By Will Pruett

- I will never complain about opening Raw with a nice, long match. There is an added bonus when that match elicits a great crowd reaction. The C.M. Punk vs. Mark Henry match was a great way to open Monday Night Raw.

- Do people in England get upset about the stereotypical set that WWE uses every time they're in town? I ask this less because of the stereotype and more because I'm sure they would love to see a different set.

- The Punk vs. Henry match was structured very well, with both men attempting and failing to hit their standard moves. They also used the no disqualification stipulation well without overdoing it. Every weapons spot meant something and this was anything but a garbage brawl.

- The Punk and Jericho rivalry continues to garner heat, but it does not feel like main event heat. Jericho has lost a little bit of his legitimacy in every outing since the Royal Rumble. He has needed wins on every occasion and despite his excellent mic work, he can't maintain his star status. The Jericho feud feels hot, but it doesn't feel WWE Championship hot.

- On the flip side of the argument I just made, the long Punk title reign has done a lot for him. I would love to see him hang onto the belt through Extreme Rules and even into the Summer this year.

- I have idea why R-Truth is pretending to be Sherlock Holmes. It seems like we're guaranteed two things every time WWE is in England: silly skits and good matches. Luckily, one usually excuses the other.

- Santino Marella, while he was not originally a poor choice for the United States Championship, has nothing to offer as a champion. His act is over, there is no doubt about that, but that title needs to move off of him sooner rather than later.

- Lord Tensai's backstage interview still sounded like Albert trying to speak Japanese. I know that the opinion of newer fans that have not seen Albert before are more important than mine, but Tensai/Albert just does not excite me.

- Brock Lesnar's sit down interview was fantastic. It was great to see them go with the UFC-style interview instead of a standard backstage promo. Lesnar is great in this environment and he comes off as a true star and true fighter.

- It was interesting to see WWE go with the "this is real" angle with Lesnar. He can definitely pull it off, but does it hurt the legitimacy of the rest of the product? I'm not absolutely sure it does, but it is a question worth asking as WWE goes forward with Lesnar.

- Zack Ryder just can't catch a break when he is in the ring with Kane. Come to think of it, he has looked silly for pretty much all of 2012. While I don't know what WWE could have done with his act after he accomplished his one and only goal at TLC, they easily could have treated him better than this.

- Kane is much better off not cutting promos.

- I was cracking up as Daniel Bryan delivered all of his "Yes" calls backstage. Sure, it made Kofi Kingston look silly, but he knew the entire time that he would get his hands on Bryan later in the ring. Bryan is absolute gold in this role and I hope they put A.J. and Bryan back together to keep this awesome train rolling.

- John Cena's promo was very good. He has kept a lot of the momentum he gained in his promo work during his feud with The Rock. His promo also helped to make sense of why John Laurinaitis is suddenly feuding with him instead of C.M. Punk.

- There is a certain toughness that John Cena shows when he gets intense and it is one of the best parts of his character. While his yelling may go over the top, it also works very well. Cena cut a fantastic promo on this show.

- Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston had another really good match. One of the best things about Raw overseas tends to be the in-ring quality. Stories don't get forwarded as much due to it being pre-taped show, but the matches are allowed to shine.

- Bryan's "Yes" routine in the ring is all sorts of over as well. The fans may love Kingston, but they love chanting along with Bryan's comeback even more. This is fun, but I hope it doesn't cause a de-facto turn for Bryan, who is shining as a heel.

- My new favorite parts of Brodus Clay's entrance are the shots of audience members awkwardly dancing around.

- As I said last week, Dolph Ziggler should be in an upper mid card feud with another star waiting to rise to the top, not jobbing to a comedy wrestler. I love Brodus Clay quite a bit, but he is not at the level that Dolph Ziggler is at and Ziggler shouldn't be sacrificed to help him.

- I wonder what the endgame is with Eve and John Laurinaitis. Could it be as simple as her managing David Otunga?

- I am not supportive of the direction of the tag team division if this show was any indication. Great Khali and Big Show don't need to be messing up what could be a very promising division that has actual talent in the champions.

- Seriously, there are many things that WWE could do with a tag team division, but Big Show and Khali should be the last thought in their minds for it. Fans won't get into it and they'll hurt younger, more talented wrestlers in trying to put these guys over.

- Was that a groan when Lord Tensai was introduced? It sounded like one to me, but sound is sometimes odd depending on your setup.

- In defense of Tensai, he looked like a beast against John Cena. He had to sell more than a wrestler on week three of his push usually would, but he also got a big win. This did a lot to make sure that Tensai was exactly what he said he was.

- John Cena and his story of suffering a crisis of confidence lives on. I love that they are making the loss to The Rock mean as much as it should. Cena is not blowing off this loss and he is not making jokes about it. Cena, for the first time in a long time, is taking himself and match results seriously.

- If Lord Tensai didn't look enough like fat Great Muta, well, the green mist now helps that image. May Fat Muta have a long and successful run.

This was a really good episode of Raw. The promo segments worked. The matches were pretty good. The stories told all worked out rather well. Raw corrected many of the mistakes it seemed like they made last week and pointed towards Extreme Rules in pretty much all the right ways.

This week also did a lot to get Lord Tensai over, which has been missing. John Cena and Brock Lesnar moved forward with their feud. Punk and Jericho also did some good work on the mic. This show, which I initially thought would be skippable, was actually really good.

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.

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