Tuesday, December 6, 2011

The Keg Stand: My thoughts on the December 5 episode of RAW



Wow...WWE Monday Night RAW was interesting this week but not in a good way. It wasn't a bad RAW but I didn't like it either. RAW mainly focused on one man and that man is...




JOHN CENA

Holy shit...RAW was dominated by Cena. He had an in-ring promo, a backstage segment, a match, another backstage segment, and a run-in. That's a lot of Cena in one episode. Just two weeks after CM Punk called himself "the new face of the WWE", Punk made just one appearance on RAW. It was a strange night for Cena. First, he had a match with Zack Ryder. If Ryder won, Ryder would get a U.S. Championship match at the TLC Pay-Per-View. If Cena won, Cena would get a WWE Championship match at TLC. Zack Ryder has improved a lot lately but not enough to defeat John Cena so obviously Cena won. After the match, Ryder said to John Cena, "This was my one shot bro. My one shot John. I have nothing now. This is all I had." That translates to: "Why didn't you let me win?" Are you serious bro? You wanted John Cena to let you win? Zack Ryder needs to earn his title shot. I can't believe Ryder was mad at Cena for not letting Ryder win. Wow.

After the match, Cena went up to John Laurinaitis and said that Ryder deserved a U.S. Championship opportunity. I don't why Cena wanted Ryder to get a title match so badly. Ryder had a U.S. Championship match and lost at the Vengeance PPV. Johnny agreed to give Ryder another chance if Cena agreed to remove himself from the WWE Championship match. Cena agreed. If Cena really wanted Ryder to get his title shot, he would have let Ryder beat him but Cena doesn't like Ryder THAT much. That led to Ryder having to face Mark Henry. First of all, what was the point of making the match a no count-out, no disqualification match? Justin Roberts said that the stipulation was set to "ensure that there is a winner". Since when does that ensure a winner? Last time I checked, you can win via count-out or disqualification. I guess that was Johnny's plan to ensure Ryder would lose. However, that allowed Cena to legally help Ryder defeat Mark Henry. Cena ran into the ring and immediately hit Mark Henry with an Attitude Adjustment. That one move was good enough for Zack Ryder to win.

There are two things about that Ryder-Henry match that bothered me. First, I am so upset that Cena BURIED Mark Henry. I can not believe that happened. Actually I was expecting it to happen but Cena made it look too easy. One Attitude Adjustment was all Cena needed to knock Mark Henry out. He didn't need to use any weapons. Mark Henry has been looking so strong for several months and Cena quickly made Mark Henry look weak. I can't remember the last time Mark Henry was pinned for a three count (not counting his recent "loss" to Daniel Bryan on Smackdown that was thrown out of the record books) and his epic unbeaten streak was ended by Zack Ryder! Unbelievable. It wasn't a clean loss by Mark Henry but Cena proved that Mark Henry can be defeated. It's not good for the WWE's strongest heel to look so weak. The WWE wouldn't let CM Punk defeat Mark Henry but they let John Cena make Mark Henry look weak. CM Punk may be the WWE Champion and Mark Henry may be the World Heavyweight Champion but it's so obvious that John Cena is still the King of the WWE. The second thing that bothered me was Cena helping Ryder win. Why did Cena help Ryder? Why not let him earn a U.S. Championship match? I thought Cena believed that people should earn opportunities and not be given opportunities. Maybe Cena didn't want to lose his WWE Championship match for nothing. A big reason why I think Ryder shouldn't be given an opportunity he didn't earn is because Zack Ryder already had a U.S. Championship match against Dolph Ziggler and he lost. Also, I remember the last time Ryder was given a title opportunity he didn't earn. That was on August 23, 2010 and on that day Ryder lost to Sheamus in a WWE Championship match that was about five seconds long. Ryder shouldn't be given opportunities. Let him earn it. He had a match against Ziggler for the U.S. Championship and he lost. If he can't earn another match, then he shouldn't get another match. I don't know why the WWE is acting like Ryder has never had a U.S. Championship match.

CM Punk is the WWE Champion but John Cena is still the main Superstar on RAW. I am not happy that John Cena got so much attention on RAW and I am very upset that Cena made Mark Henry look weak. It was announced that John Cena will face Mark Henry on RAW next week. If Mark Henry wins cleanly, I will take back what I wrote about Cena making Mark Henry look weak. I just hope John Cena does not get a clean win. That would be TERRIBLE for Mark Henry and when someone finally beats him for the World Heavyweight Championship, the win would look less impressive. Right now, Mark Henry hasn't lost CLEANLY in a long, long time. I hope that streak continues after next week. If not, I will dislike Cena even more.

The next three RAWs should be great. Next week is the three-hour Slammy Awards, then RAW is in Philly (great wrestling city) on the night after TLC, and then it's the final RAW of the year in front of the Best Crowd in the World....Chicago. I hope those episodes of RAW will be more enjoyable than this week.

7 comments:

  1. If Cena pins Mark Henry with little to no effort, I really will lose hope that WWE will ever try to make his character interesting again.

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  2. @ Ray: Ziggler had Swagger's help in retaining the title against Ryder. Ryder has pinned Ziggler many times. He deserves a rematch.

    As to why Ryder was mad that Cena didn't let him win, it's pretty easy. He was just disappointed. Just a human reaction.

