Live from Richmond, VA this is the Raw Deal…
The show began with a video package highlighting the events of Over The Limit on Sunday when John Laurinaitis defeated John Cena thanks to the (cough) surprising (cough) assistance of the Big Show. They can’t really show clips of the PPV, so they showed pictures mixed in with sound. My full recap of Sunday’s Over The Limit event is here. My quick summation is that both major title matches were fantastic and are worth your time. Everything else was pretty average.
After the video ended, there was no Raw theme song intro. No fireworks. Instead, the music of John Cena started up and he was so angry that he marched down to the ring in a serious manner instead of making a comment towards the camera like he usually does.
Cena was mad. “What the hell happened? What the hell? What the hell?” I guess everybody on the internet knew Big Show was turning except him. He called Laurinaitis a selfish, power hungry bully. He claimed that the match was fun because he was destroying Laurinaitis. He recapped the events of Big Show returning on Sunday to knock him out cold. Cena talked about how if he beat Laurinaitis earlier in the match, Big Show would have interfered anyway. That’s a good way to cover the idea of the match going 20 minutes before Show showed up. Cena claimed that the next GM would have been smart enough to bring Big Show back and he even mentioned the computer GM! Do we know who the anonymous GM even was? Of course not. Cena mocked the “may I have your attention please” line of Cole and suggested the computer GM would have re-hired Big Show anyway. Cena was mad about how they were stuck with this “People Power garbage.” He imitated JL’s voice while talking about People Power.
The music of John Laurinaitis started up and Eve appeared on stage. Cena: “Wow John Laurinaitis you got really hot, but you still suck.” I can verify the hotness of Eve. Fine looking woman. She really pulls off the business suit look. That skirt is short and she looks good to me…wait that’s her theme song. She introduced John Laurinaitis, who entered in a motorized scooter. He had a crutch with him. JL said he was rushed to the hospital. He ran down his over the top list of injuries: possible broken clavicle, possible damage to ACL & MCL in his knee, possible spinal injury and contusions all over his body. He says he can’t lift his left arm or move his left leg, which indicates potential nerve damage. The crowd was chanting “what?” during all of it. He called himself a fierce competitor. He mentioned that Cena and anybody else can’t lay a finger on him again or else they’ll be immediately terminated. I’m sure that’s true until they forget that part of the promo and something happens where somebody touches him, yet they won’t get suspended. It always happens. Anyway, he introduced Big Show. While introducing Big Show, Laurinaitis said he re-hired him on Saturday. Immediately that raised a red flag because the stipulation was if any contracted talent interfered in the Cena/Laurinaitis match they would be fired. They fixed it later, but that’s another example of them forgetting their own stipulations. He also announced John Cena vs. Big Show at No Way Out. No idea if it’s a steel cage match like most main events at that show will be. We’ll find that out down the road I assume.
Big Show appeared on the stage wearing a grey suit jacket and dress shirt. Loud “you suck” chants for him. Show said nobody loves the business more than he does. He talked about crying last week because he was so upset. Show claimed he got no sympathy from the fans and said he did what he had to do. He said he had an iron clad contract now and he’s proud of it. It was a classic heel promo where he ripped on the fans for judging him. Show talked about knocking out Cena at No Way Out. He left.
The next person to join the party on the stage was David Otunga. He said Cena was going to lose to him. Cena: “I am not in the mood. You go in the back and watch re-runs of Law & Order because if you get in this ring tonight I promise you I’m going to hurt you.” I loved the Law & Order line. Very funny way to make fun of the lawyer. Otunga dedicated the match to Laurinaitis. He did his ridiculous posing on the stage and the match would begin after the commercial.
Analysis: It ran a bit long at 20 minutes, but storyline wise I thought they covered everything well. Cena’s summary of the events did a good job of explaining his actions in terms of not ending it earlier and how frustrated he was. Laurinaitis sold the beating very well, which puts over Cena. Big Show generated good heel heat. Like I said he went the cheap heat route by blaming the fans for his actions. The fans bought in because they booed him vociferously. I apologize for the big word. I’m in that kind of mood.
