Welcome to the longest running, episodic, action-adventure column featuring sports entertainers on Monday night! Let’s get to it –
1.) I’m not sure how much we should read into it, but Evan Bourne has been removed completely from the opening title montage. The Miz has taken his place, which I’m all for. I’m really surprised it took this long, and I expect we’ll see something about Bourne’s future endeavors soon.
2.) If all of these digs on CM Punk about how the WWE revolves around John Cena are leading to a heel turn for Punk, then I have to applaud the creative team for how well they’ve planted the seeds. Usually, heel or face turns are rather obvious or telegraphed – this one is ambiguous and could go in several directions.
3.) I tried to go the website that Jerry Lawler mentioned – WWE.YouTube.WWE//WWE – and it required a credit card and verification that I was 18 or older. Maybe all things the King does should require the participants be 18 years or older – it might have saved him some trouble. That site also reminds me of Creed’s blog address on “The Office” – which is really just a Word document to save the world from Creed’s brain.
4.) The WWE is hosting a poll to determine what championship gets defended next week “in the interest of being social media conscious”. That’s like water acting “in the interest of being wet”. In the first 9 minutes of the program, the WWE flashed a “Trending Worldwide” graphic, asked that we discuss the program on Twitter, told us to Tweet about the Rock’s return next week, informed us that they were conducting the championship match poll, had AW come out with his “hashtag” introductions and then flashed one more “Trending Worldwide” image. Good grief. Sometimes they have the subtlety of Triple HHH wedging himself into a million dollar angle.
5.) So THAT’S how they’re going to fill the third hour of Raw! They’re going to show 60 minutes of Tout videos! If you thought that we got mauled with Twitter references, how bad do you think it’s going to be when Vince is financially invested in a company?
6.) Welcome back, Rey.
7.) Hey! The WWE obviously (or not) listened to me and put Ryback in the ring with Jack Swagger’s haircut. The three powerbombs on a dude the size of Swagger was pretty impressive, though. Color me impressed that Ryback has gotten the crowd to go along with the “Feed me more!” chants along with the “Goldberg!” ones.
8.) Dolph Ziggler would have been a great member of the Cobra Kai.
9.) Okay, I take it back. The biggest surprise of the night was JTG getting a televised entrance.
10.) God forbid John Cena show a little character development and cash in the briefcase like an opportunistic heel rather than the All-American, milk and cookies guy who we’ve grown to know and love despise.
I will not be reviewing next week’s episode of Raw – which I heard something about the past few months. Apparently, it is going to be kind of a bid deal. Leave me your comments or criticisms @the_ryan_brown, and thanks for reading!
