Raw 26/03/2012 - Pre/Post Discussion

[Jason Mayhem]

What I've found surprising is that Rock & Cena hasn't existed amongst the rest of the wrestlers. No interaction at all, especially stupid as a couple of minutes of TV time with The Rock could make a guy like Santino or Ziggler. But no talking heads, no buzz in the locker room, no general managers trying to muscle in, no taking sides, making predictions, etc. Just nothing to suggest that this is the biggest match of all-time from anyone other than Rock & Cena. Not when it mattered.

 

Spot on

[JNLister]

On the latest Legends of Wrestling, Piper was lobbying hard to do Piper's Pit with Rock and Cena on the go home show. Obviously in vain.

[ColinBollocks]

His twitter is filled with it too.

 

As I always do, I'm willing to believe WWE have a grander plan for this. Really, this may be a four parter: Part 1 is the return and challenge, part 2 is this 'Mania, part 3 is what happens during the match and build to the re-match and then part 4, the rubber match. Maybe they want to keep it a bit civil, before things really heat up post-'Mania?

 

This build has been a bit of a fuck up though. They've been trying their hardest to get Cena over with the folk The Rock was meant to bring with him, but in the process they appear to have harmed The Rock and Cena/WWE are no better off. What's daft about it is Cena will probably go back to the schtick that makes people hate him anyway, post-'Mania. Given they've spent so long trying to get Cena more cheers, surely that rules out a heel turn (certainly makes it puzzling) - which is a shame, because now is probably the time to pull that trigger, at least to spike some life into the product.

[Sexy Dad]

When the Taker, Triple H and HBK graphic came up I thought that another in ring long repetitive verbal exchange would a piss break so I was pleased that they shown a video package instead. The video package captured everything that can be great about this match at Wrestlemania and featured physicality which this match is going to have tons of, more talking as seems to be the common consensus on here would have further diluted the excitement for this match.

 

The Rock and Cena had a good exchange this week, I'm going to miss The Rock popping up every week but I can't wait for this match. This is the first Wrestlemania main event since Mania 22 that I have been really excited for.

 

Rest of the show was watchable but unmemorable apart from Punk looking like a maniac this week which was a step in the right direction and Booker T dropping a scissors kick whilst wearing his glasses. Brilliant stuff there.

[Dirty Eddie]

Between the Punk "gotta be back to set up SummerSlam" stuff last year and the way the build for Mania peaked a couple of weeks ago, you do have to wonder if the WWE creative staff are allowed access to calendars.

 

The fact they've had a year to build this Rock/Cena stuff and it's panned out the way it has is unbelievable. That's not even taking into account the 6 or 7 years they've had to work on ideas for Rock's return to Wrestlemania.

 

Has there even been a single big memorable angle on RAW building up to either Cena/Rock or Taker/Trips?

 

Not a locker-room emptying pull-apart brawl.

Not a viscous beat-down of any kind.

No Piper's Pit.

Nothing...

 

 

They've just talked at each other in often long-winded or maybe mildly amusing segments. The closest we had was that This Is Your Life segment, and that was ages ago and crap.

 

 

None of that has been necessary. Most definitely not some shit talk show segment. When was the last good one? They're awful.

 

The lack of physicality has been smart, I can't wait to see them go at it now.

 

 

 

Well you may not think so, but a fair few people on here think the build-up has been crappy and the ratings hardly tell a tale of people growing more excited week by week and telling their mates. For pre-wrestlemania with the fucking Rock the ratings are shite.

 

It's probably not so bad for us older fans, who know the history and the behind the scenes stuff, but if I was 15 I recon I'd be fucking screaming at the telly by now for someone to actually DO something, anything!

 

I'm not saying they should be fighting in generic Tag Matches every week or something, but it just feels as though absolutely nothing at all has happened in weeks. It probably wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have the exact same thing happening with Taker/Trips.

[King Pitcos]

Part of the problem with Rock/Cena's feud was structure. There's been no real focus to it. They can't decide whether they're doing the "U r a gay tranny lol, I fucked ur mom, also PG sux and u are boring and need a bigger moveset" feud or the "you are one biggest stars ever, I respect you" feud. They've done both, and it hasn't gelled properly.

