Monday Night Raw April 8, 2013 - Review (Post WM)

John Cena vows to defend his WWE Champion on Raw

Great segment to kick off the show with The New WWE Champion John Cena. 90% of people in the crowd were booing him. He teased fans with a heel turn, He then announced that He will defend his WWE Championship tonight on Raw. He named few opponents like Ziggler, Punk etc but Mark Henry came out to the ring and Sexual Chocolate chant starts. Henry said He wants to fight Cena for the title, and Here comes the SD GM who can for some reason book matches on Raw. He said the match can't happen for the title because Rock is still the #1 contender for Cena's title. Booker T told Henry that If He can beat Cena tonight then He will get a WWE Title shot. I thought It was a great start to Raw, Cena didn't celebrate that much for his title win and cut a fine promo. 


Decent match between Daniel Bryan and Big E Langston. Bryan was on a roll until Ziggler and AJ Lee Interfered thus far causing distraction which lead for Big E Langston to do his move. Looks like Big E Langston is getting a push. 

Awesome match between Wade Barrett and The Miz. The crowd was totally into It, they were cheering for Barrett. This match was much better than their match in the WM pre-show which was about 5 minutes. They gave more time and both were great. I was really surprised that Wade Barrett won the IC Champion back just after losing It at WrestleMania. However, I think they made him win since WWE will be touring UK in 2 weeks. 

Dolph Ziggler successfully cashes his MITB briefcase 

Nice match between Alberto Del Rio and Jack Swagger w/Zeb Colter. Zeb Colter does get heat from the crowd for what He says but I'm tired of the same promos every week. Now that Swagger vs Del Rio storyline is over, I'm looking forward to what's next for these two. Del Rio won the match which didn't got not much of a reaction from the crowd. Dolph Ziggler cashed in his Money In The Bank and won and that crowd went total nuts, Don't remember the last time that a Heel got that much of a ovation for cashing in his MITB briefcase. Zigger should be happy he cashed in at Raw in front of a better crowd than WM was. Finally Ziggler is the World Heavyweight Champion and now fans won't have to chant "We Want Ziggler" during World Title matches.

Great segment featuring The Undertaker, The Shield and Team Hell No. Undertaker said his win at WM was dedicated to Paul Bearer and Here comes Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns. I really thought Shield was going to attack Taker, I even called that just before Raw started. But I was surprised to see Kane and Daniel Bryan made the save. I don't know what is next but I would love to see Team Hell No and Undertaker vs The Shield at Extreme Rules.  



Throw-away six man tag team match with Zack Ryder, R Truth and Santino Marella facing 3MB. As I said couple of weeks ago, If you need anyone to job for a six man tag team match 3MB are ready baby. If anything that came out of this match then It was Zack Ryder finally winning a match. Yes, I'm serious bro. 



Good match between Sheamus and Randy Orton. I don't think anyone in the crowd actually gave a crap about this match, That is why they were chanting random things which was awesome. Even the announcers were Ignoring the match, they were listening to what chant will be next. They even started a "Thank You Big Show" chant because He Interrupted the match and That will probably be the only time you'll ever hear Thank you, Big Show. Big Show knocked both out. 


Here is the list of chants that the crowd chanted: Mike Chioda, Ole, RVD, Big Show, JBL, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, Justin Roberts, CM Punk, Y2J, Austin, XPac, ECW, Randy Savage, HBK, Thank You Big Show, We Are Awesome, One More Chair, Holy Sh*t. 

DADADADADADADADADADADADADA

Decent match between Kofi Kingston and Fandango. Kofi got no reaction from the crowd which is sad because WWE hasn't done anything with him lately. He deserves much more than being a jobber. Best part was when Chris Jericho Interfered and attacked Fandango which means the feud hasn't finished yet. If they do the match again, Y2J should win this time but After last night, Fandango was made a star by the crowd. So don't think about It. 



Another decent match between Tons of Funk and Funkadactlys vs Rhodes Scholars and The Bella Twins. They got cut from WrestleMania, and they barely got 5 minutes on Raw. It was funny that the people that were complaining about this match not taking place at WM were the same people that didn't even give a crap about the match last night. 

The John Cena vs Mark Henry match should've gotten more time than It got. Cena won by count-out and the loss protects Henry since He lost by count-out. I didn't even notice that Ryback wasn't on the show through out the entire night else I would have known that Feed Me More Guy will Interfere. As soon as He knocked Henry out, I know He will do the same to Cena. You would be lying If you say Ryback turned Heel last night because by the crowd reaction that was the biggest face turn ever. But It won't last that much long since I know Ryback will be getting booed probably Next week or so because we can't have the same crowd every week. 




 Overall, Raw was amazing last night. This was probably the first or second Raw this year that was entertaining and didn't felt like It dragged. Special thanks to the crowd that were alive through out the whole night and they were part of the reason why Raw was great. This show had no Brock Lesnar, Triple H or The former WWE Champion The Rock. Even CM Punk wasn't there who I heard missed Raw for the first time since 2011. I'm looking forward to what's going to happen next. 





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