Video: John Cena in Piper's Pit with Roddy Piper on WWE Raw

Last night (Nov. 28) on WWE Monday Night Raw, John Cena appeared with Rowdy Roddy Piper in "Piper's Pit" in the opening segment of the show from Columbia, South Carolina.

Words cannot express how brilliant this segment really was. For starters, both Cena and Piper put in performances that should be celebrated. I, being an adult with a somewhat respectable palate, was entertained throughout the entire segment, though it may have dragged in spots. In fact, the video after the jump was cut down to eight minutes, which still seems a tad long. Still, it was brilliantly performed by both men.

The idea behind the segment was WWE essentially acknowledging the internal struggle over who John Cena is and who he should be. Cena spent the entire segment defending the fans choice to boo him, because, after all, there is still a large segment that cheers him. He brought up his charity work, saying he had three "make-a-wishes." He pointed out children in the front row, who were having a great time wearing his gear (wink, wink) and cheering him on. That's why he doesn't let the boos from the other members of the crowd faze him.

Piper, meanwhile, essentially acted as Cena's conscience. Those boos that Cena hears are only getting louder and while the cheers are still surely there, the boos are not going away. Now that The Rock has made his return, the boos are only going to get worse, in fact. And that bothers Cena. As much as he doesn't want to admit to as much, it bothers him.

So Piper did what he could to coax Cena into acknowledging as much, going so far as to say that Cena will surely lose to The Rock at WrestleMania 28 if he doesn't settle up with the crowd and tell them exactly how he feels.

Cena, true to form, stood firm in his convictions, refusing to budge from his stance, even after taking a hard smack across the face.

In one fell swoop, WWE acknowledged the predicament they find themselves in trying to book Cena vs. Rock at 'Mania while giving Cena fans a reason to cheer for him even harder, Cena detractors a reason to boo him even harder and they teased the long awaited heel turn, as well.

This was easily the best segment on Raw since CM Punk's shoot promo back in June.

Roddy Piper won't be around for amazing angles like this every week but I'm now legitimately invested in where exactly this new wrinkle in the John Cena story will take us. I can honestly say I'm looking forward to Raw next week if only to see where they go with this and how Cena is booked going forward.

In the meantime, check out the video of the awesome opening segment to Raw last night after the jump.