 

Also, a huge part of the problem is The Rock being shit. Pretty much every promo he's done (bar this week's, which was good) has been awful, and really more suited to the live crowd after the TV show finishes. No fucker wants to see him spending half an hour sucking up to Cleveland, Ohio. But I think WWE's logic was that people would be so excited to see The Rock back on Raw, they didn't need to bother putting much effort in. They'd have been better off keeping his appearances infrequent and preserving some of the aura.

[JNLister]

Yeah, it's definitely a case of they've booked Rock for a bunch of dates and then tried to come up with ideas to use him, rather than the other way round. What they've done -- Rock comes back and points out most adult males think Cena is a childish phony, Cena drops the poop jokes and stands up for himself -- has been very good, it just didn't need doing six weeks on the trot.

[Chris B]

Yeah, it's definitely a case of they've booked Rock for a bunch of dates and then tried to come up with ideas to use him, rather than the other way round. What they've done -- Rock comes back and points out most adult males think Cena is a childish phony, Cena drops the poop jokes and stands up for himself -- has been very good, it just didn't need doing six weeks on the trot.

 

Problem is, they kept dropping the 'Rock points out most adult males think Cena is a childish phony". It looks like they kept getting scared of damaging Cena more, so Rock wasn't able to cut loose on him like he did last year.

 

When Cena was talking about how he was there when it wasn't cool to be a WWE superstar, it was crying out for Rock to respond with something along the lines of 'You're the reason it wasn't cool to be a WWE superstar".

[ajmcstyles]

Well finally watched Raw, it was hit and miss but my God was Cena boring while The Rock was full of energy.

 

I would of still like to see a fued built like it was 11 years ago with him (The Rock) Vs Austin at WM X7.

[LaGoosh]

What? You mean The Rock get's John Cena's wife to be his manager? They have a backstage sitdown interview with JR that lasts about 40 minutes?

 

I think because of the fucking awesome 'My Way' video package people think the Rock/Austin buildup was amazing or something. From No Way Out to Wrestlemania 17 they probably had 2-3 good moments, everything else was either boring, stupid or just by the numbers shite.

[JNLister]

The JR interview would actually have worked quite well to have something different one of the weeks. It's all been "talk for 10 minutes and try to get cheap pops from the local audience", so it could have made a change to have somebody "neutral" to press them both on their points.

[Polish Dad]

What? You mean The Rock get's John Cena's wife to be his manager? They have a backstage sitdown interview with JR that lasts about 40 minutes?

 

I think because of the fucking awesome 'My Way' video package people think the Rock/Austin buildup was amazing or something. From No Way Out to Wrestlemania 17 they probably had 2-3 good moments, everything else was either boring, stupid or just by the numbers shite.

 

Honestly, the best thing about the X7 build was the involvement of Kurt Angle.

[ShortOrderCook]

What? You mean The Rock get's John Cena's wife to be his manager? They have a backstage sitdown interview with JR that lasts about 40 minutes?

 

I think because of the fucking awesome 'My Way' video package people think the Rock/Austin buildup was amazing or something. From No Way Out to Wrestlemania 17 they probably had 2-3 good moments, everything else was either boring, stupid or just by the numbers shite.

 

The sit-down interview was tremendous. Really, really well played. Set the tone for everything that was going to happen just perfectly. Austin is incredible in it.

[King Pitcos]

"I need to beat you, Rock. I need it more than anything you can ever imagine."

 

It was great, and the way they'd stalk each other and do the "I could've got you then" moment, or actually hit each other, were great too (probably moreso in the "My Way" video than when it'd be after a pointless match with Angle and Benoit or whatever).

 

Rock and Cena's story hasn't developed or built at all, really. Pretty much everything they've done the last six weeks (the shoot comments and gay references, and the "I respect you" stuff) is just the same as what they'd done last spring. The only advancement/surprise has been Cena outclassing Rock on the mic. One week hasn't flowed into the next week, for the most part. Maybe Rock wasn't up for taking a sneaky Attitude Adjustment every week, but they could still have written something of a story instead of just "same thing next week." Maybe after Cena owned him in that wristnotes promo, Rock could've stormed in and given Cena a Rock Bottom the next week after Cena wrestled Ziggler or someone. Cena then could go on about how he clearly was under Dwayne's skin. They could've added more development and variation to the story using other wrestlers. Jericho, Punk or Bryan coming out to do a speech against Rock or Cena to say their match should be the one getting the spotlight, and Miz must have plenty of material to use against them. Just something to mix it up a bit. The excellent promo this week would've been loads more effective if they hadn't spent the last month or so doing the same thing.