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When it comes to last night's Monday Night Raw, the only word that can really describe it is "lackluster." While the final segment with John Cena and The Rock facing off and the CM Punk segments were very well down, the rest of the show was a complete and utter letdown creatively, especially when you look at it as the final major TV broadcast leading into the biggest show of the year, Wrestlemania.
For WWE to not have Shawn Michaels and Triple H on TV for the last minute push when we are walking into what's been promoted as the "end of an era", it's amazingly stupid to me. To instead give so much TV time to Team Teddy vs. Team Johnny while there are other issues that could have used the time (and one can argue, will actually sell tickets and PPVs), it's hard not to want to beat your head into the wall while watching the show.
To me, the saddest thing about last night's Raw was that it came after the excellent "Once In A Lifetime" special, which did so much to make me care about The Rock vs. John Cena this Sunday. WWE then followed it up by giving me reasons not to care about their regular product and lost any momentum and goodwill that special brought into Raw, at least from my point of view.
Onto my thoughts:
The opening tag match with Daniel Bryan and Kane defeating Sheamus and Randy Orton was solid and in many ways, was the best wrestling bout of the show. I thought that once again, they did a good job of showing Bryan as this Owen Hart-esque weasely character who was lucky to walk away without getting splattered by Sheamus. Slowly, we are seeing AJ become his partner in crime, as opposed to the sad girlfriend with the browbeating boyfriend. I really wouldn't be shocked to see her eat a Brogue Kick on Sunday. Kane and Orton did a fine job setting up their bout and I really enjoyed the interaction with Orton and Bryan. They could have some excellent matches down the line.
We followed this up with a lot of shenanigans for Team Teddy vs. Team Johnny. Santino Marella beat David Otunga after Otunga struck himself with a flag pole. It's pretty funny that Johnny Ace went from being a flag-bearer for a team to having a team that needs a flag-bearer. With Hornswoggle, Khali, Vickie, Booker T, dueling Bellas, Teddy, etc. all in the same segment, it's hard enough to take the match seriously, but when Laurinaitis flubbed and told Miz (who saved him) that was not part of "Team Teddy, I mean Team Johnny", I lost it. That will go down in infamy alongside Sid Vicious asking Jim Ross to stop a live promo and do another take, on PPV. At least Miz gets his Wrestlemania match.
The video feature on Undertaker vs. HHH with Shawn as the referee was good but not amazing. I really expected the company to pull something awesome out of their hat. I am amazed, simply amazed, they had none of them on Raw.
Kelly Kelly defeated Eve Torres. Everything you would expect out of this. What was amazing is that this was the last show for Wrestlemania and Kelly was outnumbered two to one by the women, yet nothing happened and they did nothing with their segment to build to Wrestlemania. You could have swapped this non-descript segment into any other episode of Raw from the last year and it wouldn't have seemed out of place.
CM Punk vs. Christian never took place as Chris Jericho appeared on the screen to once again mock Punk, who snapped and destroyed Christian, locking him in the Anaconda Vice, screaming that this was Jericho. As a way to show the babyface who's been pushed over the edge and as a way to reinforce that the Vice means something, it was a hell of a segment. Punk's angry promo was just awesome as well, letting everyone know that Jericho had lied about his family and they were off limits, so now Punk was coming for revenge. Just two really strong segments that makes you wonder why Punk isn't a bigger cog in their machine, even now, after breaking through to the top-tier. This was the lone segment that made you want to see the Wrestlemania bout when it was over.
The Funkasaurus Express continued as Brodus Clay destroyed Curt Hawkins. Like the Divas segment, this was something that could have been on any other show. I like Clay and feel Hawkins shows more potential than WWE admits, but for the last show before Wrestlemania, having this on the show as opposed to a promo with HHH, Undertaker, Michaels, etc. or even a segment where different WWE talents give their opinions on who's going to win one of the main events (remember WWF showing footage of partners disagreeing with who was going to win in Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant back in the day?) seems like a missed opportunity. It's not like Clay can't go without missing a week of TV - they already pulled him off for a few weeks after he had some momentum.
We have a backstage segment where Zack Ryder makes himself look like a moron to the Bellas and they blow him off. Then Eve wants Zack to come party with her at her hotel after Wrestlemania. I am wondering if she's in cahoots with Ace and is going to use Zack to throw the big 12 Man tag. Either way, the way WWE presents Ryder just continues to reinforce the idea that he's not this cool, hip character that the audience should like as an underdog and get behind. That's not going to sell merchandise and it's sad to see someone who worked his way into popularity have the very company he works for cutting him off when it benefits no one.
Mark Henry beat Great Khali. If there was ever a match that would make you want to order Wrestlemania, this was it, right? Why the hell was this on the show? Did Long vs. Ace need TWO SEGMENTS? This all leads to all the heels trying to go after Teddy and a brawl and Booker T making the big save as the 12th man in the match. At least we'll get some Spinaroonies.
The final segment with John Cena vs. The Rock was fine. It was one of the better promos from Rock in recent weeks inside the ring and for Cena, it was an impassioned promo that underlined exactly why he NEEDED to win at Wrestlemania. I really feel that they needed a stronger ending than these two just face to face because we've seen that for weeks on end. It was time for them to slap each other and brawl and have the entire locker room pull them apart. We needed to believe that these two heroes hated each other and were out to show the other who was right and who was the better man. While the promos were good, you weren't left with this great cliffhanger that made you dying to see the show on Sunday.
WWE would have been better off showing the Rock vs. Cena special AFTER Raw, in order to create some buzz, because this show, especially coming after it, did more to deflate the interest than anything else. I don't predict a strong rating, since it was the same Raw you can always see every week, not something that set the world on fire and got them excited.
Mike Johnson will be covering Wrestlemania weekend from Miami. He can be reached at Mike@PWInsider.com and can be followed on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/MikePWInsider. He suggests The Secret Life of Houdini: The Making of America's First Superhero by William Kalush & Larry Sloan for your reading pleasure.
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