If I wanted to give you my complete thoughts on Raw, the Royal Rumble and the return of John Cena this would be one very long column. I did plan on just making this a Rumble/Raw column but I have to spend some time on talking about John Cena. There is no way I can let that go. So what I’m going to do is just give you very short opinions of my Royal Rumble and Raw thoughts and then it’s all about the Cena. And I missed two of my predictions; naturally the Rumble winner and I went with Jericho instead of JBL. But I think we all missed the winner of the Rumble. Okay let me start with the pay per view, then Raw and then it is on to Mr. Amazing.
I really enjoyed the Royal Rumble. I knew the Garden crowd would be outstanding; they sure didn’t let me down. But they definitely surprised me with the way they reacted to the Edge vs. Rey Mysterio match. First this match was the match of the night, at least for me it was. I was engrossed in this one. I have to give major props to Edge and Rey for the great job that they did. But Rey got the reception that John Cena gets when he’s at the Garden. The crowd was all about Edge and all against Rey. Well maybe not the entire crowd but the majority seemed to be giving Rey a lot of heat. This really caught me off guard. But that’s the New York crowd for you; they come to perform just like the WWE superstars. Now the WWE title match with Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy was a good match, but it wasn’t a pay per view match. There was nothing extraordinarily good about it. I was disappointed because I expected so much more. MVP vs. Ric Flair was a nice opening match. I was thrilled by the way the crowd really got into this one. JBL vs. Chris Jericho came off just about the way I thought it would. The ending with Jericho going ballistic was what I liked. Up until that ending the match was just there. And the Rumble was done very well. I loved Taker and Shawn Michaels being the number 1 and 2 entries and staying in for almost the complete match. Oh and I don’t get why Chavo was in it. It made no sense that the ECW champion would be in the Rumble. Anyway this was one of the better Rumbles and of course the ending totally caught me off guard, but I’ll get into that later.
Now onto Raw which I happened to really like. When I saw that Hunter was having another match against Snitzky and Umaga I wasn’t thrilled at all. But I knew Michaels would be his tag team partner and things turned out okay with DX going against the usual two guys. Snitzky bores me, and Umaga who has been doing well just seems to be at a crossroads right now. He’s not moving up or down. But the match turned out okay and I got a kick out of Hunter’s joke about Michael Buffer stealing from DX. I thought the women’s tag team match with Mickie and Ashley against Beth Phoenix and Jillian was done well, however Ashley didn’t bring much to it. Again I liked how they are focusing on a very upset James; this is something to keep an eye on. Maria vs. Melina came off a lot better than I expected. They both put a lot into this one. And Santino Marella was the man of the hour. The stuff that he came out with not only on Raw but the night before at the Rumble was hysterical. Of course the line of the night was that JR erected a monument in his pants because he was thinking about a Playboy spread with Maria. Santino was Gold Sunday and last night. I am finally feeling like Kennedy is getting his groove back. His promos have improved quite a bit and even though I hate seeing Brian Kendrick getting squashed week after week, I felt that Mr. Kennedy….Kennedy looked much better in the ring. I was very surprised that he was omitted from the Elimination Chamber match. I could see him in it more than Umaga, and I thought it was kind of weak for the creative staff to make the WWE title second on Kennedy’s list, and retiring Flair first on his agenda. Granted who wouldn’t want to be the first to finally retire Flair, but I would have not had the Elimination Chamber match come up in Kennedy’s promo. Along with the promo I thought Flair did a very nice job responding to the ego maniac. Carlito vs. Cody Rhodes was an okay match, but I have been more into the Carlito/Holly matches. And the main event with Jericho and Jeff Hardy vs. Orton and JBL was a lot of fun to watch. This moved at a great pace and I thought it was a perfect way to end the show.
So as you can see I liked Raw a lot, and as you can see I left out the opener with John Cena and Randy Orton.
