Below are WWE Monday Night Raw Spoilers for tonight’s show (4/16/12) airing at 9:00 pm ET in the U.S., a few hours after being taped in London, UK. The big advertised match for the show was CM Punk defending his WWE Championship against Mark Henry in a No Disqualification, No Countout match, and there is also bound to be more build for the huge John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar match taking place at Extreme Rules on Sunday April 29th.
Raw Open: In a nice change of pace, Mark Henry is in the ring, CM Punk’s music hits, and we get the WWE Championship match to start the show.
Match 1. CM Punk def. Mark Henry to retain the WWE Championship (No DQ, No Countout): Huge pop for Punk. Punk won with a top rope Macho Man-style elbow drop while holding a chair. It was Van Terminator-esque.
After the match, Chris Jericho interrupted to announce that his Extreme Rules match with Punk will be a Street Fight. Jericho also showed “controversial” footage of Punk walking out of a pub to play up the recent storyline of Punk falling off the wagon to be like his alcoholic father.
Match 2. Santino Marella def. David Otunga to retain the U.S. Title: Quick match.
Lord Tensai was shown backstage, didn’t talk and the crowd booed.
Brock Lesnar sound clips aired throughout the show.
Match 3. Kane and Zack Ryder fight to an Unofficial No Contest: Kane hit a huge Choke Slam on Ryder but never bothered to pin him. Instead, he cut a promo about beating up Bob Orton Jr. on Smackdown. No official result was announced.
Backstage, Kofi Kingston was chatting with AJ when Daniel Bryan saw them and got jealous. Bryan officially changed the name of his finisher to the “YES! Lock” and the “YES! YES! YES!” chants were deafening showing how over Bryan is in the UK.
John Cena came out for a promo. Strong heel reaction to Cena with some face pop that was overpowered. Cena acknowledged the “YES!” chants again and joined in. However, Cena then cut a very intense, serious promo with no smiling or jokes. John Laurianitis interrupted and announced the Cena and Brock contract signing for next week. By the end of the segment, the crowd was pro-Cena or at least somewhat turned in his favor. Also, Johnny Ace stumbled over his words but apparently Cena was booked in an Extreme Rules match against a mystery opponent later in the show.
Hornswoggle and R-Truth do something irrelevant and pointless backstage.
Match 4. Daniel Bryan def. Kofi Kingston: Bryan won with the newly names YES! Lock. Bryan wouldn’t release the hold after Kofi tapped, prompting Sheamus to come out for the save. Sheamus went for the Brogue Kick but Bryan dodged it and rolled out of the ring.
Match 5. Brodus Clay def. Dolph Ziggler (w/Vickie Guerrero): It appeared that Dolph Ziggler was actually DQ’d due to Vickie’s interference, so at least he wasn’t squashed. Brodus danced afterwards.
Backstage, Eve spoke with Johnny Ace.
Match 6. Big Show and The Great Khali def. Tag Team Champions Primo and Epico in a non-title match: Khali looked awful and nearly fell over after delivering the big boot. An essential squash to further devalue the tag team champions, the tag titles, and tag team wrestling in general.
John Cena’s mystery opponent for the main event is Lord Tensai. Yup, that’s happening next.
Match 7. Lord Tensai def. John Cena – Extreme Rules Match: Dueling “Albert” and “Cena” chants, proving that the Lord Tensai character just isn’t working yet in WWE no matter how big Albert was in Japan as Giant Bernard. Otunga interfered, Ace was also at ringside, and Lord Tensai scored the pin-fall victory over Cena after spitting green mist into Cena’s eyes and landing the Baldo Bomb finisher.
The crowd seemed stunned by the outcome of the match and it looks like the TV show will end with Cena getting medical attention and being carried to the back.
Dark Match Main Event: CM Punk def. Chris Jericho by DQ – WWE Championship Match: Punk won by DQ when Daniel Bryan interfered. Sheamus, Cody Rhodes, Big Show, Alberto Del Rio, and Randy Orton all did run-ins to close the night for the live crowd.
CB’s Slant: On one hand, Lord Tensai getting any kind of victory over John Cena is a huge deal for the Tensai character possibly shaking off the “Albert” history and being established as a credible new force in WWE.
On the other hand, John Cena losing to The Rock at WrestleMania, getting bloodied by Brock Lesnar last week, and losing to Tensai this week (albeit via shenanigans) really lessens the impact of a Brock Lesnar win if Lesnar does prevail at Extreme Rules.
With that said, I personally LOVE that John Cena is now vulnerable and even beatable at the moment, because honestly the whole Super Cena thing just couldn’t go on forever. It looks like we really are in a new era for John Cena, where he is being recast as a sympathetic underdog who actually does feel the pain of defeat. I am all for this because WWE was desperate to make Cena’s persona less stale and more well-rounded, and surprising losses like this one help achieve this goal.
Or, I am merely overanalyzing this whole thing, and next week Cena will win a 20 on 1 handicap match, or, you know, make others look bad in a pull-apart brawl, or something.