After a recap of last week's RAW where Johnny Ace, Lord Tensai and his manager beat the hell out of John Cena, it's time for Monday Night RAW and we're just two weeks away from WWE Over the Limit!
RAW kicks off with John Laurinatis cutting a nice little promo on John Cena. Boy, he really put over this match with Cena at Over the Limit. He talked about him being in a position of power, losing his temper, Cena making fun of him, and that being the driving force for his attack. He says a man in power should be respected. All that stuff a corporate guy would say. I felt like he went a little overboard showing his Japan wrestling stuff, but he didn't talk and talk about it, so it was good to me.
He was going good until he was interrupted by CM Punk. Big Johnny and CM Punk have had problems with each other since late October/early November, which really reinforces the fact that this John Cena/John Laurinatis match really came out of nowhere, but I digress.
Punk cut his usually rant on Big Johnny saying the same things he's been saying about Johnny since Day One. Let me just say, the insults he threw out were so......elementary, but hey, it's the PG Era, so I can't get too mad about that. But still, "you're stupid, you're ugly, and you don't have any friends." Really? That's what an anti-authority guy says to the Big Boss Man?
Nonetheless, Big Johnny makes CM Punk vs Lord Tensai for later on tonight.
Intercontinental Championship Match
Cody Rhodes (c) vs Big Show
WHOA! A Championship Match?!?! On RAW?!?! Two weeks in a row?!?! How about that?
After throwing Cody Rhodes around for a few minutes, Rhodes grabs his belt and leaves and Show wins by count-out. I knew it was too good to be true to have a good Championship match.
Eve then comes out looking like a new generation Stephanie McMahon. She forces Show to apologize for making fun of John Laurinatis' voice.......and he did. What Era are we in where superstars apologize these days? The old Big Show never would've done that. Sheesh, I know it's PG, but at least give the good guys some sort of backbone.
Dolph Ziggler vs Kofi Kingston
A solid match. These two are great athletes so that's what you expect from these guys.
Ziggler gets the win after some interference from Jack Swagger. Maybe this will lead to a tag team feud that's been foreshadowed since before WrestleMania: Kofi/Truth vs Ziggler/Swagger. Let's just see where this goes.
On a side note: That Little Jimmy medallion/necklace that Truth was wearing looked pretty cool.
John Cena Interview
Time for a John Cena interview.......oh joy. And it's via satellite! Oh, the irony!
First of all, why was the camera so close up in Cena's face? I was seeing too much of him then I wanted to.
Nonetheless, Cena cuts the usually goody-goody promo. This is one problem I have with Cena. His promos lack depth, he's not speaking from the heart and he sounded he was reading off cue cards at certain points.
I will give him this, towards the end, the promo turned pretty good when he said he was gonna kick Johnny's ass. It was short, and he pretty much said what he had to. No harm, no foul.
Layla vs Maxine
Before I start, for those that don't know about Maxine, she's a developmental star from FCW, wrestled a bit on NTX and is actually pretty good in the ring. I recommend checking out some videos on her if you haven't.....I mean if you're interested that is.
Nonetheless, Layla wins with a rollup (I think) inside of a minute. Oh by the way, Layla will defend the Divas Championship against Beth Phoenix at Over the Limit.
Not that most people care because the Divas Division has long since been butchered, but that's a rant for another time I suppose.
Chris Jericho & Alberto Del Rio vs Sheamus & Randy Orton
Solid tag team match with these four superstars. Nothing spectacular, but it was good enough to give the crowd something to cheer for. A little interesting fact is that both men had some pretty good chemistry to put on a good performance.
So, Sheamus accidentally kicks Orton in the face, Jericho comes back hits Sheamus with the codebreaker. Jericho just pinned the World Champion, then grabbed the belt and said "This is mine!" And then after the match, Sheamus tried to help Orton, but got an RKO for it! I think we all know where this might go: Fatal 4 Way for the World Heavyweight Championship. Interesting. Very interesting.... But wait.....there's more.....
Segment in Big Johnny's office
I knew it! What did I tell you?!?!
So Big Johnny was talking to Eve and then Jericho, Del Rio, and Orton barge in and say they want a shot at Sheamus. Everybody fights and Big Johnny makes the World Championship match at Over the Limit a Fatal 4 Way match. We haven't had one of these in a LONG time. Can't wait to see it!
Brodus Clay vs The Miz
How far has The Miz fallen where has to job to Brodus Clay?
Brodus Clay has gone from an entertaining part of the show to a new generation Barney the Dinosaur.
Getting to the match, I think this was the longest match Brodus has ever had......how about that? The crowd was dead, the match was slow, and Miz loses after like 3 or 4 moves.
No little kids dancing in the ring this time? Thank God.
Latest on the "condition" of WWE COO Triple H
Just looking at the recap of the footage.... Brock is a Gangsta.
So, Triple H will be on RAW next week and he's doing fine. That's what they wanted to tell us. Splendid.
Somebody inform WWE that Triple H was part of the Money Team with Mayweather on Saturday WITHOUT the cast on.
Meh....
But wait, back in the arena......it's Paul Heyman! PAUL HEYMAN!
Paul Heyman is back to represent Brock Lesnar, or at least speak on his behalf for tonight anyway. And he has NOT lost a beat. Heyman can still cut a damn good promo. Too bad these PG fans can't appreciate his greatness. They were quiet when he came out.
Paul Heyman read a few things off Brock Lesnar's contract and pretty told the fans that Brock had quit the WWE.
Things should get interesting in the next few weeks. Let's see how long this lasts. On another note, I hope Heyman sticks around for a while, we need a manager with good mic skills for a change. I'd like to see the team of Heyman/Lesnar back together for old times sake.
CM Punk vs Lord Tensai & Daniel Bryan
Meh. For a main event, it was pretty dry and un-entertaining. Punk seemingly got beat up in the entire match and ends with Lord Tensai getting the pin. I see they really are putting some time into Tensai with two wins over Cena and Punk already.
But after the match, Daniel Bryan locks Punk in the YES! Lock and stands in the ring shouting YES! YES! YES! as RAW goes off the air. Obviously, this adds some more heat to their feud for Over the Limit.
Overall, I really don't know what to say about this RAW. It had some strong points, but the bad mostly outweighed the good in this RAW. No Lesnar, no HHH, Cena was via satellite, and we had an apology. I give this RAW a C- and this is me being very, very generous.
I expect a much better RAW next week. Why? Because it's the final RAW before Over the Limit. Any RAW before a pay-per-view should at least be halfway decent. At least, that's how things worked back in the day. But I need to keep telling myself that we are not back in the day anymore.
*Sigh*
Feel free to Comment.
By: Gerald "Showstopper" Prophete
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