4/16/12 RAW

Ratings:
CM Punk vs. Mark Henry (No DQ/Countout; WWE Title): **1/4

Santino Marella vs. David Otunga (U.S. Title): *

Kane vs. Zack Ryder: N/A

Daniel Bryan vs. Kofi Kingston: **1/4

Brodus Clay vs. Dolph Ziggler: N/A

Big Show & Great Khali vs. Primo & Epico: N/A (I lost brain cells on this one...)

Lord Tensai vs. John Cena (Extreme Rules): **
__________________

Reviews/Thoughts:
In London for RAW!

WWE Title match starts the show. Punk gets a warm welcome, while Mark Henry is already in the ring. Main event intros. Punk using his quickness to get on offense. Nice physicality on the outside. More "YES" chants. That Daniel Bryan dude is pretty over with the crowd, I'd say. Mark was booked strong in this one. Good use of the steel chair here. Some slow spots with Henry's restholds, of course. Nice chair shot from the top to put Mark away.

Jericho on the Titantron. Punk and Jericho again at Extreme Rules in a Chicago Street Fight. Great mind games again from Jericho. Can't expect anything less from him. He's been in some outstanding storylines, don't you think?

R-Truth and...Little Jimmy Watson!

Santino with a bazillion football (soccer) jerseys. Otunga with vintage excess body oil. Short match here. Otunga looked like he had it but Santino had a foot on the ropes. Nearly botched a hiptoss. Cobra for three. Watch Otunga get a rematch very soon.

Lord Tensai and Sakamoto backstage. Sakamoto speaks Japanese, while Tensai has a mixture of Japanese and English. Short and cryptic.

Lesnar taped interview. Had to censor some of his words, woohoo. Extreme Rules match between him and Cena. Brock is an asskicker, plain and simple.

Zack Ryder again faces Kane. Well, the bell didn't even sound. No match here. Who the hell did Zack piss off? Seriously? Post-Ryder beatdown promo from Kane addressing Orton.

Kofi talking with AJ in the back. Daniel Bryan doesn't like it. They have a match coming up.

Oh, and that LeBell Lock? Say hello to the YES LOCK! YES YES YES!

Here comes Cena. Video shown of last week. Cena was popped last week...bloody Cena! More YES chants. Good Johnny Laurinaitis impersonation. Cena wants to fight, so enter Laurinaitis. Extreme Rules match tonight against opponent to be named later.

Next week's RAW is a 3-hour RAW. Complete with Lesnar/Cena contract signing.

Hornswoggle, oh God. R-Truth. Double oh God.

Kofi comes out to little fanfare. And then here comes Daniel "YES YES YES" Bryan! For once, Cole backs a person that actually gets cheered by the fans. Pretty good pace throughout.Lots of Kofi jumping and DB striking. AJ watches from the back. Trouble in Paradise countered, YES lock countered, SOS from Kofi gets two. YES lock again wins it for DB. Solid stuff. YES lock again applied to Kofi. Sheamus down for the save. Brogue Kick missed. "That close," says Sheamus.

Brodus Clay comes out, but he's facing Ziggler tonight. It's no squash, but it's not really even a match. Swagger gets involved no more than 15 seconds in. Vickie kicks Cameron to the ground, but Naomi finally gets a bit physical. Vintage Vickie time on her behind! Storyline heating up.

Eve again with Johnny Laurinaitis. Wonder what's up with this one...manipulating others into their new future endeavors? Nah...

Oh no. Khali's wrestling. And his tag partner is BIG SHOW. Time to fast forward. AW the agent is scouting people during this one. Chop, chop, chokeslam, Punjabi Plunge, end. Yeah, that was not worth rating.

Extreme Rules match. Cena out first. Now we find out his opponent from Laurinaitis. LORD TENSAI! YES. I like it.

Tensai basically on offense most of the match. Steps come into play. Cena backdrops Tensai on the outside, nice show of strength yet again. Sakamoto gets involved with the martial arts moves. Otunga throws Cena back to Tensai. Cena on the comeback again with the usual moves. Armbar by Tensai, but holy crap, Cena floats over into an STF! Who woulda thunk that one?! Otunga gets in the ring and eats an AA. GREEN MIST from Tensai! Big sitdown powerbomb and it's over. Good win for Tensai. Add yet another element to his heel run.

Lesnar not live this week, just the taped segment from earlier. I like it. Lesnar doesn't get burned out from too much travel, and WWE can keep capitalizing on Lesnar's name/reputation.