After an hour of Rock/Cena hype, the last RAW before Wrestlemania 28 kicked off live from WCW country, Atlanta, GA. What were they going to do to sell the biggest show of the year and convince people to drop $55-$65 on Sunday? Turns out, not as much as I thought.
The show starts with wrestling instead of talking for a change and Randy Orton & Sheamus team up against their respective WM opponents, Kane and World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan, with his pretend girlfriend AJ in tow. Good stuff from all four participants. They’ll have very good undercard matches at Mania. Orton and Kane are both top workers and are lucky to have each other to work with when neither are in title contention right now. If Sheamus can keep up with Bryan, they could try and steal the show from Jericho and Punk on Sunday. They have a lot to prove after being bumped from last year’s Wrestlemania broadcast in favor of The Rock slapping it up backstage with Snoop Dogg, Mae Young and PeeWee Herman. Or whatever.
My nemisis, Michael Cole, out with a red Team Johnny t-shirt featuring Johnny Ace’s mannequin-like head. Johnny Ace comes out and names Vickie Guerrero official “flag bearer” for Team Johnny. If they're calling Hornswoggle the mascot for Team Teddy then Vickie should be Team Johnny’s mascot. It’s only fair. I like Otunga’s body builder gimmick because no one does it anymore. Teddy, that foreign girl, Santino and Swoggle come out and chaos ensues in the match between US Champion Santino and Otunga. Teddy with the “push the guy over some jabroni who’s behind him on his hands and knees” spot on Johnny. Before Santino could unleash the cobra on Johnny Ace, Miz slinks into the ring and hits his finisher on the US Champ. Miz is named to Team Johnny.
Promo for Taker vs. HHH. If I haven’t said it before, let me say it now. WWE has the best producers on TV. Their video packages rival any show or sporting event on the small screen.
Eve with her valet, WWE Divas Champion Beth Phoenix, versus Kelly Kelly. Other than a head scissors on Eve by Kelly, there wasn’t anything memorable here. Kelly Kelly still can’t run the ropes. I thought I read that Maria Menounos hurt herself on Dancing With The Stars? I was expecting them to change that match for Sunday. Like Kelly & Tamina vs. Beth & Eve. Or damn the “Eve’s a heel” storyline and make it Kelly & Eve vs. Beth & Natalya. Natty certainly deserves a match at Mania.
Was looking forward to Christan vs. WWE Champion CM Punk to kick-off the 10:00 PM hour, but that sure ended with a twist. Jericho appears on Titantron to tell Punk his daddy was drunk, his sister’s a junkie and his mama birthed him before she married which makes Punk a bastard. Punk doesn’t take it well and beats Christian to a pulp, slamming him into the ringside area, hitting a GTS on the ring steps and slapping on the Anaconda Vice. All the while yelling, “this is you, Jericho!” It’s announced that Christian will be unable to compete at WM and is off Team Johnny. He probably wasn’t ready to go anyway after this most recent neck injury, which is fine. Better safe than sorry. And at least he’ll still be there to induct Edge into the Hall Of Fame Saturday. Punk and Jericho are going to have an amazing match Sunday. Punk later tweeted “I’m not a bastard, I’m THE bastard”.
Big mark out moment at my house as Funkasaurus comes out with his honeys to squash Curt Hawkins. I had the shoulders moving, my wife was bobbing her head up and down to the bass line, my four year old was singing “Somebody Call My Mama!” What is Brodus going to be up to at Wrestlemania? Can’t wait to find out. They need to start handing him the mic too. Did you see the Santino YouTube vid with Brodus? Good stuff! I’ll post it below.
The one hour Hall Of Fame show will take place before the RAW after Mania again this year. I really liked it better when it aired the night before.
Big Show squashes one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions, Primo Colon. The tag team titles won’t be defended at Mania, btw. Cody Rhodes is terrific, isn’t he? Man, has he come a long way. The question lingers: Will they put the IC strap on Big Show?
Johnny Ace tweets that Drew McIntyre will take Christian’s spot on Team Johnny. Lord Tensai promo. I thought he was supposed to be Albert/A-Train/Giant Bernard? All I saw was a Japanese guy. One Bella is for Team Johnny, the other for Team Teddy. They have an exchange with Zack Ryder then Eve comes out to play Zack for a sucker again.
Great Khali vs. Mark Henry in another Team Johnny vs. Team Teddy match. Both teams come out to brawl with Team Johnny taking advantage of their numbers. Before Henry could hit Teddy with the World’s Strongest Slam, Booker hops in the ring from the announce position and scissor kicks the WSM. Teddy puts Booker on his team and the faces celebrate. Here’s what I was hoping would happen. When I interviewed Rey Mysterio a few weeks ago he said he wanted to be back from his knee injury in time for Mania. I thought for sure they’d take the opportunity to add Sin Cara to Team Johnny and Rey to Team Teddy so we could finally see those two go. Guess neither are ready since we know they have no problem hot-shotting angles. Alas, Dolph Ziggler will have to be this match’s saving grace.
Rock is boring. I like him just fine, but he’s boring. Are they really doing this on purpose? Is Rock really taking a dive on his promos? Doubtful. The interaction between Rock and Cena seems so tense that marks across the WWE Universe think they really hate each other. Come on, now. If I could make millions of dollars working a program with someone, they’d become my best bud. Rock wants to be the only man to beat Hogan, Austin and Cena at Mania. That’s some lofty company to put Cena in, isn’t it? They don’t touch to end the show. You’ll have to wait until Sunday but the match a year in the making is finally here.
Talk about Mania with us Sunday on Detroit’s 1130 WDFN on your AM radio dial. Or if you’re out of the market or can’t pick up the signal, just listen here online at wdfn.com or on the free iHeart Radio app for your phone, iPad, whateva. Should be a good one!
Jonel
WDFN's Wrestling Elite
Here’s the Santino’s Foreign Exchange vid with Brodus. Dig it.
