 Chris Jericho degrades WWE Champion CM Punk. Strong promo to kick off the show featuring WWE Champion CM Punk and Chris Jericho. Although Punk always cuts a great promo, this specific one involved the emotion that we don't usually see from Punk. For the second week in a row, Jericho did an excellent job of getting under the skin of Punk and furthering my interest in this intriguing rivalry between the two best in the world. Quick match between Big Show and Kane that lasted only under a minute. These do indeed have history together and would have liked to see them go longer, but I guess it was for the best since both are monsters and the crowd would have been sitting on their hands the entire time. Smart booking with Cody Rhodes beating down Show, giving him tremendous heat in the process. Typical match with David Otunga defeating United States Champion Santino Marella in a non-title bout. The whole series of events with Teddy Long and John Laurinaitis bickering at ring-side only for Long to push or slap Laurinaitis has gotten old at this point, and it certainly takes away from the matches they are involved in. Additionally, it would make sense to give Otunga a shot at the U.S. title, but I don't see that happening sadly. Fun promo from The Rock that incorporated the right mix of humor and seriousness. The live crowd didn't seem into it at first, but Rocky got them on his side by the end of it. Dropping a handful of legendary names was a nice touch, as well as getting straight to the point. Tying in his background into the promo made this an effective segment. Random match between World Heavyweight Championship Daniel Bryan and Zack Ryder. These two have great chemistry and had a good match while it lasted, but no build-up to this bout made me not care. Bryan's opponent Sheamus didn't get involved, nor did anything further with Ryder storyline-wise. If nothing else, the finish was pretty cool. Predictable match from Mark Henry and John Cena. I'm glad that Henry was able to get in some dominant offense for most of the bout, so he didn't get completely squashed. Seeing Cena was involved in a car accident earlier that morning, wouldn't it have been better to play that up and make it seem like Cena went against all odds? The Rock Bottom to Henry after the match was actually pretty damn impressive. This mini-confrontation between Cena and Rock was a nice teaser and break from their usual promos.  The Rock takes out Mark Henry as John Cena looks on. Throwaway match with Sheamus defeating The Miz in a decisive fashion. Sure, the action was good for what it was worth, but we've seen too much from these two lately that this felt like nothing. The Miz hasn't won a match in over three weeks, so losing here was no surprise. His promo before the match gives me hope this angle is headed somewhere going into WrestleMania 28 rather than just being forgotten about.
Fine promo from Randy Orton discussing his upcoming match with Kane at WrestleMania 28. The crowd didn't really seem to care, but at least they explained the feud to the Raw viewers a bit more so it made sense. I liked the set-up of the interview, giving it a more classic feel and something different than what we usually see. Good tag team match with Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger defeating Kofi Kingston and R-Truth, but nothing that we haven't seen before. The focus on this match was more on Aksana and Vickie Guerrero at ring-side, but at least it helped promote the 12-man tag team match for WrestleMania. The heels winning in a dirty fashion wasn't really needed, as they're over enough to pick up the clean victory. Solid promo to close the show featuring Shawn Michaels, Undertaker, and Triple H. These guys never cease to make this feud interesting, as each week keeps getting better and better. Originally, I wasn't looking forward to this match by any means, but they've convinced me that this bout will truly be epic. They also managed to make the Hell in a Cell stipulation mean something going into this match at WrestleMania. Each veteran played their role well, and I'm highly anticipating the pay-off come WrestleMania. Overall, a successful building show towards WrestleMania 28 with a bit of everything crammed in, but nothing extremely enjoyable or noteworthy. The action was decent, but no matches throughout the show got enough time to really mean anything or feel memorable. This edition at least featured most (if not all) of the WrestleMania programs and progression for each of them, so WWE will have to do an amazing job next week to really sell WrestleMania 28 as one of the greatest events in years. |
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