-- WWE Raw Reax 5/14

Bryan in New Jersey (4.0): Best: Heyman-Triple H. Worst: Everything else. For the third week in a row, WWE served up a thrown-together, unfocused, and filler-filled Raw. How much more filler could they have crammed into this thing? Recaps, video packages, more recaps, etc, etc. WWE can't turn the corner on even one plot point without shoving a recap package down people's throats two times the week after. Also, we get how great Cena is with his Make-A-Wish appearances, but I feel like they've shown a video package of this every week... The Heyman-Hunter segment was fine for what it was, even if it is just filler to bide time while Brock is away. Heyman continues to remind everyone how great he is on the mic, but the crowd continues to give him little to no response. Everything else about this episode was not good. While Big Show gave a better-than-expected performance during his firing segment, I don't think this angle makes for good television. Also, where is this story going? ... Punk/Santino vs. Rhodes/Bryan was a good-enough match, but the WWE Title bout for Over the Limit doesn't have a story to accompany it other then this match will probably be awesome. Santino does continue to make the most of his TV time, though, as he's always entertaining... I thought the final segment between Cena and Laurinaitis was a mixed bag. While they made it seem like this will be an actual match free from interference, it is upsetting to see that Cena is up to his usual lame comedy schtick. It's always one step forward, two steps back with this guy. Every time it appears his character is growing, he reverts to the poop jokes. At the end of the episode, after all of Cena's talk about losers, I couldn't help but feel that the big loser in this episode was the audience. At least Lord Tensai was nowhere to be found.

Richard H. of Wilmington, Ohio: (3.0) Well, that sucked. Best: Orton-Jericho by default, as the rest of the in-ring action is just a blur. Worst: Kane-Big Show. Neither giant is able to pull off the moves they could in their younger days and boy did it show in this match. And, Phoenix gets dropped with a hair pull when all the momentum was hers in the ring? Sorry, as much as I like Layla, I don't expect her to keep the Divas Title at OTL without some kind of screwjob ending. As for the two big events of the evening, both took way too long. A good editor would have shaved five minutes or more off Show's "firing" and the Cena-Laryngitis schtick could have been done in three minutes. Even though 99 percent of fans will want Cena to beat Johnny Stooge now, it was a long road to get where they were going. I found myself surfing through some of both segments because they took too long to get to the meat of the deal. This show was worse than last week's and that was saying something! Finally, people buying into the "lawsuit angle" probably also believe that Trips has a broken arm. Heyman is good, but even he could not salvage that bit.

Clay Tonic of Richmond, Va. (8.25): Have you ever read "The Pilgrim’s Progress?" I would wager that most people have never read it because it’s pretty obscure. Let me provide some context. "The Pilgrim’s Progress" is an allegorical tale written by John Bunyan. John knew how to put on a morality play. In "The Pilgrim’s Progress," a character says, "There is a limit at which forbearance ceases to be a virtue." Forbearance, in this context, means "holding back." In layman’s terms, it won’t benefit WWE to hold back and save their big revelations and big matches for another day. This generation of fans won’t tolerate it. Everyone who understands the art of writing storylines agrees that these matches are the morality plays of our era, and in that context, I think having Paul Heyman come in is a brilliant move. He can talk a bunch of trash, hype Brock Lesnar, and leave the rest to the viewer’s imagination. Lesnar, honestly, doesn’t need to be there every week. Neither does The Rock. Heck, at this point, neither does John Cena. I believe WWE hit record highs back in the '90s partly because people were in it for the highlights. That was over ten years ago. The public attention span is a fraction of what it was back then. Hunter made a good point when he said WM28 was WWE's biggest audience - note, though, that he didn’t say it was an American audience. This is globalization. WWE would argue its stronger than it’s ever been, and quite frankly, guys like Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar are acquisitions that have further-reaching benefits than The Rock ever could. I love The Rock, and I loved the finish to his match with John Cena, but if WWE wants to convert their now-teenaged Cena fans into rabid wrestling fans – thus keeping the industry alive for another decade – they made the right move. This Raw had segments that made me want to roll my eyes, but I can’t help but feel they’re inching towards a wrestling boom. I hope so, at least. Pro wrestling has always been a morality play. It'll die if they follow the current fad trying to make it a scripted reality show.

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[Torch art credit Travis Beaven (c) PWTorch.com]

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