Last Monday, the villainous Big Show handed Brodus Clay his first loss and continued his assault on John Cena, ending the night by applying the “Colossal Clutch.” Apparently, much like edible wallpaper, that’s a thing.

The Raw Warm-Up is back as Monday night’s long-running wrestling program continues its march towards the landmark 1000th episode, and three big hours on a continual basis. In the weeks we’ve been gone, the most significant change to the landscape on Monday nights has been centered around the General Manager’s position with Johnny “Ace” Laurinaitis being ousted in part by John Cena partnered with the return of Vince McMahon. The fans seem to have turned a corner with Cena in his ongoing feud with the Big Show, and the power vacuum at the top has led to guest General Managers stepping in each week. Tonight, the much maligned Teddy Long makes a triumphant return calling the shots, and we’re hoping for a strong showing with the return of Brock Lesnar in Laredo, Texas.

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You’ve heard of the The Cult. You’ve probably heard the mid-eighties track “She Sells Sanctuary” on car and Budweiser commercials and the tune “Fire Woman” from their Sonic Temple was a staple of rock radio and MTV during its initial release in 1989. The band is back this week with their first album in five years, Choice of Weapon. Are you prepared to worship at the “Sonic Temple” again?

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Paul Heyman made a surprise return to Monday Night Raw last week as Brock Lesnar's official representative. Even though Lesnar stated he is "finished" with WWE, expect Heyman to continue appearing in his absence.

Tonight’s Raw from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is WWE’s final live effort to sell Sunday’s Over the Limit pay-per-view. With only three weeks separating events on the PPV schedule right now, it’s difficult to generate momentum particularly when the last offering, Extreme Rules, was primarily WrestleMania rematches. Last Monday didn’t do as much as we’d have liked to feature the marquee match for Over the Limit, Daniel Bryan versus C.M. Punk for the WWE Championship. It did, however, go a long way to establish the World Championship picture for the upcoming show. There’s a lot of ground to cover tonight, and hopefully everyone will get their due airtime including another appearance by Paul Heyman as Brock Lesnar’s representative.

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There went the pain? After a viciously assaulting WWE COO Triple H last Monday, Brock Lesnar's return to wrestling seems to be at an end. Expecting him to disappear for a few weeks before another monster return.

It’s fair to say last Monday’s Raw coming out of the annual Extreme Rules pay-per-view wasn’t the best we’ve ever seen, but it was by no means the worst. The whole show was structured around a Beat the Clock Challenge to determine the number one contender for C.M. Punk’s WWE Championship at Over the Limit on May 20th. While the execution has been better, The Beat the Clock gimmick is solid and the outcome can only be captured in one word: YES! Tonight’s show in Greensboro, North Carolina will hopefully give us more of Daniel Bryan’s quest to take the WWE Championship from Punk, and less of all the things we found ourselves saying “NO!” to.

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Raffaele Ienco’s Epic Kill #1 is one of two titles featuring mysterious females debuting from Image Comics this week, with this being the more action packed option. Ienco is not a creator I’m familiar with, and credited as the series’ creator, writer and artist this was an impressive introduction to his work. His art reminds of Clay Mann and Billy Tan and is easily the greatest strength of the issue. In contrast, Ienco’s story of the St. Thomas School for Troubled Girls’ amnesiac killing machine,”Song,” is less interesting, perhaps due to it’s initial similarities to Firefly‘s River Tam, Marvel’s X-23, and Echo from Dollhouse.

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