WWE Raw 9th April 2012 Discussion *SPOILERS*

[tiger_rick]

Top episode that one. The Lesnar/Cena stuff was just brilliant. People complained about Rock/Cena not having this physicality but it didn't need it. As a result, when they pulled it out here, it worked beautifully. Both cut super promos backstage and the angle to end the show was sweet as. Lesnar's facials when he had Cena hoisted up for the FU were just amazing.

 

It's similar to the Jericho/Punk stuff in that they've realised WrestleMania sells itself and they are going all out for a B PPV. That's nice to see. However, I don't think they've got a lot lined up for Lesnar next. Crowd reaction was great this week. Cena was over like a motherfucker when he walked out the first time.

 

Jericho angle was good if a tad repetitive. I'd hold off the rematch though. Firstly because Jericho shouldn't logically be the next contender. Secondly because they've built a proper Extreme Rules match between Punk & Henry. I'd go with that at the PPV and then Punk would be muh stronger going into Jericho II after he's beaten Henry.

 

Tensai was much better this week with a decent opponent. I wasn't keen on the methodical approach with lack of crowd interaction but having seen Ryback on Smackdown, it makes perfect sense to differentiate the two. Keen to see what happens when he needs to have competitive matches and cut promos though.

 

I like the Santino/Clay team. Tragic waste of Ziggler though. Promo package on Taker/Trips was brilliant. Three Stooges were a bit shit but I did laugh at the Hogan stuff. Crowd weren't impressed though. Probably shouldn't tease hogan to the casual audience, however unlikely an appearance. Cole and Lawler's puns were brilliantly awful. Rhodes/Show stuff was interesting. In 3 weeks time are when going to see a video of Show interrupting Cody to show a video of Show interrupting Cody to to show a video of Show interrupting Cody to show a video of Show interrupting Cody to show a video of Show interrupting Cody??

 

I wouldn't have had Sheamus and Bryan involved in the opening segment if they weren't going to be in the rest of the show. Wonder what the future holds for Randy Orton? He really is the spare wheel right now.

 

Looking forward to Smackdown if it's a bit different tonight.

[NorthSeaTiger]

Was a fun show. Loved the opening segment, the fact that Cena bled made it more "Legitimate"... The 3 Stooges stuff was shite...As Rick said the crowd shat all over the Hogan segment. Agree with Ziggles, could Swagger not have taken the pinfall since he is shite anyway? Enjoying the Punk angle, although Jericho's delivery is just boring. He aint got an overly exciting promo voice and it sometimes causes the segment to drag, but Punk makes up for it with his fire and expressions.

 

And not to seem like a Fin Martin-type...but one of the agents really needs to talk to Cena about his fistdrop..the camera cut before he fell and he clearly missed and punched the mat. Its shit like that, that gives his critics ammo. He doesn't need to knock them out with it, but a bit of contact would make it more "Legitimate".....

[ThePhenom]

That was complete and utter shit, what a load of drivel. How can they go from the brilliance of last week to this crap? I don't know who the Three Stooges are, and I don't care. They made a complete mockery of everything, and Hogan doesn't deserve it. He is the biggest star the industry has ever seen, and it's like they went and shat all over the very foundation of what I love. I don't know what they are doing by making Brock Lesnar a brown nosing heel for either, what's up with that? That's not who I wanted. The CM Punk/Chris Jericho stuff almost put me to sleep. It just went on and on and on. The crowd were silent for the whole evening, and rightly so. They were fed shit. Hopefully it was just a one off, becuase I don't think there has been a Raw that bad since that one in January where Jericho came back. It's put me in a right bad mood now

[NorthSeaTiger]

That was complete and utter shit, what a load of drivel. How can they go from the brilliance of last week to this crap? I don't know who the Three Stooges are, and I don't care. They made a complete mockery of everything, and Hogan doesn't deserve it. He is the biggest star the industry has ever seen, and it's like they went and shat all over the very foundation of what I love. I don't know what they are doing by making Brock Lesnar a brown nosing heel for either, what's up with that? That's not who I wanted. The CM Punk/Chris Jericho stuff almost put me to sleep. It just went on and on and on. The crowd were silent for the whole evening, and rightly so. They were fed shit. Hopefully it was just a one off, becuase I don't think there has been a Raw that bad since that one in January where Jericho came back. It's put me in a right bad mood now

 

I guess they forgot to consult you before they went ahead with their plans then....