    Onto Cena giving up his title shot so Ryder could finally get another one. This was John L. being a douche and abusing his power. The original stupulation wasn't needed and L. knew that. Cena did the classy thing, explaining the number of times he had been given shots and that Ryder deserved one as well.

    Next, Cena did not "bury" Mark Henry. If he does this again and again, it could bury him.

    So, what do we have here?

    1. Ryder was screwed and has pinned Ziggler many times, so he earned that shot.

    2. Ryder was just having a normal, human reaction to losing that shot.

    3. John L. is a douche. Cena is not.

    4. 1 FU does not "bury" anybody.

    Just because this isn't on your wrestling "playlist", doesn't mean it's bad.





    @ Chadam: I doubt Cena would win with little effort, but if that were to happen, I can see it being used to help Henry have his face turn they are talking about. It could cause Henry to realize that his new attitude might have given him enough to finally win the title, but that it has a short shelf life. He's been matched by Show, injured by Show, almost got beat by DB(a guy he had been bullying fairly easiy), and has now been pinned by Ryder. He could notice that his entire deal is crumbling and it's time to make a change.

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  3. Oops! You're not RAY!!! LOL! Sorry, Tony.

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  4. ha...I didn't even notice the "Ray" when I first read it.

    "Ziggler had Swagger's help in retaining the title against Ryder."

    I just noticed that Air Boom was ejected from ringside during that match. Nonetheless, good Superstars don't make excuses and get the job done. Daniel Bryan was able to beat The Miz at NOC 2010 for the US Championship despite Alex Riley trying to interfere.

    "As to why Ryder was mad that Cena didn't let him win, it's pretty easy. He was just disappointed. Just a human reaction."

    That's a pretty shitty human reaction. Cena is a nice guy but he's not gonna just let someone beat him. That's not how Cena rolls.

    "Cena did the classy thing, explaining the number of times he had been given shots and that Ryder deserved one as well."

    If Cena was really classy, he would have let Ryder win. But he didn't do that because he believes that Ryder should win on his own...oh wait... no he doesn't believe that. He's okay with Ryder getting a win he doesn't deserve as long as the loser isn't him. He was okay with Mark Henry losing because he obviously doesn't care about Mark Henry's reputation. Cena was like, "What are you saying? You are the most dominant wrestler in the WWE now? Since when? Since July? Really? Sorry...I'm a RAW guy and I haven't been paying to Smackdown storylines but let's see if you are right." [Cena hits AA]. "Most dominant wrestler in the WWE? Yeah...I don't think so."

    "Next, Cena did not "bury" Mark Henry. If he does this again and again, it could bury him."

    What are you gonna say if Cena defeats Mark Henry next week? I know Mark Henry is gonna start losing again eventually but he needs to lose to a young star. The WWE shouldn't waste Mark Henry's push on John Cena. We know Cena is strong...we don't need any more reminders.

    *1 FU does not "bury" anybody.*

    I hope it is only one. I got a bad feeling about next week.

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  5. @ TONY(LOL!!!):

    1. It's not an excuse. It's the truth.

    2. It's normal human reaction. People get mad for a moment and move on. This was nothing more.

    3. I can't follow your Bizarro logic.

    4. If Cena beats Henry next week, I would buy it. If Henry wins, I would also buy it, but not quite as much. Henry is wounded. This could be part of Henry's turn if he were to lose next week. He could realize that he can't do it all bu himself. But, you never know who might show up during the match.

    5. Cena winning via FU makes sense due to it being his finishing move. But, I'd rather have him win(if he does) with the STFU, because it would go good with the leg injury.

    Finally, I was seeing if anybody had put anything while at work and noticed the "Ray" part. People were looking at me like "WTF?". Sorry again, Shaman!(I had to.)

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  6. 1. I'll agree with that. One point for Gryffindor...er...I mean Capt. Smooth! I still don't agree with Cena trying to bend the rules for Zack Ryder. I guess I would have a more legitimate beef if Ryder's match against Mark wasn't a No DQ match. Technically, Cena did nothing wrong. Morally, he did something he shouldn't have done.

    2. I don't buy it. He was angry...fine I agree with that. But he said to Cena, "That was my one shot...I have nothing now." That's like me competing with a guy at work and if I win, I get to be a supervisor and if he wins, he gets to be the next-in-line to become CEO. I would be mad if I lost, but I would be mad at ME...not my co-worker. My co-worker wants to be CEO and I understand that even if he's been CEO 10 times before and I have never been a supervisor before.

    3. Translation: Cena doesn't give a shit about Mark Henry's push...that's unfortunate. Cena has been a top star for a long time and Mark has only been a top star for a few months. We know Cena is stronger than Mark Henry but I would like to imagine that maybe Mark Henry might be stronger. But now I can't even imagine that because Cena does not like people thinking that someone might be stronger than him.

    4. I hope the WWE acknowledges that Henry is still injured.

    5. I think Mark Henry has kicked out of some finishing moves during his push.

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  7. 1. Fuck the rules! L. was the one abusing his power. Cena was just making things right.

    2. Bad comparison. This isn't like the situation you mentioned. Cena's and Ryder's title shots shouldn't have anything to do with each other. That was just John L. making sure at least 1 person is screwed.

    3. Or maybe he's doing what the bookers have told him to do? This may be more about Henry's angle than Cena.

    4. So do I. Cole might force feed it though.

    5. But, Henry is wounded. I just hope it's a competitive match. Henry has worked hard and deserves to be able to show his stuff(win or loss) in the ring.

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