7 Ups And 7 Downs From Last Night's WWE Raw Superstar Shakeup

5. ‘Cena’s’ Bait And Switch

miz maryse
WWE.com

When WWE used to have its draft every year during the brand extension era, they made a big deal out of not knowing who was going to end up where. The company played that up again with this “Superstar Shakeup,” but they found a great way to rope fans in the opening seconds of Raw.

Just after the credits, John Cena’s music hit, indicating that the 16-time world champion was coming back to Raw. However, the Champ looked a little smaller than usual. And Nikki Bella didn’t gyrate quite the same as usual.

In truth, it was Miz and Maryse, continuing their parody of Cena and Bella, complete with issuing rules (No chanting “Cena sucks”) and mocking their public engagement at WrestleMania. The gag might not have fooled a lot of knowledgeable fans (though it did befuddle Dean Ambrose), but it certainly sparked a reaction at the outset.

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Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.