Making the Grade: Monday Night Raw, April 9, 2012

It's time for the weekly Raw review and opinions, but I have decided to change the title and the format. I have discovered that other blogs use the "Good, Bad and Meh" idea, so I'm going for the title "Making the Grade". Other blogs also use letter and number grades, so I'm going to use words. From now on a match or segment can be "Excellent", "Good", "Ordinary", "Bad" or "Terrible" and added  word length means that that item is more extremely in that category. Let's try it out. And we're offfffff:

Brock Lesnar/John Cena Brawl
I really liked this segment. It was mostly action and very little talking. And it was a proper Donnybrook in the ring, which got the crowd roaring. This passion and violence is what was missing in the Cena/Rock buildup before Wrestlemania. Cena's slap to Lesnar was audacious and unexpected, but an understandable response to the unprovoked F-5 Brock gave Johnny last week. This was an Attitude-Era brawl and Cena took a legit. shot to the face from big ol' Brock. Cena smiling afterwards like he enjoyed the battle also fits his character. I call that starting the show with a bang! The locker room emptying added some excitement to the conflict, although it raises the question: why don't the superstars all come out to stop every brawl or attack that happens in the ring?
Rating: Excellent

John Laurinaitis takes out his rage on Teddy Long and uses Teddy as his patsy backstage
This is an expected reaction from the heel GM and furthers the Laurinaitis/Long rivalry that I'm sure will come to a head again months down the line.
Rating: Good

Brodus "Funkasaurus" Clay/Santino Marella (faces) vs. Jack Swagger/Dolph Ziggler (heels)
It's nice to see Clay in a proper match with real competition, but I don't like how he is being sold as a beast of a wrestler. Brodus no-sold Ziggler's attacks on several occassions and Brodus ultimately pinned Dolph, making the "Show-off" look weak. That is not how to build someone who has championship-ready skills up. Funkasaurus is never going to be WWE champ, but Ziggler should be and he didn't look as strong as he should have in this match. The contest was fine otherwise and it was nice to see Jack Swagger take Clay down and get a few moves against him in, but, again, that should have been Ziggler. Furthermore, Santino was his entertaining self and the performers were given enough time to tell a good story in the ring.
Rating: Good but lacking in logic

John Cena confronts John Laurinaitis Backstage
Cena showed his ruthless, aggressive side for once and demanded a match. For some reason, the GM decided to throw his best bud David Otunga to the wolves, saying that he would face Cena in a match later on in the night. If that's how he treats his friends...
Rating: Good

R-Truth (face) vs. Cody Rhodes (heel)
This was short match because the Big Show came out, distracted Cody Rhodes and allowed R-Truth to hit the "Little Jimmy" for the pin. I like that this rivalry is continuing and this is a logical step in that direction, but they could have given these 2 charismatic workers more time before the interruption to show their wrestling skills. The match was barely 2 minutes long!
Rating: Ordinary

Santino hunts for and finds the 3 Stooges in a gigantic box
Obvious movie promo, but it was mildly funny. I can't believe I am writing this, but the actors chosen to play this generation of the iconic slapstick comedians actually do an admirable job, especially Chris Diamantopoulos in his Moe makeup.
Rating: Good for what it was

Lord "Albert" Tensai (heel) vs. Yoshi Tatsu (face)
Tatsu, a Japanese wrestler, challenges Tensai because he isn't "real Japanese". Ok. Tensai comes out and squashes Tatsu, who gets no offence in whatsoever. Ok. The ref stops the match because he thinks Yoshi is getting brutalized, even though everyone watching has seen a worse beatdown in the past where the ref at least allowed th match to end with a pinfall. Ok. Tensai attacks Tatsu after the bell again because he is this dominant monster guy, or something. Ok. I know WWE is trying to use the Brodus Clay method to build the Lord up in his current WWE run, but it just doesn't make sense and it just isn't entertaining. I did like the crowd chants of "Albert", though.
Rating: Bad

CM Punk (face) vs. Mark Henry (heel) for the WWE Championship with interruptions by Chris Jericho
Punk showed a suitable amount of anger in his albeit long speech to start the segment, as he said he will use the anger he has from Jericho's actions last week to kick Jericho's ass. Then Jericho appeared on the Titantron and did what he does so well: he taunted the champ about pouring alcohol on his body last week with such venom and hatred that it's impossible for anyone not to hate him. That caused Punk to react by attacking Mark Henry with a TV monitor when the match started, effectively getting himself disqualified. And I liked how Jericho and Henry then teamed up to take Punk out, which was followed by beer being poured on the Straight Edge Superstar by Y2J, giving the feud an incredible amount of emotion and heat.The build before Wrestlemania was good, but now it's getting really personal and nasty. Nice!! My only complaints are that Punk and Henry didn't get to have any sort of match before the craziness ensued and that this segment was buried in the middle of the show. It should take priority over Alberto Del Rio and Sheamus.
Rating: Gooood, almost excellent

Zack Ryder (face) vs. Alberto Del Rio (heel)
This match had so much potential, as both guys are charismatic wrestlers with lots of in-ring skill. Too bad the company keeps using Ryder as a jobber, as he tapped out to Del Rio's cross armbreaker in under 2 minutes. No real match or offense for Ryder, just a way to get Alberto over so he can look like a legit. contender to Sheamus' World Championship. Ryder deserves better and the audience deserves to see a proper match once in a while. I hate squash jobs like this when there is potential for a great match.
Rating: Baaaaad

The Three Stooges Promo
The actor playing Curly came out dressed as Hulk Hogan? TNA's Hulk Hogan? Really? REALLY? I admit it was a good imitation, but I am glad that Kane came out and chokeslammed him, cutting the segment mercifully short. On the other hand, they took away time from Ryder/Del Rio to run this waste of time! Arggh
Rating: Terrible

Mark Henry Interview Backstage
Henry claimed that Punk intentionally got disqualified  because he knows he can't beat the World's Strongest Man. Makes sense. He also said that next week he will beat Punk to take his title. Fair enough. This was an interview that kept their rivalry, which includes Chris Jericho interludes and interference, going, which is a good thing in my book. Henry isn't great on the mic, but this segment did its job.
Rating: Good

Brock Lesnar Interview
Lesner is so terrible on the mic. He never looks at the camera and his voice doesn't sound intimidating at all. Luckily, this interview was short. Brock needs to do his talking in the ring, where he can unleash the beast.
Rating: Ordinary

John Cena (face) vs. David Otunga (heel) with John Laurinaitis at ringside in the main event
The match was short, but Otunga showed some personality, flexing and posing in the ring when Cena was down on the mat. The world knew that Cena would win, which he did with the STF hold. The world wasn't necessarily expecting Brock Lesnar to come out and drop Cena with another F-5, though, considering they brawled to start the broadcast. Well, they are establishing Brock has a top heel and John Laurinaitis' go-to guy, which is alright. Their feud is much more 1-dimensional than Punk/Jericho, but Cena and Lesnar are mega stars and the WWE needs to take advantage of the heat from Lesnar's recent return for as long as possible.
Rating: Good

Overall
This show wasn't terrible overall and the main rivalries between Punk and Jericho and Lesnar and Cena took steps forward. As usual, most of the matches could have been longer and better planned and the WWE needs to stop having 3 or 4 squash segments on every show. In fact, there were only 2 contests I would dare to call proper matches. The crowd wasn't bad, but not nearly as hot as last week. To me, a better show would have less movie promos and less-but-longer-and-better matches in the ring. Maybe next week...