(Commercial)
Back from break, they replayed Show’s promo against Cena as he talked about their match on June 17th at No Way Out.
John Cena vs. David Otunga
We’ve seen this match many times. Laurinaitis and Eve were watching on the stage. Can we get more shots of Eve from behind? Just saying. Otunga ran away early. He’s a slippery fella thanks to all the baby oil on his body. Otunga celebrated a few punches to Cena with some flexing. That was a mistake. Cena beat him quickly with a corner splash, a clothesline, the Attitude Adjustment and then the STF. Otunga tapped out after about three seconds. Laurinaitis was able to sustain it for twenty seconds on Sunday. Just saying. The match went about two minutes.
Winner: John Cena
Analysis: 1/4* Just a squash to put over the “ruthless aggression” of John Cena. Yes I busted out that term. Vintage Canton.
Post match, Cena was attacked by Curt Hawkins, Tyler Reks, Darren Young and Titus O’Neil. Sheamus ran in for the save. The two babyfaces were able to even things up and dispatched of the heels that attacked them. It should be pointed out that when Sheamus ran to the ring he bumped into Laurinaitis.
Laurinaitis, who was still on the stage, told the four wrestlers he didn’t give them permission and sent them to the locker room. He booked Cena & Sheamus in a 2 on 3 Handicap match and then changed it to a 2 on 3 Handicap Lumberjack match. They said “first ever” like it was a big deal or something. Laurinaitis left the staging area while Cena and Sheamus were okay with it.
Later in the show we’ll get Randy Orton vs. Alberto Del Rio. Also, Daniel Bryan calls out CM Punk.
Analysis: The post match attack was pretty random as was the save by Sheamus. Didn’t he bump Laurinaitis though? I guess that’s not laying a finger on JL, so he’s not fired. Okay then. The first 25 minutes of the show featured John Cena. Putting him in the main event also ensured that the last 15 minutes or so would feature John Cena too. Even though he hasn’t been near the WWE Title for many months, they have found ways to make him the undisputed biggest star in the company.
(Commercial)
The “Did You Know?” thing was about how Over The Limit was a socially active event beating other things on television.
Justin Roberts announced Ricardo Rodriguez. Before he could say anything, Santino showed up with the cobra on his arm. Comedy time. Santino called Ricardo’s accent ridiculous just like his caterpillar looking eyebrows. He wondered why Ricardo didn’t roll his R’s so he let him try it. They each did some “r” rolling for some comedic effect. Santino threatened him with the cobra, then laughed when Ricardo got scared and told him “it’s my arm in a cobra costume.” Breaking kayfabe! He’s shooting now! Kidding. I love Santino. And this was funny. Then Santino struck him with the Cobra. He did the intro for Alberto Del Rio. He called him the only man that drove his car directly into the building (that’s probably accurate) and said he weighed 108 kilograms. Then when he got to his name he rolled the R very well. The music played for about a minute. He didn’t show up yet.
Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler threw to a video package about the 1000th episode of Raw on July 23. They mentioned number of episodes for other shows like Law & Order (456), The Simpsons (508), Lassie (588 – that many episodes of that dog?), Gunsmoke (635) and of course Raw going to 1,000 episodes on July 23 with the beginning of three hour Raw episodes. I hope they add a permanent third announcer to Raw (my pick would be William Regal) because I’m really getting sick of the Cole/Lawler team and hearing them for three hours every Monday will hurt my brain. It’s all about my brain, people. I wrote a Pros & Cons column about the three hour Raw idea, so check that out if you missed it on Friday.
Back to the arena, finally Alberto Del Rio showed up. It’s so nice of him to wait until the after the video package aired. Santino left as Alberto entered the ring. They went to break.
