WWE Raw 9th April 2012 Discussion *SPOILERS*

[ColinBollocks]

I spent the whole of Punk/Jericho looking at Jericho's tits.

 

Thanks a lot.

Haha, I'm not the only one then. Jericho may be ruined forever now.

[Hoyden]

I spent the whole of Punk/Jericho looking at Jericho's tits.

 

Thanks a lot.

 

hahaha me too you fuckers!

[Devon Malcolm]

Add me to the list. He can't blame those PIP buggers either.

[Hoyden]

did someone say he looked like a strong construction worker or am I imagining things again?

 

Brilliant comment if so

[JLM]

Loved everything about Cena/Brock. Like quite a few others on here I was hoping he wouldn't talk this week, but after watching the show I don't really question anything they did. I share daz's love for the pull apart brawl, and this one was done perfectly. Cena's busted lip looked fantastic too.

 

The Funkasaurus tag was decent, but I do hope Ziggler doesn't tread water for too long. I do agree with Arch Stanton that Ziggler's character isn't developing but I also feel he isn't being given much scope to do so. Swagger is not a better anything than anyone though. Jack Swagger, with your torso like a Volvo Estate. With your torso like an uncoiled slinky. Etc.

 

The Rhodes/Big Show feud needs to go somewhere new or just stop going. I enjoyed both of their work during the feud, but the Mania match was a fitting end to it.

 

As I said last week, Lord Tensai looks an absolute tit. However, I do think this could be overcome if he was working shorter and more intensely violent squashes. I adore squash matches and do not enjoy seeing them done badly. I can't agree with Gladders' assessment that he looks scary either. He should look scary, he would initially appear to have all the attributes of a big scary motherfucker, but he has such a stupid head. Also, again, his Muta entrance gear looks stupid. Wai Ting on Review a Raw last week also noted that he appears to be doing squinty eyes to give the character a more Japanese feel. I think that's the typical A-Train scowl he's always done, but I can't get it out of my head when I'm watching his plodding squashes now. LORD TENSAI ICHIBAAAAAAN. Bah. To repeat myself a third time though, I still think he's more than capable and that his return can be a success, I just think the gimmick is silly and it isn't clicking at the moment.

 

Punk's promo was good. I'm liking the dual angle of Jericho goading Punk and Henry being denied a proper title shot, so Punk can get both physically dominated by a monster heel and be attacked more insidiously by a conniving one every week. Henry and Punk work very well together too.

 

I think I like Alberto Del Rio more than some folks on here. I absolutely share daz's concern that Daniel Bryan is being quietly shuffled back down to midcard, but I like Del Rio's (admittedly clich

[Devon Malcolm]

I can't agree with Gladders' assessment that he looks scary either.

 

I don't think I said that?

[tiger_rick]

I can't agree with Gladders' assessment that he looks scary either.

 

I don't think I said that?

It was your other account "Loki". Tee hee.

[Loki]

What, this one? Oh yeah.

 

Actually, I meant what JLM said - he should look scary, but the squinty eye, turning-Japanesey writing reduces it.

[Devon Malcolm]

It's hard work juggling this, Loki and the neil accounts, I'll tell you.

 

Right, well, having got the important bits of Raw out of the way, the rest of it.

 

They're rushing this Cena v Lesnar stuff, as far as I'm concerned. I can understand why, because it is Lesnar. But it just seems odd to me that they have shown amazing patience and have been building up a wall of negativity aimed at Cena, through Punk, Kane, The Rock and now Lesnar, yet they can't show patience with hardly any of the rest of their angles. They really should be delaying Lesnar's PPV debut, but like I say, I can see why they did.

 

The opening brawl was great - to a point. The entire locker room empties and still can't hold back two blokes? Plus, how many times did they do this?

 

"Okay, lads. Are we calm? Are we calm? Good. Okay, let's go....ARGH! He jumped him again! The swine!"

 

Seriously, after the third time it was really stupid. That said, Lesnar has been great since he returned. His air of not giving a shit could actually work for him as he just casually batters people. The low blow was brilliant. Just boots Cena in the bollocks from behind. Fantastic.

