I am very sad. The new Stooges are going to be guest starring. I am cheered up when Laurinitis comes up, now with his own theme. It's very appropriate. He's out to introduce Brock Lesnar, saying he is the new face of the WWE and will bring legitimacy back to the business. Lesnar gets a lot of heat immediately by thanking Laurinitis for bringing him back, leading to Cena (mostly) getting cheered when he comes out. Cena simply slaps Lesnar, leading to a tackle and a brawl. Everyone comes out to try to stop it, though it doesn't work well. Cena starts bleeding from the mouth, and I'm enjoying this a surprising amount. They have to drag Lesnar out of the ring. This is how you start a feud!
Laurinitis is blaming Teddy Long for not keeping Cena in control, and then Eve comes in to try and talk to him. Up next is Santino and Brodus Clay vs. American Perfection. Santino and Brodus make a fantastic team. Santino and Ziggler start out the match, though they tag out fairly early. Swagger and Santino are in the ring, with Swagger in solid control when he tags in Ziggler. Santino gets the tag, and Brodus crushes Ziggler for the win. After the match we go backstage to Miz trying to talk to Laurinitis, who blows him off. Teddy then brings Cena in, who has a nice brief promo, then insists that he gets put in a match. Laurinitis obliges, putting hi in a match with... Otunga. Yeah, cause he's a threat... Then there's a brief segment of Santino looking for the Stooges.
After the break, he finds Kane. Kane simply stares him down until he retreats. The next match is R-Truth vs. Cody Rhodes. Two great wrestlers, but I'm really hoping that Big Show comes out to taunt Rhodes again. Rhodes hits Truth with an Alabama Slam, and out comes Big Show! He shows him a video of him showing the Wrestlemania clip from last week. Truth hits the Little Jimmy for the win. I'm really enjoying this feud. I hope they do this one more time – recursive embarrassment! A video of him showing a video of him showing a clip! Sadly, next is Santino finding the “Stooges.” It's pretty much as awful as I imagined it would be. The only one who does a decent impression is Curly.
The next match is Lord Tensai facing Yoshi Tatsu. Or, rather, Lord Tensai crushing Yoshi Tatsu. As expected, Tensai takes control immediately. The crowd chants Albert at him, which I find pretty amusing. The ref stops the match, and Tensbert hits Tatsu with the claw. I think that the Tensai gimmick has potential, but there are too many monster heels already. And his gimmick is essentially the Mighty Whitey. It could have led to a fun feud with Yoshi Tatsu, but they'd have to build up Tatsu first, which they clearly aren't willing to do.
After we return there's a recap of the events between Punk and Jericho last week. It's amazing how quickly everyone came out to the ring for Cena and Lesnar, but nobody came out for Jericho and Punk or Tensbert and Tatsu. Punk comes out for his match, but first he comes to the center of the ring and talks about what happened last week. He talks about how proud he is of being straight edge, and how he never wanted anyone to feel sorry for him. I'm glad that they're bringing up the fact that he's straight edge as a positive – he's a better role model than Steve Austin ever was. He brings up the fact that Jericho tapped out at Wrestlemania, which is great. There need to be more submissions in the WWE, which is why I'm a Daniel Bryan fan.
Jericho interrupts him, claiming that Punk is hungover or drunk. He finally calls Punk “CM Drunk” which I've been waiting for. Punk says it's no longer about being the best in the world, and is now about kicking Jericho's ass. Then out comes Mark Henry to face Punk for the title. The match is over moments after the break ends, when Punk hits Henry with one of the monitors on the announce table. Punk goes to hit Henry with it again, but is distracted by Jericho long enough for Henry to regain control and hit two World Strongest Slams. Jericho has two 24 packs of generic looking beer. He pulls out one and opens it, but Punk gets up and tackles Jericho. Jericho hits Punk with a Codebreaker, then starts dumping cans on Punk in the center of the ring. Refs only come out to stop him after he's already dumped six or seven cans on him. Jericho then takes the opportunity to hit Punk with another Codebreaker, knocking Punk out.
Next is Zack Ryder vs. Alberto Del Rio. Del Rio is in control for the early part of the match, until Ryder gets a nice counter in the corner leading to a Broski Boot. Del Rio counters the Rough Ryder and hits the Cross Arm Breaker for the win.
The Stooges come out to a pretty terrible reception. Nobody is happy, and it only gets worse when “Curly” comes out dressed as Hulk Hogan. While he does a surprisingly good impression, the crowd is having none of it. Everyone's happy when Kane comes out. It's pretty good when Kane chokeslams “Curly,” but this segment was a waste of everyone's time.
Lesnar gets a good promo, though his voice still sounds weird coming out of him. It's weirdly high and nasal. It's followed by a fantastic video of HHH vs. Undertaker at Wrestlemania. That is the match that I'm sad I didn't see.
The Cena/Otunga match is accompanied by the deafening duelling Cena chants. Otunga puts up a good fight – I particularly like his elbows off the center of the ropes. Otunga has really improved over the past year. I can almost believe that Otunga could win briefly. However, Cena turns it around to hit the AA and STF. Lesnar then sneaks in and hits a low blow on Cena, followed by an F5.
Overall this was a good episode. The Stooge segments were about the same quality as the Divas match it replaced.
No comments:
Post a Comment