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Monday Night RAW: Mark Henry hits World's Strongest Swerve on WWE Universe

2013-06-19T00:00:03Z

During this week's (June 17, 2013) Monday Night RAW, longtime veteran Mark Henry staged a fake retirement, only to swerve the audience and demolish WWE champion John Cena in the process (reactions here). The result? A championship title match against Cena at next month's Money in the Bank (MITB) pay-per-view (PPV).

I'll be ordering that one.

That's because Mark and I have some history. It was just over two months ago when I froze my ass off, standing in line at the IZOD Center with my kid at WWE Fan AXXESS, so that we could rub shoulders with some of the talent prior to WrestleMania 29 in my home state of New Jersey.

We got inside, warmed up, and had a blast.

The night was capped off by a meet and greet with Mark Henry. As luck would have it, "The World's Strongest Man" signed her book, posed for a picture and gave her one of his paws to shake. He was the first WWE superstar she'd ever met.

That shit is thrilling when you're 10 years old.

Needless to say, she's been Mark Henry's number one fan ever since. So you can imagine her surprise when the artist formerly known as "Sexual Chocolate" lumbered to the ring in a pink sport coat, big enough to cover my Kia SOUL in case of inclement weather, and called it a career.

I saw her bottom lip begin to tremble.

Then came Henry's tears and welp, it was waterworks at Casa de Holland. There wasn't much I could do except sling my arm around her and try to assure her that he would be surfacing in the WWE Hall of ~~Pain~~ Fame at some point in the not-too-distant future. By then, even I was convinced the big lug was hanging up his boots.

Then came the ultimate act of betrayal.

My initial reaction was, that son of a bitch got me.

It's not often I get worked these days and it's not because I have some otherworldly insight, but rather because I've been watching pro wrestling for 30 years and I recognize the usual patterns. As for my daughter, red-faced and glassy-eyed, her expression was indescribable.

It was like she wanted him dead.

By contrast, I saw quite a few reactions on Twitter -- as well as right here on Cageside Seats -- to the effect of, "Dude, it was so obvious," and "Well, I knew it was a work the entire time." If you are one of these people, I think it might be time to ask yourself why you still watch WWE programming.

If you can't allow yourself to be a mark when the situation calls for it, or at least enjoy the occasional kayfabe ride, then what's the point?

I don't understand this need to be the smartest guy in the room. Is it an ego defense? I have a friend who I positively WILL NOT see a movie with, because as soon as the opening credits begin to fade, he starts doing his detective shtick for the next two hours. It's maddening.

Psst ... see that guy in the trench coat? I'll betcha he's the killer!

He can't enjoy the movie because he's too busy trying to outsmart it. Similarly, I know a lot of pro wrestling fans these days who can't enjoy the product, because they take every angle, promo and storyline and run it through the spectrometer for analysis.

It's like a contest they have with themselves to see how quickly they can outrun the ending.

When they're right, they pat themselves on the back. I knew it. When they're wrong, they complain about how stupid the booking was. Typical PG era bullshit. I guess some guys just can't handle getting beat. Sure, we're all guilty of it from time-to-time, but last night's segment, even if you had your doubts, was flawless.

The credit falls squarely on Mark Henry's sizable shoulders.

Everything about his career-defining performance was spot on. From his delivery, to his tone, to his inflection. His dialog felt real and let's face it, when a man who can bench press Rhode Island starts crying on live television, it's hard not to take him at his word.

Plus it helps that he creamed the promotion's top babyface (great breakdown on that here).

It's a monumental task in the Internet age to keep anything a secret. Shutting-the-fuck-up is a lost art, so most of what's laid out in advance will slip through the cracks, or mirror aforementioned patterns from the angles of yesteryear.

Not this time.

The good news is, there was no collateral damage. Apprehensive about reopening any wounds, I meekly asked my daughter this morning if she was still a Mark Henry fan. Her reply? "Well yeah, I mean I met him and everything, but I'm not happy about what happened last night. Not happy at all."

World's Strongest Actor.

WWE Raw ratings rise to 4.15 million viewers for Payback fallout show

2013-06-18T22:52:15Z

Considering the Payback pay-per-view (PPV) was as strong as it was the night before, and there was no major competition from any of the big sports that usually rip viewers away, one would think last night's (June 17, 2013) episode of Monday Night Raw would bounce back over the four million average for all three hours.

