RAW? (yes that does mean I'm off sick again...)

Anything of note happen?

Shawn is now special guest ref for the Taker-HHH Hell in a Cell match, Santino won the US title, and once again Cena outdid Rocky on the mic.

Yup, from the half I saw this morning and the rest I've read, Chris seems to have about summed it up.

Thing is, I think it’s a case of the Rock's act being old these days. He still comes out with some funny lines, and he's entertaining at times, but its more entertaining for the nostalgia angle of remembering it first time around when it was fresh. The business has moved on a little and has a different edge, and I think Cena (who when he stops messing around with the dumb scripted kiddy crap the WWE writes for him is actually a very good promo artist) just taps into that better at the moment. Last week and the week before, Cena just owned the feud.

Being away from the scene for so long, I think Rock has lost his edge slightly, and its showing. To some extent the WWE could be using it to make Cena look good, but that could be giving them too much credit.

Interesting. We all picked HBK to be the guest ref but I wonder where that leaves the result. HBK screws Taker, two men to end the streak. Possible but would work better if Taker was sticking around to face down Shawn. The way they are plugging it suggests Taker's last Mania, though. HBK screws HHH. It would set up one more match between them but weaken Taker. The Deadman should go out under his own force, be that defeat or victory. So will HBK call it down the middle?

Good to see Santino get a title. They shouldn't have squashed him in the match the other week but nice to see him with a belt.

On The Rock I wonder what they asked him to come back with. I mean, did they sit down and say 'OK, we want to play the nostalgia card. Hit the old lines, the old jokes." If they did then it seems to have been badly judged, on the WWE's part. Or The Rock, he was given free reign.

Like DS said the other week The Rock, tearing lose and going semi-straight on Cena would be awesome. Cena is an excellent promo guy but The Rock is supposed to be one of THE best. It's a bit of a shame if he can't move that into the new WWE.

David pretty much has it. Personally I do think Rock's schtick is pretty tired, but the fans often still love it and the odd line is legitimately funny. Part of the problem is most of Rocky's ammunition going into this feud lately has been treading the same old ground and just calling Cena a variety of silly names, whereas John's actually responded to it and tried to get him to be himself. When you're working with some great promo guys like Cena has (especially after the Punk feud last summer), you have to learn to adapt like that and like David said, the game is different now. You have to tackle it that way.

Plus writing notes on his wrist last week really didn't help Rocky.

Yeah, that wasn't his best moment, to be sure! I agree, I think Rock needs to adapt more. He's facing up to a guy who can match him. So it should be doing better than it is.

Thing is, all wrestling works on the premise of the other person selling what you do. Now they don't have to be positive about you, they can slag you off, but they slag you off in a way tha still sells who an wha you are -take the HBK/HHH/Taker angle as a golden example.

Rocks catchphrases and mouth running slick promo stuff works if his opponent sells it as getting to them, or responds in kind with the same stuff. But Cena has been booked like the kid in the emperors new clothes story. He just walks straight through Rock's character and doesn't sell it. It's done to sell the "reality" of the feud, but it's not working the way they intended because unless Rock switches and goes super serious himself - which isnt his character- he ends up looking weak.

It would be like standing there and laughing during Takers entrance going "a fucking ginger zombie funeral attendant biker, are you fucking serious????"

I'm not sure how they get around that.

I still think your idea of Rock going at least semi shoot is still the best one. Totally agree on your reading. Wrestling is very much a dance of two people. If ones booked to tango and the other cha-cha you're going to have a problem...

Next week it's apparently "The Rock Concert" .v. Cena's "Rap Battle".

Yeah, cos that'll work.....

Ouch....

As an opposing view I've just seen the status of somebody who's a ring announcer/ref with some of the local wrestling shows up here. He, apparently, is enjoying this bit and thinks it really works. He also thinks the Rock is totally owning Cena. Another exmaple of how different people read things a different way.