Mark Out Moments - Monday Night Raw: Cena drafted twice, Orton goes to Smackdown, Mysterio and Sin Cara flip shows, and Mark Henry reunited with Michael Hayes


prowrestling.net
MEMBERSHIP INFO | LOG-IN | CONTACT US | SUBMIT NEWS | ABOUT US
Insider News • Live TV & PPV Coverage • Hitlists • Results • Blogs

HOME | WWE NEWS | TNA NEWS | MMA NEWS | ALL NEWS | TV & PPV | ARENA REPORTS | VIEWPOINTS | PRODUCT REVIEWS | AWARDS



Dot Net App
GOT AN IPHONE, IPAD, IPOD TOUCH, SAMSUNG GALAXY TAB, OR ANDROID PHONE?

THEN BE SURE TO DOWNLOAD OUR NEW FREE APP
(or SEARCH "pro wrestling" in App Store or Android Marketplace)

Dot Net Podcast
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO DOT NET FREE PODCAST IN ITUNES OR CLICK HERE FOR LISTING OF LATEST SHOWS

Gessner's Blog


Mark Out Moments - Monday Night Raw: Cena drafted twice, Orton goes to Smackdown, Mysterio and Sin Cara flip shows, and Mark Henry reunited with Michael Hayes
Apr 26, 2011 - 12:10 PM


By Mark Gessner

- It was a nice change of pace to have Raw kickoff with the Raw vs. Smackdown Battle Royal already in progress. Generally, the multi-brand battle royal is saved for the main event and the winning team is awarded multiple draft picks, so it was odd to see this open the show and only be for one pick. The only real match highlight was the exchange on the apron between Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston both escaping from elimination attempts from the other.

- The draft kicked off in shocking style, with John Cena being moved to Smackdown. Like many others, I did not buy it happening and saw him either getting redrafted or there being a trade between brands like there was with Triple H getting traded from Smackdown to Raw for Booker T and The Dudleys. I hoped that it would stick since it would create fresh matchups for Cena on Smackdown, along with giving Raw a new feel with a big question as to who would step up as the top babyface. However, there was little chance WWE or USA Network for that matter would let the face of the company not be on the company's biggest show.

- Heads up for R-Truth, it's 2011, while it is annoying as hell, the "What" chant should not phase anyone at this point. Unless you have proven to have good improvisational skills and have a funny comeback to the fans chanting it, such as Miz, Chris Jericho, and Vince McMahon have in the past, you should not be reacting to it. Or at least have something more clever than, "you're really pissing me off." With that said, if you are at a WWE event and someone next to you says "What" during a promo, you have carte blanche to punch them in the face.

- John Morrison continues to show the intensity he has lacked throughout his career. Johnny Blayze/Spade/Nitro or John Morrison up until a few months ago, he has always been someone who was able to go in the ring, but never looked like he was actually in a fight. Rather, he just looked like everything was a transition from one spot to the next. In He is now starting to display the "it" factor that is needed to propel him into the top tier and keep him their for years to come.

- While it was leaked late last week that WWE had purchased the rights to the name "Kharma" and that it would most likely be used for Awesome Kong's WWE name, the visual of "Harm" being highlighted before revealing her the "K" and the "A" before and after was a very cool effect. She can not get in the ring quick enough based on the crap we get every week with the Bella Twins, Eve boring people to sleep and Michael Cole pointing it out, and The Beautiful People 3.0 with Undertaker's wife and Layla the mush-mouth.

- Once it was revealed that Rey Mysterio was coming to Raw, you had to know it was only a matter of time before Sin Cara got drafted to Smackdown. He now can work his amazing, jaw-dropping style and have the blanket of post-production if there are any botched spots, which their are bound to be. Mysterio has been in the WWE long enough that he does not need to be on tape delay and can hit most of his spots without any need typically to edit his matches. Smart decision to keep them on separate brands to not only spread out two draws to the Hispanic demographic, but also so that Sin Cara does not out shine Rey Rey with his moves. And that is in no way a knock on Mysterio, who is older and has had what feels like 34 knee surgeries so that is to be expected. Hopefully Raw creative has more for Rey than they did a few years ago when he was drafted to Raw.

- Randy Orton going to Smackdown was all but a guarantee going into the draft. With Edge's retirement, there was a substantial gap in star power on the babyface side from Edge's level to the Kofi and Christian level of faces. Orton will fill in the void that Edge is leaving and it will be interesting to see how he does as the number one draw on the brand since he has never had that opportunity. Early in his career, he was behind Triple H during the Evolution era, which was then followed up by tailing John Cena as the second biggest name on Raw. It will be interesting to see how Michael Hayes books him compared to Brian Gewirtz, who has been booking Orton his entire career.

