John Cena's open challenge for the U.S. title has been one of the consistent highlights of RAW since he won the title at Wrestlemania. Monday night might have been the apex of what the segment could be.
Throughout the night, the "Ole" chants rang throughout the arena, as Montreal chanted for their native son, Sami Zayn. Those chants only picked up as Cena came out. It's worth noting just how well Cena played to the crowd, allowing those chants to be built into a frenzy. Finally, when Cena was done talking, he waited for his inevitable opponent to come down. Instead, the WWE threw us a curveball, having Bret Hart come out, which of course caused the crowd to go wild. No, Hart wasn't there to wrestle, but just raise the stakes, before introducing Cena's opponent.
This is where the WWE did their best work in my eyes. Instead of just bringing out Zayn, as everyone expected, Heath Slater came out. The tease there of someone besides Zayn coming out just added to the crowd's reaction when, after Hart knocked Slater out, Zayn's music hit and the crowd errupted.
The match was great of course, even though Zayn injured his shoulder early on. Early indications are that it's a legitimate injury, and not just kayfabe. As good as the match was, though, it was the build to the match that made the segment truly memorable. Everyone played their role perfectly. Cena played to the crowd, even while building towards his match at Payback with Rusev. Bret Hart was a really nice start, both to give the moment an even bigger feel, and as a "false finish" if you will while coming out. Heath Slater gave an extra false finish to it, before Zayn finally came in. You could almost look at the build as a match itself, with the meat of the "match" before the series of false finishes, working the crowd up before the final pin.
The unknown of the U.S. Open challenge has added a lot of energy to the shows lately. When it's done as perfectly as this was, it becomes an Moment of the Year contender. The hope now is that the great moment doesn't turn into something worse as Zayn gets his shoulder checked out.
The Rest of RAW:
- The other big news coming from RAW was a change to the Payback main event. After Dean Ambrose beat Seth Rollins in a match, Ambrose was added to the main event, making it a Fatal Fourway. Ignoring the oddness of Kane making this stipulation, and then Kane and Rollins continuing to work together later in the night, this makes the Payback main event much more interesting. It will be the first time that the former Shield members all faced each other in a match. It's somewhat surprising that this will be happening at Payback, instead of a bigger pay per view like Summerslam. However, I guess the logic is that since Randy Orton is involved, it's not as big as a Shield triple-threat.
- The New Day may have been the stars of the show on Monday. They stole the spotlight in every segment they were in, from interrupting Randy Orton and Roman Reigns, to beating them in a handicap match (and no, Booker T, the Freebird Rule is NOT that they compete in handicap matches). All of their backstage antics were great, too. These guys could be the latest embodiment of the Honky Tonk Man, a group (in their case) that was meant to be a face, but were hated so badly that they became compelling heels that people desperately want to see get destroyed. Tyson Kidd and Cesaro are also truly getting over as faces, which showed more in their match with the Ascension, so the chase from these two should be fun to watch.
- There was another return on RAW. As the Bellas came out to the ring, they were ambushed by Naomi and her new muscle, Tamina. We hadn't seen Tamina on WWE television since last spring. She did a good job in the muscle role for AJ, and it seems like she's going to serve a similar role for Naomi. It's a nice touch that they are now related by marriage.
- King Barrett and Sheamus beat Neville and Dolph Ziggler in another good tag match. Barrett will be one of the most interesting wrestlers to watch going forward, to see what they do with the new King gimmick. Also, they need to do away with calling Neville "The New Sensation". It just doesn't work as a moniker. I get that "The Man Gravity Forgot" is probably too long, but New Sensation is just awkward, especially once it gets to the summer and he's no longer new.
- Rusev beat Fandango, though the story of the match was Lana continuing to get great reactions from the crowd and continue acting like a face. This time she danced with Fandango briefly, before Rusev attacked him from behind. Clearly she's going to have a major impact in the Payback match. Either she's going to say "I Quit" for Rusev, or Rusev is going to threaten to attack her if Cena doesn't quit. Either way, WWE is clearly indicating that she's going to be a featured face in the near-future.
- R-Truth continued his comedy act, losing to Stardust when he saw a bag full of fake spiders. This isn't a terrible role for Truth to play, as he can do the comedy work well, while still remaining semi-credible as a wrestler.
Thoughts? Questions? Leave them here, email me, or find me on Twitter: @TheAOster.