WWE No Way Out is in the books and the big news coming out of Sunday night’s PPV is that John Laurinaitis was FIRED by WWE Chairman Vince McMahon after John Cena defeated the Big Show in a Steel Cage match that had more stipulations and implications than Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed crusade legislation against sugary Coca-Cola Super Big Gulps / large fountain drinks.
The way it went down is as follows, courtesy of PK’s live Pulse Wrestling coverage of WWE No Way Out that you can check out right here:
John Cena vs. Big Show (w/ Big Johnny) – Steel Cage Match
Vince McMahon is also ringside. Show tosses Cena around a bit to start. Cena is between the cage and ropes, Show goes for the WMD, but misses and hits the cage. Cena climbs to cage, but Show pulls him down fast. Big Show dominates the match, leaving no chance for Cena to get out of the cage. Show hits a Vader Bomb elbow on Cena for 2. They both fight up a turnbuckle, and Show tosses Cena off. Show then walks the ropes, and leaps off the top rope in the middle with an elbow drop, but Cena misses. Cena starts slowly climbing the cage, but Show starts to crawl out of the door. Cena runs over to Show and starts to pull him back in. Big Johnny takes out the cage door ref Cena starts to get to the door, and Vince McMahon comes over and holds open the cage door! Big Johnny runs over and shoves Vince, who goes head first into the door, and sends the door into Cena’s face. Show lines up for the a WMD but Cena ducks and Show hits the ref. Show doesn’t miss a beat, and turns and hits another WMD to knock out Cena. Show goes for the cage door, but Brodus Clay shows up with a chair, begging Show to come out the door. Show starts to climb the cage, and Santino, A-Ry & Ryder come out to distract him, however Show knocks each one off the cage. Show starts to climb out at one of the corners, and Kofi comes out to kick him back in the ring. Cena finally gets back up, and hits the AA on Show. Cena climbs the cage, and Big Johnny is waiting on the floor, swinging his crutch around. Brodus holds Big Johnny back, and Cena is able to drop to the floor before Show can get through the door.
Winner – John Cena
Brodus lets go of Big Johnny, and Cena gets him up in the AA. Vince comes over and says ‘YOU’RE FIRED’, and Cena then AA’s him through the Spanish Announce Table.
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So, this begs the question … What now?
There are several ways WWE can go with this, but hopefully the one thing that is as iron clad as Big Show’s fake new contract is that Johnny Ace is indeed fired. No loopholes, no givebacks, just let it be and start up something fresh.
There are several players in the mix as to who can take over Johnny’s role as General Manager of Raw and SmackDown, and I hope that this job gets split back up into two separate roles.
For SmackDown, I would keep things simple and either have Teddy Long reclaim his post as the General Manager. If WWE wants a fresh face in that role, then give it to Eve and call it a day. I do want the unnecessary denigration of Teddy to stop, so maybe there can be a quick but loop-closing mention of a stipulation in Eve’s contract where she must treat Teddy fairly moving forward and that his grandkid’s college fund is untouchable.
As for Raw, KON (Martin Shaw) and I were talking about this, and we were thinking David Otunga would be a prime candidate to take over for Big Johnny. However, the only way we’re in favor of this is if the first hour of every three-hour Raw following Raw 1000 is actually a new sub-series of Raw called “Otunga’s Court”. The series would feature Otunga as judge and jury for small-claims affairs involving the WWE Universe, and if they could pony up to get the “People’s Court” theme and Doug Llewelyn as the court reporter, that would be magical:
Moving on from that piece of classic TV bliss, another strong candidate to take over Monday Night Raw would be Vickie Guerrero. This would be a perfect way to get Vickie away from Dolph Ziggler, yet still keep Vickie around as a heat magnet.
My personal favorite dark horse candidate would be to bring back General Manager William Regal. Regal has been underused on WWE TV for a very long time, and he would totally pop the crowd if he was back on Raw on a regular basis. It would also be interesting to have Regal in there to see how he would handle his former protege Daniel Bryan, and that could be a fun benefit to having him assume the role as Raw GM.
There’s also a few candidates for Raw General Manager that I hope remain far away from the role: Triple H, Vince McMahon and the Anonymous GM. Those three really wouldn’t make sense, since Hunter and Vince were “relieved of their duties” once before — and Hunter has now challenged Brock Lesnar to a match at SummerSlam — and the Anonymous GM was written off because of how horribly that whole thing dragged on.
Speaking of Lesnar, is there any chance Paul Heyman could offer a “deal with the devil” settlement to Triple H and the WWE Board of Directors on Raw tomorrow night? You know, where all legal charges are dropped if Heyman is made Raw General Manager? If Creative is looking for a blockbuster summer angle, that definitely could be it.
With all of that said, I’d love to know what YOU think. Who should take over the Raw and SmackDown GM roles, and why? Write it up and post it in the comments section below, and we’ll discuss.
That’s all from me — CB.
