The 21^st May 2012 episode of Monday Night Raw starts with video and photos recapping the events of the match between John Laurinaitis and John Cena at Over The Limit (click here for our Over The Limit report), followed by John Cena’s music hitting and him making his way to the ring.

Cena says that he has had a lot of these matches, and that win, lose or draw, he’s come out and said congratulations to his opponent and to move on, but on this occasion he asks what the hell happened.

He says that Laurinaitis beat him, and it’s not because of how it happened but why it would happen in the first place. Cena points out that since he has been there, Laurinaitis has been a selfish and power-hungry bully.

Cena says that the match was everything that it was supposed to be, until Laurinaitis ran away and The Big Show brought him back. He points out that Show was the person that brought Laurinaitis back to the ring, and threw him to Cena to ensure that Laurinaitis would be terminated.

Then however, The Big Show – a man John Cena used to be proud to become a friend – knocked Cena out, allowing Laurinaitis to cover him for the 3-count. Cena points out that people are asking with hindsight why he played with Laurinaitis, to which he explains that if Show was already paid off and Laurinaitis was in any jeopardy of losing that match, Show was going to beat him anyway.

Cena says that he is glad that he did everything he did to John Laurinaitis, as he deserved what he got and ten times more, but he is not glad for Show deciding to sell out, and he says that there is no possible explanation as to why he did what he did.

Explaining that the first thing that a new General Manager would have done would have been to rehire Show, he says that it was not about Cena losing, it was about Laurinaitis winning, and we are now stuck with the “People Power” garbage, which means that Laurinaitis will probably come out, explain how brave he is and how badly he is hurt, and what a great new plan he has for the next Pay-Per-View in the name of “People Power”.

John Laurinaitis’ music hits and Eve Torres makes her way out onto the stage, causing Cena to quip that Laurinaitis got hot, but still sucks. Eve ignore Cena, and introduces Laurinaitis, who makes his way out onto the stage in a scooter, where he gets to his feet with the aid of Eve and a crutch.

He says that after their match, he was rushed to the emergency room and that the Doctor says that he has many injuries, but he says that it is okay because as he proved in the ring, he is a fierce competitor.

Laurinaitis reminds Cena that outside of the ring however, he is a WWE executive, and that neither Cena nor anyone else can lay a finger on him ever again, because if they do, then they will be immediately terminated.

He introduces the man who helped him at Over The Limit, explaining that he rehired him on Saturday (apparently ignoring or forgetting the fact that it was specifically stated by the WWE Board Of Directors that anyone who interfered in the match would be immediately terminated), and the man who he says Cena will face at No Way Out, The Big Show.

Show makes his way out and says that he is sure that Cena and everyone else will want an explanation for his actions, but he says that nobody is entitled to his explanation, but he will say that last week on Raw he was on his knees begging for his job, pausing for a crowd chant of “You’re a sell-out”, and saying that he got no sympathy, so he did what he had to do and what he says each and every one of the fans would have done in the same position.

He says that he has an iron-clad contract now and is proud of it, saying how dare Cena or any fans judge him, and that he will be judging Cena at No Way Out, as he is going to knock him out.

David Otunga’s music hits and he makes his way out onto the stage, where he says that Cena lost to his boss, and that Cena will now lose to him too. Cena says that he is not in the mood and suggests that Otunga go backstage and watch re-runs of Law & Order instead, because if he gets into the ring with him, Cena promises to hurt Otunga, to which Otunga says “so be it”, dedicates the match to Laurinaitis, and makes his way to the ring.

The match sees Cena get the victory, when he hits Otunga with an Attitude Adjustment, and follows it up with the STF, forcing Otunga to tap out. Afterwards, Cena is attacked by Curt Hawkins, Tyler Reks, Titus O’Neil, and Darren Young.

Sheamus’ music hits and he hits the ring to help Cena out, knocking Laurinaitis over in the process, and apparently forgetting or ignoring what Laurinaitis said earlier about anyone who touches him being immediately terminated.

After Sheamus and Cena have cleared the ring of the four men, Laurinaitis asks what the four men were doing as he didn’t give them permission, then ordering them to get to the locker room. Laurinaitis says that in the name of “People Power”, Cena and Sheamus will be teaming up in a tag team match later on in the episode, in a Two-On-Three Handicap match, then clarifying that it will be a Two-On-Three Handicap Lumberjack match.

Now, Ricardo Rodriguez is about to introduce Alberto Del Rio, but he is interrupted before he can even start by the appearance of Santino Marella, who makes his way to the ring and tells Rodriguez that he can’t understand a thing that he says, and that his accent is ridiculous – almost as ridiculous as his eyebrows.

He says that he is beginning to think that Rodriguez knows nothing about the art of “introductioning”, then getting into a contest of rolling their R’s, until Marella ends up hitting Rodriguez with The Cobra and making Del Rio’s introduction himself.

