Last night’s main event of Monday Night RAW was incredible,
plain and simple. The match pitted US Champion John Cena defending the belt
against challenger Cesaro. Now Cena and Cesaro always have amazing chemistry in
the ring together, facing off on RAW in February and July of 2014 as well as
having a match on the previous RAW that ended in a disqualification when then
NXT champion Kevin Steen interfered attacking both men. This match outperformed
all of the previous Cena/Cesaro encounters. Every single thing about this match
was done to perfection. The set up saw Owens fresh off his recent loss of the
NXT title in Japan, try and accept Cena’s open challenge only to have Cesaro
interrupt him and claim his right to a rematch. This furthered the Cena/Owen’s
feud as well as set up Cesaro’s legitimacy to challenge Cena (something I will
get back to). In looking at the Cena/Owen’s feud, both men own a victory over
the other in Champion vs Champion matches at the previous two pay-per-views.
The formulaic rubber match is set to take place in two weeks at WWE
Battleground. While both matches were rightfully hailed as great matches, most
could sense that it would go to an inevitable rubber match. With rumors that
Owens will become a top heel, expectations are that he will defeat Cena for the
title, however this past Monday really shook me of that expectation. Cesaro really needs something right now, after
last year’s highlight of winning the first ever Andre the Giant Memorial Battle
Royal at WrestleMania 30, he became the newest Paul Heyman guy only to quickly
lose momentum and become lost in the shuffle until teaming with Tyson Kidd to
former the affection ally named Uppercats. The duo won the Tag Team titles
earlier this year but lost them to the New Day and unfortunately Tyson suffered
an injury that will have him out for several months, maybe a year. This left
Cesaro with nothing again, however after Monday’s RAW; he could be back to an elevated
level. This is part of why I love this match so much; it put Cesaro over
despite a clean finish. This really is the story of the John Cena US Open
Challenge, John is winning sure but he is putting over younger talent in the
process. That is the mark of a great champion and what I think really separates
this Cena title reign from his others. Going back to the heyday of Super Cena,
the focus was build up a monster heel, Cena beats them, and then monster heel
is forgotten. Look at Umaga, Khali, Kozlov, etc. Many feared Rusev would suffer
the same fate after losing to Cena at WrestleMania this year; unfortunately
injury took him out of action for a good while following a series of rematches
against Cena. Those matches put Rusev over while simultaneously elevating the
status of the US title. But unlike Super Cena, Rusev was still a mid-career; he
was never the main event threat that Khali or Umaga was booked as, if anything
Cena was dropped to a mid-card role instead of pushing Rusev up. To his credit
all of the men Cena have faced, he has put over despite Cena wins over most.
Neville gained a huge rub by facing Cena, this reminds me a lot of 02 when Cena
debuted against Kurt Angle during Angle’s open challenge. That match, Cena’s
first in WWE, was just as star making as Cena/Owens I. Yet the Cesaro/Cena
match was something different, it took Cesaro and made him an instant threat
again, not star making but main even cementing. This match was more akin to
Cena/Taker from Vengeance 03 in which Taker may have won the match but Cena won
respect. This is where I must bring up
my only gripe with the match, the fact Cesaro had to argue his case for a
rematch in the first place. Back in the 90s, title usually followed a formula
in which the challenger would have to defeat the champion in a non-title match
in order to get a shot at the championship. In fact the US Title in WCW was originally
meant to be the title of the #1 contender, it was this loophole that Goldberg
used to defeat Scott Hall and then go on to “cash in” his US Title for a shot
at the WCW World Heavyweight championship, defeating Hogan the same night on
Nitro. While this formula is all but a relic of a bygone era, TNA tried to
revive it with Plan C, allowing the X-Division champion to cash in his title
for a shot the art World Title at Destination X. WWE in their infinite wisdom
has ditched this in favor of only allowing the rematch clause if the champion
loses, but the challengers right is all but out the window. I get why don’t get
me wrong, it makes the champion look weak to lose a non-title match and they
want to save the confrontations for that big match feel at a pay-per-view.
However this is a major point, the PPV MATCH SHOULD BE WORTH THE PAYOFF. Look
at the entirety of the Rollins title reign so far every single match ended in a
screwy finish, now that works if you do it right and not that often but a
constant stream is just nauseating. Rollins could have easily defeated Ambrose
in the ladder match clean, then the next night Ambrose say, you beat me but
that makes me want it more. However the “payoff” a screwy finish that leads to
a Lesnar/Rollins match. How does that do anything for Ambrose except set up a
potential match later on but months down the line? However consider the old school
formula, champion faces challenger in a non-title match where the challenger
wins setting up a match at the PPV, the next few weeks the challenger gains a
tag team win over the champ, the champ beats down the challenger, this leads to the go home show where they are
both evenly matched. Then bam the PPV means something. Look at the Cesaro
situation, two weeks ago his match ended in DQ, giving him a win over Cena with
the champ keeping the title. Cesaro then has the right to have a rematch; he
should not have to interrupt Owens. That
being said, my actually gripe is with the though process/booking style not with
the fact it happened in fact it gave a brilliant way to set up a potential Cesaro/Owens
feud. Now to the match it was an instant classic. Why? It was old school plain
and simple. I felt as if I was watching RAW from 02-04, for a second, the main
event was just that a main event. The show ended how it always should with a
main event match that leaves no doubt what the main event was. I have ranted
before about how Heath Slater has won a main event of RAW due to the fact he
was in the last match of the show, a show which ended in a contract signing.
The track record really since SummerSlam 2012 has been screwy finish or massive
face beat down or contract signing every week, now I know there are a few exceptions
but they truly are few and far between. This match had a big match feel by the
end of it, not because of hype or promos or contracts but because it did what
great wrestling does, it told a story. It was two men fighting for a title,
fighting to be the best, fighting back and forth without trying to make anyone
look good or strong. It was even ample time to showcase itself and for periods
there I was really questioning my gut reaction that Cena would walk out champ.
I was able to stop thinking about bookings and rumors and shut the smark out
and just enjoy the match as it was intended. It wasn’t a spotfest but it wasn’t
afraid to pull out the big moves of each competitor. Rather than no selling big
moves, the impact was allowed to be felt with close kick outs. This same
mentality has been in place for the Cena/Owens matches as well, and it makes
the matches feel like big epic encounters. I’m constantly drawn back to the
Triple H/Shawn Michaels feud or even the Michaels/Taker WrestleMania 25 match
as a comparison. The ending was a clean finish and it did not hurt Cesaro at
all, he gave Cena everything he had and it was a back and forth matches. Cena
was able to hit an AA of the second rope but that was a reversal of Cesaro’s
top rope Neutralizer. This just goes to show how one move makes the difference.
If nothing else it’s a strong case for a Cesaro push or rematch down the road. The
Owen’s sneak attack attempt was another brilliant spot as Cena anticipated it
after weeks of Owen’s attacks. Just the visual of the show ending with a previously
y extreme hostile Chi-Town crowd now opening applauding Cena’s effort made that
match feel special. Cena’s off air speech and actions putting over Cesaro was
just the icing on an amazing cake of professional wrestling at its finest.
