Down To Business

Monday Night Raw: April 11, 2011
5-man Gauntlet match

   The WWE thought of an amazing way to kick off Raw live in Bridge Port, Connecticut. Having Michael Cole make his entrance with no music to his broadcasting protection structure he likes to refer to as the "Cole Mine", then having the 9 time Champion John Cena's music hit and causing an explosion of both cheers and boos. The young audience is so sensitive to the scripts and characters of the WWE superstars, so to excite them with a sudden appearance by their hero John Cena was enough to nearly blow the roof off the arena. John vowed to win the WWE Championship for the 10th time in his career to make the main event at next year's WrestleMania against The Rock for the richest prize in this business.

John Cena immediately got down to business in regaining the Championship he personally customized in the year 2005 by issuing a challenge towards The Miz for a title match at the upcoming Pay-Per-View "Extreme Rules". However there happened to be a small group of talented young superstars that believed they deserved to get the next WWE title opportunity. Randy Orton, John Morrisson, Dolph Ziggler with Vicki Guerrero, and R-Truth one by one made their way to the ring to each briefly state their case. As always the annonymous Raw General Manager, whom is getting on my nerves, stepped in to resolve the issue with the main event match for the night. A 5-man Gauntlet match was set, where a random draw sets the order, two superstars start in the ring, as soon as someone is submitted, counted out or pinned that superstar is eliminated. That will allow the next competitor to enter the match, the last man standing is named the number 1 contender.
   Although this is a good way to view the performance of these WWE superstars in a short amount of time to decide their character and roles for the next few months. The WWE's knowledge on what the fans want will never stop surprising me, so the WWE does everything they can to make sure they have the most athletic, charismatic, and physical WWE superstars in the spot light. That is why they surprised me with R-Truth being involved in this very important 5-man Gauntlet. He may be loved my the WWE universe, but you shouldn't offer a #1 contender opportunity to a superstar that did not even have a match at WrestleMania. He hasn't won a championship in the WWE since he was apart of the Smackdown roster. It really surprised me when R-Truth eliminated Dolph Ziggler and John Morrisson, then end up being in the main event at Extreme Rules. R-Truth has lots of athletic ability and charisma, keep him in an interesting storyline and give him more roles. One other thing, it would be more exciting to see young superstars fight their case to be the #1 contender by either bragging, explaining their talents, or intimidation... Not state they have never had an WWE title shot. That's not what I wanted R-Truth and Dolph Ziggler say.
   A decisive victory in the 5-man Gauntlet match would have made the WWE Championship match at Extreme Rules more exciting since the challenger earned his opportunity by defeating four opponents, that shows true strength and determination. I still cannot believe that John Cena and R-Truth, two friends with a bond of respect for similar morals ended up getting into a pushing match. Cena easily moved R-Truth across the ring and against the ropes.
   When the main event was announced my guess was Randy Orton was going to be victorious, I didn't expect the rivalry with The New Nexus to continue so soon after WrestleMania. As much as I enjoy disliking Orton despite his character change, I feel he deserves to be involved in the WWE title storylines. The aged fans of World Wrestling Entertainment miss seeing the popular superstars always within finger tips of the WWE Championship. The door has officially opened for the next generation of talent, like The Miz, John Morrisson, Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes, and Kofi Kingston.

Good Old J.R.

   Absolutely impressive show of intensity and anger from Jim Ross. When J.R. made his way to the ring, he showed oustanding anger and the will to inflict pain upon Michael Cole. I didn't know J.R. had the strength in him to move Cole's commentary structure. Jerry "The King" Lawler went 1 on 1 with Jack Swagger, if Lawler wins he gets his rematch against against Michael Cole. Any time I see J.R. or hear his voice I can't help but smile knowing we are listening to a legendary commentator. Josh Mathews did not say a word through the entire match which allowed the folks at home to hear J.R. and Michael Cole screaming accurate instructions as managers from ringside. After Michael Cole stepped up on the apron, J.R. grabbed Cole's foot and pulled him off, causing him to hit his face on the edge of the apron. This caused Jack Swagger to get distracted and try to get his hands on J.R., The King used a classic roll-up pin to pick up the victory. It will now be a tag team match at Extreme Rules, Swagger and Michael Cole vs J.R. and Jerry Lawler. I wonder if Swagger and Cole will be on the same page after Cole slapped Swagger in the face out of frustration of having to be in another WWE match.

Sin Cara

I am looking forward to watching Sin Cara perform every week on Raw and slowly rise through the ranks. Look for him to continue displaying unbelievable looking moves and competing against superstars with low popularity. This should show that he had to start from the bottom and claw his way up, it's going to be an inspiring story in the end. The only thing I didn't like about Sin Cara's match tonight was that his opponent Primo seemed very uncoordinated and sloppy in the ring. If anyone tells me this match looked too scripted, I will make sure they aren't pointing fingers at Sin Cara.

On the upcoming Blog Posts:-An in-depth look at Edge's career and statistics
-Predictions for the next three WrestleMania events
-In my opinion, the top 3 WrestleMania matches of all time

Feel free to share opinions, questions, and statistics with me
Written by: Tyler McMurter
Images downloaded from http://www.google.ca/ from websites like: http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/ and http://www.jasonrivera.com/