WWE continues to be somewhat of a walking contradiction.
It does some things really well and manages to miss the boat on other things often enough to keep anyone from thinking it might actually have its act totally together. This past week provided plenty of evidence to support such an opinion.
In the midst of an exceptionally strong run-up to WrestleMania XXIX, and coming off a well-received Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, WWE faced the challenge of keeping the momentum going without the availability of its champion for Monday night on Raw.
With Rock off with movie commitments, the plan was to promote the show around a Vince McMahon-Paul Heyman confrontation and a match between C.M. Punk and John Cena with Cena's title shot (secured with a Royal Rumble triumph) at WM on the line. Those two major elements of the show delivered big -time.
Three weeks removed from hip surgery blamed on Brock Lesnar's F-5, the chairman's encounter with the current mouthpiece of Lesnar and Punk was extremely well-executed. More importantly, it was the basis for what might have been the strongest and most impressive physical angle in memory when Triple H came down to save Vince from another attack by Lesnar, who had rambled down to the ring when Mr. McMahon was about to get the better of the former ECW head of creative.
When Hunter ran Lesnar head first into the ringpost, it opened a nasty gash on the former UFC heavyweight champion's bald cranium that quickly created the proverbial crimson mask absent from WWE television for quite some time. Despite the gruesome scene, the physical confrontation continued with Helmsley first driving Lesnar over the ringside barrier with a clothesline and punctuating his retribution with a vicious chairshot to the back of the burly Brock.
While the scene set the stage for the Brock-HHH II bout at WM, it is hard to figure why they gave away so much of the physical encounter on free television. Granted, it appeared Lesnar's injury was inadvertant and and not a blade job (and the blood was definitely a huge element of the dramatic effect precisely because it has been absent for so long), but it was so strong an angle that it will be tough to live up to the expectations now for the bout. Normally, there would be more teasing and less physical contact leading up to an actual match, with the payoff delivered at the ppv.
The C.M. Punk-John Cena match was simply one of the very best bouts on Raw in a long, long time. It is probably a strong match-of-the-year candidate. The back-and-forth action included tons of near falls with both guys teasing and delivering their finishers, but always managing to kick out at the last possible second.
Cena kicked out of a pile driver that was said to have Vince livid backstage because it is normally a banned move due to its legitimate injury potential. The crowd at the sold-out American Airlines arena was into it and probably exhausted by the time Cena finally pinned Punk after a sudden Attitude Adjustment.
Other matches on Raw weren't bad either. Ryback defeated Dolph Ziggler, and Randy Orton upended Antonio Cesaro. Team Hell No knocked off the Prime Time Players. Miz had the controversial Zeb Colter and protégé Jack Swagger on his Miz TV show. WWE had tried to egg conservative talk show host Glenn Beck into appearing on their programming to bring further mainstream attention to their anti-immigration angle that was to lead up to the world title match at WM between Swagger and Alberto Del Rio.
Apparently, because of the investment into that big angle, Swagger has remarkably escaped relatively unscathed thus far from his arrest last week on DUI and marijuana charges that would certainly seem to violate the wellness policy. It would seem to be the height of hypocrisy if nothing is done due to the high profile of the angle. And, it would also be another example of the company that has been doing so much right lately, getting it dead wrong on this situation.
(Shamokin's Bill Gilger "arranges" the interview each week with The Insider)