As much as we all love Brock Lesnar and the idea of Brock Lesnar being WWE World Heavyweight Champion, running roughshod over the promotion, the dude just isn’t around. It’s both good and bad, in a way. I enjoy the fact that everyone is fighting each other while Lesnar, the world champ, will only show up when there is a worthy challenge. The thing is, we know that John Cena gets the next shot at Lesnar and we have no Earthly idea when it will be.
If what the commentators are saying should be taken seriously, it’s not clear that they know when Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena will happen. At one point Michael Cole shouted “John Cena has a date with Brock Lesnar” and it felt like an incomplete statement out of the mouth of Cole. Usually Cole will include the name of the show where they are scheduled to meet, but not this time.
What we learned tonight is that Brock Lesnar probably won’t be at Survivor Series, instead we’ll see a “traditional” Survivor Series match headline the card between Team Cena and Team Authority. Like I said before, I kind of like this. In the 90’s there wasn’t always a title match at Survivor Series, instead it would be all about the build up to the Royal Rumble and then to Wrestlemania. I’m not sure if they are steering in that direction, but Lesnar vs. Cena at TLC on December 14th doesn’t really seem right, if you ask me. I can’t picture either guy in a TLC match. Honestly, Hell in a Cell seemed like the perfect gimmick PPV to have them meet again.
Tonight I was lucky enough to be able to DVR my way through Raw and I gotta say, it really makes the show a lot more enjoyable. Three hours of Raw just seems like punishment, even to the biggest of fans.
Let’s get on to it.
From Out of Nowhere
The opening segment was perfectly fine, it was your standard fare Triple H opening of Raw with a 10+ minute promo. Only, you know, Seth Rollins was there and the center of attention. It was actually kind of cool, in a way. Seth Rollins is the de facto #1 heel since Brock Lesnar is so part time right now, which is really incredible.
It wasn’t clear if this was *the* Randy Orton face turn or if they’ll milk it for a few more weeks, but my guess is that Orton becomes a part of “Team Cena” in the next few weeks.
Welcome to the Hall of Pain, Big Show
The Mark Henry heel turn was coming and coming for weeks and weeks now. Why not in a tag team match against Gold and Stardust, right? There was some dissention when Big Show tagged himself in, leading to the Dust brothers stealing the win and then Mark Henry hitting two World’s Strongest Slams on Big Show and talking about how nobody chops him.
The Big Guy!
Yes, that’s right, tonight was the triumphant return of Ryback to a tepid reaction in front of one of the worst crowds that WWE has had for Raw in a very long time in San Antonio. Who cares, though? The Big Guy is back and he sure as hell doesn’t Bolieve. It isn’t clear if he’s a face or a heel, but once again, who cares? It’s the Big Guy. Let’s hope he makes more weird YouTube videos and that he does it very soon.
Dean Ambrose is Upset
Everyone is pissed off about the finish to Hell in a Cell, but honestly, it wasn’t the worst thing in the world. It feels almost like a step down for Dean Ambrose to be feuding with Bray Wyatt and not being a centerpiece of the Survivor Series tag, but then again, keeping Ambrose away from Cena probably isn’t an awful idea, right? Ambrose cuts a promo then attacks Cesaro with a microphone meaning that their match never happened, which really sucks. He called out Wyatt, who came onto the big screen and cut what was a pretty awesome promo and now I’m pumped for this match.
Hologram notwithstanding this is exactly what WWE should be doing; putting their young megastars of the future up against each other and let them have the spotlight.
WWE Buys In on Seth Rollins
So far we know that Team Cena is John Cena and Dolph Ziggler, who had a fair match against 2014 Kane earlier on in the night, picking up a win and Cena making the save. It led right into John Cena vs. Seth Rollins and man, we all rag on Cena for being stale, obnoxious and everything else under the sun, but when he tries to help someone look good he does it so well. Look no further than the awesome match he had against Cesaro on Raw a few months back. Sure, having Cena against a good, fresh opponent is a big part of it, but Cena is still their top guy and chooses to put these guys over huge and he put Rollins over huge on Raw.
This was a really, really good match. Not just a really good TV match but a good match in general and they really played up that Seth Rollins is a top chickenshit heel. He’s also an amazing chickenshit heel with the Stooges 2.0 there to help him out, which makes it awesome. Cena had him in the STF before Rollins waved Kane in to make the save and then, for god knows what reason, most of the roster ran to the ring to brawl in the ring.
Whatever. Seth Rollins is benefitting from Brock Lesnar’s absence and I’m not going to complain about it. It’s still crazy to think that Tyler Black is a top heel in WWE having even matches with John Cena.
