By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

PWTorch editor Wade Keller's Raw Take first appeared on the Torch VIP website Monday night. To find out to access first-run VIP-exclusive content, visit PWTorch.com/GoVIP.

KELLER'S WWE RAW TAKE
APRIL 23, 2012
DETROIT, MICH. - JOE LOUIS ARENA
LIVE ON USA NETWORK

OPENING SEGMENT: Teddy Long messed up his introduction for John Cena, saying Cena was a "two-time WWE Champion and ten-time WWE Champion." Cole said he meant two-time World Champion. He added that Laurinaitis needs to make better hires. Remember when people thought Laurinaitis was screwing up on purpose? Is that Long's new gimmick? I guess this proves why ring announcers make the big bucks.

-Long didn't seem very confident in announcing Brock Lesnar's stats, nor did his inflection exactly help create excitement. He said Brock Lesnar's name like a kid on Christmas telling everyone he just tore off wrapping paper to find a dozen socks.

-No shock that Lesnar didn't come out. Given the history of ratings for the first segment in three-hour shows, it wouldn't have been seen by a lot of viewers until they replayed extended highlights in the second hour. Edge appearing can, for what it's worth, lead to a social media buzz that might remind viewers the show was starting early.

-Big pop for Edge's surprise appearance. Good thing he has familiar music because with the haircut, two-thirds of the arena wouldn't have recognized him. He noted that in a couple of days his WWE contract expires.

-Pretty clever how Edge snuck in that Rock lost to Brock eight years ago, a little way to boost the current main event act over the previous main event act.

-Quotebook - Edge to John Cena: "I'm not asking you to beat Brock Lesnar, I'm telling you to."

-Good use of Edge. It gives the impression to viewers the Cena-Lesnar match is big enough to be worth Edge showing up in Detroit to tell Cena how much it means for Cena to beat Lesnar. Edge also drew nicely from Cena's history of big moments in the ring, comparing it to his more defeated demeanor headed into his Lesnar match.

1 -- CHRIS JERICHO vs. KOFI KINGSTON

-The first of what seem like inevitably longer-than-usual matches on three hour Raws compared to two hour Raws. Good match, and a good discussion by Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler about the C.M. Punk-Jericho feud.

-It's always a test of cardio recovery when a wrestler has to cut a promo right after a long match. Jericho's in good shape. A little heavy breathing, but he didn't seem ready to collapse as he made his relatively long post-match speech.

CLIP: Jeff Hardy was seen by his biggest audience in years as WWE showed Lesnar destroying Hardy in his TV debut match back in 2002. That was back when Hardy was "half of a tag team," not a top tier singles star, and we know how WWE treats tag team wrestlers against top singles stars.

BACKSTAGE: Punk did keep the bottle of Jack Daniels after he rudely brushed off Josh Mathews after giving him the rest of Jericho's gift basket of hard liquor. Josh looked excited, like a 17 year old who finds the key to his dad's liquor cabinet when alone in the house with friends.

2 -- R-TRUTH vs. TENSAI (w/Sakamoto)

-Tensai's promos sound like Yoda mixed with the overweight guy from "The Office" when he gets angry or excited about food.

IN-RING SEGMENT: After Kane bragged about beating up Randy Orton's dad, Randy reveals he's willing to torture and potentially kill Kane's father Paul Bearer to get revenge. I did like Kane blowing it off, although it did grate on me a little Kane said "I could care less what you do to Paul Bearer." He said the opposite of what he meant, which is "I could NOT care less what you do…" It did make Kane out to be a heel by showing no regard for his dad and pledge that his real father is the devil himself. It didn't, though, make Orton out to be much of a hero that he'd pay Kane back by taking it out on a (somewhat) innocent victim. I'm not sure that's a lesson to teach your kids.

-I don't get the psychology of selling a match by showing the babyface getting the better of the heel. Isn't that what you try to get fans to pay to see? I suppose the argument here is that Kane escaped through the crowd. Cole pointed out it's no retreat for Kane on Sunday because it's a Falls Count Anywhere match on Sunday, so Orton can chase Kane through the crowd. Couldn't he chased him through the crowd tonight, too, though? It's not he risked being DQ'd or counted out since his brawl tonight wasn't an official match.

BACKSTAGE: That was "risky" of the WWE camera operator to point the camera at Punk's locker room door as Jericho opened it. Anything could have been happening behind the closed door. I do enjoy further ambiguity over whether Punk is really drinking or not - more circumstantial evidence, but nothing conclusive.

3 -- THE GREAT KHALI & THE BIG SHOW vs. CODY RHODES & ALBERTO DEL RIO

-How often is Big Show the guy in a tag match who has to work the majority of the match because he's the cardio-king and more agile athlete on his team?