 

Punk's promo was arguably the worst he has done since he came to WWE. It was just horrible. They have made a massive mistake with bringing the straight edge thing into this feud. Actually, having Jericho make him chug booze should be as far as they needed to go, but then having Punk pour his heart out and contradict so much of the stuff that is so fresh in our minds from the Straight Edge Society is fucking terrible. If this is Punk's idea, he's a complete idiot. It's not eliciting sympathy - it's just making people think he's a whining twat and chant a bit more for Jericho. He also does not suit being a badass angry arse-kicker. This is all taking him out of his comfort zone and he's looking ridiculous. I hope they turn him heel again soon, but I doubt they will. Just dreadful, I could hardly watch it and I say that as a big Punk fan.

 

As for Henry, so, he gets twatted with a TV monitor and 30 seconds later he's totally fine? Bollocks. Still, him and Punk have been absolutely great together and it's a shame this won't develop into a proper feud.

 

ADR being back is great. Like JLM, I like him more than most and I don't think I enjoy anybody in WWE's matches more than I enjoy his. That cross armbreaker is a brilliant finisher in many different ways.

 

Bit worried about what they're doing with Ziggler right now. Turn him face or something.

 

Lord Tensai, contrary to what I didn't say elsewhere, has been rubbish. I actually like his entrance, I think it's quite good. But in the ring it's almost like he's wrestling in ice-skates. He doesn't look sure on his feet at all. Might need to give him a couple of weeks off and sort him out and try again. Plus he LOOKS LIKE THE FUCKING SULTAN.

 

I have to say, though, that as terrible as he's been recently, Cole was brilliant in building up his match against Yoshi Tatsu by giving a backstory as to why Tatsu wanted the match. It might just be a squash but I think that kind of thing helps the show and characters. Good work, that.

 

The Three Stooges? Fuck off. if you laughed at that, you're a cunt.

 

What else happened? Can't remember. Not my favourite Raw recently, anyway.

[LaGoosh]

As for Henry, so, he gets twatted with a TV monitor and 30 seconds later he's totally fine? Bollocks.

 

Fuck that, he's the World's Strongest Man. He can handle a TV monitor to the head.

[Bus Surfer]

Tensai is just awful. He wrestles exactly as he did as Albert, power moves that don't really look like they hurt, with lots of screaming in between. The jumping Senton splash just looks hideous too, more comical than anything. I was expecting some noticeable changes after they bigged up his time in Japan but he's still the same, boring as shit. The slow-ass pace of these squash matches don't help either.

 

Cena/Brock was tremendous. I agree that a slower build to all this would have been better, and they seem to have just shoe horned big Johnny into this, but I really like it. The busted lip was a great visual and the pull apart gave it all a big time feel. I love what they're doing with Brock, his real life persona books itself.

[King Pitcos]

I am curious as to what a lot of the guys who appear to be floundering will do next. Bryan and Orton are notable names, and I worry that Ziggler will just end up bumping like a nutter but going nowhere for the forseeable future. There isn't so much of a midcard scene in the current WWE either, or at least there isn't on Raw. It seems like you're in the main event angle, feuding for one of the world titles or just killing time. It'd be nice if there was a division based around the U.S. or Intercontinental titles, or perhaps they should just unify them. Either way there are enough guys and enough people who should be interested in the IC title for it to be more than a prop in a feud between two guys where it wasn't even the focal point. Also, when you have guys like Kofi and R-Truth with nothing to do, it makes you (me) wonder if having a bit of a tag division on Raw might be fun.

 

Valid criticisms for the most part, but the stopgap solutions not so much. "Title divisions" don't solve anything by themselves, it's still dependent on writing something substantial for those guys (and that can be done without adding/removing titles and contenders). Cody Rhodes vs Big Show having the hook of Show's WrestleMania failures was far better than, say, Cody Rhodes vs Justin Gabriel where Gabriel just keeps saying he wants to win the Intercontinental belt. You can do a title feud that's about nothing but the title now and again, but not all the time. They'd just be the Kofi Kingston vs Dolph Ziggler feud all over again.