Analysis: I enjoyed the Santino/Ricardo exchange there. It was funny. There’s nothing wrong with mixing in a little bit of comedy like that because those two guys know how to pull it off. It’s better than a poorly acted backstage sketch.
(Commercial)
Randy Orton made his entrance after the break.
This is the part of the show where Lawler brought up what Big Show said earlier about signing on Saturday. Then Cole explained it by saying he found out earlier in the day that Show had a verbal agreement on Saturday and the contract was signed in the wee hours of this morning. This was their way of saying they messed up their own angle. I’m guessing they got a lot of tweets about it (I did too), relayed to the guys running the show and they corrected it about 15 minutes after Laurinaitis mentioned it. There’s also a video up on WWE.com about it where Laurinaitis explained that Big Show actually signed the contract moments after the PPV ended. I thought they handled the explanation well. Making a mistake sucks, but at least they explained it.
Randy Orton vs. Alberto Del Rio
They mentioned the four way title match at Over The Limit with Sheamus retaining the title. Orton was all over him from the beginning. Del Rio countered by escaping the DDT off the ropes and then knocked Orton to the floor for the vintage floor to commercial. They really got the commercials in quickly after a long opening segment.
(Commercial)
As we returned from break, Del Rio was in control in the middle of the ring. He put Orton down with a knee smash on the right arm of Orton. Del Rio missed a charge while Orton was against the ropes, so Del Rio took a dangerous bump on the floor. In the ring, Orton hit a quick powerslam on Del Rio followed by the DDT off the ropes. He set up for the RKO. All of a sudden, Chris Jericho showed up. He hit Orton with the Codebreaker. That led to a DQ win for Orton at the 7 minute mark.
Winner via DQ: Randy Orton
Jericho grabbed the microphone. Del Rio left. Jericho told Orton that he was the best in the world at what I do. “Do you understand? I am the best in the world at everything I do?” He hit Orton with another Codebreaker. He was furious as he talked about how he was the best in the world and threw the microphone down again. Then Jericho hit Orton with a third Codebreaker.
Analysis: * The match never got going. Only about four minutes of it actually aired. I’m all for a Jericho/Orton feud. They’ve had good matches in the past and I’d expect them to do so again especially with a good storyline thrown in. I was wondering who Sheamus’ next title contender would be. I thought it would be Orton. They may hold off on that while Orton feuds with Jericho and we’ll have to see who is next up for Sheamus. It could be Cody Rhodes, although he tweeted that he had some time off so maybe they’ll go with Del Rio or somebody else. I’m sure we’ll figure that out soon enough. I’m all for an Orton/Jericho story, though. There’s some history there too because Orton punted Jericho out of WWE in September 2010.
Daniel Bryan was shown walking backstage. He was coming out for the top of hour two promo after the break.
(Commercial)
Daniel Bryan entered the arena. He wasn’t happy, so no “yes yes yes” yelling upon his entrance. The announcers argued over the finish of the Punk/Bryan match with Cole claiming Bryan won while Lawler claimed that Punk won, which he did. Bryan called his match at Over The Limit a great injustice. He threw it to a video package. The video only showed Punk tapping out. It didn’t show the part where Bryan’s shoulders were down for the three count. Bryan: “Did I make CM Punk tap out? Yes. Should I be the WWE Champion? Yes. If I face CM Punk one more time will I make him tap out again? Yes! Yes! Yes!” The crowd was chanting “no” for all of the questions. Bryan said he’s not champion because of the incompetent referee (that would be John Cone although they never say ref names) and he demands a rematch.
The theme song of CM Punk started up. Lawler said the footage was doctored. That’s the wrong word. It was edited to show only what was beneficial to Bryan, but it wasn’t doctored. Punk called the match one of the greatest battles he’s ever been in. He talked about how he beat Bryan 1-2-3 in the center of the ring. He wanted to remind Bryan about what happened on Smackdown. I thought this was a great angle. It was Punk vs. Kane, so Bryan hit Kane with a chair and Kane destroyed Punk with the chair because he thought Punk attacked him. The idea was he softened up Punk going into the match at Over The Limit. Punk was standing by the ring now. He introduced Bryan to his opponent for the evening. It was Kane.