Okay it’s time to vent like crazy. I am so angry about the way John Cena’s return has taken place.
For a guy that was so SEVERELY injured and not supposed to return for 9-12 months, his return after 4 months just made me wonder did WWE make his injury seem so much worse than it was? Or was Mr. Cena taking something to speed things up? Whatever the reason there’s a lot that bothers me with the way this is all being portrayed. Starting with the Rumble, it was a big shock to see him enter. And of course the crowed popped because this was a big return. But the crowd quickly did their usual by booing the hell out of him and cheering for Triple H. The back and forth action between Batista, Hunter and Cena was good and I was eating it up. I was really getting into the one on one that was going on between Hunter and Cena, but what I wasn’t eating up was Cena winning the Rumble. No, not because Hunter was eliminated, I would have felt this way if Cena was going one on one with Taker, Punk, Morrison, Shawn or a few others. My complaint is this, if they wanted to bring Cena back then go for it, but do not get him right back into the title race. That’s what I hated about the way the Rumble ended. The first thing that came to me was oh wonderful now we are going to have another close to a 2 ½ year title reign. So the ending of the Rumble pissed me off more than you know. But then again you guys probably knew I would feel this way.
Well because of my anger I absolutely refused to watch Cena on Raw. I did not watch the opener and listen I’m not proud of my actions. I’m going to be 54 next week and I should be mature and not act like some kid, but I just didn’t need to hear him speak. So I had a friend of mine email me when he was off. Okay so I missed the entire opening and watched the rest of the show and liked it. I felt I saw all that I needed to see. Yeah I saw him come out at the end and I watched but I knew what was coming. But Cena was out for a few seconds and I could handle that. But going back to the opener, I read the transcript of what was said, and I don’t like the way that they are playing this out with his early return. He risked his career and health to return to Wrestlemania, and then he showed the scar. Wow that’s really deep, no not the scar the whole BS angle. This is why so many fans, me included can’t take the guy. Why not have him say that the injury wasn’t as bad as first reported, OR, I put a lot of time into my rehab to try to come back sooner, but don’t do this shit that I’m coming back because of Wrestlemania. See I’m really glad I missed this. Now I know why he’s called the Amazing Cena.
And then I read that he was getting booed and the Cena Sucks chants were going on and he said that it was music to his ears and then he said, “That’s what I like about this city. No matter what you think, you’re going to get loud and you’re going to get rowdy.” Oh yeah this is what anti Cena fans want to hear, that he’s risking it all for Wrestlemania and he welcomes all the negativity. Thank God I missed this.
I figured that it Wrestlemania was going to be Cena vs. Orton for the title, but now I see Cena getting it at No Way Out, and I don’t think it is right. He should be fighting up the ladder to get back into the title picture like so many have done after coming back from injuries. Since the Chamber match was made last night I’m guessing Hunter will win, but I’ll tell you if Jeff Hardy got the win I would love it. However, if it’s Hunter than I’m fine with that since it’s been almost three years since he’s been champion, and the two hours that he held it at No Mercy I’m not counting. Let me get back to Jeff Hardy. Was he just thrown into the title spot because Vince knew that Cena was on his way back? I’m thinking the answer is YES. And that pisses me off. If they didn’t want Hardy to headline Wrestlemania then damn it give Hardy a rematch at No Way Out. I have no idea what will happen with Jeff now but I know we are right back in the thick of another LONG John Cena era. An era that I am dreading. I didn’t realize until he returned how nice those 4 months were without him.
It sure felt good to rant like that and I have a feeling that for all the Cena fans that are thrilled that he’s back there are even more that are miserable like I am. Now I will try to be back over the weekend with my Smackdown column, but we are going to be out both days, I will see what I can do. I do expect to hear from many Cena fans after they read this and like I always say I respect their feelings on Cena and I do mean that. But as of now the things that they are having Cena say are so not the way to win me over.
Email lindarobin3@yahoo.com
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