Breaking Down the Best and Worst of the WWE for Week of April 14

When WWE got serious this week, be it with stables, challengers or David vs. Goliath matchups, it produced intrigue.

The week's best matches and moments centered around Superstars striving for the Intercontinental Championship and a war between trios shaping up just in time for Extreme Rules. The times that the company relied on asinine entertainment, the results inspired eye rolling.

John Cena and Hornswoggle were guilty of just that.

Optimistic fans will choose to instead remember the week for Evolution reuniting, a tournament's first round and two NXT prospects succeeding opposite larger opponents.

Best: Intercontinental Championship Tournament

Big E is going to have to wait to find out who his Extreme Rules opponent will be.

WWE fans are now getting the tournament that was promised and then yanked when Barrett was champ. Monday's Raw showcased several Superstars hunting down a chance at a Intercontinental Championship match. 

A three-round tournament began with Rob Van Dam defeating Alberto Del Rio, Cesaro besting Mark Henry, Sheamus beating Jack Swagger and Bad News Barrett outlasting Dolph Ziggler.

The Barrett vs. Ziggler match was the best of the bunch, but they were all far more interesting than everyday bouts because of the inherent entertainment value of the tournament format. WWE guaranteed itself three more matches with increasingly higher stakes.

It also makes the IC title feel more important. That's due to so many former world champs fighting so hard for this opportunity.

Worst: Silly Cena

Credit: WWE.com

Juxtaposing John Cena's humor with Bray Wyatt's diatribes could work, but WWE went too far with the former on Monday's Raw.

Cena showed a slideshow of Photoshopped images that he claimed were part of Wyatt's extended family. He cracked jokes. He chuckled.

It was more silly than amusing. Rather than have Cena and Wyatt engage in a war of words, the former champ borrowed from the middle-school-humor playbook.

WWE has to have Wyatt respond with some vicious attack to counterbalance this. Otherwise, there's a real danger of this becoming the juvenile drivel that The Rock and Cena's first feud was.

Cena doesn't need to resort to this. It's cheap, easy and a waste of a potential feud of the year.

Best: The Shield vs. Evolution Is Imminent

The Shield's battle with The Wyatt Family was Elimination Chamber's most enticing option, and now "The Hounds of Justice" head toward Extreme Rules with another show-stealer of a bout in sight.

Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose's tension with The Authority inspired Triple H to reform an old alliance.

Evolution (minus Ric Flair) reunited on Monday's Raw and thrashed The Shield in the ring. It was the worst beatdown the black-clad trio has ever suffered.

That attack assures that we'll see a six-man war between these foes and that The Shield will strike back hard. The match could be in a cage, involve tables and ladders or perhaps be the impetus for WWE borrowing WCW's War Games.

Regardless of the stipulation, the results promise to be of the must-watch variety.

Worst: 2.5 MB

Los Matadores and 3MB are supposed to be comic relief. Adding Hornswoggle in leather pants and sunglasses to the mix is like adding maple syrup to cheesecake, though. It's just too much.

The match became an embarrassing parade of low blows, rivaling the time Jinder Mahal charmed Santino Marella's cobra as the most groan-worthy action in recent memory.

It's a case of WWE placating to kids so much that the rest of the audience is forced to volunteer to go grab snacks. At its best, WWE action has fans, both young and old, edging to the front of their seats. At its worst, it pushes a portion of the crowd away.

This bout pushed hard.

Best: Adrian Neville and CJ Parker Make Big Men Look Good

When fans saw that Thursday's NXT match card featured CJ Parker against The Great Khali and Adrian Neville vs. Brodus Clay, their expectations had to sink.

Parker and Neville, though, both thrived. They led Khali and Clay to some of the best work of their career.

Parker relied on selling to make his bout work. Khali chopped the dreadlocked one in the chest and threw him to the ground.

Parker made those moments a chance at great theater. He recoiled, howled in pain and writhed on the mat.

Khali hadn't looked that dangerous since he sent Shawn Michaels flying through an announce table years ago.

After spending years as the fun-loving "Funkasaurus," Clay has recently become more intense. He challenged Neville, and the two foes surprised with an entertaining match.

It was no Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage, but it grabbed at the audience's attention. Neville flew at the bigger man. When Clay caught him, he sold almost as well as Parker had before him.

Neville escaped with a count-out win, showing off an ability to pull off excellence against someone who isn't known for delivering great matches.