April 24, 2012|By Adam Testa
* A week after scoring a major win over Cena, Lord Tensai resorted back to his squash match ways, destroying R-Truth. What was the point in putting him over Cena if it was just going to fall back to this? I'm all for giving a storyline time to play out, but that is completely one-step-forward, two-steps-back booking for Tensai.
* Big Show and The Great Khali scored yet another win as a tag team. If they are seriously going to push this team, they will likely get the titles, and that will be a sad day. The match was slow and plodding. The highlight of the match was the fact Big Show sold the knee for most of the match, but in the end, it couldn't save this from being less-then-thrilling. One also has to question the treatment of Cody Rhodes and Alberto Del Rio here, as they are two rising stars who are being squandered with this booking.
* Well, the good news is that Tag Team Champions Primo and Epico got on television. The bad news is they lost their second straight television match, this time falling to the comedic duo of Zack Ryder and Santino Marella. The champs are losing more than they're winning, and doing so to Marella, who is also the United States champion, doesn't do much for either title, as one is going ignored while the other champs are being made to look really, really weak. Primo and Epico are one of about two authentic tag teams in the WWE, so it makes perfect sense for them to be buried, right?
* The technical "main event" match also devolved into an angle, as Vickie Guerrero entered the ring and slapped Clay as he and Hornswoggle faced Swagger and Ziggler. The babyfaces won by disqualification, only for Guerrero to have a standoff with Clay's dancers and Hornswoggle. Maybe Clay was better off with the squash matches.
* Kane and Randy Orton continued their daddy issues this week, as Orton locked Paul Bearer in a freezer. Kane, though, said he had no intention of saving Bearer, as he's always believed the devil himself to be his true father. At the point, Bearer has died more times than Kenny from "South Park," so does it really have the big of an emotional effect? The two then brawled, and in the end, Orton stood tall after beating Kane with a steel pipe.
* Lesnar's assault on Josh Matthews backstage made for a good segment. WWE has tried to establish Lesnar as the heel in this feud, and this helped put some heat on him. What didn't help was playing the exact same interview video that was played on both Raw and Smackdown last week.
* Eve seduced her way into an executive role in Laurinaitis' administration. The short promo played of Eve's character that's been established in recent months, and it will be interesting to see where the angle heads from here.
* Edge showed he hasn't lost a step on the microphone during his year away from the business. He did a good job in his show-opening promo with Cena, trying to wake up the Cena of the past who was willing to get serious and take care of business.
* I found it "interesting" that the two clips of Lesnar's past WWE focused on showed him destroying Jeff Hardy and Kurt Angle, two main event talents now working for the competition.
* Teddy Long screwed up Cena's introduction. This is why I wish Long had ridden off into the sunset of retirement after WrestleMania.
* Was there really a match sponsored by Taco Bell? I'm not even sure what to say about that.
Match Rundown
Chris Jericho d. Kofi Kingston
Lord Tensai d. R-Truth
Big Show and The Great Khali d. Cody Rhodes and Alberto Del Rio
Nikki Bella d. Beth Phoenix to win the Divas Championship
Mark Henry d. Sheamus with Daniel Bryan as the guest referee
Santino Marella and Zack Ryder d. Primo and Epico in a non-title match
Brodus Clay and Hornswoggle d. Jack Swagger and Dolph Ziggler by disqualification
My Take
It seems like all the critical elements of Monday night's three-hour Raw could have been easily fit into a normal two-hour episode. So much of the episode felt like filler that was unnecessary and dragged the show down. As the go-home Raw for the Extreme Rules pay-per-view, this was a pretty weak outing in my opinion. I will likely be watching the PPV on replay, for the sake of having a full outlook heading into next week's recaps, but I am frankly glad I will be taking in a live Chikara Pro event in Indiana rather than sitting in the Rosemont Horizon, a mere three hours away.
Ring Posts’ Adam Testa has teamed up with My 1-2-3 Cents (www.my123cents.com) and All American Pro Wrestling to bring you "From the Rafters Radio," a weekly pro wrestling talk radio show airing on Monster Radio 1150 AM in Southern Illinois and streaming worldwide on wggh.net.
