This past week’s RAW had to include one of the strangest segments to close a show that I think I’ve ever seen which involved The Rock, more on that later though.
RAW opened with 10 minute promo from CM Punk and Chris Jericho. FINALLY! (No pun intended) we got an explanation to Jericho’s returning vignettes, well kind of. Jericho said everything was just window dressing his true desires to embarrass Punk on the biggest stage of them all.
Punk and Jericho have a very simple, basic yet brilliant chemistry on the mic together. Punk said it best when he said they have the potential to have the greatest WRESTLING match at WrestleMania ever. This entire rivalry reminds me of the Edge and Jericho match from WrestleMania 26. Hopefully this will contain more promos which aren’t just talk about a statement such as ‘Best in the world’ or ‘SPEAR’ but will continue to show both men’s desire to be the top dog at the big show. This rivalry has unlimited potential and both men look hungry to create history, long may it continue!
One small negative point I have on CM Punk though, he made the motion to the crowd again when calling for the GTS. It just doesn’t look right to me, anyway, niggles.
A small note of comedy which I have to point out is the strange noise which came from the announcing table just as the show went to its first commercial break during the Daniel Bryan/Punk match. I was informed of this by John Bonham (@metallica_87) on Twitter. An odd sound which I highly think you should investigate if you still have RAW on your DVR’s (Or Sky+ boxes.)
Teddy Long also made me giggle when he decided to start ripping his curtain designed suit off. Why that man wears something that Big Show could make an attempt at putting on is beyond me.
Punk was attacked on the stage by Jericho and the use of the Walls of Jericho was extremely effective, especially when Jericho has started to apply it in the traditional sense again with the knee to the back of the shoulders. It’s a simple yet believable move which looks incredibly painful.
After the segment ended, the camera went back to the announcing table and someone was holding a sign up behind the announce table which stated ‘Fire Lawler.’ For some reason I found this amusing, especially with the amount of heat that Cole gets these days.
We were pointed to out to a phone interview with HBK where if you listen the interviewer pushes his buttons about Triple H possibly being better than him. HBK gets angry and says that he is happy in his retirement and this isn’t about him. All valid points, but why bring it in to the story if you are not going to involve him? With HBK being on RAW again next week I’m curious to the direction WWE want to go with this. I still don’t see HBK in the ring at any point but this almost feels like a tease that they might insert him in to the match which I don’t think is a good move at all.
Cena came out to face the Miz and surprisingly got a negative response from the crowd. With the support he has started to regain with fans recently I thought he may have got a few more cheers on this one.
Miz came out and poured his heart out about how he is not even on the WrestleMania card at the moment. Miz made valid points that he defeated Cena in last year’s main event and all Cena could do is give him a cheesy grin and beat him? The match itself wasn’t poor and some people have questioned me for having a go at Cena recently. He worked a good match but Cena still looks slightly rigid in the ring when it comes to his matches. He doesn’t seem to have the same flow as a Punk, Jericho, HHH, Rock etc. Something that I know a lot of people will disagree with me on (Just check out the debate I had with fellow WrestleZone writer Bob Bamber on Twitter for THAT debate.)
Kane interfered at the end of the tag team match which was done to try and save as much face for his monster character as possible after the recent terrible story with John Cena.
Eve followed this up by ensuring she got as much heat as possible. I still wondered if Kharma was going to come out and flatten her but the promo ended rather flat. The segment continued backstage where Kelly Kelly stupidly tried to talk to her ‘friend’ only for her to walk out and a new friend in Alicia Fox to appear as if she was the cuddly toy on the generation game conveyor belt! (Yes, I went there!)
Then we come to the last segment. Rock’s music hit, everything was electrifying and then something was seemingly off. Rock delayed in his speech and then I noticed writing on his wrist. I was immediately drawn to it when Rock kept shuffling the mic between hands as he realised he was showing it to the camera, and then came the drinking of water and stuttering. Rock started to use the trending topics and it kept the crowd interested. Rock got the crowd to chant things such as ‘Cena’s lady parts’ and ‘missing balls.’ The crowd was in full force of chanting ‘missing balls’ when Cena’s music hit. Cena completely BURIED the Rock. He humiliated him by calling him as a man and calling him for having his promo on his wrist. Rock never retaliated. When the wrist comment was made he quickly moved up to him close in anger but nothing verbal was exchanged. Cena said his part and then left him to it. Rock looked lost, continued to stutter through the promo and finished the show.
I have NEVER seen anyone write a promo on their wrist and I have NEVER seen The Rock look so uncomfortable. This wasn’t The Rock, it was Dwayne Johnson. He looked unwell, his nose was red and with the drinking of water he looked like he had some sort of head cold?
Once the promo was done, Rock threw the mic back to the corner and mouthed “Mother F*****” and “Bitch” which didn’t seem to be scripted.
Was The Rock unwell and couldn’t focus on what he needed to do? Were the chants of missing balls going so far from PG that WWE sent Cena out to help the Rock? Was Rock unimpressed with the way Cena off-cuff completely buried him rather than helping him out throughout the segment?
The whole idea within wrestling is to show respect but create a rivalry. Jericho and Punk started both their promos out tonight by saying they respected each other as WRESTLERS. Rock even started his promo off with how he doesn’t believe Cena is a bad guy. But, Cena just BURIED Rock by saying that he used to like “The Rock” but doesn’t like “Dwayne Johnson” anymore because he is self-centred.
Was this whole segment just something to keep going because Rock wasn’t well and it got out of control or was it another last minute change backstage before the segment started? Either way, the segment really flattened The Rock. I felt sorry for him, I almost felt like he seemed defenceless. Strange words I know, but Cena came across so strong and Rock looked like a has-been that couldn’t hang with him anymore.
I’m hoping this is quickly swept under the carpet by a strong Rock response on the next show but what was a good RAW quickly fell in to confusion with all this.
What did you think to the segment and RAW in general? Let me know at beansontoastuk@msn.com or get in touch on Twitter @BeansOnToastUK.
