WWE Raw Top 5 Segments: Braun Strowman and His Bass

2. John Cena vs. The Miz

This week’s show opened with John Cena and it led to about 30 minutes of compelling television as the free agent seemed as motivated as ever both on the mic and in the ring. Whilst it lacks any real suspense, I still love the idea that Cena is fearful of missing out on WrestleMania as it adds so much importance to his part of the Chamber match. Speaking of such, the real emphasis on talent scrapping for a spot on the Mania card is realistic and helps ramp up everything’s meaning at this time of year.

For Cena this is a direction that makes sense too, the WWE landscape is changing whilst he stays the same, simply a less frequently seen version. That’s an easy to understand, appealing story and I’m really glad they are taking things that way. Cena’s speech soon brought out the Miz and he explained that actually, he’d be the one winning at Elimination Chamber and he’d then go on to beat Brock Lesnar for his Universal title. Though Cena fittingly dismissed his predictions, this dialogue works well as people genuinely believe in Miz right now and his desperation to elevate the Intercontinental crown is always nice too.

Moreover, this whole exchange worked infinitely better due to their history, especially considering that they main evented WrestleMania opposite each other and the fact that Miz actually won. Eventually, Cena challenged Miz to a match in which the loser would enter the Chamber match first. Bo Dallas and Curtis Axel then jumped Cena which gave Miz the confidence to accept the match. There’d be no quick pin though and as The Miztourage were banned, things quickly became very competitive.

After some tremendous back and forth action, Miz kicked out of the AA and seemed set to win when Cena caught him to hit the Avalanche AA for the win. This was probably my favourite Cena match in quite some time. It was smartly paced, well worked and had genuine stakes. Great stuff that I didn’t feel hurt Miz in the slightest.