The WWE RAW Report: John Cena, Nexus, and Vince McMahon’s beating Revisited
By Jesse Castleman
(Managing Editor’s Note: Jesse Castleman is our newest Feature Writer here at RSR and will be covering the world of professional wrestling. I, along with the rest of the team welcome him aboard.)
Welcome to RSR’s first weekly Raw Report. I’m Jesse Castleman, and I’ll be providing you an in-depth rundown of World Wrestling Entertainment’s flagship television show each week. Let’s begin. The show opens with the Nexus 7 stable members standing in a line inside the ring. Wade Barrett steps forward with a microphone and explains that the anonymous, mystery general manager ordered Nexus to assemble to face their consequences. Barrett explained that attacking Vince McMahon is just part of a bigger plan, whose details he cannot yet reveal. Next, Skip Sheffield took the mic and commented on the Ricky Steamboat attack from last week was simply for fun, as Nexus found a loophole in the GM’s rules.
Blinks: Announcer Michael Cole steps up to his email podium. He explains that he has received an email from the Raw GM stating that none of the Nexus can compete for a WWE title until further notice as their punishment. In addition, the GM’s previous rules that outlaw any attacks on WWE wrestlers have been lifted.
John Cena’s music hits to a big pop from the crowd. Cena has a mic, and points out that Nexus hasn’t gotten their selves into a fair fight yet. To this, the Heart Dynasty, Evan Bourne, Rand Orton, and R-Truth walk out on the ramp and join Cena in running to the ring. The rest of locker room empties out from backstage, but attack the seven faces from behind. The attackers, who consist of WWE Champion Sheamus, The Miz, Chris Jericho, The Uso Brothers, Ted Dibiase, and Edge, are thrown out of the ring in their efforts however, but the distraction lasted long enough for Nexus to flee the ring.
Sheamus gets on the mic and explains that his group of seven refuses to assist Cena or his friends in their effort to fight Nexus. Orton rebuttals that he is not, in fact, friends with Cena, and will only fight on his side if he necessarily has to.
Blinks again, and Cole reads another email, in which the GM cautions the wrestlers not to fight right now, and announces that Cena and Barrett will meet in the ring tonight. Cena will not be wrestling Barrett; however, the GM wants Cena to shake hands with Wade Barrett and call a truce, to which Cena responds that he would rather take his hand and knock Barrett’s teeth out.
After this, another GM email is sent, saying that Cena needs to be the bigger man here, or bigger consequences will be faced. Cole pauses and squints at the monitor and continues, “and that’s the bottom line, ‘cause the GM says so!” Cena steps out of the ring, looking confused. It sounds like Stone Cold Steve Austin is the GM!
After a commercial break, John Morrison enters the ring. Cole reveals that another GM email was sent, and in it the GM details that every member of the upcoming Money in the Bank match will face off against one another tonight! The first match is Morrison vs. Ted Dibiase. Dibiase enters with the stunning Maryse by his side. I need to point out that I love the direction that these two are being given as far as Maryse being Dibiase’s manager. Maryse joins King and Cole on commentary and talks about not being a gold digger. Okay whatever, Maryse.
Dibiase begins the match with the upper hand. Good heel work done here by Dibiase: kicking Morrison in the face while he’s down and taunting the crowd. Morrison fights back and looks to be in control of the match. Maryse receives a cell phone call, which she answers completely in French. When asked by Cole and King who called, Maryse blurts that it’s none of their business and walks away from the announce table. There’s something about her that can’t be trusted. Maryse puts on Morrison’s jacket and walks on to the ring apron in an effort to distract him and the referee. Dibiase takes advantage and pokes Morrison in the eye behind the ref’s back. With Morrison in a fog, Dibiase hits the Dreamstreet, and this one is over.
Maryse and Dibiase celebrate in the ring after the match, and Maryse tosses Morrison’s jacket onto the fallen Morrison. This was a simple match, on the purpose of characterizing Dibiase and Maryse’s relationship while putting Dibiase over. Overall the match was at least entertaining, with a good distraction for the finish. There was some good heel work by Maryse and Dibiase as well. Maybe we’ll be seeing a feud between these two in the future, which should be entertaining with the in-ring work and Maryse’s involvement.
Cut to Santino Marella and Vladmir Kozlov walking backstage. Kozlov looks pissed off about something, but Santino is chirping away about how Italy and Russia are combining forces again to be a tag team, and that they will be even greater than in WWII, and only this time they are not Nazis!… Santino goes for the high-five, to which Kozlov replies that he will punch Santino in the face if they lose their tag team match tonight. Nice, little build-up here for their match.
Following a commercial break, the WWE Slam of the Night highlights Kozlov defeating Marella last week to his mentor, William Regal’s delight. When Regal attacks Marella after the match, however, Kozlov decides to save Marella from Regal, tossing his now former mentor out of the ring. This was another promotion the upcoming tag match, which better be good with all of this build-up.
