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11:11 - I can't believe I'm going to say this, but everything that just happened was actually the lesser of two evils. Then again, I REALLY didn't want to see Cena/Tensai. But I'm sure we can all agree the BEST route to go would have just been to have Brock put Cena on the sidelines. Sometimes (usually) the best explanation is the easiest one.
11:05 - I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those John Cena promos that people hate. I don't mind 'em, but most seem to do.
10:55 - Wow, so hoping worked! Punk vs. Bryan on PPV for the WWE Championship? Sign me up. Awesome of WWE to listen to their fans and keep Bryan in a main event title program. But I continue to hold out hope that the storyline with AJ isn't over yet.
10:52 - When Lawler came out and Bryan got a bit TOO excited, I got a bad feeling. When they made it a foregone conclusion that Bryan would win, it made me think he's not going to beat the record. A man can hope, though!
10:46 - I wouldn't be surprised to see Daniel Bryan face Zack Ryder in the last match and just beat Orton's time to become #1 Contender for the WWE Championship. And who's facing Cena? Smart money is on a Lesnar rematch, but that can't be announced tonight since the suspense is in whether or not he's been fired. Lord Tensai, perhaps?
10:44 - This had to have been the worst possible combination.
10:32 - I'm fine with Kofi and Truth winning the tag titles. Quite simply, the titles were getting no recognition on Primo and Epico. At least when Air Boom were the champs, they were being featured regularly on Raw and Smackdown, and even appeared on PPV. With a midcard-to-upper-midcard tandem holding the titles, hopefully they'll get a bit more attention.
10:23 - So this is weird, but WWE.com has a very nondescript story about the Bellas being fired:
http://www.wwe.com/shows/raw/2012-04-30/bella-twins-fired
Note the wording. Not "released," but "fired." And there's no natural storyline behind it. If this is legit -- and it might be, since there were rumors behind it -- why not feed them to Kharma and wrap up that storyline?
10:18 - I really do like the idea that a four minute match (while still very short) is a highly competitive battle. I feel like a lot of these Beat the Clock Challenges degrade into 1 minute matches. That may still end up being the winning time, but at least the matches leading up to that have been a regular time.
By the way, who else thought that the Tag Titles were not only going to be defended on a PPV.....but against John Cena, no less??? If that happened, A.W. definitely deserved his paycheck.
10:05 - Is leaving better than anyone really an insult?
9:56 - Love the fact that Michael Cole remembered -- and MENTIONED -- that he did a dance off with Naomi on NXT. Awesome. Also, is JTG back to his old gimmick? Didn't he change his appearance for like two weeks?
9:50 - I don't know if that was a mistake or not, but it's actually a very clever concept. Have they ever had a Beat the Clock Challenge end in a tie?
9:42 - I definitely would've kept the Bellas as Divas champ until Kharma's return. I'm not sold on Layla as a face either. Don't we have enough smiling, happy face Divas?
9:29 - It is really quite telling when it's a foregone conclusion (for the announcers) that neither guy has a chance of winning the Beat the Clock Challenge at the 3 minute mark.
9:18 - I was fine with that opening. A lot of people have spoken out against a Lesnar/Triple H feud, but to be honest I have no problem with it. In fact, I sorta think that should have been Lesnar's initial feud when he returned to the company. There's a natural story there, with Triple H as COO and negotiating Lesnar's contract (as we saw a moment ago). And somebody as pro-WWE and old school as Triple H has easy ammunition with the way Lesnar left the company in the first place. And this is one feud from Lesnar's first run that never really got any attention. Plus, Lesnar could have returned with a big victory without WWE having to worry about jobbing out their "face."
8:13 - Well I think it's safe to say we have a pre-Raw discussion topic. Last night, at Extreme Rules, Brock Lesnar absolutely decimated John Cena before Cena managed to hit his finisher and defeated the beast. Naturally, this resulted in an uproar amongst the majority of the Internet Wrestling Community. And honestly, I can't help but laugh a little.
Let me make this perfectly clear. I 100% believe that Lesnar should have won the match. And it really has nothing to do with the fact that it was Brock Lesnar or that it was John Cena. My mentality is simply that if you're ever introducing somebody to the main event scene -- and that person is going to be a central fixture for the foreseeable future -- that person shouldn't lose the match. If WWE didn't want to job out Cena, that's fine. Then Lesnar should have been paired off with somebody else. So why am I laughing, then?
Mostly because of the arguments people are making for why Cena shouldn't have won. And how it's practically the exact opposite of what they said when Cena was in a program with the Rock. There was a brief rumor that Cena would be disappearing for a while to film Marine 3 (that now seems unlikely). And so NOW people are suddenly making the argument that Cena will be leaving while Lesnar will still be around, so why did Cena win? Yet where was this argument when people brought up that EXACT point in reference to the Rock?
There's a particular uproar over on Scott Keith's blog. And I like Scott, so I don't want to pick on him, but I couldn't help but scratch my head when he referred to Cena winning as "short sighted booking." Yet his fantasy booking sees Lesnar defeating -- in dominating fashion -- every single current WWE main eventer (Cena, Punk, Sheamus, Orton, etc.) before getting fed to the Rock. So you have one guy who is only around for a year making your entire promotion looking like chumps, only to job him out to a guy who only appears a handful of dates a year? How is that NOT short sighted booking? You're banking on one match (Rock/Lesnar) to pop a huge buyrate, when NEITHER of those guys will be on the next 12 PPVs.
