Why Cena And Lesnar Didn't Main Event WWE Raw

Is the new plan to feature key segments outside of the main event slot? It just might be.

If you watched Monday's edition of Raw then you probably noticed the order of the show was a bit different from what we were used to seeing. It started out with John Cena threatening Paul Heyman and telling him he had until "halftime" to produce Brock Lesnar or else Cena would beat up Heyman. Maybe some fans thought halftime meant halfway through Raw, which would have been about 9:30pmET. Instead what Cena meant was halftime of the Monday night NFL game between Philadelphia and Indianapolis. As soon as halftime of the NFL game hit around 10pmET, Cena was on screen with Heyman doing their angle that brought out Lesnar. It led to a brief brawl with Cena getting the upperhand on Lesnar before security came down to the ring to break it up. What was bizarre about it is that it was an angle done to set up Sunday's WWE Night of Champions main event and most people assumed it would end the show. Instead, Mark Henry's segment with Rusev went on last. The reason the Lesnar/Cena angle was done that way was that Vince McMahon made that decision, according to a report from PWInsider. WWE wanted that segment to counter the NFL game because they knew that during halftime of the football game people tend to switch channels and a lot of them probably flipped it over to Raw to see what was going on. On a personal note, I'm one of those people that watches the NFL game live and then watches Raw on the DVR, but I do flip over to it during breaks including halftime. While it is probably not the first time WWE has done something like that, it was definitely more noticeable this week just because of how flat the rest of the show was. That Cena/Lesnar/Heyman segment was the best part of Raw by a lot and we are so used to seeing those major angles at the end of the show. Ending Raw with the Henry/Rusev angle left fans confused. While there was nothing wrong with that they did, it really doesn't feel like a main event storyline. It's actually something WWE has done a few times of late because they had Stephanie McMahon and Brie Bella headline Raw twice before SummerSlam even though that's obviously not a main event feud either. Brock Lesnar defending the WWE Championship against John Cena is unquestionably the main event of Sundays Night of Champions PPV and there's really nothing on the card that comes close to it. However, at least for this week, they didn't get to headline Raw. It will be interesting to see if WWE continues to do that in the future or if the main segments or matches will get to go on last.
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John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.