"WWE RAW" 5-16-11 Talkback (Spoilers)

[The Penguin]

WWE Champion John Cena and The Miz are set to go at once again at Over the Limit. What will they have to do to each other to make the other man say "I Quit"?

WWE RAW #938
Monday, May 16, 2011 @ 9 p.m. ET/8 CT on USA Network


Please remember that not everyone reads spoilers for taped programs and direct or side comments about WWE shows that have yet to air are not acceptable in this thread. Additionally, spoilers for shows that air after the show that is the subject of this thread do not belong here.

[Mesousa]

Note to Cena: ponies aren't just for girls.

I love how Miz asks peple like Big Show and Kane, yet somehow he didn't
get beaten.

[Arrow]

R-Truth continues to be the highlight of Monday Night Raw. His heel turn has been the best thing to happen to his character, ever, and I honestly love how he's so different from heels such as Miz or Punk, a lot fresher. I cracked up during his "Rey Mysterio is a thief!" spiel.

Kharma's single-handedly making the Divas division interesting. The match between Kelly Kelly and Brie Bella was your typical Divas match, but the whole exchange between her and Kelly was definitely, um, interesting. Considering that Kharma and Kelly have met before, it makes me wonder if there's a story here. Kharma took out Nikki, leaving only one Bella left.

That's about all that's interested me tonight, however. Kofi Kingston/CM Punk was alright, but both should be doing other things right now. I honestly cannot believe that there's an entire stacked mid-card doing nothing and Kofi is busy jobbing to Punk when someone like Santino Marella or Evan Bourne would have been just as good. Kofi's the U.S. Champion, he should have a running feud right now.

Nexus vs. Kane/Big Show... why are they feuding, now?

I honestly cannot believe there was a point where I considered Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole WWE's best feud. It's just run its course completely and Lawler and Cole's constant bickering on commentary sucks the life out of the matches. Swagger leaving Cole would have been great a month ago, but now I just don't care. Please be done with this on Sunday. The most enjoyment I got out of that segment was Cole channeling the feelings of most when he commented on Swagger's world title run. "It's funny 'cause it's true."

And no matter how hard they try, I'll never buy Miz as a threat to Cena in an "I Quit!" Match.

[hobbyfan]

From a match standpoint, this was actually a good show.

4 non-title matches. Only 1 sitting champion wins. (Guess who?) If creative put a lot more thought into things, we could read between the lines.

1. US champ Kofi Kingston loses to CM Punk clean as a whistle. You think, ok, Punk gets a chance at the US title. Over an hour later, we find that Punk & Mason Ryan will challenge for the tag titles instead.

One sure thing to glean: Punk either has re-upped, or is on the verge, or they're throwing him a bone with a title shot. My initial thought was, Punk has re-upped.

2. Kelly Kelly beats Divas champ Brie Bella. The divas title has become an afterthought since Brie won the title, but then, creative has shafted other heel diva champs (Molly Holly comes to mind immediately) in the past. Kharma comes out and lays out either Brie or Nikki, and spares Kelly for a 3rd time. Hmmm..

3. Otunga & McGillicutty need illegal help from Punk to beat Big Show & Kane, yet, as I noted above, Punk & Ryan get the title shot. What were the writers thinking?

Maybe they're still angling for Nexus vs. Corre for the tag titles, but that ship has long since sailed.

4. John Cena beats Jack Swagger, foiling Miz's plans for Sunday. Cena is 3-0 in I Quit Matches (JBL, Batista, Orton). No way does Miz end that streak. Have to send the audience home happy.

Jerry Lawler lost his only other Kiss My Foot match, but Michael Cole may have lost his backup after Swagger walked out on him. Thanks for telegraphing this match, guys.

Can't see the logic in Alberto Del Rio losing via DQ. The good ship Protection sailed away from ADR a while ago. Can't see Rey beating R-Truth on Sunday, etiher.

[Dilla]

From what I understand about the Punk situation, it's not that he doesn't want to stay, because he does. It's that the Vince wants Punk's name and naturally, Punk wants to keep the rights to his name. C'mon Vince, you let Del Rio keep his naming rights, let Punk keep his. I guess that if Punk and Ryan wins the title, it's WWE throwing a bone.

Lawler BETTER win this Sunday, just kill this Cole storyline off please.

After R-Truth first promo with John Morrison before he turned heel, I thought seeing more was a bad idea. But, R-Truth have entertained me since becoming heel. Hopefully, the WWE doesn't kill this prematurely and Truth beats Mysterio and gets a match with Cena for the title or wins MitB next month.

C'mon, we all know that Cena not going to say 'I Quit', although the Miz saying he has secret weapon makes me curious. Maybe it'll be another The Rock-Mankind moment. I doubt it, though.

It's really too bad that Kharma wasn't in the WWE six years ago when the WWE actually semi-cared about wrestling talent in the Women's Division along with looks. Nattie, Gail Kim, Melina, and Beth Phoenix are now buried on WWE Superstars and house shows. Michelle McCool is on sabbatical. I don't know what diva that the WWE seems intent on putting on TV can make an entertaining match will Kharma without it being ridiculous. Is the WWE going to finally allow all those Divas that can actually wrestle finally get a shot and shine? I remember that Rima interview from a couple of weeks ago:

Jeffrey Harris: How did you get the chance to be on the show? Was it previous appearance and association with WWE when you crowned Sheamus King of the Ring?

Rima Fakih: Before that, they were at a pageant. Sometimes there are scouters trying to reach out to find divas or something like that.

This is why they are in this position. It seems like after Trish Stratus became a legit wrestler, the WWE thought they could do that with every model. They can't.

