Detroit, Michigan is the site for tonight's 3-Hour Monday Night RAW! This is the Go-Home show for Extreme Rules this Sunday on ppv. I wonder what they're going to do for all 3 hours. Guess we'll see. Let's get this review underway! Oh and by the way, I'm gonna try and not mention some of the backstage stuff unless it's completely relevant.
It's Edge! Surprising way to kick off RAW here. Nice way to keep his return very hush hush. I also like the new haircut he's sporting by the way.
Nonetheless, Lesnar and Cena was supposed to start things off, but he "wasn't here yet." Edge came out here and laid down the pep talk on Cena. Edge still got it when it comes to doing promos and this promo was great telling Cena to find that inner Cena that kicked Edge's ass back in the day. Only one problem with it though: Somebody needs to show Edge the RAW episode where Cena slapped the taste out of Lesnar's mouth.
But on another note, this was a great thing seeing these two face to face like in the old days.
It reminded me of the InVasion angle back in 2001 and Vince McMahon said he wanted the "Old" Stone Cold back. Like And now it's Edge saying, he wants the "Old" John Cena back.
Chris Jericho vs Kofi Kingston
Jericho having his first match on RAW since late February I believe and he and Kofi always put on good matches, so I wasn't surprised at how solid this was. There was a great spot where Jericho caught Kofi in mid-air and hit a Codebreaker! Great match and a solid Jericho promo afterwards. Wonder what gift he has in mind....
CM Punk Backstage:
Hahaha, Jericho got him a Liquor basket. Nice and kinda got me to chuckle a little bit. But Punk kept that one bottle of Jack. Hmm....
Tensai vs Truth
Well, nice to see Truth looked like a Jobber out there. As much as I don't like Lord Tensai, this is a good win for his character, as if a win over Cena last week wasn't enough. I think this is a sign that he's going to start running through actual everyday wrestlers around here, and not just be fed Jobbers.
Kane/Randy Orton Segment
I don't care what other people say, I enjoyed this promo. Kane had me glued to everything he was saying. Albeit, it was nothing new, but nonetheless, he really got over the fact that he truly is the emotionless Monster that haunts Randy Orton's dreams and turns them into nightmares and how he can never wake up from this Monster. Nice promo really getting to the meat of the matter. I forgot that Kane could actually cut decent promos.
Orton with Paul Bearer? o_O I like it. I mean, they can only have Orton run down and attack Kane so many times. They needed something with a little substance, and with Orton tying up Kane's "Father" responding to what Kane did was pretty cool. But what made this especially good is that Kane wasn't going to save him. Monsters are Heartless and have no care for anybody else. Great job here.
And then, we have the obligatory Orton/Kane brawl and Kane is sent hightailing it into the crowd for safety. Good build heading towards their match on Sunday.
Show/Khali vs Del Rio/Rhodes
Meh, this match was ok. Really nothing to write Home about. I like that they didn't make this a total squash and Rhodes and Del Rio actually got a little offense in on these guys. But nonetheless, Del Rio leaves Rhodes to get beat down by Show and lose.
I really hope these two don't challenge for the Tag Titles. I mean it'd be cool if they did, but I don't want them to.
Oh and by the way, Big Show defends The Intercontinental Championship against Cody Rhodes this Sunday. It only took them 3 weeks to announce the rematch anyway.
Oh and here's a kicker, The Miz will challenge Santino for the United States Championship......on the pre-show before Extreme Rules this Sunday. My, it's amazing how far The Miz has fallen, and how little WWE really cares about the US Title. I understand trying to get a few buyers before the show, but let's be serious now, these two guys can't even get on the main card.....?
Divas Championship Match
Beth Phoenix vs Nikki Bella
The Divas? Actually on Monday Night RAW? How about that? And Nikki is getting a Divas Title shot for a Non-Title match she won like two weeks ago. What started out as a solid match, turned bad as Beth Phoenix looked like she legit got hurt, landing wrong suffering a sprained/twisted ankle. It looked really bad.
But let's not stop there, Nikki Bella has become the Divas Champion. I guess the rumor about The Bella Twins leaving has been put to death here tonight.
Punk/Jericho segment
CM Punk is Drunk. Well, at least he was pretending to be drunk. I think this is the first time we had a field sobriety test on RAW. This was well done. Punk played a pretty good drunk, but if he wanted to really nail it........well let me not go into great detail.
As soon as the Cops left, Punk wanted to show up Jericho and Laurinatis and faking out everybody by not only walking the line, but saying the Alphabet backwards, which is hard to do drunk or sober, but he pulled it off nonetheless and looked cool doing it, although he did mess up a little bit.
And then we had the obligatory brawl right afterwards as Punk finally got his hands on Jericho and sent him heading for higher ground. This feud has really been great and I've been enjoying every bit of it. Can't wait for Punk/Jericho II on Sunday. Should be good.
Sheamus vs Mark Henry
Guest Referee- Daniel Bryan
This was pretty much what I expected. Sheamus and Henry brawl and Bryan fast counts Sheamus to a loss. I figured the match would last a little longer is all. Sheamus and Henry have good in-ring chemistry, but I guess they really wanted to sell Bryan screwing over Sheamus, but it was a little too sudden.
Either way, Bryan comes out on top after making Sheamus tap to the YES! Lock pushing the momentum for their match this Sunday. It must really get to Sheamus that since he won the World Title at WrestleMania that Bryan has been getting a much better crowd reaction than him. Oh well....
Ryder & Santino vs The Colons
So......the Tag Team Champions job to thrown together teams two weeks in a row? Meh. Won't even go into that honestly. I remember a time when the Tag Team Champions were actually relevant and didn't job week after week to..."non" tag teams. Oh well, life goes on I guess.
Brodus Clay & Hornswoggle vs Ziggler and Swagger
As much as I love Brodus Clay and Dolph Ziggler, the only thing interesting about this match was Hornswoggle biting Vickie's ass.
John Cena/Brock Lesnar Contract Signing
Well....I really don't like how this turned out.
For starters, it took Cena 10 minutes to come out and Lesnar prattled on about demands and revisions in his contract. Similar to what Punk did with Mr. McMahon back in July except for the fact that Punk is better at promos than Lesnar is. But getting back to Lesnar, his promo was meh. It did get a little on the boring side and it just didn't sound right. I'm not saying he was God awful, but he couldn't get the crowd interested in him. I think he needs Heyman back.
And finally here comes John Cena! Walking down to the ring with a chain around his neck. He stands in the middle of the ring and Lesnar goads him into signing the contract. Once he does, we have probably the longest staredown in history. Lesnar leaves the ring and Cena stands in the ring holding his chain. Very anticlimactic. Everything these two did up until this week has been great, but this just....I don't know what to say.
When Edge said he wanted the "Old" Cena back, I'm sure he wanted Cena to walk down to the ring and stand there with a chain wrapped around his fist and not attack Lesnar at all. I don't want to hear the argument about saving it for Sunday. These two had physical contact the past 3 weeks and on the night before their BIG showdown, we get.......a lackluster Lesnar promo and a silent Cena standing in the ring with a chain wrapped around his fist. No back and forth on the mic, and not even a brawl.
I understand the message they're sending: Cena won't back down from "The Bully" Brock Lesnar, but I thought Cena slapping Lesnar in the face a few weeks back was a turn in the right direction for this feud. What happened to that Cena? Did he all of a sudden forget? I really didn't mind if we got a repeat of that brawl where every WWE superstar had to separate them.
In my opinion, poor end to what was a really good RAW.
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