- Last week I joked about Dolph Ziggler returning to his Nicky of the Spirit Squad look with his haircut and dyed. This week, he was already in the ring for his match with Orton and without an entrance I immediately thought it was Evan Bourne in the ring. When I saw he wasn't wearing the long pants tights, I then thought it was Ted DiBiase. It didn't click until I saw the "DZ" a few seconds into the match on the back of his tights that it was Dolph Ziggler. Terrible decision by either Ziggler or perhaps the office forcing him to change his look and look to being as generic as possible.

- Since becoming United States Champion, Sheamus has been getting rebuilt as the dominant heel that he was early in his WWE run. While Kofi is talented and a top five-to-top three babyface on Smackdown, why is he beating Sheamus clean? Sheamus has already shown he can be a top of the card heel, so how does losing clean help get him there? Have Kofi go over a Daniel Bryan or Evan Bourne or someone who would give an entertaining three-to-four minute match and not losing any momentum in the process of being pinned clean.

- What is the purpose of Big Show getting drafted to Raw when he just became a WWE Tag Team Champion and can be on either brand? Oh yeah, I forgot that tag teams are on after thought in WWE and that probably didn't cross anyone's mind. How many times has Big Show been drafted by the way? It seems like every year he has switched brands.

- When Alberto Del Rio was drafted to Raw, one of two scenarios crossed my mind as to how Extreme Rules' Championship matches would play out. Either: a) John Cena becomes the WWE Champion and takes the title to Smackdown or b) Christian becomes the World Heavyweight Champion to keep the title on Smackdown. I posed the question on twitter as which was a more likely scenario based on WWE's history and the responses I got were primarily, "I hope B but probably A." However, that changed in the closing few minutes of Raw.

- Michael Cole calling the main event with gauze in his mouth from Jim Ross busting open his mouth made me laugh. As J.R. has pointed out time and time again on his blogs and tweets, he is not a wrestler and him in the ring will be "bowling shoe ugly." So J.R. busting open Cole hard-way and hurting his hand in the process wasn't all that shocking. Here's to hoping that after Sunday night, the best announcer in wrestling history can go back to doing what he does best, calling wrestling, oops, sports entertainment matches.

- Did anyone other than Mark Henry's relatives really care about him turning heel in the main event? Maybe he was displaying his frustration over having to work with Michael Hayes? Everyone has wrestlers they cannot stand, and Mark Henry is one of mine. He's slow, plodding, and boring in the ring. He is not very good on the mic. Yet he continues to get put over whether it's pinning Sheamus clean, taking out Tyson Kidd's new bodyguard Jackson Andrews on his second week being on TV, or even tonight eliminating Ezekiel Jackson from the battle royal. When Tony Atlas has to be added as your manager on WW-ECW because you aren't over as a champion, that should be the death nell in your career's coffin.

- John Cena was a member of Smackdown for approximately one hour and forty-five minutes. While you got the initial shock of him being the first pick, once logic set in about five seconds later that it wasn't going to stick, it was a show-long distraction wondering how Cena would get back on the Raw roster. I don't think we've ever had someone drafted twice on the same night, so points for creativity, but does that not set a dangerous precedent for future drafts? If Cena got drafted to Smackdown and then back to Raw on the same night, what's to keep people from thinking that if say the Undertaker was drafted to Raw next year. I thought the change of scenery, opponents, and even writers for Cena could have been interesting to see even for a few months, but that is no longer a possibility.

Thank you all very much for checking out the latest "Mark Out Moments" for Raw. If you have any thoughts, questions, comments, or critiques, feel free to email me at kliq4life28@gmail.com or tweet me at Twitter.com/MarkGessner. I'll be back later this week with my coverage of The Ultimate Fighter.

RECOMMEND THIS ARTICLE:


READ OUR INSIDER NEWS BEFORE ANYONE ELSE! BECOME A MEMBER FOR JUST $7.50 A MONTH (or less with a year-long sub) - GET THE FIRST LOOK AT EXCLUSIVE INSIDER DOT NET NEWS, TONS OF EXCLUSIVE AUDIO CONTENT, MEMBER MESSAGE BOARD ACCESS, START YOUR OWN BLOG, AND VIEW THE SITE WITHOUT ANY ADVERTISING: SIGN ME UP (or MORE INFO)



RELATED ARTICLES FROM MGID AFFILIATE SITES...



MEMBERSHIP INFO
Become a Dot Net Member right now for $7.50 a month or $66 a year ($5.50 a month avg.). Get exclusive audio, first-look insider news, Forum access, member blogs, more...

CLICK FOR SIGN-UP INFO


The Current Must-Read List
ACCESS PREVIOUS MUST-READ ARTICLES

Vote In Our Latest Poll


Dot Net Free Podcasts
CLICK FOR FULL LISTING OF ALL PODCASTS

Latest from Our Affiliate Site

_pwtorch.com_
CLICK HERE FOR MORE PWTORCH HEADLINES

© 2008-2012 LAST ROW MEDIA LLC • ALL RIGHTS RESERVED -- PRIVACY POLICY