I wish Vince would just retire now. It's too bad Shane left the company to persue other interests, he was big on athleticism and ability. It looks like Triple H will take over if Vince retires.

[DjJuice5]

It's really too bad that Kharma wasn't in the WWE six years ago when the WWE actually semi-cared about wrestling talent in the Women's Division along with looks. Nattie, Gail Kim, Melina, and Beth Phoenix are now buried on WWE Superstars and house shows. Michelle McCool is on sabbatical. I don't know what diva that the WWE seems intent on putting on TV can make an entertaining match will Kharma without it being ridiculous. Is the WWE going to finally allow all those Divas that can actually wrestle finally get a shot and shine? I remember that Rima interview from a couple of weeks ago:This is why they are in this position. It seems like after Trish Stratus became a legit wrestler, the WWE thought they could do that with every model. They can't.

I wish Vince would just retire now. It's too bad Shane left the company to persue other interests, he was big on athleticism and ability. It looks like Triple H will take over if Vince retires.

I agree with Vince retiring. Nothing aganist the guy but he needs to step down already. It's no wonder why many fans want Triple H to have a bigger backstage role. He seems to be behind the Kharma push. I think the higher ups at WWE have finally woke up and realized that the divas movement has been a faliure from day one. Kharma just may be the beginning of the restructing of the women's divison( all they need to do now is get rid of that vapid divas title) It's smart that they're having her just run through the divas because matches with them would just be a waste of the audience's time. What they should do soon is give her a motive to her actions. Why has she arrived? Why is she taking out the divas? Why has she spared Kelly Kelly so far? Could this possibly have a connection with the overdue for closure mystery GM angle? Should I really believe what passes for a creative team nowadays for WWE would be that clever?

I think it's a given that down the line we will see Kharma vs Beth Phoenix. Speaking of Beth Phoenix it boggles my mind has to why WWE is sleeping on her. She should be the face of the women's divison right now. She has a unique look, She matches the amazon goddess persona so perfectly it's scary. She's great in the ring and she's very friendly towards fans. Give her more freedom to show her personality and brush up her mic skills and you have your next Lita. WWE always talks about wanting more merchandise revenue when they have future merch gold right it front of their faces. Could there be a more marketable look? Wouldn't little girls want to buy those tiaras? Anyways IMO this should be more than just a random booked match. Give the match proper build up. Put a strong, emotional storyline behind it, get people invested in it. Make the match be someting that reinvigorates the women's divison and make it something it hasn't been in a long time, intresting.

[hobbyfan]

1. Vince is 65, will be 66 in August. He should be retired, but his ego won't allow it. He's too stubborn to see that he needs to step aside and let Hunter & Steph take over.

2. Hunter's an old school guy, and it's known that Sin Cara was his project. Given Kharma's random attacks over what is now a 3 week period, chances are she's one of his projects, too. The man wants to go to a back to basics concept, something Vinnie McSenile is against. Isn't it amazing how people were so anti-Hunter 10 years ago, and now, they'd love to see him take the company over and save it from Vince's feeble, dwindling mind......

[The Penguin]

Good to be back on the same week…

I really enjoyed Alex Riley cutting off John Cena and telling him what his promo was going to be before showing the video of The Miz dominating him. Before WrestleMania, I believe A-Ry said his new job was Vice President of Communications and he certainly did that here before Cena saw fit to basically call Miz a sissy. It may not have been homophobic bullying, but it was still bullying, but I guess it’s okay because Miz isn’t nice.

I honestly thought Punk was going to lose to Kofi and the story was going to be how The New Nexus reacted. Punk may be set to get back on track with a win over the United States Champion and a seemingly renewed resolve.

It was just not a good night for Champions in non-title matches with Brie Bella losing to Kelly Kelly. It was a worse night for her sister Nikki who felt the wrath of Kharma. I’m intrigued that she seems to be mostly sparing Kelly. The finger flick was obviously a sign of disrespect.

I really liked the look at That’s What I Am. I still haven’t seen any of these week in select theaters/DVD release WWE Films, but the more I see of this one, the better I think it looks.

Well Rey didn’t get R-Truth when he wanted him; instead he got Alberto Del Rio again. Seems odd (but also telling of his being drafted) that Del Rio is the man without something to do. If he were still on SmackDown, I would expect they would be having a triple threat match on Sunday. Rey officially got the win, but then Truth finally showed up.

“Cole, you’ve been stickin’ your foot in your mouth for months now. Sunday, I’m gonna stick my foot in your mouth and close it!”

I hope this Sunday is finally the end, I love King getting around the ‘lay a hand’ rule by grabbing Cole’s tie.

I have mentioned that it took five guys to beat Big Show & Kane (well really just Show), so perhaps CM Punk thinks he can do it with four when one of them is as big as Mason Ryan. This feels like something thrown together with Over the Limit being far too close to Extreme Rules, but it could be interesting. Show & Kane were very motivated later in their interview.

Happy to see Zack Ryder at least getting backstage cameos with his giving Cena a t-shirt this week.

I liked Miz talking to people backstage over the course of the show trying to find his opponent for John Cena. Dolph Ziggler looked painfully generic in his only appearance, but I liked the continuity of Miz trying to appeal to Show.

I found Jack Swagger as the opponent a bit surprising. Seemed like he was en route to a face turn after his leaving Cole behind earlier and then he was attacking Cena. I guess we’ll see what happens from here.

From there, I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that Cena recovered from being attacked with a giant steel pipe. I thought it took things too far. Miz should have been the dominate one here. We'll see if he pulls something out on Sunday.