WWE Raw Review 5/3/12 - The Rock Brings Out Best In John Cena

By Laurent Kelly / March 6, 2012

The Big News: The Rock got in Cena's face during a tense confrontation but once again struggled to unsettle his increasingly confident rival. Meanwhile Shawn Michaels turned his back on Triple H after informing him that he had been assigned the role of special referee for his Hell in a Cell match with The Undertaker at Wrestlemania and Chris Jericho landed a psychological blow to CM Punk by pinning him in a tag match also featuring Daniel Bryan and Sheamus. In a Nutshell: The Rock feud continues to bring out the best in John Cena. Live from Boston Shawn Michaels came out to start the show, bouncing around the stage to the tune of €œSexy Boy.€ That spectacle is only going to get funnier the older he gets. Shawn then got on the mic and expressed his satisfaction at Hunter accepting the match at Wrestlemania but wanted to know what could have changed his mind. After all he said that he had thrown the kitchen sink at him with his verbal jibes but still Hunter had relented so he wanted to know what moment of revelation had suddenly transpired that made him want to try and break the streak once more. Shawn then asked out Hunter who appeared rather sheepish as he embraced his friend. With his jovial mannerisms becoming increasingly sarcastic in tone, Shawn praised Hunter for being an oak, a giant of a man who stood firm to his principles and defended his honour. And yet still this oak had agreed to do something he was so defiant about not doing in the weeks beforehand. After labouring the point to effectively raise tension over the matter, Shawn then played the footage from last week in which Hunter had refused Taker's offer only to then accept when Taker had fed him the line, €œyou're just worried that you won't be able to do what Shawn did because deep down you know that Shawn was always better than you.€ Back inside the ring Shawn stared angrily at Hunter who remained stoically gazing at the screen. Shawn declared that he was amazed that all it had taken for his best friend to agree to the match was someone thinking that he was the better wrestler and wanted to know why this notion was so insulting. Hunter however tried to dissuade Michaels from that line of thinking. He said that the truth of the matter was that he was trying to defend Shawn's honour because he was sick and tired of everyone labelling Shawn as a failure for his losses to The Undertaker and that it pained him to think of a man who he holds in esteem as the all time greatest in ring performer to be considered a loser. Consequently, he vowed to end the streak to help secure both their legacies. Michaels thanked Hunter in a mocking fashion. He said that last year it had hurt him when he had to tell Hunter that Undertaker was going to win at Wrestlemania and even though Triple H had given Taker a hellacious beating, in the end he had been proven right. Triple H had lost. Michaels then claimed that this year he also knows who is going to win and he's going to be right again. He then started to leave before turning back and adding that the reason he knew this is because he had been assigned as the special guest referee for the match in question. This was another powerful segment in the build to the Trips/Taker rematch which served as an excellent continuation of the previous week's drama and which should now lead seamlessly to Shawn's confrontation with Taker next week. Shawn did a really good job at sarcastically overcompensating his hurt feelings with false joy and having him turn against his friend is an interesting route to embark upon as it raises the question as to whether or not there really is tension between the pair or if they are just playing mind games with the Deadman in order to throw him off guard in the weeks leading up to the big match. I guess the answer to this question should become clearer during next week's angle. As far as Shawn Michaels goes, helping to develop a story for a big Mania match is a great role for him and one hopes that in future years he can use his Mr Wrestlemania tagline and general legendary status to maybe help hype up matches that feature the likes of Dolph Ziggler, Miz, Kofi Kingston and a number other midcarders for whom wrestlemania this year looks like nothing more than a good payday. 1.) United States Championship: Santino defeated Jack Swagger via pinfall to become the new United States Champion This was your basic Attitude era midcard title match. i.e. short, chockablock with chaotic interferences and played out in front of a hot crowd. As Swagger gave Santino a beating we were informed that Teddy Long had been made Raw GM for the night. John Laurinaitis came out with David Otunga to complain as Santino took Swagger to the mat with armdrags and then unveiled the cobra. Otunga got up on the apron for the distraction however and when Santino turned around he was attacked by Dolph Ziggler who was stood on the opposite ring apron. Swagger took Santino down with a gutwrench powerbomb and went for the pinfall but Santino kicked out to a huge cheer from the fans. Teddy Long, Aksana and Kofi Kingston came down to ringside to support Santino and led to