WWE Storyline of the Week: Edge Confronts John Cena About Brock Lesnar on Raw

Last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw did what every Raw should strive to do: start off hot. 

Though the show gradually went downhill throughout the three hours (which didn’t feel all that special), I was intrigued by the remainder of Raw thanks to what we saw at the beginning. 

John Cena came out at the start of Raw for what we thought was going to be the contract signing for his Extreme Rules match against Brock Lesnar. 

After it was revealed that Lesnar wouldn’t arrive until later in the show, however, Edge’s music hit, completely out of nowhere. And I’ll admit it—I marked out a bit, partly because Edge’s music is so awesome, but mostly because I didn’t expect to see him at all. 

As soon as Edge walked into the arena, I was thinking to myself: OK, what the hell is he doing here? 

At first, it didn’t really seem to make sense for Edge to insert himself into this Cena/Lesnar feud for no reason. That was, until Edge spoke. 

In an emotional and heartfelt promo, Edge put over Cena and talked about everything those two had been through together (well, more like against each other). Edge and Cena had some great feuds around 2005 and 2006 that resulted in some great matches, by the way.

Edge would go on to explain to Cena that he has to rebound from the WrestleMania loss to The Rock and that he has to find that Cena, the Cena who Edge considered to be his greatest rival. 

Why? Because Cena has to beat Lesnar, who just returned to the WWE for the love of money rather than for the love of the business. 

I’m sure this is a common belief that the current WWE stars have about Lesnar, which is why I found it so interesting (and awesome) that Edge would bring it up. 

Edge looked Cena in the eyes and said that they carried the WWE on their backs while Lesnar bolted the company to pursue other interests. He said that since Cena wanted to be a wrestler first and foremost, he has to “Wake up!” and get out of this funk he’s been in since WrestleMania 28. 

The segment ended with Edge telling Cena, “I’m not asking you to beat Brock Lesnar. I’m telling you to.” 

That. Was. Phenomenal. 

Edge has always been gold on the mic, and though he didn’t necessarily seem to fit into this Lesnar/Cena feud, he used his incredible mic skills to really add a new dimension to this rivalry. 

It’s no longer just about Cena. It’s about Cena winning and beating a part-timer, because he truly loves the wrestling business, while Lesnar really couldn’t care less about it. 

This segment really helped stress the importance of this Lesnar vs. Cena match at Extreme Rules, which is happening just four weeks after Lesnar’s return. 

We now know that Cena—in the words of Edge—has to win, and as a result, we will be much more likely to tune in on Sunday and see if that actually happens. 

Major props are in order to Edge for selling the hell out of this feud, even though—on the surface, at least—he really has nothing to do with it.

Drake Oz is the WWE Lead Writer for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter and ask him any wrestling-related questions (to be answered in the B/R Mailbag) on Formspring.