WWE Raw Review: 5 Things We Learned from Tonight's Episode (May 7)

Now we know why B-level pay-per-views generally don't generate a ton of buys.

After watching tonight's lackluster episode of Monday Night Raw, it's clear that the upcoming Over the Limit pay-per-view is going to have a card filled with rushed feuds and matches that have little to no build.

Tonight's Raw show wasn't entirely horrible, as it did feature some positives such as Paul Heyman's shocking return and that great tag team match pitting Sheamus and Randy Orton against Chris Jericho.

But it wasn't exactly a great effort from the WWE, and thus it will likely be reflected in poor ratings and a low Over the Limit buy rate.

That's just a couple of things we learned tonight, though, so let's take a look at a few more.

Here are five things we learned from the May 7th edition of Monday Night Raw.

5. Brodus Clay Is Already Stale

I'm already sick of Brodus Clay.

"The Funkasaurus" was fun and different when he first started out, but here we are five months later and he's still doing the same thing he did when he debuted/returned.

Dance on the way to the ring. Win the match. Dance again. Leave.

It's hard to really blame Clay for getting so stale so quickly (I blame the creative team), but something needs to change soon.

While he's somewhat over with the crowd, he still hasn't had a feud and hasn't really done anything worthwhile in 2012.

I can deal with the dancing and the "comedy." I'd just prefer if it was intertwined into an actual feud and/or storyline.

4. Lord Tensai Is Going to Be a WWE Title Contender Soon

Lord Tensai debuted/returned to the WWE just five weeks ago, but he's already made a huge impact in the main event scene.

A few weeks back, he beat John Cena in the Raw main event, and on tonight's show, he beat CM Punk in the main event as well.

So, to sum up, Lord Tensai got two relatively clean wins over two of the WWE's top three babyfaces in a three-week span when both of them hardly ever lose at all.

That's a good sign for Tensai.

I personally get nothing out of watching Tensai because I don't care for his gimmick or find him particularly good at anything, but the WWE is intent on pushing him, and I have no doubt that he's going to be in line for a WWE Championship shot soon.

He's getting pushed to the moon, and he's beating main eventers. 

The next logical step is for him to challenge for the WWE title, likely after Over the Limit, although I think a Punk/Tensai feud will fail miserably.

3. The WHC Match at Over the Limit Is Now a Fatal 4-Way

The most obvious lesson from tonight's Raw: Sheamus will now defend the World Heavyweight Championship in a Fatal 4-Way at Over the Limit.

I find this to be extremely interesting for a number of reasons, but here are the two most important.

It is the ultimate sign that the brand split means absolutely nothing, and it could be setting the stage for future feuds involving all four of these men.

We've never seen Sheamus vs. Chris Jericho in a feud (although we have in a match), nor have we seen Alberto Del Rio vs. Randy Orton.

Perhaps this Fatal 4-Way will change that, though, and we'll see this Over the Limit match lead to those never-before-seen rivalries in the coming months.

At the very least, though, making the WHC match a Fatal 4-Way gives it some more star power, will likely improve the quality of the match and could help increase Over the Limit's buy rate. 

2. Paul Heyman Is Back...and Brock Lesnar Is Better off Because of It

Paul Heyman returned to the WWE on Raw tonight, and the WWE managed to keep it a secret.

Props to them for preventing news of such a major return from leaking on the Internet.

Anyway, in what was one of the few highlights of the show, Heyman cut a great promo in which he announced that Brock Lesnar has quit the WWE.

We all know that isn't really the case, but it was a great way to make us "forget" about Lesnar for a while until he returns for a likely SummerSlam match with Triple H.

The news that was even bigger than Lesnar quitting, however, was Heyman's return itself, which certainly came as a shock and was something that many of us never thought we'd see.

You know what else it was? The right move, and a great one at that.

Lesnar has been pretty dreadful on the mic since his return, and assuming Heyman is back for an extended run, Lesnar will be even more of a monster with Heyman working as his mouthpiece.

I have no idea if Heyman's return was a one-time thing or not, but I sure hope it wasn't. 

Lesnar needs him, and the WWE could certainly benefit from having him back, too.

1. Randy Orton May Be Turning Heel

The biggest news coming out of Raw (at least in my view) wasn't an announcement. It was a tease of a possible heel turn for Randy Orton.

After the World Heavyweight Championship match was expanded to a Fatal 4-Way that now includes Chris Jericho and Randy Orton, I think the little beef that went on during and after that tag team match may have taken place just to make this OTL match happen.

But speculation of a heel turn for Orton is definitely going to be rampant now after Sheamus inadvertently hit Orton with a Brogue Kick and Orton purposely returned the favor by hitting Sheamus with an RKO.

Will it happen? I don't think so because Orton is ridiculously over right now.

However, the creative team definitely teased that we could see Orton turn on Sheamus, and I wouldn't mind seeing Orton turn heel.

His face character may be over, but I think it's time for a change.

Now, it's time to sit back and see if that change is actually going to happen.

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.