Laurinatis and Long getting in each others face on the outside. Back inside the ring Santino hit Ziggler with a cobra after Dolph tried to get himself involved in the action again. Santino then tried to land the cobra on Swagger but Swagger neatly countered into the ankle lock submission. Santino made the ropes as Long shoved Laurinaitis on the outside and Santino rolled up Swagger for the win. * ½ Post-match Laurinatis told Long that this couldn't happen on his show but Long just brought out some security guards and had both his GM rival and David Otunga escorted from the building. One thing I will say for this match and indeed the feud in general is that the fans really seem to be into it but what a shame it is to see the United States Title suffer yet another degrading setback after Dolph Ziggler and Zack Ryder had fought so hard to try and make it meaningful again in the latter months of 2011. Has there even been another time in company history where so many midcarders have so little direction? Rock's History Lessons Part 1 In the first of three vignettes, The Rock performed a taped promo alongside Boston harbour comparing modern audiences being subjected to Cena to Americans having to tolerate being under English law in the 1700's. He then said however that just like the people of Boston threw tea in the river at the Boston Tea Party he too was going to throw out trash pertaining to John Cena's merchandise. Rock then proceeded to throw a plethora of Cena merchandise into the river including items such as wristbands, shirts, cologne and of all things a garden gnome pulling the €œyou can't see me€ pose which was an object so ludicrous in appearance that it actually caused The Rock to momentarily corpse as he was running it down. This was a great idea for a segment and it was hilariously delivered from The Rock who was clearly having a whale of a time filming it. Eve Torres defeated Alicia Fox via pinfall Kelly Kelly was on commentary obnoxiously giggling as she completely no sold the tension between herself and Eve and focused instead on getting fans to vote for her as the €œbuttkicker of the year€ at the Nickelodeon awards. Inside the ring Eve and Alicia tried some chain wrestling which had some nice ideas but ultimately came off sloppy before Eve dodged a kick from her opponent and hit a legsweep for the win. Quick match which might have been cut short to prevent Jerry Lawler and Kelly Kelly from embarrassing themselves any further on the headsets. ½ * John Cena's Empty Arena Speech John Cena was sat alone staring intensely at the wrestlemania sign up above. He spoke very seriously about how The Rock was the most successful wrestler in the history of the wwe but said that didn't make him content to just turn up at Wrestlemania and accept second place. Making an analogy with Boston losing the super bowl, he said that he needed to win because no-one remembers second place. He said that if he loses the match then he just becomes another name in The Rock's notebook of victories but if he wins he wins the big one. He claimed that it will be the biggest event in wwe history and called it an all or nothing opportunity of a lifetime. I thought this was an outstanding verbal performance from John, packing an emotional punch without being too sickly and promoting the epic scale of both match and opponent without burying himself in the process. Really top notch stuff. Tag Match: Chris Jericho and Daniel Bryan defeated CM Punk and Sheamus Jericho and Punk started the match, trading sidelock takedowns followed up by scissorhead hold break-offs before Punk got on top for a short period. Heels then worked over Punk before he managed to get a tag to Sheamus who threw Jericho into the corner following a bulldog attempt and took him to the mat with a powerslam and a backbreaker. Jericho came back with a springboard dropkick as the heels then worked over the Irishman who made the hot tag to Punk after breaking free from Jericho's hold. Punk came in full of beans hitting Jericho with a springboard clothesline, swinging neckbreaker, high knee, body slam and a top rope elbow all the while expertly selling his back which had inflicted further damage from the assault he suffered the previous week. Bryan then broke up the pinfall as pandemonium and chaos took over. Bryan and Sheamus fought on the outside as Punk tried to plant Jericho with a GTS only to be locked in the walls. Punk then reversed with a roll up but at the last moment Jericho countered with an inside cradle for the victory. Y2J then reached for the title and threw it over to Punk in a patronising fashion. It had a few awkward transitions but this was generally a very exciting bout with a good finale that lent Jericho the early psychological advantage in the build up to his wwe title match with CM Punk at Wrestlemania. Knowing Jericho he will no doubt have a lot to say on the matter on next week's broadcast. *** Rock's history lessons part II The Rock stood in front of a statue of Paul Revere. He then proceeded to do a whacky routine about time travel and talked about how if Cena had been in Revere's position to free the Americans, they would still be ruled by the British because Cena would have been shot as soon as they saw his ridiculous outfit. Rock then talked about entering through the time machine to kick Cena's ass and how people would claim that he had invented electricity and how all the woman would be offering him pie. He finished off by saying that if Revere was alive today, he would tell The Rock to whoop John Cena. Big Show defeated Miz via pinfall Before the match Cody Rhodes aired another video of Big Show's embarrassing wrestlemania moments with the giant eating at a restaurant whilst the actual event was taking place in 2002. Match itself was nothing more than a squash with Miz getting in some tiny offence on Show in the corner before Show retaliated with a sphere and a knock-out punch for the victory. Miz continues to serve his sentence for the R-Truth incident. DUD It was announced that The Undertaker would appear next week on Raw to confront Shawn Michaels. Rock's history lessons part III Rock was stood outside Boston common and compared the overthrow of the British to him overthrowing John Cena. He then said that the history lesson was over and it was not time to make history, promising that Cena would fall to him at Wrestlemania. There didn't really need to be three of these segments. After the basic historical comparison was made it started to wear a bit thin upon repetition. The stuff at the harbour though was comedy gold. Kane defeated R-Truth via pinfall Basic filler. Truth got on top for a while but missed a kick and was struck down with a chokeslam for a pinfall loss. DUD Post-match Randy Orton came out to give Kane the RKO before grabbing a mic and informing Kane that it was good to be back. The Rock confronts John Cena John Cena came out to a positive reaction from his home fans. He confessed that he was entertained by The Rock's history lessons but said that when you look behind the showmanship and focus on the actual material it seems to him that Rock is undergoing a midlife crisis. He proceeded to inform everyone that in spite of his goofy appearance it was he who had shaken The Rock up last week during his return promo and left him stuttering for one of the only times in his career. He then twisted the knife further by explaining that Rock was threatening to come out but argued that this might be a bad idea because all of his best material is either pre-recorded or via satellite. Cena wanted Rock to come out though so that he could assess whether or not he was going to be wrestling the guy who spends twenty minutes harping on about chinese takeout or if he was going to be faced with the greatest superstar in wwe history. Basically he said, he wanted The Rock and not Dwayne Johnson. Rock strode venomously towards the ring. He told Cena that when he looked at him he saw fear. He saw a man afraid of him coming along and taking everything away from him. In response to this, Cena unfortunately slipped back into imbecile mode and started to grin idiotically instead of selling Rock's words. Rock then laughed off Cena's claims that he had been shaken and told his foe that he had never been more confident about beating someone before in his life. Following this Rock was treated with €œtooth fairy€ chants from the same crowd who had booed Cena out of the building on a Raw prior to Surviror Series last year. Just goes to show what a few standout promos can do for a superstar. Rock said that when you strip away the catchphrases and the gimmicks you get a 6ft 4', 265 pound man who will rip out Cena's throat. Rock then called Cena a little boy who will always be remembered as his bitch before departing to his theme music. Cena scribbled on his wrist after The Rock had gone. He said that Rock might have other options but if he loses he loses everything. He said that he wasn't afraid and that if Rock believes that he is then he has lost his mind. He claimed that at Wrestlemania Rock would have to rip out his throat it he wanted to win because he intended to make history by whipping Rock's ass. He then left the ring, jumped into the crowd and drank some beer to close the show. Verdict: Last year the wwe made the mistake of thinking that John Cena would be capable of matching The Rock when it came to electrifying audiences with sharp wit and acid tongue. Thus they allowed him to cut his horrible raps and tell his awful jokes and perform his obnoxious crowd pandering routine and the result was that The Rock destroyed him so fiercely on the mic that Cena lost even more members of his dwindling fanbase. This year they have wronged those rights by allowing both men to play to their strengths. Rock has continued to stir audiences into a frenzy with his incomparable gravitas whilst Cena has excelled in serious, aggressive, honest and from the heart convictions which has enabled him to counter The Rock's electricity with his own more authentic intensity. Because of this, the feud feels alive and open and their match has got its edge back as an immortal encounter for the ages. Again the WWE excelled this week in adding more drama to their three main Mania storylines which is helping to distract everyone for the time being from the complete mess they are making of everything else. Until April 2nd however those flaws should remain heavily disguised.