7 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE Raw (15 May - Review)

1. Cody’s Masterful Promo Mesmerises

Really, what else can you say about Cody Rhodes’ promo Monday night other than wow?

Rhodes managed to tell the parable of the scorpion and the frog and not lose the fans, weave it beautifully into a description of Brock Lesnar the hunter, and then proceeded to scorch the Beast. Cody talked about how Brock looks in the mirror and sees a black eye and staples in his head, while Rhodes sees the guy who bloodied Lesnar up. He put over the legitimacy of his win – “a wrestling counter to a wrestling move in a wrestling ring” – before circling back to the bigger point.

Brock’s early nickname of the Next Big Thing might have applied years ago, but Rhodes asked what happens when people just say “next” to him? This rivalry, Cody explained is about who is the “big thing” on Raw now, but he made clear that Lesnar needs to take his “busted face and step aside” because the Beast is simply standing in Rhodes’ way.

This was class, a top-level promo that brought the fans to their feet (a rarity in WWE these days) and fired everyone up (including this writer). Rhodes turned a simple rematch into a quest: Brock recognizes that Cody is a threat, and it’s his mission to finally push Lesnar off his part-time perch as the alpha male in WWE. Fan-freaking-tastic promo.

The only negative here is that this would have worked perfectly as the go-home promo before Night of Champions, so you worry that they might have missed the peak by a week. But we shall see and try to have faith.