Raw Recap 4.18.11

Last night we saw our weekly edition of WWE's Monday Night Raw television show on the USA Network.  After spending months building up to Wrestlemania I can imagine it is tough to keep the programming up to par as it was a couple of weeks ago. Wrestlemania came and went on like it always does and now we are back to the weekly grind so to speak.  Rumor is that The Rock is going to be on Raw in a couple of weeks.  If truth be told he will do a lot of talking and nothing else. Why spoil things when he has a big match against John Cena in another year?  The past 2 weeks the WWE has been touring Europe and pre-taped Raw in London.  Because of the time change this show was not obviously live like most weeks.  That in itself for me is already a downer.  One really cool thing though is Jim Ross is back as one of the voices of WWE.  I always enjoy listening to Mr. Ross and wish he would be back full time as a commentator.  The show was overall semi-par.  R-Truth changed characters from the good guy to the bad guy.  John Cena and Sin Cara tag teamed against The Miz and Alex Riley while the main event for last night's show was Randy Orton VS. CM Punk and most likely The Nexus.  The video has been embedded below.



Just like everyone thought.  CM Punk couldn't fight on his own and The Nexus came out to his rescue.  What is up with Mason Ryan?  That guy looks just like Batista!  All things aside I like CM Punk and he is a pretty believable bad guy.  It was a classic ending with the RKO on Punk to end the show.  Why do i get the feeling that The Nexus is going to interfere with the main event of Cena VS Miz VS Morrison at Extreme Rules at the end of the month?



I continue to be impressed by Sin Cara. Does he remind me a lot of Rey Mysterio? Yes, but in a lot of ways better! His technique is amazing. Technique is something the contestants of WWE Tough Enough has been learning this week. You can call WWE what you want. You can say it is fake and predetermined but the men and women that do this job put their bodies on the line every day and if it wasn't for technique it would look like crap. John Cena is the man! I love John Cena. He is my favorite wrestler and I never get tired of watching him. That being said. John's technique is great but he could have a better arsenal of moves.

Interestingly enough the show opened last night with WWE Superstar R-Truth talking to the crowd about how happy he was that he was going to be in the main event, a triple threat match, at Extreme Rules. John Morrison came out and challenged Truth to a match. Morrison brought up that Truth drank water in between matches and that outside of the ring he smokes cigarettes. Truth took Morrison's challenge and lost the match. Now John Morrison will bat the main event and Truth is back to being a mid card star. After losing, Truth went on a rampage and demolished Morrison. He took a pack of cigarettes from a fan and began to smoke in front of the crowd.



It must have made some waves across the ocean back to the USA because a group of people were outraged at the storyline. Here is an excerpt from the website TMZ:

The drama began when Ron "R-Truth" Killings hit up the audience for a smoke ... and actually LIT UP right in front of them ... including several children. But the on-screen cig-fest didn't sit so well with anti-smoking activist Patrick Reynolds (pictured right) -- Executive Director of TobaccoFree.org -- who has officially issued a challenge to the wrestler ... to publicly apologize for the smoking stunt.


Reynolds -- ironically the grandson of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds -- tells TMZ, "For him to smoke in front of [children] is irresponsible. At best, it's thoughtless, and at worst, if he calculated appealing to kids by posing as a bad-boy outlaw, it's evil." Reynolds adds, "If he wants help in quitting, I'll be happy to be his personal coach."


The WWE issued a statement to TMZ defending the cigarette incident -- saying, "The negative effect smoking has on one’s health and physical performance was a part of a storyline on last night’s Monday Night Raw. Negative depictions of tobacco use on television are not unusual and can be seen on other TV-PG shows."

No video was uploaded to the official WWE Youtube Page.  Further updates as I get them!

**Found a video someone uploaded to Youtube. Check it out above.