Pruett's Pause: WWE No Way Out - Big Johnny is fired, C.M. Punk and Sheamus both retain their World Championships, nothing of consequence happened on a thoroughly skippable show

By Will Pruett

- I realized on the YouTube pre-show just how obnoxious Matt Striker can be. He can't let silence persist on commentary and he has to constantly make points that don't matter. He is smart and can bring a nice historical perspective, but he just doesn't have the dynamics of actually announcing down.

- Brodus Clay and David Otunga did not have a good match at all. Between Otunga having weak offense overall and Clay lacking gifts in selling, this match was doomed from the start.

- John Cena's promo was a decent hard sell on the pre-show for the actual show. This is the first of these pre-shows that seemed especially geared towards convincing people that they must see the show that follows.

- I know that many fans probably groaned when Sheamus vs. Dolph Ziggler was announced as the opening match. I didn't mind it too much, although I would love to see the World Heavyweight Championship match in the main event slot at some point.

- Ziggler and Sheamus' shout out to the Daniel Bryan and Sheamus WrestleMania match was fun. I enjoyed the quick awareness from Ziggler and Sheamus' attempt to capitalize.

- There were a few too many awkward spots between Sheamus and Ziggler in their match. It was still great, but it had a few moments that kept it from being all that it was intended to be.

- The New Jersey crowd was very into cheering for Dolph Ziggler. It was refreshing to see, but also a little scary. We know that WWE isn't going to reverse direction on Sheamus, so I also hope they don't on Ziggler.

- No one sells the Brogue Kick like Dolph Ziggler.

- I wanted to see Ziggler walk away with the World Championship. WWE needs to heat up their product and at this moment, they have nothing but babyface wrestlers as champions. The babyface chasing the heel is always a great story and this show was the time to start that story.

- In an odd way, John Laurinaitis' suit was the best suit we have ever seen him wear. Am I alone in enjoying the look of it?

- You'd think that with all the abuse he takes, Josh Matthews would quit. It worked for Coach and Todd Grisham.

- The tuxedo match was simply embarrassing. I'm all about entertainment and wrestling mixed together, but this wasn't really funny, nor was it fun to watch.

- A.J.'s segments with each of the men in the three way match were really entertaining. Crazy A.J. is the best character in WWE right now.

- A.J. reminds me of Taylor Townsend from the final two seasons of "The O.C." She is crazy, but we can't help but love her craziness.

- What has Cody Rhodes been doing lately to garner heat? I don't feel like he has been super-heelish since the end of his feud with Big Show. Rhodes' character has evolved quite a bit from his "Dashing" days, but there is still something missing.

- Christian and Rhodes had a fun little match, but it didn't feel like anything was happening. They wrestled well, but we haven't had enough time to get involved in the rivalry. I'm happy that they are using this to explain Christian's turn, but I wish this feud between two people that could be in World Championship contention meant more.

- Someday I'm going to encourage my children to try wrestling at home, simply to get back at WWE for making me watch those warnings on pay-per-view and at the beginning of every DVD they release.

- I can't be the only person that was surprised when WWE said they have four tag teams outside of the champions, right?

- There was pretty much no heat for the four-way tag match, but there was some consistent action. Some of it was a little more contrived than I tend to appreciate, but the action was fun.

- The swerve at the end of the tag match, with A.W. turning on his team and becoming the manger of the Prime Time Players was pretty fun. I only wish this push was coming to a better team, like Reks and Hawkins, instead of O'Neal and Young.

- On the us side, Titus O'Neal is no longer barking like a seal.

- Won't it be crazy if we actually see a tag team feud that isn't about the tag team titles?

- Triple H sounded like he had smoked about three packs of cigarettes directly prior to his promo.

- As someone that plans to attend SummerSlam in August, I'm pretty excited about seeing Brock Lesnar live in the ring during one of his rare matches in this run.

- Triple H's promo was decent, but unspectacular. I enjoy the approach of giving pay-per-view watchers the chance to see something develop into a match, instead of just the match itself. I tend to think that Triple H sold SummerSlam to some viewers with that segment.

- Triple H will probably go over Brock Lesnar. I've accepted that and I still plan to enjoy the match.

- Just because I can't help myself: Bork Laser!

- The headband-oriented playtime with Layla and Beth Phoenix was almost as embarrassing as the Tuxedo Match.

- Does Kane have it stated in his technical rider that his dressing area must be outfitted with special red lighting? Are those lights brought on the road in their own special case marked "Kane's Mood Lighting?"

- Sin Cara and Hunico didn't have as good of a match as they did on Raw a couple of weeks back. I usually enjoy them in the ring, but this didn't quite click. The reintroduction of Sin Cara should be considered complete now. Let's get him in a feud.

- C.M. Punk received a major superstar pop when his music hit. If there is any doubt that he is number two to only John Cena, this confirmed it.

- The triple threat match followed the classic triple threat format with one man hanging out on the outside while the other two fought quite a bit. This isn't perfect, but it did work for this match. The chemistry between Daniel Bryan, Kane, and C.M. Punk was all there.

- Kane's involvement in Punk and Bryan has been a pleasant surprise. I was dreading it at first, but now I wouldn't even mind seeing this combination of wrestlers for another month. Their feud has been exciting and one of the best parts of WWE programming lately.

- Yes, the feud between these three was all based on A.J., but the WWE Championship was involved as well. The combination of both has made it exciting.

- In the end, I was surprised to see Punk walk away with the WWE Championship. I have enjoyed his title reign, but I also believe that we need to see a major babyface chase for a World Championship soon. This would enhance Punk's character and give fans a reason to rally behind him.

- The old school WrestleMania theme song was one of the top five moments of this show for me.

- Ryback kills jobbers. He's impressive, but WWE could add more to him, since this has been happening since April.

- The Steel Cage music was also a top five moment for me.

- Could Big Show and John Cena have had a worse match? Yeah, they probably could have. Does that make this match entertaining? Not in the slightest.

- Big Show cannot work a compelling main event pace in 2012. The cage match with Cena proved that. Within two minutes, the fans were silent and they never picked back up until the finish. This was not a good match and it really finished off this show on a sour note.

- Brodus Clay's involvement in the main event finish was intriguing and it really added to his character. I liked that. The other wrestlers involved (Santino, Zack Ryder, Alex Riley, Kofi Kingston) just looked silly here. I know why they were there, but it didn't help John Cena look good.

- John Laurinaitis was fired, then put through a table. What exactly did he do to John Cena again?

Here is the problem with this show: one day later it feels like nothing happened. I don't expect Laurinaitis to stay off of television. I don't expect the look and feel of WWE to change now that "People Power" is no longer in effect. No World Championships changed hands, and no one really needed to see this show. Had I missed it, it just would have felt like missing a house show. Maybe I'll be wrong, but I expect Raw to be the exact same show as always.

The wrestling on No Way Out was decent, but no stories were furthered. Was this show worth the money? Nope. If I did not see the show, would I regret it? Probably not. This show was as skippable as Smackdown is most weeks. I'd go ahead and give it a D, since the wrestling worked. The low grade is mainly for storytelling purposes.

Let's do some good old fashioned talking about this show! Feel free to email me at itswilltime@gmail.com or to follow me on twitter at twitter.com/itswilltime.