The odd couple of Morella and Kozlov make their entrance. Regal enters and announces he’s recruited a monster for his partner: the Great Khali’s music hits. Out comes the 7-footer with his manager, and the three hit the ring.
Regal faces Kozlov to start. Kozlov overpowers Regal, and Marella begs for a tag, screaming, “pick me, pick me!” This guy needs a reality show or something. Back to the action- Marella takes a while to enter and hit Regal, who was being held by Kozlov. Marella taunts Regal as he is down, much to the crowd’s delight.
Ridiculousness, however, led to a surprise attack from Regal, yet Marella manages to tag Kozlov back in. Kozlov slams Regal down with something mighty (it must have been his finishing move) and pins him for the victory. Khali didn’t even get into the match. While Regal is down, Khali steps in and asks his opponents to lift Regal up. They do so reluctantly, and Khali strikes Regal in the face with his big mitt. Khali’s music hits and the Punjabi Playboy proceeds to just smile and dance away. Santino hilariously joins in and attempts to get the reluctant Kozlov to join in on the celebration. Kozlov shakes his head and exits the ring. Another quick match to perhaps signify the beginning of a stable between these three in their hatred toward Regal.
We’re live from Nashville, Tennessee by the way. Time for a Ricky Steamboat and legends update, as the old-timer, and victim of Nexus’ attack, Arn Anderson is interviewed backstage by Josh Matthews. Anderson says that Steamboat’s back is injured before being interrupted by Shamus. The WWE champ insults Anderson, after which Anderson pleads Shamus to put his ego aside in order to preserve the WWE. Sheamus doesn’t seem to get the message, so Anderson angrily struts away.
Back from a commercial break, R-Truth has entered, asking Nashville, “What’s up?” R-Truth’s music hits again, and he looks confused. Out comes the Miz! The Miz! Who parodies the R-Truth’s entrance by rapping. In the middle of his parody, Miz sneak attacks R-Truth. The fight goes outside the ring real quickly, where the Miz shoves R-Truth’s shoulder-first into a ring post. Miz continues to brutally assault the targeted left arm, and R-Truth looks injured. The match never quite gets underway. The Miz sits on the ring watching R-Truth being taken off and taunts, “the truth hurts… and that’s the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, because I am The Miz, and I am awesome!”
Back from another commercial break, Edge’s music hits and he enters for another segment of his interview show, the Cutting Edge. First, Edge requests moment of silence for R-Truth in honor of his injury. Edge asks why he should make seven enemies, referring to the Nexus 7, while he can make seven allies, capable of savage brutality. I guess he has a point. Edge points out that he has won the Money in the Bank match twice already, and introduces his first guest: Evan Bourne! Chris Jericho comes out though, and says that he doesn’t take a back seat to Evan Bourne, or to Edge, or to anyone else. He was Barrett’s mentor on NXT. He exclaims that Edge is trying to be Chris Jericho, but that he cannot be replaced, and that he will make sure Edge never wins the WWE title again. The two engage in a scuffle, with Edge ultimately finding himself locked into the Walls of Jericho, but out comes Evan Bourne to attack Chris Jericho. Jericho and Edge chase Bourne out of the ring.
Blinks: another GM email: the crowd is asked to give a hell yeah if they want to see some action. Now, if this isn’t obvious as to Steve Austin being the GM, then I really hope that the WWE creative team has a swerve up their sleeve. Edge and Jericho vs. Evan Bourne and Randy Orton is up next, and out comes Orton. Bourne opens against Jericho. Jumping around and takes down Jericho. Tag to Orton, who continues the assault on Jericho, who tags in Edge. Orton and Jericho face off, with Orton getting the upper hand. After stomping Edge for a bit, Orton tags Bourne back in. Bourne hits a series of kicks to Edge’s legs. Tag to Jericho, who is kicked at by Bourne some more. Bourne Irish whips Jericho into the ropes, but Jericho hangs on as Bourne misses on a kick, and Jericho finally knocks Bourne down to take control of the match.
Edge is in after the return from the commercial break, holding Bourne down in a rear body lock submission hold. Bourne breaks out, but Edge hits an Edgecution on Bourne and tags Jericho back in. Jericho drops Bourne into a backbreaker/chin lock submission hold combo, taunting Bourne to give up. Bourne breaks the hold, and the two crawl towards their corner for a tag. Jericho manages to tag Edge in, who catches Bourne and puts him into a stall-suplex.
Bourne counters out of it though and nails a spinning heel kick to Edge’s face. Orton gets the hot tag and runs train on Jericho with a few clotheslines. Faceplant DDT to Jericho from the second rope. Orton goes down for his viper taunt, but gets distracted b Edge long enough for Jericho to get up and knock Orton down. Tag to Edge, who beats down on Orton in their corner.
