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HERE COMES THE PAIN
The Three Stooges are the special guest hosts tonight. Let's pray their involvement is kept to a minimum.
It's been a crazy week in the pro wrestling world... Is Sting a Hall of Famer? Is Sting not a Hall of Famer? Would Sting draw in 2013? I kid. Well, not really, but we can bring this debate up later this week, and I still have a lot to respond to in last week's thread that I didn't get to address yet.
With WrestleMania now a week behind us, the main focus was last Monday's Raw. The big news was Brock Lesnar making his huge return to WWE. John Cena was calling out The Rock when Brock's electric guitar theme hit and the Next Big Thing made his way to the ring. He extended his hand to Cena, but pulled him in, hit the F5, and in maybe the best part, kicked Cena's stupid hat out of the ring. The crowd went absolutely nuts over this. Now, the question is, what does WWE do next with Brock?
Brock has signed a one year deal with WWE through next year's WrestleMania. It is a multi-million dollar deal for approximately 25 appearances. The appearances do not have to be evenly distributed which can get WWE in a lot of trouble. It's happened to them in the past. They will use up all of the appearances well before the end of the contract, and then WWE either has to take the guy off TV or pay them more money. Either way, it causes tons of problems backstage as you can assume with the stories we hear of how things run in WWE. Two classic examples are Goldberg (who demanded more money once his appearance quota was met) and Lex Luger who was kept off TV for months. WWE already had Brock on TV last week. He's on TV this week. He's on Raw in two weeks. He's no Extreme Rules in three weeks. That's four appearances in one month. Unless WWE has plans to keep Brock gone for a few months later this summer, I don't know how they are going to manage this because they will need to save at least 6-7 of those appearances for the build to WrestleMania. When you add the four appearances this month, that only leaves WWE with 14 or less appearances over 10 months. I just don't see it working. It will certainly be interesting.
As for what's planned for Lesnar, many are speculating that he will face John Cena at Extreme Rules. I think this is a HUGE mistake. We've already seen that putting big events/matches on B PPVs doesn't pay off. We saw it with Punk vs Cena at Money in the Bank. We saw it with Rock returning at Survivor Series. Brock vs Cena needs to be saved for SummerSlam. Yes, the buyrate will increase for Extreme Rules, but it will be a fraction of what it would increase for SummerSlam after months of build. Just for the purpose of an example, it may send Extreme Rules from 100,000 to 140,000 buys, where it would send SummerSlam from 250,000 to 400,000 buys.
The other big question is, does Lesnar talk? It's one thing for him to growl backstage and yell one or two lines about wanting to destroy Cena. But if they send him out in the ring and make him cut a 6-8 minute WWE style promo, I fear it's going to be a disaster. I'm going to give WWE the benefit of the doubt right now because if they are paying Lesnar this much money, I have to assume they know what they are doing with him, especially with their rocky history, but I also never put it past WWE to screw up a sure thing. It's been said many times... I don't know if WWE could book a wet dream.
We also have the question of how does Cena respond? He was disrespected by The Rock for months and then lost to him clean at WrestleMania. The very next night he gets disrespected by the fans and then laid out by Brock Lesnar. I know Cena is not turning heel, but I hope he keeps his more serious, realistic character tonight rather than coming out and cutting comedy about being a loser and not caring.
WWE has its mind set that the YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES chants for Daniel Bryan were a one week thing and would not leave Miami. They are so naive to think this. I know it was a super hardcore fanbase in Miami last week, but the YES chant is going to take off. Until WWE decides to push Daniel Bryan the right way, WWE shows are going to be hijacked by the YES chant. I'm also very anxious for Sheamus to actually cut a promo and have to get a real reaction. He's been saved by loud music and Del Rio interruptions to drown out the boos.
Chris Jericho attacked CM Punk last week, dousing him with Jack Daniels and then smashing a bottle over his head. Let's hope this doesn't lead to a Jack Daniels on a Pole Match at Extreme Rules.
Lord Tensai will make his second appearance tonight. I liked him week one, though many didn't. I just think it's terrible timing debuting him as a monster at the exact same time that you bring back Brock Lesnar.
The Woo Woo guy will continue to be beaten and embarrassed again tonight.
The Miz seems to be getting pushed again. I think they buried him beyond repair though. He needs a character change if he's going to ever get over as a heel again.
Finally, regarding my favorite women in WWE....
This is going to be 100x worse than when Maryse left. Unless it leads to some hot Twin on Twin pictures....
Lastly, I just saw that there is a live Smackdown on SyFy tomorrow night. I had no idea. WWE is touring Russia and Europe starting Wednesday through next week. Both Raw and Smackdown will be from London next week.