And that's exactly what happened.

Indeed, Raw, which emanated from the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, did a 3.0 rating and averaged 4.15 million viewers. There was an NHL Stanley Cup Final game between the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins that did around 4 million viewers, but it didn't appear to cut into Raw's audience much, if at all.

Here's the hourly breakdown:

Hour one: 4.03 million
Hour two: 4.26 million
Hour three: 4.17 million

Not the best, but certainly not the worst. The third hour didn't benefit from actual promotion of Brock Lesnar, who showed up in the main event segment as a surprise to F-5 CM Punk following his split from Paul Heyman.

WWE has been getting it right an awful lot lately, though and with so much entertainment value looming on the horizon, the hope is the ratings will gradually improve as the shows continue to get better.

The hope is that much, at least.

For complete results and the live blog click here. For reactions to the show click here. And for a playlist of the entire night click here.

Report: Daniel Bryan's injury on Monday Night Raw was legit

2013-06-18T21:53:22Z

Well this is discouraging news in one sense but somewhat encouraging news in another: Daniel Bryan's "stinger" injury that he suffered during last night's (June 17, 2013) episode of Monday Night Raw at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, during his match with Randy Orton was legitimate.

And the decision made to stop the match was a shoot.

That's according to Dave Meltzer at the Wrestling Observer in today's Daily Update:

Daniel Bryan was injured in his match with Randy Orton last night and the finish was essentially a shoot as they stopped a match that Daniel was scheduled to win. The story online that he suffered a stinger is legit.

For its part, WWE played up the story with an article on the company website featuring comments from Triple H on putting the health of his performers first followed by an apparent kayfabe confrontation with Bryan, who wasn't happy about his match getting stopped.

An excerpt:

Among the most controversial moments of a wild Raw in Michigan was the unexpected stoppage of the Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton contest after the submission expert suffered a "stinger" in the middle of the bout and was deemed unfit to compete by WWE officials, with the final decision coming from WWE COO Triple H himself.

"Whether anybody likes it or not, it's my job as COO of this company," confirmed Triple H to WWE.com. "I made the call that Daniel Bryan's health was important and I called the match."

Bryan - currently battling a self-imposed perception that he is a "weak link" - seemed less than happy at the result on air, and in fact, he let The Game know exactly how he felt once he stepped backstage.

"I saw Daniel face-to-face with Triple H, nose to nose, screaming at him, saying that the match should not have been stopped and he'd worked through several injuries over 13 years," said referee John Cone, who followed Bryan into the locker room area.

There's no word on the severity of the injury and whether or not it will force Bryan to miss any time. He's currently being advertised for the SmackDown taping later on tonight in a match against Dean Ambrose.

As always, Cagesiders, stay tuned.

Brock Lesnar vs. CM Punk is earmarked for WWE SummerSlam

2013-06-18T21:07:00Z

For the fifth year in a row, WWE will invade the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California, with its annual SummerSlam pay-per-view (PPV) event, traditionally the third biggest show of the year on the schedule. And for the second year in a row, Brock Lesnar will be in the main event against a man who has been in the main event in three of the past five years.

I'm not entirely sure what all that means, if anything, but it sounded cool.

Anyway, executives at WWE pay both Lesnar and Punk far too much money not to put them in the marquee match at such a major event. With the two sharing such close ties to Paul Heyman, the storyline to get them to a match against each other is simply too easy to conjure.

We don't know exactly what that story will entail but we do know there was electricity in the air when the two briefly shared a ring just last night (June 17) on Monday Night Raw in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Lesnar arrived, F-5'ed, and left. Watch him do it here.

What's interesting is this ensures Punk, who has spent far too much of his career on the undercard despite his status as a top star, will return to the main event in a feud that will no doubt get much more play than whatever WWE champion John Cena is involved with. So, while Punk was champion for 434 days, he was still working the undercard and taking a backseat to Cena's doings but now the role is reversed. Cena has the title, both the WWE championship and the "Being John Cena" championship, and yet Punk will be the headlining act.