Kane made his entrance. He actually got a good pop because the crowd hates Bryan so much. I hope it doesn’t mean Kane is a face. He’s much better as a heel and hopefully this is just a one time occurrence with him being in a spot like this. Punk joined the announce table. What, no announcer jacket? Apparently Punk made the match.
Kane vs. Daniel Bryan
Kane attacked Bryan aggressively at the beginning. I guess he saw the footage from Smackdown. The crowd cheered when Kane almost set him up for a chokeslam. Bryan escaped it and hit a dive between the middle and top rope to knock both of them down. CM Punk decided to intervene. He grabbed a steel chair. He went to hit Kane. Bryan grabbed the chair from him. Kane saw the chair in Bryan’s hand, so he booted him in the face and then Kane attacked Bryan with the chair. The match went about two minutes as the ref threw the match out.
Winner via DQ: Daniel Bryan
Post match, Kane continued to attack Bryan with the chair. He hit him with a few chair shots. Kane rolled Bryan back in the ring. He gave him a Chokeslam. Kane gave Bryan another Chokeslam. Then he left even though the crowd was chanting “one more time.”
As Kane left, Punk decided to “check on” Bryan. He went into the ring and put Bryan into the Anaconda Vice. Bryan tapped out immediately. The crowd liked that. Punk celebrated by yelling “yes” a few times too. That was an enjoyable segment.
Analysis: 1/2* It was a clever angle. I like the storyline continuity between Smackdown and Raw. It was a smart way to use Kane too. I would assume that there will be a Punk/Bryan rematch at No Way Out, which is fine by me. As previously mentioned, that PPV will have cage matches for the main event level matches, so I wonder if their match will be just a cage match or will they add the stipulation that it has to end with a submission move only? I can see it happening although I don’t think we’ll get an answer until next week. I’m all for more Punk/Bryan matches. Their match on Sunday was one of the best matches of the year. I would put Undertaker/Hunter at the top of the list, but Punk/Bryan is right near the top and they’ve also had other great matches this year too. They are the best performers in WWE right now, in my opinion.
Coming up later is the Handicap Tag Team Lumberjack Match. That’s a mouthful huh? Yep. And that’s what she said.
(Commercial)
Backstage, CM Punk was walking. All of a sudden, AJ Lee (should I put in her last name?) showed up and said she enjoyed watching him beat Daniel Bryan. He called her crazy and sadistic. Punk tells her she’s been acting like a fool. She starts crying. He doesn’t know how to react, but then he awkwardly gives her a hug. I was thinking Bryan would show up at that moment. Didn’t happen. When he told her to stop crying, suddenly she stopped. He laughed. Punk: “You know what? I sort of dig crazy chicks.” Then he left. She reacted by looking crazy.
Analysis: I’m not sure where this angle with AJ is going, but I’m intrigued by it. She’s done a good job of being the crazy chick. Punk’s line ended up getting “crazy chicks” trending on Twitter, so that’s quite an accomplishment by the WWE Champion. The CM in his name may mean Chicago Made to some, but it can also mean Chick Magnet too.
They replayed the footage from last week where Paul Heyman talked about how Brock Lesnar was suing WWE and then how Heyman was suing WWE because Hunter put his hands on him last week. Cole and Lawler mentioned Triple H talking to WWE lawyers. Then they plugged WWE.com. This is their way of keeping the Hunter/Lesnar angle going without them being on TV. I’d assume their match is still most likely for Summerslam.
Justin Roberts did an introduction for Christian, who was returning to Raw after about 8 weeks. He’s been out of action for much of 2012 with various injuries, which was mainly an ankle injury. He won the Intercontinental Title from Cody Rhodes at Over The Limit, so he entered along with the title.
