 WWE Champion CM Punks gets held back by the referees. Solid match to kick off the show with World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan and Kane defeating Sheamus and Randy Orton in tag team action. It got great time and all four competitors got their spots in. It was also a nice change of pace to have a match at the top of the hour rather than the usual promo, which seemed odd for the go-home show. Nonetheless, this bout certainly sold me on both feuds going into Sunday. Throwaway match between United States Champion Santino Marella and David Otunga that was drowned out by pure comedy. After being pushed and slapped by Teddy Long for weeks now, you would think that John Laurinaitis would fight back, right? The only real hit here was the revealing of The Miz for Team Johnny, who was a pleasant surprise seeing most people were expecting Alberto Del Rio. Lackluster match between Kelly Kelly and Eve that didn't accomplish much. Since this is the first-ever meeting between the two former best friends, I'd rather see this for the Divas Championship or hyped out in advance as a big culmination. Instead, we had Kelly beat Eve in mere minutes, despite Beth Phoenix being at ring-side. Also, I'm not a huge fan of Maria Menounos being in the Divas match at Mania because only mentioning her on the show doesn't make up for her lack of appearances on live television. Intense segment with Chris Jericho once again WWE Champion CM Punk, only to release his frustrations out on Christian. With this being the third straight week that Jericho has targeted Punk's family via the Titantron, his remarks regarding Punk's mother this time around didn't have the same impact as the previous two. However, Punk still showed perfect facial expressions and the sense of vulnerability that unleashed a new vengeful side of him that we haven't seen in a long time. Sure, I would have loved to see Punk take on Christian, but giving this new edge to Punk I believe was more important. By the way, I'm vastly disappointed Christian had to take the beating here since he just returned a few short weeks ago, but hopefully they use this attack as a reason to have Punk and Christian feud down the line. Yet another typical squash match with Brodus Clay dominating Curt Hawkins. I was originally hoping that returning Brodus to television on the road to WrestleMania would mean that he was bound for Team Teddy, but it appears not. Well, fingers crossed they have plans for him to initiate an actual feud following Mania, otherwise he'll lose any relevancy he has left.  John Cena confronts The Rock in a war of the words. Quick match with Big Show squashing WWE Tag Team Champion Primo. It was designed to make Show look strong going into his title match on Sunday, so at least it was a decisive victory. The true highlight here was Cody Rhodes' promo, who continues to improve on the mic and deliver entertaining performances each and every week.
Meaningless match between Mark Henry and The Great Khali. It was fine while it lasted, but forgettable. Obviously, the main focus here was building towards Team Johnny vs. Team Teddy, which got the point across following the bout. Drew McIntyre replacing Christian on Team Johnny is logical, and Booker T filling in the last spot for Team Teddy got a pretty good pop from the live crowd. Strong segment to close the show featuring The Rock and John Cena. Of course, no new material from these two was provided that we haven't seen before, but I was very glad to hear them discussing why they each need to win this important match. Their promos included the respective share of comedy and intensity, and didn't need physicality to sell their upcoming bout. Both Rock and Cena did an excellent job of getting me excited for their WrestleMania 28 encounter. Overall, a good show that was no doubt successful in hyping all of the matches on the WrestleMania 28 card for this Sunday. The action on this broadcast was by no means memorable, but the promo-heavy aspect of this show should be expected given WrestleMania is only mere days away. Regardless of you watched this show or not, WrestleMania 28 looks beyond epic on paper that it has already sold itself. |
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