[WeeAl]

I really am suprised that they are having Brock's return match at Extreme Rules. It makes sense to try and shift Cena into something equally as important as his feud with The Rock right away, but I honestly didn't think we'd see Brock wrestle until SummerSlam or maybe just a bit earlier. I'm liking what they are doing all the same, and Brock as the heel bully who just wants to kick the shit out of people for giggles is the best way to bring him back. I'd be tempted to deliver a match at EC that resembles an angle more than a proper match, but I don't think they can advertise a match like that on PPV and not deliver. But they will need to find a way to get out of giving a proper finish, which will take more creativity than normal, due to the No DQ rules that will be in effect.

 

The Three Stooges stuff was beyond horrible. WWE need to be careful, they are building up some goodwill recently with decent-great episodes of Raw. If they start turning out shit with these guest stars again every week then any chance of building an audience on the back of Mania 28 and the return of Brock Lesnar may well go down the shitter.

 

Overall it wasn't a patch on last weeks Raw, but I didn't expect it to be. I think they delivered well with the main story, which has me excited for matches for the rest of the year. WWE need to be careful with the rest of the roster, as has been mentioned, a lot of guys seem to be treading water or going backwards, but as long as they deliver well with Lesnar and Cena then that should bring them through this now traditional slow season, and hopefully then they can start building some of their guys up towards the summer again.

 

On the topic of Tensai - in the same week we got two returns, one on Smackdown and one on Raw. A-Train returned on Raw and and the match did nothing for the majority of people so far as I can deduct. Skip Sheffield returned on Smackdown and we got a squash match delivered properly. Squash matches aren't difficult to get right, yet they managed to have two so different in the same week. My conclusion? A-Train is as bad or worse than I remember him to be 9 years ago, yet the Skip Sheffield love was justified. The man has something.

[mim731]

I can't see that Cena/Brock being a proper match, like other said I think it'll be something more like an angle or a brawl that doesn't have a conclusive finish. Aside from Brock not looking quite in ring shape, I think they'll save a proper match for a bigger ppv and have Punk/Jericho go on last in Chicago. Whether that's the right or wrong plan, not sure, but I think that's where it'll go.

[Vito]

The pull apart brawl was excellent although Cena's eternal shit eating grin enrages me, I hate how he gets sneak attacked, bloodied and battered yet still walks around with that stupid smirk on his face. It's a shame Brock's takedown wasn't more explosive as it looked a bit weak on the replay. Great angle though. It's kinda a shame they've aligned Brock with Johnny as, like when Jericho and Christian returned, the audience wants to cheer him, the crowd hate Cena and Johnny but love Brock and Brock's best friends with Johnny.

 

I too approve of Johnny's music and very much enjoy seeing him bullying Teddy Long.

 

The Punk/Jericho feud is the pits and it's devaluing the WWE Title. Why are Jericho and Punk doing this horrible, irredeemable shit that nobody cares about?

 

Cody/Show are still feuding for some reason. Show got his Wrestlemania moment, the feud should have been over and done with right there, why is it still going on?

 

It's sad to see Ziggler failing to achieve despite being so great.

 

I think it's safe to say that Tensai has epically failed, the audience aren't buying it and the squashes just haven't delivered. I don't know how this thing can be saved short of scrapping it entirely, taking Bloom off of TV for a month or so and starting over from scratch. Very disappointing.

 

I liked the Three Stooges segments, a lot of guest stars schtick doesn't work so well in a live setting but the Stooges remained firmly in character for the duration without messing up their lines or their slapstick routines. The Hogan impression was absolutely fantastic, everything from the mannerisms to the voice to the painstakingly detailed Wrestlemania 3 stuff was delivered to perfection, if you had Raw on the TV and was in the next room listening to it you'd swear that it was really Hogan. I think the WWE should just hire Will Sasso and ask him to coach some of the roster on how to cut promos. Good on him for taking the chokeslam and making it look good too.