RAW Deal: Hyping the Lesnar-Cena rematch without Lesnar

How do you book a long-running weekly episodic pro wrestling—sorry, sports entertainment—show without your champion around?

This is the dilemma to which the WWE has been looking for creative solutions ever since they put their most prestigious title on part-timer Brock Lesnar two weeks ago at the SummerSlam PPV, and this Monday’s RAW was a continuation of their little creative exercise. So far, Lesnar has shown up the night after the PPV, and they’ve given us a well-executed video promo in response to Cena invoking his rematch clause. That’s about it so far.

Before anything, though, I’d like to make it clear that Lesnar being the WWE World Heavyweight Champion is a good thing. It’s best for business, and that’s the part the WWE got right. What they didn’t seem to fully flesh out, however, was exactly how they were gonna make it through in the empty weeks leading up to his next appearance. (Lesnar only works limited WWE dates as a result of the deal that brought him back to the company in 2012.)

So here we are, all of us witnesses to Vince McMahon’s attempts to tide everyone over.

This week, Triple H opens the show on Chris Jericho’s Highlight Reel with an interesting proposal: fearing for John Cena’s wellbeing after the straight-up beatdown he took from Lesnar at SummerSlam, he wishes to cancel the title rematch at Night of Champions, the next PPV event on September 21.

In light of this, everyone states their case for a title shot—Randy Orton, Kane, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, and Chris Jericho as well. Cena naturally does not take this well, protesting the entire idea of throwing away his shot. He even goes so far to sue (!) Triple H if he takes away the rematch.

That was the cue for tonight’s big main event storyline: a six-man tag team match between the babyfaces and the heels (plus Kane, who’s there to round out Team Authority). Tonight, without the presence of Brock Lesnar (and with just a little Paul Heyman to remind fans that the champ is still here… somewhere), we press on with the company’s biggest players in the highest spot on the card.

Here’s the bottom line: that six-man main event was the wrong thing to do in a time like this. RAW has become boring lately—Lesnar is gone, Dean Ambrose is also away, having taken some time off to shoot a movie. The WWE needs its biggest and best wrestlers to stock all hours of the card, and it wrongly put them all together at the very end. The second unit was also put to terrible or unmemorable use. By the time the main event rolled around, everyone watching was exhausted from all the shenanigans.

Would this be a show to recommend to people who are not (or no longer) diehard WWE fans? My gut feeling says no; while it was an episode that didn’t offend me, it was also an episode I was slightly ashamed of (mostly because of all the Bella Twins segments). It wasn’t particularly bad at all. It’s possible to derive some fun out of it, and not only if you’re the kind of person who likes to see the good in things. There were some bright spots, but they were few and far between.

And that’s not good for a show that’s missing its biggest bright spot. We can all do better.

High spots:

• The Miz’s current prissy Hollywood character is absolute money (pun intended). He seems to be the few people on the WWE roster who truly understands his character and knows how to execute it perfectly, and if all of the little ornaments (covering his face, the make-up artist at ringside, Damien Mizdow) are his idea, then he’s a genius.
• Speaking of Damien Mizdow, being Miz’s stunt double is a great character for him. It finally gives his chameleon character some actual direction, something he really needs right now. The finish of the tag team match with the Miz, Cesaro, Dolph Ziggler, and Sheamus was booking brilliance.
• Layla is one of the company’s underrated Divas, and she might be back to her LayCool form after getting injured and regressing. This might be an unpopular opinion, but the current Divas division is more stacked than fans (and even the WWE, it seems) realize.
• Paul Heyman is still one of the bright spots of every show. (However, he couldn’t really save this one.)
• There’s a chance that Stardust might turn out to be a psychotic, Joker-like villain that would counteract Goldust’s normalcy and humanity.
• The Bellas in the Divas title picture is a lot better than leaving them to have a match on their own, and the WWE seems to have realized this.
• John Cena is also one of the best (and underrated, from all the hate he gets) in-ring storytellers around. Watch his face when Roman Reigns manages to get to their corner for a hot tag… but tags in Chris Jericho. (That might explain the botch with the sign at the end, though.)

Low blows:

• The Total Divas are not anything to write home about in the ring. Thankfully, their match was kept short, with the right ladies winning.
• The Bella vs. Bella storyline would be very compelling… if the Bellas were great actresses. The “Growing Up Bella” vignettes just ended up being unintentionally hilarious.
• They’re being ambitious giving Mark Henry two storylines to juggle, but it still comes off a little clunky. Hopefully Creative manages to streamline the overall arc in the next few episodes.
• Bo Dallas’s vox pop segment was just laughable, and not at all believable. (Although that might be the entire point.)
• I need to take out a second item just to tell you how terrible the Bellas’ acting is. It’s just so bad that I want them both to quit if they can’t just shut up and wrestle!
• Should I still mention Cena’s sign botch?

Next week: Brie Bella faces off against the Divas Champion Paige, and Chris Jericho gets a SummerSlam rematch against Bray Wyatt—in a steel cage! That should be more exciting than their actual PPV match! – Rappler.com

Joe “The gRappler” Marsalis is a huge wrestling fan and aspiring local wrestler. He’s been backyard wrestling (at his own risk) ever since he found out he could do simple wrestling moves. He does understand that it’s basically hurting himself for barely a living.