Jericho tags back in and continues the assault. Orton fights back, but Jericho hits a devastating dropkick to Orton’s jaw/temple. Jericho flexes as a taunt to Bourne and puts Orton in a sleeper hold. Orton again fights back, but then a bulldog by Jericho, to which Orton rolls out of the way of Jericho’s lionsault. Both tag out, with Edge seeming reluctant, and Bourne starts taking it to Edge with couple of flashy highflying moves. Both Bourne and Edge are down, and when Edge crawls towards his corner for a tag Jericho begins to berate Edge for his reluctance to enter the match a minute earlier. Jericho tags himself in, however, and Bourne hits a spinning heel kick on Jericho’s face. Edge spears Jericho and leaves the ring for backstage. Bourne seizes the opportunity to hit his Shooting Star Press on the fallen Jericho. 1-2-3. As Bourne celebrates, Orton stalks him and surprises him with an RKO. Orton stands over Bourne as his music plays, signifying the theme of having no friends for the upcoming Money in the Bank match. Easily the best match of the night because it was actually given some time for the performers to work.
After the latest commercial break, Orton walks into Nexus backstage. David Otunga says their attacks have nothing to do with Orton. Interrupting the fatal 4way match that cost Orton his title opportunity was Nexus just sending their message to WWE. Heath Slater offers Nexus’ apologies to Orton, and Michael Tarver reasons that Orton should think about cashing in the briefcase, if he wins, to attack Cena after his steel-cage match with Sheamus at the Pay-Per-View. After hearing what they had to say, Orton tells each of them to get out of his face.
Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler announce that R-Truth is out of the MIB Ladder match because of his shoulder injury. Next, there is a Raw GM email update from Josh Matthews backstage: the GM says that the Hart Dynasty will defend their tag titles against the Uso Brothers at the Money in the Bank PPV. The Usos then stroll up with Tamina, and Jimmy says they have been waiting for this opportunity. Jay says that in a few weeks Josh will know what the Usos are all about. Alicia Fox taps Josh, and proceeds to complain that she hasn’t been interviewed since she won the Divas title two weeks ago, defending that her win was not a fluke.
A video clip shows Alicia’s controversial title victory at Fatal 4 way, in which Alicia threw Eve out of the ring after she hit a moonsault on Maryse, and covered Maryse for the victory. Back to Raw, Eve Torres enters the ring to a waiting Alicia, who begins the match by hitting a few dropkicks and a clothesline on Alicia for a near fall. Eve is assaulting Alicia, who appears to have injured her left leg. Alicia requests a minute to recover. After the ref holds Eve back, Alicia walks out from the corner and drops a bomb on Eve. Apparently her knee was not injured after all. Alicia picks up the victory, and plays with the crowd a bit after the short match by walking up the ramp with a fake limp. This match was short and sweet, and got the point across.
Another email from the GM says that Randy Orton will face Edge next week on Raw. Out comes Wade Barrett, Nexus spokesperson, to the ring for the demanded truce with Cena. He grabs a mic and explains that everything that Nexus has done to Cena has had a purpose. He asks Cena to come out so they can shake hands like men, and out Cena comes. Barrett says that they’ve caused him a lot of harm, and even cost him his championship, but that Cena is not involved in Nexus’ future plans. Barrett says that he wants to shake hands because he wants to look to the future. Cena contemplates and offers his hand, but slips it away when Barrett offers back. Cena asks why they should stop when they’re having so much fun, and tells Wade to take his plans, crumple them up, and stick them up his nexus (Raw is PG nowadays, remember). Cena declares that he looks forward to the future so that he can take each member of the Nexus down. Barrett explains that what Nexus has done so far is nothing compared to what they are capable of doing in the future, and asks Cena again to shake his hand, for his own good. This time, Cena intensely grabs Barrett’s hand, but instead of shaking it, tosses him up for an Attitude Adjustment. All hell breaks loose as Nexus runs down the ramp to save Barrett. The rest of the allied Raw locker room runs out to save Cena and clean house on Nexus.
Blinks! Another email from the GM: Cole announces that the GM wanted peace, so if things don’t stop now then there will be consequences. So of course Cena locks the STF on Darren Young.
Another GM email: because of Cena’s actions, Cena will face all seven members of Nexus next week in a 7-on-1 handicap match. Cena takes this in as Young attempts to crawl out of the ring. Not so fast, Darren. Cena grabs Young and roughs him up a bit to the fans’ delight. He stalks Young in the ring as the crowd chants his name. Then, Cena lifts Young up and tosses him shoulder-first into the turnbuckle, sending him outside of the ring and perhaps injuring Young’s shoulder on the post. Cena looks possessed, and he’s not done yet. Cena grabs the steel steps and tosses them at Young outside of the ring. A fit of rage takes of Cena as grabs Young again and tosses him over the announce table. Cena flips the table over Young and hops back into the ring, pumping up the fans. Raw ends with Cena celebrating in the ring.
A solid effort of a show. I’m glad to see the WWE moving in a new direction with this whole Nexus storyline. It’s exciting to see some new faces and feuds in the business. I’m thinking that a new perspective within the creative team has finally sensed that a new order was, well, in order.
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