HYPE: Cole announced the Extreme Rules pre-show match between Santino and Miz on the WWE YouTube Channel. Interesting concept, and a smart way to get more people to their YouTube channel.

QUOTEBOOK: "As a good old friend of mine, J.R., once taught me, when you have bad news to distribute, get somebody else to do it."

FOLLOW-UP: I was pleased to hear Cole say action needs to be taken for Lesnar's attack on Josh Mathews, reminding viewers that Sheamus was fined a half million dollars when he kicked a referee. I actually am all for law and order, and suspensions or fines as punishment, but the half million dollar fine was so over the top it lacked credibility. Glad to see Mathews's condition updated after the break and not just blown off.

BACKSTAGE: Well, unless Punk was faking being drunk, his inebriated behavior with Teddy Long in the locker room revealed he was drinking. He was convincing, but was he setting up Jericho to be the butt of the joke?

QUOTEBOOK - C.M. Punk - "I didn't see the line. The line's never there."

IN-RING SEGMENT: What if Jericho didn't agree to give Punk another chance? Hey, Punk got the S and T in the wrong order. Technically, he should be stripped of the WWE Title belt, right?

4 -- BETH PHOENIX vs. NIKKI BELLA (w/Bri Bella)

-New champ. Long reign ends without much hoopla.

IN-RING SEGMENT: Punk's fake drunk routine was well done. I assume people saw the swerve coming, but maybe some didn't. Either way, Jericho's smugness made you eager to see his reaction when Punk revealed he wasn't really drunk. Jericho sold it very well.

WWE FACT: Last Monday Raw was watched by four times as many people as MLB on ESPN. Good fact to point out.

5 - SHEAMUS vs. MARK HENRY

-Daniel Bryan hammed it up as special ref. As James Caldwell pointed out, it was great to see Bryan actually fast-count. Why wouldn't he?

6 -- PRIMO & EPICO (w/Rosa Mendez) vs. SANTINO & ZACK RYDER

-The tag champs treated like jobbers. I think former NWA Jr. Hvt. Champion Denny Brown was treated better in TV matches than Primo & Epico. At least later A-Double - I mean A.W. - came out and offered guidance. You'd think being tag champions would be a sign of success, but WWE has portrayed them in such a way that they seem in dire need of guidance to get out of a rut.

7 -- BRODUS CLAY & HORNSWOGGLE vs. JACK SWAGGER & DOLPH ZIGGLER (w/Vickie Guerrero)

QUOTEBOOK - Michael Cole: "I think Hornswoggle has thicker thighs than Brodus."

-Vickie doing the Brodus dinosaur dance moves was the comedic highlight of the show.

-Hornswoggle has some rhythm.

CLIPS: They first showed Lesnar eating Hulk Hogan in 2002, and now they show Lesnar beating Kurt Angle in 2003. Are they trying to bury TNA? I think more so it just so happens that when Lesnar around in WWE ten years ago, he battled some of the now-WWE-castoffs who have been signed by TNA since. Of course it helps Lesnar won and that by showing those clips they're not giving away a finish to a match they expect to actually feature. WWE didn't show the previous Triple H vs. Undertaker match at WrestleMania last year when hyping the PPV for a reason.

IN-RING SEGMENT: I wouldn't have Brock Lesnar refer to himself as "naive farm boy" in the past. Why even plant that seed? Was anyone thinking of the former UFC Heavyweight Champ as "naive" or a "farmboy"?

-Were they trying to have Lesnar separate himself from mid-card heel G.M. act John Laurinaitis by having him spend a long segment in the ring with him? Or were they trying to have Lesnar get sympathy from the fans for picking on heel G.M. Laurinaitis. The crowd wasn't sure how to react because once again WWE is sending unclear messages about who is deserving of cheers and boos headed into a major PPV match. I suppose Vince McMahon believes there is nothing more heelish than being anti-WWE and holding up a corporation in contract negotiations. To Vince, that is the ultimate betrayal. To fans, that's a babyface move to use leverage against a powerful corporation to leverage more for yourself at their expense.

-Then Mr. Corporate John Cena walks out, essentially representing WWE at this point - which is embodied by the heel Mr. McMahon and the heel Laurinaitis. It's like they gave Lesnar so much time to talk just as an excuse to give him extended TV time, even if being a man of fewer words would serve their interests best.

-I have to admit I was kind of hoping Cena would pull on Lesnar what he pulled on Rock - calling him out for perhaps needing notes on his forearm to help him get through his promos. Not because it was or is a good idea to do that in general, but because I'd love to see Lesnar's reaction to being shown up like if it weren't planned.

-I can think of 100 ways Raw could have ended to get me excited about Cena-Lesnar, but I can't think of many that made me less interested. This was one of those.

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