(Commercial)
Back from break, photos showed Christian’s IC Title win from Over The Limit. It’s his fourth time winning the IC Title. Cody Rhodes, meanwhile, tweeted “time off” so I guess he’s off this week. Hopefully not too long. Rhodes is my pick to win Money in the Bank in July.
Christian vs. Jinder Mahal
Two Canadians. Yes, Jinder is from Calgary. Also Christian is back in the babyface role in case you didn’t know. I like him more as a heel, but he’s effective as a babyface too. Mahal gave Christian a backdrop to send him to the floor. Jinder hit a double underhook suplex for two. He shoved Christian into the corner, but Captain Charisma countered with a kick followed by a pin attempt for two. Christian hit a back elbow to the chest of Mahal. Mahal escaped the Killswitch to hit a knee to the face. Christian countered the Camel Clutch with the Killswitch. Christian didn’t pin him yet. He went to the top and hit a Frog Splash. Cole just called it a big splash. It was a Frog Splash, Cole. The match went about three minutes.
Winner: Christian
Analysis: * A good win to establish Christian as a babyface. Mahal looked okay, but has no heat and nobody believed he had any chance to win here.
More hype for the Handicap Lumberjack match.
Kelly Kelly was walking backstage because she’s in a match next. She’s smiling of course because that’s the only thing she ever does. She’s the boring, blond babyface that smiles all the time. What a gimmick.
(Commercial)
We return with another recap of Show’s promo against Cena earlier in the night.
Kelly Kelly vs. Beth Phoenix
Lawler mentioned Kelly was on the Maxim Hot 100 list at #38. Layla was also in the top 100, but they didn’t mention that. Also on the list was Stephen Colbert due to fan voting. What a prestigious list that is. Beth entered with a serious look on her face. She was mad about losing to Layla the night earlier. Phoenix dominated early, but Kelly came back with a hurricanrana for two. Phoenix decked her with a clothesline. She missed a corner splash so Kelly hit the worst Lou Thesz Press ever followed by the headscissors and some screaming because she was YELLYING UP~! She did her cartwheel into the back elbow, but Beth decked her with a clubbing blow to the back of the head. That led to the Glam Slam for the win at about three minutes. After the win, they showed Layla looking on at a monitor in the back.
Winner: Beth Phoenix
Analysis: 1/2* Remember when Kelly could beat Beth? Not anymore. It was a dominant win for Beth. There’s a lack of depth in the divas division, so instead of doing something new like pushing my favorite diva Natalya, it appears like Beth will get another shot at Layla.
They showed some Twitter reactions from WWE superstars talking about the Big Show heel turn. It’s like they were instructed to tweet about it or something. Note: they were.
Backstage, Laurinaitis was driving around on his motorized cart. The main event would be coming up.
(Commercial)
The video package celebrating 1,000 episodes of Raw aired. Cole: “That means we have been on the air for nearly 20 straight years live every single Monday night.” That’s a very arguable point. Raw wasn’t live every Monday from 1993 to 1999. It was on tape delay a lot of the time. It started going live nearly every Monday in the summer of 1999 when Smackdown started. Before that, they would do Raw live on a Monday, tape the next Raw on a Tuesday and air it on tape delay a lot of weeks. There are also taped Raws when they are overseas. It’s still a great accomplishment to have 1,000 episodes for nearly 20 years (that will be January 2013), but to say it’s been live during the entire run is a factual lie. That’s WWE, though. They like to re-write history. It’s not a major gripe by any means. I just felt like pointing that out.
Sheamus made his entrance. Cena was next. He was in a happier mood I guess because he was able to talk to the camera for his entrance. Vickie Guerrero appeared on stage to introduce their opponents: Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger. They lose a lot of matches, but at least they’re good at bumping. The third partner is…Tensai. No more “Lord” in his name. It’s just Tensai. He also didn’t have any head garb. At least he still had Sakamoto with him. The lumberjacks made their way out to the ringside area. They were all heels. Lawler pointed out that none of them would be allies for Sheamus or Cena. The biggest names out there were Jericho and Del Rio. No sign of Daniel Bryan, but they could say he was selling injuries.
