Raw Roundup: The Truth Hurts

The most important happenings on Raw last night transpired in its opening minutes.  R-Truth, one of the #1 contenders to the WWE Championship, came to the ring to cut a promo about Extreme Rules.  Moments later, he was interrupted by John Morrison.  The two of them struggled through a couple minutes on the microphone together, Morrison ultimately conniving his way into a match with the #1 contendership on the line.  It was great to see guys outside of the usual suspects of Cena, Orton, Punk, & Miz get a chance to have their voices heard, but both Truth and Morrison need to work on their promo abilities if they’re to step into the main events.  There’s no questioning their ring-work, but the mic skills must improve.

Morrison won the match, and was in turn beaten pretty viciously by an irate R-Truth.   Truth, feeling like he was unfairly tricked into defending his #1 contendership in the first place, dismantled Morrison at ringside before asking the crowd for a cigarette.  Prior to the match, Morrison had insulted Truth for being a smoker, so after Truth leveled him, he lit one up to relieve some stress.  So twenty minutes into Raw, we have a new main event for Extreme Rules, and R-Truth is as heel as they get.  I’ve been contemplating the case of John Morrison for a while, demanding he be put into a main event and also reasoning why he might not be ready.  As for Truth, his character was pretty stale, and I feel like this heel turn could breathe new life into it.

• Raw’s main event saw Randy Orton defeat CM Punk AGAIN.  It’s bad enough that Raw’s final match was a rematch from a feud that should have ended a couple weeks ago at WrestleMania, but Randy Orton winning again is borderline intolerable for me.  Post-match, the new Nexus came to the ring and beat him down, allowing Punk to attempt a punt to his dome, which Orton reversed into an RKO.  Pretty bad ending.  It’s time for CM Punk to move on to better things – maybe the draft will do some good to split these guys up.
• Speaking of feuds that should have ended at WrestleMania, Michael Cole’s knighting ceremony was one of the worst segments in the history of Raw.  I’m not using Tony Schiavone hyperbole here, I mean it, it was really bad.  King and JR got involved, which led to Jack Swagger forcing Oklahoma’s favorite son to kiss Michael Cole’s foot.  The Michael Cole segments have been the most boring part of Raw for months, and they’re only getting worse.
• John Cena teamed with Sin Cara to nab a win over The Miz & Alex Riley.  Sin Cara scored the pin on A-Ry after a pretty decent springboard moonsault.  Outside of his awesome ring entrance, I’m still not all that impressed with Sin Cara.  He’s yet to do anything that I haven’t seen from guys like Mysterio and Van Dam, and he hasn’t even matched the stuff that used to go down in WCW’s Cruiserweight division.  This isn’t a slam on the man beneath the mask, I know he’s capable of much, much more.  But WWE isn’t using him to his potential.  I also have a little bit of beef with him already tangling with main eventers.  I wonder if that’ll continue, or if it’s just a ploy to get him over early.
• The “new & improved” Dolph Ziggler, now sporting short brown hair, notched a victory over Evan Bourne after hitting the Zig Zag.  The match was a glorified squash, albeit an entertaining one.  Ziggler looks better with his altered appearance, and I feel like he can be taken more seriously as a title contender with the departure from the bleached blonde hair.  On the downside, he runs the risk of looking generic, as a lot of guys in the current youth movement sport the same look.
• Eve defeated Nikki Bella in a throw-away divas match.  I suspect she’ll be getting her title rematch at Extreme Rules against Brie.  Another Amazing Kong promo aired before this match, and I believe she’ll be showing up to crash the part at the pay-per-view.  When she makes her debut, expect dominance out of the gate.
• Sheamus, who generated boos for the United States, picked up a win against Santino Marella.  The match ran longer and more serious than most Santino matches do, but in the end, it finished as you’d expect.  Brogue kick, three count, Sheamus marches on.

I was a little disappointed in this week’s Raw.  Not only did rivalries that should have been over a month ago continue, but the Extreme Rules card has yet to take definitive shape.  Although some matches certainly seem like they’ll be taking place, there is nothing officially announced outside of the two world title matches.  I’m looking forward to the debut of Kong, who I understand will be going by the name Kharma in WWE.  It’ll be interesting to see what kind of role Morrison plays at Extreme Rules.  I highly doubt he’ll win the match, I’m almost sure he won’t, but hopefully he won’t be buried either.  Lastly, things will be shaken up with the draft next Monday.  We’ll be taking a look at some of the biggest moves of drafts past and possible transfers for the upcoming event later in the week.