By Will Pruett

- Sad violin music is rarely applicable in wrestling. I would have to say that it didn't work for the Extreme Rules main event recap. Lesnar vs. Cena was brutal and intense. Making it a sad story hurt the brutality of the recap.

- Beginning the show with the "Monday Night Raw Staring Brock Lesnar" title card was a nice attention to detail. There was, however, some dissonance about the levity of that and the seriousness of Cena vs. Lesnar at Extreme Rules. Perhaps that was my biggest problem with this episode of Raw. A tone was set at Extreme Rules that was absolutely erased the next evening.

- I know that it is easy for people to say "Triple H is back to ruin the Brock Lesnar push," but I'm not going to do that. Triple H being beat down by Lesnar makes sense in the story, reverses the effects of the contract signing last week and it also explains Lesnar's upcoming absence. This was a fine opening and it reinforced just how dangerous Lesnar is.

- Triple H was really good in the opening segment, both his promo and his selling of the beating worked. I have to wonder if, in the eventual match between the two, Triple H will be willing to sell the way that Cena sold for Lesnar.

- The effort that WWE is putting into getting the Kimura over is very strong. Between Cena at the pay-per-view and Triple H on this show, the hold seems to be the most devastating thing in WWE.

- The concept of a Beat the Clock Challenge always bothers me a little bit. Perhaps it is the guarantee of a night of short matches or it could be the thin roster and lack of logic that comes from Smackdown stars competing for the Raw championship. Either way, it seems like Beat the Clock is on the same list as Battle Royal as an overused number one contender concept.

- The Miz and Santino had a pretty good match to set the pace for the Beat the Clock Challenge. Santino is always over with the live crowds and when that works, it creates an enjoyable match. Miz still bores me as an act, but that's another story.

- Layla had the shortest match of the night on a Beat the Clock challenge edition of Raw. Good for her.

- The Bella Twins were, at one point, a solid heel act. I'm sad to see them leave because they could have actually been useful for a while longer.

- I'm only slightly sad about the absence of Kharma on Raw.

- How do you have a Chris Jericho vs. Big Show match without mentioning Jeri-Show? It was only three years ago and they were the central focus of Raw at the time.

- The end of the Jeri-Show powers exploding in match form was slightly botched. From the ten second countout taking 30 seconds to it not actually being complete at the end, it was all confusing. WWE worked it out, but that does hurt the legitimacy of the concept and the finish itself.

- Having the wrestler currently winning the challenge sitting backstage gave it a Price is Right kind of feel with people waiting for the big wheel to spin. It required an odd sort of acting, as demonstrated by Randy Orton's silly celebration backstage when his time was not beat.

- I lover seeing Bordus Clay drop Hornswoggle, but that segment seemed like one from an episode of Raw two months ago. Clay's dance routine is exciting on house shows, but it isn't interesting on TV week in and week out. I like Clay, but this isn't great way to use the Funkasaurus character.

- I don't see why John Cena is having a match at next month's pay-per-view. No matter who it is with, it doesn't make sense. Cena took a beating like we haven't seen in WWE in years and could have easily been written off for at least a month, if not longer. The rumors of time off and Cena's promo at Extreme Rules had me buying into the absence. Now that it isn't happening, I'm rethinking my defense of Lesnar's loss.

- Randy Orton and Jack Swagger timed out their finish perfectly with the time expiring. Their match was good and the finish was better. This rematch from Extreme Rules 2010 was nice. Swagger can definitely go in the ring. He is one of those wrestlers who could be amazing if given the chance to run with the ball.

- The Tag Team Championships changed hands on Raw and the next day I forgot about it. Epico and Primo were disappointing champions and they were booked quite poorly. Kofi Kingston seems to be the anchor of the tag division, as he is a star big enough to make the belts seem important, but he isn't being removed from the main event scene for this run.

- R-Truth has replaced his wellness policy buddy Evan Bourne as Kofi's championship partner. This seems to be a lateral move for Truth.

- Four minutes of Kane and Great Khali hurt my soul parts.

- Daniel Bryan and Jerry Lawler had a really good, short, old school match. Lawler knows how to wrestle a great match for his age and is still charismatic and exciting.

- Daniel Bryan vs. C.M. Punk at Over The Limit may make it the most pirated pay-per-view of all time. I'm quite excited to see what they can do given a pay-per-view time limit and a lack of commercial breaks in their match. Those two will be motivated to have a great match and it makes Over the Limit worth watching already.

- Aside from a sling on his arm, John Cena seemed absolutely fine after the beating he suffered from Brock Lesnar. People discussed him no-selling the beating in his post-match speech, but I feel like he did more no-selling on Raw. This was not the right way to approach the follow up to this match.

- At first, I was ready to be disappointed by Lord Tensai vs. John Cena, then we found out that John Laurinaitis was the chosen opponent. While I feel like this is moving a little fast, I do like Laurinaitis going a little crazy and booking himself against a top star.

- Does anyone else feel like they missed about two months of build for Laurinaitis vs. Cena? There wasn't really any sort of build going into this aside from Laurinaitis bringing Lesnar in. It isn't like Cena has the long history with him that Punk does, which makes this match a little confusing.

- While I still feel like their history isn't altogether there, they can go back to the punch from Cena to Laurinaitis at Money in the Bank. That is at least a start and a place for them to video package back to.

This was not a great episode of Raw. There was a decent followup to Lesnar's brutal match at first, but I would say that a great deal of that was undone by Cena being virtually unscathed (aside from his sling). The tone of this episode was completely different than the tone of Extreme Rules and it was disappointing.

I wasn't expecting a full shift in the show, but I was expecting something that fit what we saw the night before just a little better. Writing off Lesnar is necessary, but the rest doesn't seem like it. Writing off John Cena was probably more necessary and that did not occur. Cena in jeopardy from Laurinaitis is interesting, but not perfect. Let's see where it goes. I'm disappointed in the followup at this moment.

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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