Handicap Lumberjack Match: John Cena & Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger & “Don’t Call Me Lord” Tensai
Sheamus started out with Ziggler. Laurinaitis appeared on stage with the crutch for his bad knee. No scooter. What a tough guy huh? Cena got in there with Tensai. I’m not sure why Tensai is no longer a Lord. Maybe he lost a Lord match to Lord Steven Regal? That’s a reference to WCW from about 20 years ago. Swagger tagged in and missed his Swagger Bomb move out of the corner. Sheamus destroyed Swagger with a running knee and a powerslam for two. Sheamus threw Ziggler over the top to the floor. Tensai was the legal man now and he gave Sheamus a shoulder block to send him out of the ring. Sheamus took out a few lumberjacks on the floor, but Tensai was able to slow him down. There was an “Albert” chant although not as loud as in recent weeks. Tensai gave Sheamus a chinlock as they went to break. Maybe he’s not a Lord anymore because he doesn’t believe in the vintage floor to commercial spot?
(Commercial)
Back from break, Swagger was in control of Sheamus. Sheamus tried to hit a Brogue Kick, but Swagger avoided it and dragged him into his corner where he tagged in Tensai. Swagger and Ziggler also took turns working over Sheamus. Ziggler hit the Fameasser, or the “look at this” as Cole called it and that got a two count. Swagger hit a Swagger Bomb for two. While that happened, Big Show appeared on stage. I guess Laurinaitis left the staging area because he wasn’t there. Sheamus showed heart in trying to come back, but Tensai kept knocking him back down. Sheamus ended up fighting out of the corner and knocked Swagger down with a forward roll slam. At the 14 minute mark, he finally got the hot tag to Cena while Ziggler also tagged in. Cena dropped him with the shoulderblock as well as the spinning slam. Before he could hit the “you can’t see me” drop on Ziggler he saw Sheamus get attacked by lumberjacks, so the match was thrown out at that point at the 15 minute mark.
Winners by DQ: John Cena & Sheamus
Analysis: **1/2 The match was basically a regular tag match with the heel team working over a babyface, who in this case was Sheamus. They just used three guys on the team instead of two as a way to put over how tough Sheamus and Cena are. I’m not sure how long they focused on Sheamus, but it was one of the longer beatdowns you’ll ever see. Sheamus did a good job with his comebacks too. When he got the hot tag to Cena the crowd exploded. The match disintegrated from there, but it a well built tag match that lacked a real finish. What followed was pretty good, though.
With Cena out on the floor, the lumberjacks attacked Cena. They all went into the ring to attack Sheamus and Cena. There were about 15 minute heels that were doing it. The locker room emptied out as all the babyfaces ran out for a brawl. The highlight of this was Khali at the top of the ramp walking so slowly while all of the other guys ran down the ramp beside him. Eventually he made it to the ring. I would have liked to hear the “Chariots of Fire” while he waddled out there, though. I like wild brawls, so this was a lot of fun to me.
With everybody brawling in the ring, Cena decided to leave. He found John Laurinaitis backstage. Cena wanted to know where Big Show was. JL said he didn’t know. He told Cena that if Cena touched him he would fire him. If he fired Cena wouldn’t the Board of Directors just re-hire Cena based on his importance to the company? There I go with the questions. Laurinaitis limped away with the crutch. Cena stood there like an idiot when all of a sudden he turned his head to the right and was KNOCKED THE FUCK OUT~! by the right hand of Big Show. Cena was knocked out cold. Show walked away as the graphic appeared to end the show.
