Let's go to the video tape.
Here we have the opening segment of WWE Monday Night Raw last night (April 9, 2012), which featured what may have amounted to the best segment they've run in this spot in years. There are just so many things to love about it.
Brock Lesnar and John Laurinaitis cheesing at each other is phenomenal. Conversely, Brock's reaction when he hears John Cena's entrance music -- to immediately lose the smile and turn his head before muttering "motherfucker" under his breath -- was about as pitch perfect as it get could.
Cena then coming to the ring and never once grabbing a microphone, instead electing to walk right up and shoot slap the shit out of Lesnar made for a moment we won't soon forget. The ensuing brawl was beautifully done. Brock made sure to potato Cena hard enough to draw blood, and the entire locker room spilled out to break the two up.
The visual of Cena smirking through his busted up lip with blood coming out of his mouth is something we've badly wanted to see WWE television for a long time. It struck just the right tone for this angle.
Jerry Lawler even did well on commentary saying, "Nobody slaps Brock Lesnar in the face."
The only bad part, and it wasn't even really all that bad all things considered, was Bill DeMott's terribly weak attempt at stopping Cena from going across the ring to get back on Lesnar at the 5:20 mark. Not Tough Enough, eh Bill?
No matter, this was seriously compelling stuff from all involved. First Blood match at Extreme Rules anyone?