So, again, I do believe that Lesnar should have won last night. But by that same token, I strongly believe that Cena should have won at WrestleMania. One thing is for sure: I am eager to see the fallout of Extreme Rules on tonight's show.
Monday, April 30, 2012
LIVE Raw thoughts - April 30, 2012
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10 comments:
Alright, just got home, so I'll weigh in.
First off, you know I think Rock winning was the right move and I won't revisit that one. ;)
As for last night, I do think Brock should have won, but I'm not nearly as annoyed about it as a lot of people seem to be. Brock looked as strong as anyone has looked and for once, Cena SOLD THE MATCH which has always been my biggest complaint about him. Even discounting the arm injury, he was limping and generally looking like he got his ass kicked but just squeaked out a win.
Now I do think Brock should have won, because I don't believe Brock/Cena is done. If we assume Cena is leaving for a bit, the thing to do is give Brock the win. NOT because "Cena's leaving and Brock will be here so Brock needs the win", that wasn't my reasoning behind any Rock/Cena stuff and it's not my reasoning here. But to me, the money is in Brock coming in, destroying Cena, beating him, and putting him out for a few months (and to be honest, I think Cena could use a break, both because he hasn't had one in awhile and because I'm not sure who else he even faces at this point that he hasn't already convincingly beaten (Miz, Del Rio, etc.). Henry I guess? He could beat Punk for the title but that certainly wouldn't help get the fans behind him, and anyway it seems like if someone is going to do that at this point, it should probably be Brock. Give Cena a couple months off and put a little more distance between those other matches. Then, he could return to get revenge on Brock. Now, they can still do that but Cena winning the match sort of takes away from it, and makes Brock look just a tad bit inferior (he still comes off looking very strong, but being that it was his FIRST MATCH BACK, I do think he should have won it).
All that said I don't think it's a big deal. Brock looked very strong against Cena, as strong as anyone has pretty much ever.
To me, the biggest difference between Lesnar and Rock is that Lesnar is going to be around for the full year and he's going to be on, I'd imagine, half to three-quarters of the episodes of Raw. So I would have had Cena beat Rock to put him over as the best in the business right now, and then had him lose to Lesnar at Extreme Rules. This way, you accomplish two things: You build up Cena as being super strong before transferring that strength to Lesnar. You also give Cena that vulnerability that most people wanted when he lost to Rock.
I don't mind sacrificing some of the roster to Lesnar because he will be around for the year to make money off of. But the kicker for me is that somebody on the roster needs to be the hero to overcome him, whether that's Cena or Punk or Sheamus or whoever.
So here's a Beat the Clock question...why do we almost never see the "current time leader" interfering? What's stopping Miz from coming out in this Jericho match and just trying to stall things somehow so Jericho can't win in under 4:18?
To their credit, they have used some ideas (like the deliberate DQ in order to beat the time), but there are a lot of possibilities they've never utilized. I like your idea of stalling just to add time to the clock.
So wait.
Cena's condition was originally "torn bicep and rotator cuff tear" downgraded to "possible serious injury" down to "muscle strain" and now down to "eh he's fine and we're just gonna book him in a match"?
Did I miss them addressing Cena's condition? I heard them mention he had a shoulder injury due to Brock earlier and now Johnny and Eve are randomly talking about how he won't like his next opponent. Did I miss a step here?
I really wanted to see Kharma return, but we don't honestly know if she's really ready to come back. They could have done a one off I suppose, but most people are annoyed she didn't come back and win the title...she may not be ready to return full time.
My understanding was the Bellas were leaving anyway...that's why I was so surprised they beat Beth for the title last week. It is a weird way of wording it though with no natural storyline behind it.
The Divas booking was extremely odd. Beth was, what, a week away from breaking the title record. As the biggest Diva heel (with Eve, I suppose), they have her drop the title to the Bellas -- who had been wrestling as heels all year and had only started kinda sorta being face-ish. The Bellas them immediately start wrestling as heels again, and are put in a rematch with Beth (who, as I understand it, isn't really injured). Except it was just a bait and switch to put the title on Layla, who's a face. And now the Bellas are gone altogether.
So what was the point? Why not have Beth hold the title until Extreme Rules (where she would have been even closer to breaking the record....or even might have) and then lose it to a returning Layla directly?
Agreed on the Diva's thing.
Not sure I like where this Beat the Clock thing is going. Glad it's not Kane or Khali, but I'm concerned it could be Tensai, which probably would not be a good match. Or it could remain Orton which I don't like...I think that could be a great match, but I don't think Orton should be the guy to take the title off Punk, and I don't think Orton needs to be losing to Punk, especially if he's going to get Lesnar soon as rumored.
I have my fingers crossed that Bryan manages to beat Orton's time, but if anyone does I'd guess it's his mystery opponent.
I humbly withdraw my complaints.
Make it an Iron Man match and I'll order the PPV right now!
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