Last night was the "season premiere" of wwe's Monday night raw, which means nothing since the program is a year long episodic show. But, calling this episode the season premiere attempts to build a buzz since last night was the first NFL Monday night of the season, so the competition on Monday nights just got a lot stronger. So how does a wrestling juggernaut contend with football? How about a cage match featuring a top crowd pleasing babyface in Chris Jericho against the future top star and maniacal bray Wyatt? Good move wwe! How about a summerslam rematch against proven villain the viper Randy Orton versus the next big star the uber-aggressive roman reigns? Well played wwe, that will keep the audience glued to its TV. How about a contrived, poorly acted, poorly executed Bella sister segment being mediated by jerry springer? When is kick off?
When chucking ideas at the story board whomever opted for a Bella twin springer show segment on the first raw against the NFL and two weeks away from a pay per view should fear for his job performance evaluation. But he won't, probably because wwe loves this bellas spectacle that gets worse and worse as the weeks go by, which was only created because total divas the "reality show" wanted a storyline for the newest season.
Yes, that's correct, a reality show is asking wwe to create a storyline so they can then script reality around it. And wrestling fans lived happily ever after. The worst part of this angle with the Bella sisters, and there are many bad things, is that it is going to lead to a match that at its best will be lousy. With Nikki Bella in a three way match for the diva's championship I think we can all assume that Brie Bella will cause her a loss of some kind and this feud will continue leading to an eventual match for the ages.
Bray Wyatt and Chris Jericho started off Raw with an entertaining cage match. It was a well put together match that showcased the steal cage as a weapon at times and concluded with Wyatt walking out of the cage door after Y2J leaped from the top of the cage and in the process hurt his knee. The Wyatt Family patriarch then took Jericho back into the cage delivering "sister Abagail" to further injury "the ayatollah of rock and rollah" and essentially end the feud between the two
. I ended up liking this program between Jericho and Wyatt but I am not sure it was as good as the two highly talented performers wanted it to be, I also do not know where Bray Wyatt goes from here. I feel that a young Bray Wyatt is one of those characters that, initially, always needs feuds to be involved in so his character can continue to evolve.
Randy Orton battled Roman Reigns in the main event of Raw and they had every Orton v Reigns match you've already seen. This version saw Orton in trouble at the end and he summoned Kane and Seth Rollins to help him. This featured Seth Rollins propelling himself off the top of the steal cage that was somehow lowered. Rollins then delivered his curb stomp finisher to Reigns on a steal chair. So, it seems that Roman Reigns will fight Seth Rollins at Night of Champions where I full expect the authority to involve themselves and Dean Ambrose to appear to throw himself into the main event mix. Which will help to refresh this Roman Reigns feud because he continues to stall to me and maybe with the infusion of the lunatic fringe Reigns can unload some of the main stage pressure to Ambrose and Roman can continue to improve to get ready for the big match stages.
The best thing on Raw last night was the segment involving Paul Heyman, the advocate for Brock Lesnar, and John Cena. Heyman invited Cena to become more ruthless and leave the fans behind in order to better himself. Paul Heyman suggested that John Cena cannot beat Brock Lesnar until he he conquers his own demons; most notably the anti-Cena fan base that is so vocal in booing the leader of Cenation.
Finally, Cena couldn't take anymore talk from Heyman and he delivered another emotionally charged impassioned promo on how Cena believes in himself and believes in the fans that cheer him. His most rewarding moments are when the kids use him as a moral compass, how he inspires them to do their best, give their all and most importantly he loves the fact that when people (wounded soldiers in this example) who are down and out find motivation from John Cena's mantra of never give up. This promo, while he did use make-a-wish kids and wounded military member to pull on the heart strings, was a very powerfully executed promo and worked to turn some of the John Cena haters into at least respecters.
John Cena will go down in history as one of the most successful wrestlers of all time. His run on top out lasts anyone in the modern era of sports entertainment and he boasts gaudy numbers when it comes to the tangible stats that would gauge wrestling success. His merchandise sales are huge, his headlined buy rates are big for large events, he is a money earner at the box office and most importantly he has given his life up to become the number one top babyface in all of professional wrestling. The ladder of those attributes is the one that few before him can say they have done like John Cena has done. In a time in pro wrestling where the workers performer a lighter schedule than 20 years previous John Cena out works everyone on the roster and has a schedule busier than most of those before him.
Be it granting wishes for seriously ill children, visiting hospitals of wounded soldiers, being parade marshals, pregame coin tosser, bowl game predictor, talk show host guest, red carpet appear-er, charity spokesmen, or wwe brand ambassador John Cena does it and he does most of it when the other superstars are having days off. This is the biggest reason John Cena will not turn bad. This is the reason wwe doesn't want to turn John Cena bad. No matter how loudly the vocal minority of fans jeer against him Cena is too much of a commodity to be anything other than a hero. On top of his character Cena is also a pretty good wrestler in the ring. Cena does a lot of the same stuff but that is because he does what people want to see, when needed Cena can work with most everyone and has rarely had a bad match on pay per view. He is also willing to perform hurt and even injured when asked of him so to entertain the fans. John Cena is wrestling's top hero for a number of reasons but there is one major reason currently.
There is no one ready to take John Cena's spot as top guy. Daniel Bryan couldn't sell the merchandise that Cena can. Roman Reigns can't deliver the promo that Cena can (not does he perform as well). Dean Ambrose is not as PG as Cena can be. And no one is willing to give up their entire lives to be the face of the wwe the way John Cena has. Until someone is capable of being those things and accepts the challenge of top spot and delivers John Cena isn't going anywhere. When that spot is eventually taken from Cena, then and only then, John Cena will turn heel and probably make a fortune. A fortune he will have earned and he probably won't have to make all of those appearances but the fans may finally stop booing him. That is just this marks remarks.
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