 

Calm Down Dear!!

[AshC]

Having not seen the show, can anyone tell me the reason why Lesnar is back and targeting Cena?

[tiger_rick]

That was complete and utter shit, what a load of drivel.

Fuck off.

 

The crowd were silent for the whole evening, and rightly so.

The crowd went mental for Cena at the beginning, they booed the shit out of Mr JL, they were into Santino and Funky, They chanted "Albert" at Tensai, they chanted "CM Punk" loudly, they booed the shit out of Jericho and they were into their duelling chants during the Cena match. Turn your TV up.

[d-d-d-dAz]

Oh, good, Phenom's gone batshit again. I was starting to miss that.

 

That was fucking excellent, that show. Brilliant. Superb.

 

I maintain that my earlier fantasy booking would have been way cooler, but they've booked Brock quite cleverly actually. They've actually booked the stereotype that people were perpetuating when he returned; here he is, a guy with an inflated opinion of himself who's come back and isn't nearly as arsed about it or about wrestling as the slathering idiots around him. Fuck the fans, fuck the board, fuck John Cena, I'm Brock Lesnar, bitch, and I want to get paid. And laid. His only words in that opening promo were to thank JL and he still looked like the baddest man on the planet. Excellent.

 

In other news;

 

I GOT A FUCKING A PULL APART BRAWL! HIP HIP HOOOORAAYYYYYY

 

I bloody love a pull apart brawl. The fact they had main eventers there yanking Cena/Lesnar off (ooh matron) made it seem like the biggest deal in the entire world. Which it is. They got lucky with Lesnar slugging Cena right in the mush because it made for a bunch of cool visuals and slow-mo's all night. Great opening segment which left me with the biggest wrestling erection. There was no way I was FFwd'ing this show.

 

Seriously, though, in two weeks Brock's return has been everything Rock's wasn't. Where Rock buried the shit out of Cena, undermined him and almost devalued him Brock (whilst actually physically getting the upper hand both weeks) has made Cena seem like a fucking killer, made himself look like a fucking killer and made me look forward to Extreme Rules waaaaay more than I did Wrestlemania. Cena standing there smirking with his teeth rearranged was amazing, Cena fighting past 15 wrestlers to jump at Lesnar whilst his teeth were rearranged was even better and Cena's fired up promo with JL whilst his teeth were still rearranged was even better. Take the night off? ...fuck that, i'll take my fallen out teeth and stab Otunga right in the eye with them.

 

Other stuff happened as well. Though for the life of me I can only remember that there was no divas and Cole suffers from 'reptile dysfunction'. Christ.

 

But, yeah, Cena/Lesnar is the best thing in the entire world.

[Loki]

Awesome. The fact they don't particularly like each other in real life will really fuel this.

[ColinBollocks]

I thought the Brock/Cena thing was a mixed bag. To me, Lesnar just seems like part of the show now - I thought they would have kept him as some kind of wild card - not a fan of that. On the plus side, that pull apart was tremendous, Lesnar slapping Cena about made it.

 

It's a weird direction WWE are taking Cena now. It's like when Hollywood Hogan was cutting about with nWo and they got popular wrestlers from the past to come in for a feud; only this time Cena is a face, but people want to boo him and the wrestlers they bring in are aimed at the lads/neckbeards and the lads/neckbeards want them to kill Cena. It's pretty clever, people paying to see Cena (the top face) get beaten up - whilst Cena keeps his core audience.

 

Not much else really, Jericho/Punk was alright but nothing too great. Story of their feud.

 

Oh and Lord Tensai just isn't cutting it - these squashes are far too slow.

