WWE RAW Review for 4/18/11 (CM Punk vs. Randy Orton/R-Truth vs. John Morrison)

What's up, ladies and gentlemen? My name is Eric Kanes and you are currently reading the most electrifying RAW Review on the net.

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And now, from London, England, let's get this show on the road.

-The show started with R-Truth coming out to celebrate his recently acquired title shot. As he started his celebration, he was interrupted by John Morrison, who came out to do his weekly mumbling. John Morrison said that R-Truth got a title shot because he had a date with Lady Luck. Oh, so that's the name Melina goes by now? 

-A match was set up between R-Truth and John Morrison with Morrison quickly going over after hitting Starship Pain, making him the new #1 contender. I don't mind Morrison being in the match. It's a steel cage match so he's likely just there to do his spots and end it at that. If you're a Morrison fan, don't get your hopes up.

-The post-match beatdown on Morrison was fantastic. I really like the new badass Truth. Those of you that watched him during his run as the NWA World Champion know what he's capable of. Now, all they need to do is give him more freedom on the mic. The lines that the writers feed him are brutal. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this goes.

-So let me get this straight - a man was getting physically assaulted for five minutes but the crowd only got riled up once the perpetrator lit up a cigarette? You gotta love these people!

-Final thought on this segment: Don't be surprised if the match at Extreme Rules gets changed to a Fatal Four Way at the last second. It looks like they are booking this stuff on the fly.

-Wait...that's the "new and improved" Dolph Ziggler? Other than a generic haircut, which nearly every other heel wrestler has, he looks like the same Dolph Ziggler to me. So basically, he went from being as exciting as a sack of potatoes to being as exciting as a can of dried peas. Nice!

-If they really wanted to make a change to Dolph Ziggler's persona, they should've changed his name. It's hard to take a guy named "Dolph Ziggler" seriously as a championship contender.

-The IWC stopped referring to John Morrison as the next Shawn Michaels once he grew a beard. Let's see how much longer Dolph Ziggler will be the next Mr. Perfect.

-The draft is next week. It makes sense, as SmackDown desperately needs a new top guy with the loss of Edge. I'm pretty sure Randy Orton is moving to SmackDown. I'll have my full draft picks up later this week.

-Maybe skipping FCW wasn't such a good idea for Sin Cara. I like this guy in the ring a lot, but he does need to slow down a bit and get used to the WWE style. He seems nervous at times. This week, he missed his moonsault worse than Morrison usually misses Starship Pain.

-We got another video package for Awesome Kong and as we recently found out, her new name will be "Kharma." It's not bad. Certainly better than what I was expecting.

-We got another awful match between Eve and one of the Bellas. Considering that the likes of Natalya and Gail Kim are on RAW, it's appalling that WWE chooses to use these three. Here's to hoping that they get destroyed by Awesome Kong in the coming weeks.

-This week's segment with Michael Cole getting knighted by a fake Queen of England was pretty lame. It was a step down from the quality segments we've been getting from Cole as of late. The "chop his head off" chant when Cole was getting knighted was pretty funny, though.

-Sheamus is another guy I'd love to see on SmackDown. He really has no direction on RAW. His match with Santino was proof of that.

-The Punk/Orton match was a solid TV main event that was on par with their WrestleMania match. The end of RAW, though, left me wondering. What was the point of bringing back the New Nexus? It's been nearly a year since the original Nexus debuted. The group got stale a long time ago. Otunga & McGillicutty don't belong on the main roster, anyway.

Final Thoughts

This week's show was a major step down from previous weeks, so we'll call it a 5/10. The streaming of the show was just awkward. It felt like everything went backwards. Instead of how it went, the Punk/Orton match should've been first and the Morrison/Truth segment should've been last. It makes no sense to put the best segment on first while putting the segment no one cares about last.

The segment with R-Truth was brilliantly done and makes me want to watch to see what happens next. The other segments? Not so much. We got a bunch of three minute specials, a segment with a group that got old five months ago and the awful bit with the Queen of England. It was just a very poorly booked show.

As we found out last night, the WWE Draft will take place next week. It should be a fun show. Here's to hoping that the rosters are actually balanced out this year.

I will be right back here later this week with my WWE Draft picks but until then, I'm out!