LIVE Raw thoughts - April 2, 2012

11:13 - Alright, so Cena's promo was pretty disappointing. They did a great job of making people intrigued about what he might say and how he might react, and they responded by having him give his old standard promo. I think they would have been MUCH better off having Cena take the mic, but before he had a chance to say anything have Lesnar come down. Then they do the handshake and F5 bit. The shock of Lesnar was reduced significantly because of the fact that fans were chanting his name for 5 minutes. And on top of that, it would build another week of intrigue to hear what Cena has to say.

By the way, what a production fail! They totally missed the handshake and practically missed the F5. Overall, really great show....but disappointing ending.

11:08 - With all due respect Cena, Daniel Bryan did not need your help getting his saying over tonight.

11:06 - Let's see if this is all a ruse so that Cena can attack Rock. Not holding out hope, but let's see. It just seems interesting that they've built up this intrigue, only to see Cena go into overdrive with the nice guy routine. Let's see....

11:04 - Let's see how this plays out, but isn't this the exact type of promo people DIDN'T want to hear Cena give?

11:02 - What an interesting dynamic when the audience actively wants somebody to lash out at them.

10:58 - I actually didn't realize it was 11 yet. That's a good thing. Let's see what Cena has to say (I already like that he's not exuberant as he walks down the aisle).

10:53 - That was a perfectly competitive match for Zack Ryder. I'll reiterate this: There is no shame losing clean to somebody who is higher up the card than you. Yes, there are instances where this should be avoided or when the opposite should happen. But typically speaking, I don't have an issue with it. Ryder got in a nice amount of offense and if things had gone slightly different there's a reason to believe he could have won. I'm not saying the guy should be jobbed out -- I'd love to see him get some more wins under his belt to remind the viewers that he can consistently win -- but this wasn't terrible.

10:48 - So for the first time ever I believe, Miz is wearing his PPV ring jacket on television.

10:40 - Another thing I like about the first Raw after WrestleMania: The introduction of some new characters.

10:26 - The real test is to see if this Daniel Bryan reaction is (a) a geographic thing and (b) a response to his treatment at WrestleMania. I'm curious if he'll still be this over a month from now in Oklahoma (randomly picked location).

10:24 - I am in awe of how over Daniel Bryan is with this audience.

10:21 - The audience yelling "SI! SI! SI!" is hilarious. Awesome. Although if they remove Bryan from the title picture ALREADY, that'd be terrible.

10:19 - At least Sheamus' name is in capital letters on the World Heavyweight Title.

10:14 - I initially found Punk's countout loss curious, but I understand now that they needed for him to be out of commission in order to do the Jericho spiel. By the way, I really hope that wasn't real alcohol, because that would be pretty disrespectful of Punk's decision of how to live his life (I remember Jake the Snake once got annoyed because he was sober, and Jerry Lawler spit actual whiskey in his face). By the way, the Jericho slip didn't kill the segment for me. He still made contact with the kick and it wasn't overly ridiculous. He's human. Human's trip sometimes.

9:58 - Prediction: They will soon stop having Daniel Bryan yell "YES! YES! YES!" because it's getting so over with the audience.

9:52 - I will give them this: They made the matter of winning important going into the WrestleMania match....and they're making the loss seem important as well. A rarity these days.

9:47 - Wait, wasn't Sheamus' interview supposed to be "next" a while ago?

9:42 - So should we expect WWE.com to put up a column on their website about all the dirt sheets being right about A-Train resigning with WWE? By the way, I'm pleasantly surprised to see WWE kinda sorta make reference to the fact that Lord Tensai is a former WWE Suprestar. Glad they didn't just ignore that.

9:33 - I liked it better when Santino would use the Cobra to stun somebody and then he'd roll them up for the pin. I hate the idea that it's knocking people out. And hey, looks like Brodus may now have a feud.

9:20 - Effective promo from the Rock. It was smart to open the show with him because, really, the story should be Cena's reaction to the loss. When Rock was talking about his vision, I couldn't help but worry that they were AGAIN going to announce a match a year in advance. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was a great idea to promote Cena/Rock a year in advance. In my eyes, it worked. But I'm not convinced that this should be a yearly thing either. And I actually thought about this the other day. Was that the first time we've seen Rock do the People's Eyebrow since his return?

9:03 - Thankfully I made it home in time for Raw (although I am disappointed I missed the Hall of Fame ceremony). I love the Raw after WrestleMania because, at its best, it's WWE's chance to reinvent itself. It (hopefully) paid off the stories it had been building for months, and many of their top stories can begin building towards new stories. Of course, this isn't always the case, but it's still fun to get an idea of where everything is going.