After a video hyping that the 1000th episode of Monday Night Raw will be reached on 23^rd July, and from then on will be three hours long, Alberto Del Rio takes on Randy Orton in a match which sees Orton get the victory as a result of a disqualification, when Chris Jericho appears and hits Orton with the Codebreaker.

After yelling at Orton that he is the best in the world at what he does, he hits Orton with another Codebreaker, followed by asking if Orton understands what he is saying to him, and then starts to leave the ring before apparently changing his mind. Jericho hits Orton with a final Codebreaker before he actually does leave.

Next, Daniel Bryan makes his way to the ring and says that a great injustice was done, as he should be standing in front of the crowd as the WWE Champion. He then rolls footage from Over The Limit of Punk tapping out, afterwards saying that he made Punk tap out, should be the WWE Champion, and that he would make Punk tap out again if he face him one more time.

Bryan says that the only reason that he is not the WWE Champion right now, is because of the gross incompetence of one referee, and that as a result, he demands a rematch.

The response to his demand is CM Punk’s music hitting and him making his way out onto the stage, where he asks to be allowed to clear up any controversy regarding their match at Over The Limit.

Punk says that it was one of the greatest battles that he has been in in his entire life, so he thanks Bryan for that, but he says that Bryan is forgetting one thing – that he pinned Bryan for the 3-count in the middle of the ring.

He says that he would love to settle this right now, but what he would like to do more than that is to remind Bryan of what happened last week on SmackDown!, then rolling footage of the events involving CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, and Kane (click here for our SmackDown! report).

Punk says that it is pretty clever, and that he is ashamed that he fell for it, but with that said, he would like to introduce Bryan’s opponent for this evening – the opponent quickly being revealed as Kane.

CM Punk joins commentary as Daniel Bryan is pitted against Kane in a match which sees Bryan get the victory as a result of a disqualification, when Punk tricks Bryan into grabbing a steel chair and making it look like he was going to hit Kane with it again (though without Punk hitting Kane with the steel chair at all).

Kane grabs the steel chair and uses it on Bryan multiple times (resulting in the aforementioned disqualification), followed by Kane hitting Bryan with a chokeslam in the middle of the ring, followed by a second.

CM Punk then leaves the announce table, claiming that he’s going to make sure that Bryan is okay, and he enters the ring and asks Bryan if he is okay, before then putting Bryan in the Anaconda Vise, forcing Bryan to quickly start tapping out.

Backstage afterwards, Punk is walking through the halls when AJ approaches him. She says that she wants to tell him something, to which Punk suggests that she wanted to tell him that she is completely off her rocker. AJ denies this and instead says that she wanted to tell him how much she enjoyed him beating up Daniel Bryan.

Punk asks AJ whether she isn’t crazy, but if she is instead just sadistic, which makes AJ look upset. He asks AJ if she knows that she is the one who has been acting like a fool this entire time, causing her to cry, and Punk to attempt to comfort her in some way, despite being clearly uncomfortable with the situation.

Rather oddly, as soon as he tells her to stop crying, she suddenly does and looks at him. He says that he sort of digs crazy chicks, which puts a smile on her face for a moment, but after he leaves, she seems to start crying again.

After a video recapping Triple H being presented with a lawsuit and Paul Heyman adding a second one last week on Raw, the announcers inform us that Triple H is at the corporate WWE Headquarters meeting with the WWE Legal Team about what to do next regarding Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman.

Next, new Intercontinental Champion Christian goes against Jinder Mahal in a match which sees Christian get the victory, when he hits Mahal with the Killswitch, followed by a frog splash for the 3-count.

After recapping a selection of the tweets from fans about The Big Show’s actions at Over The Limit, a video recapping Show’s earlier comments on Show’s upcoming match with John Cena at No Way Out, and photos recapping the match between Beth Phoenix and Layla at Over The Limit, Kelly Kelly takes on Beth Phoenix in a match which sees Beth get the victory, when she hits Kelly with the Glam Slam for the 3-count.

After recapping a selection of the tweets from WWE Superstars and Divas about The Big Show’s actions at Over The Limit, and repeating the video announcing the 1000th episode of Raw and it going to three hours, Sheamus and John Cena are pitted against Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger (accompanied by Vickie Guerrero), and Tensai (who is no longer using the “Lord” prefix, and is accompanied by Sakamoto) in a Two-On-Three Handicap Lumberjack match, with all of the Lumberjacks being people who would be hostile towards Sheamus and Cena.

The match ends in an apparent no-contest or disqualification, when the Lumberjacks enter the ring and beat down Cena and Sheamus. Others then hit the ring to even up the odds on the side of Cena and Sheamus, resulting in a brawl between them all.

Cena leaves however, going backstage to look for The Big Show who has disappeared after earlier watching the match from the stage. Upon encountering John Laurinaitis, Cena asks where Show is, to which Laurinaitis claims not to know, but reminds Cena that he can’t lay a hand on him otherwise he will be fired.

Laurinaitis leaves, but Cena turns his head back around, only to be hit out of nowhere with the Weapon of Mass Destruction by The Big Show. Show walks away from the downed Cena, as Raw goes off the air.