Rapppppppaddddooo!

John Cena! John Cena! John Cena!

He’s wrestling Kane tonight.

Also on Raw, we’ve got more IC Title tournament hijinks: John Morrison will face off against Finlay and The Miz will take on Rey Mysterio. I think there’s also some sort of Divas match, but who really cares.

Discuss Raw here.

Before I went to sleep last night, I decided to tune and watch the final segment of Raw to see what the WWE would do with John Cena. Surprisingly, I found myself enjoying the end of the show.

True, Cena’s promo was over-the-top face material, but it wasn’t as bad as people are making it out to be. In fact, I thought it had something that we see very little of in the WWE-passion. Whether or not you like what they guy is saying, he cut a good face promo. Just ACCEPT it.

The post-match beat down was also entertaining. Jericho calls Cena a bunch of names, provokes him, and Cena attacks. Jericho played the heel role to perfection, and Cena showed a real fire with that beatdown. I honestly thought it was a great performance. In fact, I thought I might come on the blog this morning and see some of you guys praising Cena for a good job last night. I was totally surprised when I didn’t.

Face it–last night’s post-promo ass-kicking by Cena made sense within the storylines of each character. Why can’t a face beat down a heel after the heel calls him a “worm” and several other names? Is there a wrestling rulebook that has to be followed at all times by the bookers? If that were the case, there would be no point in watching, because you’d already know what was going to happen.

I thought perhaps we’d see the same old stuff. You know, Jericho attacking Cena from behind, perhaps even with help from another heel like JBL. But instead, WWE switched it up, and we got something new.

I really don’t see last night’s events “taking away” from the upcoming Cena/Jericho match since we already know that Cena can “beat” Jericho in a one-on-one match-up. In case you guys haven’t noticed, Chris Jericho’s playing the sneaky heel–he’s not booked to be the kind of wrestler that would just go in and beat Cena one-on-one. He relies on dirty tricks. So Cena facing up to him and handling him in a brawl situation is totally within the context of each guy.

Bottom line–I want everybody to do something for a second. Take a step back from your pre-programmed, IWC John Cena-hating ways and look objectively at the conclusion to last night’s Raw. Was it really that bad?

Or would you rather see more Batista/Jericho stuff? At this point, I’ll take Cena over Batista. At least Cena has a personality, even if he is lame at times.

What about C.M. Punk? He had a title run earlier this year, and I don’t recall him showing much personality during that run, either. In fact, I thought he was surprisingly boring, although part of that is not his fault since the WWE has neutered his wrestling-style. The CM Punk we see in the WWE is not the same one we saw in Ring of Honor.

OK. So any other faces on Raw? HBK? Well, we’ve seen HBK/Jericho about 1,000 times now, so I’ll avoid that, too.

The only other main event-level face on Raw right now is Rey Mysterio, and while he’s obviously a more spectacular wrestler than Cena, he’s just as kid-friendly. In fact, the way I see it, the only two options right now for a title feud on the face side are Mysterio and Cena.

Kofi Kingston and (I guess) Kennedy are the only other two faces on Raw who could even remotely scratch main event level, and neither of them appear to be ready. Cena’s basically the only option to feud with these guys right now.

Cena’s wrestling skills aren’t the greatest, but he’s not terrible. He’s had some fantastic matches in the past with a range of wrestlers, so I’m not even going to complain about his wrestling considering the WWE’s standards. He has improved by leaps and bounds. He works hard, he’s good to the fans, and like or not, the ratings were better when he was champion.

Don’t think I’m Cena’s Number one fan now, because I’m not. I’m simply pointing out reality. In fact, I don’t think Cena can save this show–it’s gone to shit in the past year. At least if Raw were off-the-wall ala some of the past TNA Impact shows I could be entertainined by laughing at it. Unfortunately, the show has become brutally boring because it’s the same old stuff OVER and OVER again. As enetertaining as I thought last night’s closing segment was, they’ll probably screw this up down the line by doing the same things they’ve already done with Cena. Many of you are right–he should turn heel.

My bottom line here, though, is this: John Cena is not that bad. There’s better and there’s worse. But right now, for Raw, there’s no better option on the face side.

If you don’t like it, do yourself a favor and watch Smackdown, ECW or Impact! Hell, go watch an ROH DVD, because if you hate John Cena that much, you probably aren’t going to need to pay for cable to watch Raw for a long while.

It’s time for another edition of Monday Night Raw, and I couldn’t be more geeked! OK, I lied. I just wanted to see if I could actually use the word “geeked” here, but it just doesn’t work. I can’t believe people use ridiculous phrases like “I’m so geeked.”

On the bright side, tonight’s Raw will actually do something no Raw has done in a long time: spotlight the Intercontinental Title. There’s going to be the first round of a tournament to decide the number one contender for William Regal’s IC Strap–I’m excited about the concept.

Also, Rey Mysterio and HBK will face the Miz and Morrison in a tag match, and some guy named John Cena will return to the show.

Discuss Raw here.

Tonight’s Raw will feature a potentially solid wrestling match: Randy Orton v. CM Punk. Note I said potentially solid. Orton’s matches are always judged on how often he goes into the headlock, so we’ll see if that’s within the first two minutes of the match–it usually is.

Also featured on tonight’s show wil be “Stephanie McMahon’s Raw Superstar Forum.” That segment will kick off Raw, and promises to be oh-so-exciting. Nothing like losing your audience to football in the first five minutes of the show.

Also, in other Raw-related news, PW Torch is reporting that Triple H is up to play the role of Thor in the movie Thor. I’m a big fan of the Thor comics published by Marvel (DC Sucks!), and I think he’d be a fine choice–he looks just like the guy. Also, if he’s off filming a movie, he won’t be clogging up the title scene on Smackdown.

Apparently it’s down to Trips and Daniel Craig (James Bond), so we’ll see if they go with big look-a-like or big star.

By the way, here’s Thor back in the day:

Oh, and uh, discuss Raw here.

As usual, I couldn’t resist reading the Raw spoilers, and this time, it paid off–it looks like there will be a wild main event tonight on Raw. I’m not going to spoil the match for anyone, but if you’ve read the spoilers, you know what I’m talking about.

Also, we’ve got Santino v. William Regal for the Intercontinental Title in front of Regal’s home country fans. Even though he’s a heel, you know he’ll get the face reaction in England.

I’m actually looking forward to Raw tonight, and since I’m on vacation, I’ll actually stay awake for the potentially awesome main event. That’s something I haven’t done much lately.

Discuss Raw here.

Editor’s Note: Don’t forget to vote on the podcast poll below! This week’s question: should Sting sign a short-term contract with the WWE in 2010?

Remember, tonight’s Raw is the 800th edition of the show, and thus, a special three-hour episode, starting at 8e/7c.

Here’s what’s on the docket tonight match-wise:

• Cage Match for the World Heavyweight Championship: Chris Jericho v. Batista(c)
• D-Generation X v. The Miz and John Morrison
• 16 Diva Tag Team Match

You know, if WWE wanted to make this show really “special,” they might try to come up with a full-card ahead of time and give it that “Clash of the Champions” feel. I guess that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

Discuss the 800th edition of Raw here.

I’ve heard that Cyber Sunday actually wasn’t that bad of a PPV, but you wouldn’t know it based on the main event for tonight’s Raw: Batista and Shawn Michaels will take on Chris Jericho and JBL. File that one under the “more of the same” category.

Of course, no other matches have been announced. Discuss Raw here.