WWE Raw made a few bits of sorta-history on Christmas Day, starting with the fact that there was a live, three-hour episode of Raw on Christmas Day. Monday’s episode was the first time that the USA Network aired a live episode of Raw on Christmas, and it was also the first time that the show was presented commercial-free. The first hour of Raw was sans commercials, as a joint Christmas present from USA and WWE. (Smackdown Live on Tuesday will also be commercial-free for the first hour.
Raw opened with the return of John Cena, who hasn’t been seen on WWE television since Survivor Series … where he was a member of Team Smackdown. But John Cena gets to do whatever he wants, so.
Cena made his way to the ring to open the show, as he has done countless times before.
Welcome back to #RAW, @JohnCena! pic.twitter.com/sgOpHAIcfT
— WWE (@WWE) December 26, 2017
And also like he has done countless times before, he made one special fan’s day — perhaps their year. Just after getting into the ring, Cena took the microphone and said he noticed that a fan in the crowd didn’t have a matching set of shirt and hat, so he wanted to help them out. He promptly gave the fan the shirt off his back, because that is absolutely the type of guy Cena is. It’s Christmas!
16-time #WorldChampion @JohnCena wants to make sure EVERYONE is decked out for tonight's special Christmas edition of #RAW! pic.twitter.com/araGVVutEk
— WWE (@WWE) December 26, 2017
https://twitter.com/BulletClubItal/status/945460685110169600
Of course, since this is WWE, Cena then entered the ring again for what every fan assumed would be a 20-minute promo or somesuch. He was instead promptly interrupted by Elias … and then by “CM PUNK” chants from the Chicago crowd. Cena, surprisingly, yielded the floor to Elias so he could play his concert, but had to interrupt when Elias began insulting Chicago. I guess John Cena has never seen an Elias segment before!
Elias asked for a second chance to serenade the crowd, which ended with him cheap-shotting Cena and knocking him cold. That’s a mean thing to do to such a nice guy! Elias demanded a match against Cena immediately, and a referee arrived to begin the contest. Luckily, Cena managed to win. Because it’s Christmas!
But the real takeaway here, of course, as always: John Cena is great, and he tries to make someone’s dreams come true pretty much every day he’s alive. He’s like Santa Claus, but he doesn’t take any days off.
