who's only had two matches since re-debuting? I hope Vince knows what he's doing with this. A win over John Cena shows that you're going to get pushed sooner or later.


Overall, this RAW was pretty bland. The only good parts about to me was the Punk/Jericho segment and Bryan vs Kofi. Last week's RAW was better and it's not even close. But next week is a 3-Hour RAW show before Extreme Rules next Sunday. So, it should be a HUGE show. See you guys then!


Feel free to Comment.


By: Gerald "Showstopper" Prophete