Analysis: It was a good ending. Yes, we’ve seen Big Show feud with John Cena two times over the years and the announcers will act like it’s something fresh, but I don’t mind how they built it up. That’s why I said I was fine with Big Show being the one to help Laurinaitis because it makes sense to have him as a bodyguard type. I’ve always felt Show was better as a heel anyway, so it works for me.
The brawl in the ring suggests that there’s chaos in WWE right now. Hopefully we don’t get one of those lame “vote of confidence” angles or the walk out that happened when Triple H was in charge last summer.
—————
Three Stars of the Show
1. Daniel Bryan
2. CM Punk
3. John Cena – Did a good job even though he was on a little too much. Mostly he’s in for the Law & Order line on Otunga.
The Scoreboard
5.5 out of 10
Last week: 3.5
2012 Average: 5.95
2012 High: 9 (January 30)
2012 Low: 3.5 (May 14)
Last 5 Weeks: 3.5, 6, 5.5, 4, 7
Final Thoughts
The 5.5 rating out of 10 beats last week’s 3.5, which was the lowest rating I’ve given Raw this year. In other words, it wasn’t a great show by any means. Like I’ve said all throughout the month, May is generally the worst month in WWE in terms of booking. It always happens. Things will get better as we head into June and July, which is when I’d expect Brock Lesnar back to add a breath of fresh air to the show. There were some good things, though.
The continuation of the Punk/Bryan angle is something that has me very excited. As mentioned, they had a match of the year contender. I think they can have other great matches that could perhaps top what they did on Sunday. I have a feeling that we could be talking about the Feud of the Year by the time it’s over.
It’s nice to see the start of a new rivalry between Orton and Jericho. They’re two veterans who are at the top of their game. I’m not sure how much Jericho will be in WWE due to his planned tour with his band Fozzy coming up, so I’m going to enjoy it while it lasts.
Regarding the No Way Out PPV in June, while I’m okay with the premise of the Show/Cena feud I’m not that excited about Show vs. Cena as a match necessarily. However, we’re likely getting Punk/Bryan and Orton/Jericho at the same No Way Out PPV. Those should be excellent matches with a lot of solid build behind them, so I’ll look forward to them quite a bit. Plus, my biggest complaint for years was that Cena was in the title picture for far too long. We’ve now reached the point where CM Punk has held the WWE Title for about half the year. That’s a great thing. He’s had some incredible matches as champion. I hope they continue going forward although if Bryan were to win the title in their next match I’d really love that too.
A gripe I do have is that there was far too much of Cena this week. He was the main part of the opening twenty minute promo. Then he beat Otunga, then he wrestled in the main event (although Sheamus was in the ring for most of it) and then he was in the show ending angle as he got knocked out by Big Show. Part of the reason he became stale over the years is because he got overexposed. They need to watch how much they are using him.
I know things aren’t great in WWE right now. Hang in there. Like I said it’s the worst month of the year in terms of booking. It will get better. It always does.
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That’s all for now. This was my fourth column in the last five days. I may take the week off to work on a bigger project I’ve started. I’m not sure if there will be a Canton’s Corner column this weekend or not because I have some painting to do. Check back on Saturday afternoon. If it’s not up then blame it on being busy. It’s okay Steve, you’re still my buddy.
Finally, check out the work of my buddy Brandon Stroud I’ll definitely be back next week for the Raw Deal again. It will likely be live next week, so look for it at TJRWrestling.com as always. I also want to send out a congratulations to my amazing friend (and banner maker!) Steve Melo on the birth of his son Taeden this past week. I told him to name him Austin because then he’d be a Steve with a son named Austin, but he didn’t like that idea apparently. at With Leather for his awesome “Best & Worst of Raw” column every week. Also give a look to a sports site I’ve been checking out called Last Round Draft Picks because they’re a bunch of hard work guys that deserve your attention as well.
Have a great week and to those in the United States I hope you enjoy your upcoming Memorial Day weekend. Thanks for reading.
John Canton – [email protected]
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