[d-d-d-dAz]

I actually think from the 'new face of WWE Raw' to the 'the landscape has changed' stuff that they actively want people to think of Lesnar as part of the show. They want people to think that its bankable that if they watch Monday Night Raw they'll get Brock Lesnar, otherwise people aren't as likely to turn up if they think they won't get him.

 

Cena's angle is quite cool at the minute, and it's been brewing since the Kane thing. It's like they're piling all this shit on him to build to one moment of redemption.

[Sexy Dad]

I really wasn't expecting Lesnar to align himself with Big Johnny in any way but it was brilliant seeing JL smiling at Lesnar's destruction at the end of the night. The fact that Lesnar referenced how he made the UFC what it is today with his blood and hard work and how he left the WWE at the top makes the reasoning for his return perfect, WWE gaining a ready made superstar at the top of his game hasn't happened since the Monday Night Wars and I'm loving it. I loved The Rock's return and segments before the match at Mania but the pull apart brawl, the bloody mouth, the backstage promos, the F5 etc are knocking anything that The Rock and Cena did together out of the water in my opinion.

The rest of the show delivered but it was disappointing to see no Daniel Bryan this week after his great promo with AJ on Smackdown but hopefully he gets to take center stage on the live Smackdown tonight. I'm enjoying WWE immensely right now.

[ColinBollocks]

I actually think from the 'new face of WWE Raw' to the 'the landscape has changed' stuff that they actively want people to think of Lesnar as part of the show. They want people to think that its bankable that if they watch Monday Night Raw they'll get Brock Lesnar, otherwise people aren't as likely to turn up if they think they won't get him.

 

Cena's angle is quite cool at the minute, and it's been brewing since the Kane thing. It's like they're piling all this shit on him to build to one moment of redemption.

I get that, but I'd much prefer it if they played up the 'will he turn up?' 'what the fuck is going on?!' thing, like last week, I think that will have people tuning in too because it creates an air of unpredictability (the "anomaly" and all that) that Raw can lack. Giving us too much Lesnar won't be a good thing, long term. Not that it really matters, just a preference.

[NEWM]

Had to abbreviate Raw this morning so don

[d-d-d-dAz]

I should add that the flag i've been waving solo since last week hasn't been dimmed any. As good as the angle at 'Mania was, where we all thought it meant a continuation of the D-Bry arc it appears he's just been booked under a bus; that's 3 consecutive TV shows where he's been an afterthought at best. It's worrying. I thought coming out of 'Mania they had a clear direction for D-Bry, but it appears that direction was back to the mid-card whilst ADR feuds with Sheamus.

 

It's not going to help him if the 'YES' thing doesn't carry over to casual audiences, either...

 

- The pull apart was absolutely fantastic. I didn’t see if the cut was real, so if Cena bit down on the colouring-filled cock sock then that was a brilliant idea. If it was a legit cut, it looked absolutely phenomenal with the Cena grin so they got nice and lucky. Sending top guys like Sheamus and co out there to keep them apart was a really brilliant touch as well.

 

He got clumped fo' sho.

 

His lip was still fucked for the main event.

 

Biggest slice of luck they've had in years was Lesnar mis-cueing and smacking Cena in the mush. YEARS. They'll dine out on the visual of Cena getting fucked up by UFC Champion, smiling and getting back in there for years.

[Big Jock Knew]

I thought Raw was pretty good this week minus the Three Stooges segment. Glad to hear they were actively met with boos instead of apathy.

 

Brock Lesnar's music makes me want to batter someone (in a good way). He is pretty awesome. I thought he looked and sounded fairly comfortable on the microphone considering how long he has been away. I liked the "destroy everything in sight" Lesnar of 2002 but I also liked the cocky, arrogant asshole Lesnar of 2003/2004 so I am glad to see they are going with a bit of both for just now.

 

Chris Jericho's promos are beginning to really bore me. The story has picked up a bit but I'm beginning to wonder how I ever held him in such high regard.