Even if he got there simply by virtue of being Lesnar's opponent.

It takes two to tango either which way you slice it and according to reports, Lesnar vs. Punk is on for SummerSlam. That's all that matters, right?

Video: Latest Bray Wyatt promo from Monday Night Raw on June 17

2013-06-18T19:15:05Z

Here's the latest Bray Wyatt promo teasing his main roster re-debut that aired during last night's (June 17, 2013) episode of "Monday Night Raw" from Grand Rapids, Michigan. He's coming.

WWE Money in the Bank video promo for July 14 event in Philadelpha

2013-06-18T14:00:06Z

Here's the video promo for the WWE "Money in the Bank" event scheduled for July 14, 2013, in Philadelphia.

Daily Open Thread for Tuesday, June 18, 2013

2013-06-18T13:00:04Z

Here's your Daily Open Thread for Tuesday, June 18, 2013: Come chat about whatever you would like. Come back all day and night for discussion of all things pro wrestling and beyond.

Don't forget to check out everything else we have going on here at Cageside today. Since it's Tuesday, that means you can anticipate reactions to last night's episode of Monday Night Raw, a video playlist of the entire show, the latest zaniness that occurred on this date in pro wrestling history, the latest match-up in the Greatest Finisher Tournament, and an all new Rumor Round-Up.

Keep checking that front page for even more content throughout the day, as well. But for now, scroll on down to the comments and talk about whatever your heart desires.

On this date in WWF history: Diamond Dallas Page debuts on Raw

2013-06-18T12:00:04Z

When Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) purchased World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 2001, most of the major players and top level talent had contracts large enough that instead of buying them out and putting them on TV, they were allowed to expire while sitting on the sidelines.

There were a couple big stars from WCW to sign a fresh deal with the WWF, however, and Diamond Dallas Page (DDP) was one of them. When he put pen to paper, he came up with an idea to come into the company by challenging The Rock. Here was his original idea:

"I figured out how I'm gonna go show up in the WWF when I finally go there. (WWF is) gonna turn off all the lights and everybody's gonna think it's gonna be Jericho. But it's gonna go 10 seconds, 20 seconds, still no lights. JR goes, ‘hold on we got a problem here, just hang with us.' Then you hear my voice for the first time in a WWF arena, [saying] ‘whose the real people's champion?' The spotlight hits me and I go, ‘You're looking at him.' The place pops, yells, boos, cheers, whatever. I do the diamond cutter sign, boom! Big explosion. I go to the ring and I start busting The Rock's chops. He can be hurt, maybe he's doing a movie or something. The Rock wasn't in a movie spot at that point, but that's where my head was going. I was literally seeing my destiny. If I would have stayed the course. When I got there to do the stalker thing, Vince (McMahon) and Shane (McMahon) really wanted me to do that. I didn't want to do that, but I agreed to that."

The "stalker thing" he was referencing was the actual angle they used to introduce him. On an episode of Monday Night Raw one night in 2001, Jim Ross made mention of a letter he received saying they would meet Undertaker's wife at the time, Sara, that night when he wasn't even scheduled to be there. Later on in the evening, a video aired that showed Sara in her bathroom brushing her hair while a distorted voice creepily said he wanted to see a lot more of her.

In the weeks to come, more videos would air while Undertaker went on a crusade to find out just who the hell it was that was stalking his old lady. He went from Ross, to Vince McMahon, to Shane McMahon, to Kurt Angle, and everywhere in between before the stalker finally revealed himself on this date in WWF history (June 18, 2001).

He came out to Undertaker's music, riding a motorcycle while wearing all black with a black helmet on his head. He climbed into the ring and stood there, building anticipation for the big reveal. The lights went up and after a short pause, he took the mask off to reveal that it was DDP all along.

He would go on to cut a promo saying he wanted to make an impact in the WWF and the way you do that is by going after the biggest dog in the yard. And the best way to attack the biggest dog in the yard is to find its biggest weakness.

The storyline was a tad creepy but the big reveal got a nice pop. The ensuing feud was nothing to write home about, as Undertaker, of course, went over big on DDP at every turn. Even Sara pinned the former WCW heavyweight champion. Really, the less said about it the better.

Here's his debut: