The 920th edition of WWE Monday Night RAW came to you, live, from the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, TN. Two weeks after being assaulted by CM Punk & The Nexus on RAW and attacked by Wade Barrett at a WWE Live Event the following night, resulting in a hip injury of unknown severity, WWE Officials have stated that John Cena will appear on RAW to address the attack two weeks ago by CM Punk & The Nexus! Also, after winning a Triple Threat Steel Cage Match against King Sheamus & Wade Barrett last week to become the new #1 Contender for the WWE Title, “The Viper” Randy Orton would resume his pursuit of regaining the WWE Title from The Miz en route to their match for the gold at the Royal Rumble! On the night before WrestleMania XXVII on April 2, a new group of wrestling legends will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame and the first inductee of the Class of 2011 would be announced on RAW!
Match Results
- Alberto Del Rio (with Ricardo Rodriguez) def. R-Truth by Count-Out.
- Daniel Bryan & Mark Henry def. Tyson Kidd & Ted DiBiase by Mark Henry pinning Tyson Kidd following the World’s Strongest Slam.
- John Morrison def. King Sheamus by pin following a knee to the face.
- Randy Orton & Jerry “The King” Lawler def. The Miz & Alex Riley by Jerry “The King” Lawler pinning Alex Riley following the Fist Drop.
Detailed Results
The show was set to kick off with the WWE Tag Team Titles being on the line, but after WWE Tag Team Champions Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov made their entrance, CM Punk & The Nexus would rush out and assault the WWE Tag Team Champions, sending Santino & Kozov out of the ring! The new leader of The Nexus, CM Punk, then states that the WWE Tag Team Title match has been “rescheduled for a later date” before calling The Nexus “the most dominant force the WWE has ever seen” when the group debuted and, now, they are even “stronger”! Punk then tells The Nexus that he has the “tools” they need to “succeed”, which is different than what Wade Barrett did for the group as Barrett “failed at setting any kind of example at all” before proclaiming that, two weeks ago, he “single-handedly” took John Cena “out of the equation”! Punk then states that he hopes that John Cena’s appearance on RAW will see Cena deliver a “tear-jerking, encore, farewell speech” before proclaiming that Cena’s days of “hustle, loyalty, and respect” are over while his are just “beginning”! CM Punk then states that, later on, he will make the “ultimate sacrifice” when he initiates himself as “the new leader of the new Nexus”, but states that all of the group’s members must also “prove” that they have “what it takes to belong in the new Nexus” before proclaiming that, if they all “pass”, they will not only take over RAW, but the entire WWE! Nexus member David Otunga then speaks up and states that, on behalf of the group, he would be “honored” to be initiated into the new Nexus! CM Punk first confronts Nexus member Michael McGillicutty and tells McGillicutty that his “initiation” would be to be on the receiving end of one of the infamous Nexus beatdowns! The other Nexus members then systematically hit their finishing moves on their teammate as David Otunga hits his spinebuster, Heath Slater hits his modified STO, Husky Harris hits the Husky Senton, and Justin Gabriel hits the 450 Splash before CM Punk instructs The Nexus to place McGillicutty on his shoulders so that he can deliver the GTS to McGillicutty before instructing the group to ominously carry McGillicutty to the back! Is this the bizarre initiation that all of the Nexus members must go through? What will CM Punk be a part of when he initiates himself as the new leader of The Nexus?
Then, in a rematch from last week’s RAW, SmackDown’s “Mexican Elitist” Alberto Del Rio would go one-on-one with RAW’s R-Truth! In a manner similar to how he defeated Rey Mysterio in a 2-out-of-3 Falls Match on SmackDown, both Alberto Del Rio and R-Truth were brawling on the outside of the ring when Del Rio’s personal ring announcer, Ricardo Rodriguez, would distract Truth long enough, as Truth delivers a right hand to Rodriguez, allowing Del Rio to re-enter the ring at the last second as the referee counts R-Truth out! After his backdoor victory over R-Truth, Alberto Del Rio would criticize the “Music City” heritage of Nashville before instructing Ricardo Rodriguez to perform a Mariachi song for the crowd! Alberto Del Rio has proclaimed that it is his “destiny” to win the Royal Rumble and headline WrestleMania, but will Del Rio fulfill his “destiny” in just three weeks at the Royal Rumble?
After a vicious assault by WWE Champion The Miz two weeks ago on RAW, Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler would be back at the announce desk as Lawler would argue with broadcast colleague Michael Cole after Cole told Lawler he should issue an “apology” to The Miz for “ruining” The Miz’s life over recent weeks, but the anonymous General Manager of RAW then chimes in with an email that states, as read by Michael Cole, that despite the “criticism” against Cole as of late, he “supports Michael Cole in every conceivable way” before calling Cole a “conceited, pompous, arrogant, self-centered, pretentious jerk” before revealing that he was “just joking”! The GM continues that Cole is the “epitome of manhood” and that he wishes there were more people like Cole with the “guts to stand up against popular opinion” before stating that Cole is an award-winning journalist, a Slammy Award winner, and “handsome”! The GM and Cole then states that the “highest honor” one can achieve is to be called a “Cole Miner” before Cole is interrupted by Jerry Lawler as Lawler states that he has “received a message” from the WWE fans for Cole to “shut up” before stating that “nobody in their right mind” would call Cole “handsome” as Cole is a “coward”! Cole then shouts at Lawler that the GM told him that, if Lawler puts his hands on Cole, then Lawler would be “fired”, but Lawler slams the laptop closed! The GM then chimes in with a new email that states that he knows that Cole is not a “coward” and neither is Jerry Lawler and that is why, later on RAW, Lawler will team with the #1 Contender for the WWE Title, Randy Orton, to face WWE Champion The Miz and Miz’s “apprentice” Alex Riley in tag team action!
Backstage, new Nexus leader CM Punk reveals the initiation procedure for Nexus member Husky Harris as Harris must subject himself to three lashes with a whip from each able Nexus member and Harris would accept as David Otunga, Heath Slater, & Justin Gabriel would all whip the bare back of Harris three times before CM Punk would take the whip and deliver several intense lashings from the leader! What will the other Nexus members go through in order to be initiated as members of the new Nexus?
In a rematch from last week’s WWE Superstars, United States Champion Daniel Bryan would team with “The World’s Strongest Man” Mark Henry to face “The Crowned Prince” Tyson Kidd and “The Fortunate Son” Ted DiBiase! In the end, it was Mark Henry hitting the World’s Strongest Slam on Tyson Kidd en route to picking up the win for himself and Daniel Bryan!
Four nights before he goes one-on-one with the man who cost him the #1 Contender’s spot for the World Heavyweight Title on SmackDown, Wade Barrett, SmackDown’s “World’s Largest Athlete” Big Show makes a special appearance on RAW as Big Show states that, last week, Barrett got “knocked out” of The Nexus and, this Friday on SmackDown, he is to “knock out” Barrett! Big Show then announces that he is putting “every Superstar on notice” that he is going to compete in the Royal Rumble Match! Big Show is then interrupted by the arrival of the able-bodied members of The Nexus as CM Punk, David Otunga, Heath Slater, & Justin Gabriel stand on the stage as Punk would instruct Otunga to take part in his initiation, which would reveal itself to be to slap Big Show across the face and deal with the consequences! Otunga would do so, which would enrage Big Show as Show would dismantle Otunga in and out of the ring before delivering the chokeslam to Otunga in the ring and following it up with the Knockout Punch on Otunga! Three members of The Nexus have went through their grueling and bizarre initiations, but what awaits Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, and leader CM Punk in their initiations into the new Nexus?
In the continuing rivalry between the two of them, RAW would see “The Prince of Parkour” John Morrison going one-on-one with the 2010 King of the Ring, King Sheamus! At the end of a hard-fought match, it was John Morrison delivering a knee to the face of King Sheamus en route to picking up the win!
Backstage, new Nexus leader CM Punk is holding two kendo sticks as he instructs Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel that their initiation would be to assault each other with a kendo stick, but, after much hesitation and reprimanding by CM Punk, Slater & Gabriel would look ready to attack Punk with the sticks and as Punk told them to “do it”, Slater & Gabriel would drop the kendo sticks and walk off! Has Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel failed their initiation into the new Nexus?
Then it was time to announce the first, and hugest, inductee into the 2011 WWE Hall of Fame as Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler states that the “greatest accomplishment” of his career was getting inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame before stating that less than a hundred wrestling legends get the honor of being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame as the legends inducted have qualities like “skill, drive, determination, charisma” and the “respect” of the WWE fans before stating that the first inductee has “earned” the respect of the fans and he deserves to be a “first ballot nominee” for the 2011 Hall of Fame before a video package reveals that the first inductee in the 2011 Hall of Fame is none other than a man who goes by many names, including “The Showstopper”, “The Main Event”, “Mr. WrestleMania”, and “The Heartbreak Kid” as none other than the incomparable Shawn Michaels will be inducted into the 2011 WWE Hall of Fame on April 2, the night before WrestleMania! As if the announcement of his induction into the 2011 Hall of Fame was not enough, RAW would be graced by a surprise appearance by “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels as “HBK” makes his legendary entrance into the arena! Just as the 2011 Hall of Famer was about to speak, Michaels is interrupted by “The Mexican Elitist” Alberto Del Rio as Del Rio states that the fans “used to” cheer Shawn Michaels, but now they cheer him because he is the “future and the present” of the WWE! Del Rio then calls Michaels “history” before proclaiming that, after he wins the Royal Rumble Match, he will win either the WWE or World Heavyweight Title and, after that, he will become known as the new “Mr. WrestleMania”! Alberto Del Rio would then lean in to deliver his signature wink, but would be met by the boot of Shawn Michaels as the 2011 Hall of Famer would deliver Sweet Chin Music to “The Mexican Elitist”!
Two weeks after being assaulted by CM Punk & The Nexus, RAW Commentator Michael Cole was set to bring John Cena out, but new Nexus leader CM Punk interrupts as Punk is shown standing high above the arena floor by standing on top of the Tron as Punk states that Michael McGillicutty, Husky Harris, and David Otunga have proven themselves to be “strong enough” to be a part of The Nexus by “sacrificing themselves” to join The Nexus and he is “prepared to do the same” as his initiation will be the “ultimate sacrifice” and it will prove that, not only was he a “member of The Nexus”, he was the “leader” before asking the fans if he should dive off of the Tron to his demise! Punk then asks the fans how “gullible” they are before revealing that he is wearing a harness and he is being “spotted” by two technicians, citing that he is “safer” up there then the fans are down there before calling the fans “the biggest, mindless group of sheep” that he has ever seen in his entire life! The three initiated members of The Nexus then make their way to the ring as the Big Show assaulted David Otunga, the whipped Husky Harris, and The Nexus assaulted Michael McGillicutty enter the ring as CM Punk would get down from the Tron and enter the ring as well! Punk then calls any fans who thought he would jump off of the Tron “stupid” before showing his harness and stating that only a “mentally challenged” person would jump off of the Trton, but he is “mentally superior”! Punk then states that he does not “need” the approval of the fans to be the leader of The Nexus before CM Punk is interrupted by John Cena, who appears on the Tron and calls Punk a bevy of names before saying that Punk is wasting everyone’s time because he has already given The Nexus a “physical initiation” before stating that there is a “new member” of The Nexus that he has not had a chance to “initiate” and this is “CM Sucks”! Punk then states that he is “not scared” of John Cena before Cena challenges Punk to a one-on-one match on next week’s RAW, which Punk accepts, before Cena proclaims that, next week, Punk will get “dealt with” because next weeks is not about “t-shirts or armbands”, it is about “whipping” CM Punk’s “ass”! What fate awaits new Nexus leader CM Punk when he goes one-on-one with a returning John Cena next week on RAW?
Then it was time for the main event of RAW as, three weeks before he defends the WWE Title against Randy Orton at the Royal Rumble, WWE Champion The Miz would team with his “apprentice” Alex Riley to face “The Viper” Randy Orton and Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler! In the end, it was The Miz trying to distract Randy Orton, only for Orton to stare down the WWE Champion and deliver the RKO to Alex Riley before going back to glaring at Miz; daring The Miz to enter the ring while Jerry Lawler delivers the fist drop from the second rope en route to pinning Alex Riley to pick up the win for himself and Orton! Randy Orton appears more than ready to face The Miz at the Royal Rumble, but can Randy Orton regain the WWE Title from The Miz in three weeks’ time?
