Before we get started, I want to apologize again for the timliness of this article. As I said in the Rate The Booking, I was away this weekend and am catching up with everything as fast as I can. Thus, it is Thursday, an hour before Impact Wrestling, and I'm first getting to my Raw stuff. Yeah, this isn't going to become a trend.
As it stands, this was the go-home show for Over The Limit, a filler show that is mostly going to sell contingent on whether the matches seem exciting to fans. While you have two feuds that fans are ready to end (Miz/Cena and Cole/Lawler), the new feuds are just beginning and 3 weeks is hardly enough time to build heat on new shows. Basically, if you like wrestling and the matches sound intriguing to you, you might buy this show. Let's see if Raw helped it's cause for Sunday. More specifically though, let's see if those featured on Sunday's show were HOT or NOT:
HOT
1. The "New" New Nexus - It was almost a year ago now that Nexus originally debuted. Images of Justin Roberts and his tie immediately come to mind, but it feels like so long ago. Nowadays, we have a 4 man group that seemingly has no spark or sizzle. Many have declared it dead and buried like the Undertaker has been and like Jeff Hardy's sobriety (too soon?). However, this Monday's show attempted to resurrect the name of Nexus in probably a last ditch effort to make the group work. New Nexus won two matches on this show and their leader, CM Punk, claims that he is going to make this group formidable again. As of now, it's a message of hope, but Monday was a good start. I feel like the group needs a new member to work, though with the right pushes, this incarnation could do some damage on Raw. I hope they can amount to something though, because I'm getting tired of seeing the Nexus shirts with the Punk fist and thinking "oh, what used to be...."
2. John Cena - You've heard the term "strong booking" right? This is the epitome of it. Much like my comments on Madison Rayne and Mickie, I feel like Cena has no shot at losing on Sunday. It's his match since he's never quit, and Miz hasn't done any of his lethal attacks to make you think that he could be the guy to finally get Cena to crack. It's actually been Cena that has gotten the upper hand each week, and that does not bode well when he is already the champion. Fans want to believe a title is in jeopardy and I'm just not buying that here. Still, Cena is on the HOT list because he's looked that good. Plus, his insults were pretty solid this week. I get that Cena is the star, but Miz is a star too, and he looked like one until he lost the title. Since then.........not so much.
3. Zack Ryder - No one really deserved this spot, so I'm pulling the biased card. This guy got on screen again and this time, his shirt ended up on John Cena's shoulder. It seems that Ryder is Cena's new boy, and that could bode well for Long Island Iced Z. All of us Ryder fans are still holding our breaths for an actual push, but getting on TV each week WITH John Cena is probably a good start. Let's just hope it is in fact the start of something great.
NOT
1. The Miz - Like I said under Cena's part, Miz doesn't look like he has a change on Sunday. That's not good when you are trying to sell people on this point. If we know who's going to win, why watch? Yes, it could be an entertaining match, but the outcome isn't really in question. It's why I also have a problem with putting Undertaker in title matches at Wrestlemania. If you know he's walking out with the title, it totally kills the heat surrounding the belt. Miz is doing fine, but I fear what will happen to him after this feud ends. Del Rio looks primed to move up the card (not that I support it in the slightest) and Nexus is looking to make a comeback, so where does that leave Miz? I hope they find something for him soon, because he could become obscure fast if they aren't careful. That would be terrible, as Miz has represented the company well and deserves a spot at the top of the card.
2. Jack Swagger - This spot isn't given based on poor performance. Far from it actually. Swagger was great in walking out on Cole and great in his match against Cena. The problem is that these actions don't fit together. Walking out on Cole teased a face turn, one I have asked for and think will work well. You can't follow that up with a sneak attack on the company's biggest babyface! It completely takes away from the moment earlier in the night! Big booking problem there and despite Swagger doing everything right when it was asked of him, he lands on the NOT list for having a character whose actions made no sense! Shame on you, booking team!
3. Brie Bella - Ok, I can understand losing a match every now and again, even when you are the champion. It happens to the best of them so there's no shame there. However, when a 6'4" 250 pound monster of a woman comes walking down the ramp and you are 120 pounds soaking wet, do you really think that pushing this colossal foe will accomplish anything? Those before you have tried and failed, but you, Brie Bella, have failed to learn from their mistakes and thus have repeated them. I hope you enjoyed the Implant Buster for your troubles, because if you continue to be stupid, this will become a common occurence. The lesson of the day, if you see a monstrous woman coming for you.........RUN!!!!
I suppose this show did the job in terms of pushing its 3 Pay Per View matches. We saw plenty from Cena and Miz, too much from Cole and Lawler (please end Sunday!) and more from R-Truth and Rey Mysterio. I still hold out hope that after Sunday's show, Raw will start to take shape more, because there's still a lot of guys who don't seem to have a direction. Credit Raw for pushing the feuds it needed to push, but it does lack some sizzle at the moment. Hopefully with the Cole/Lawler stuff not taking up screen time moving forward, we'll have more time to devote to better storylines between wrestlers moving forward. At least, I hope so.....
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