You figure we got two weeks of RAW left so the WWE has to start hammering home every program on the card and they did that with this show but it was not all that amazing.
The show started with Punk coming out to address Jericho from last week, a recap of which was shown. Punk says that Jericho isn't there and his dad being an alcoholic is not his business to share. He knows Jericho wants to get into his heads and play mind games to gain an advantage for their match at Mania. Punk says that if there is a monster/demon inside of him he will let it loose on Jericho at WM. His dad overcame his demons and he is proud of him. Jericho is on the tron via satelite and he apologizes because he was out of line. He won't talk about his father again on television but his sister is not offlimits. He reveals that Punk's sister has drug problems and that there's a pattern within Punk's family. He says Punk will drink and that it's his destiny to do so. Jericho knows that Punk's dad and sister overcame their problems but Punk won't be able to overcome losing at WM. Punk responds by saying he will beat the shit out of Jericho at Mania. I liked this segment and I loved Jericho's line about a pattern developing. It makes total sense and Jericho is trying to use that against Punk to gain an advantage and it seems to be working.
Kane v. The Big Show-Cody comes out in the beginning and Cole reveals Rhodes persuaded him to show a highlight package of Show's Mania moments. This was a wacky reel of his mistakes accented with zany sounds effects whenever something bad happened to Show. I guess Cody is trying to get under his skin but this did nothing to make you care about their match at all. Of course, it won't move any buys no matter what they do. Show starts by pushing Kane into the corner and they fight. They both went for chokeslams but neither got them. Show hit a diving spear and went to the top but Cody distracted him enough so that Kane could slam him off for the win. Cody was also shadowboxing with boxing gloves on outside the ring like Floyd Mayweather and he looked funny! Cody came in from behind Show and hit the Disaster Kick and then went outside and got some handcuffs. He tied his hands together, grabbed the gloves, and pounded on Show with weak looking punches. He nailed him some more with punches and kicks and he left. The officials cut Show free and Show looked up at Cody with an angry look and he couldn't get up without stumbling. Not an amazing way to build up a match but it's only the IC Title match at WM so no big deal I guess. Match was *.
After commercial, they showed a replay of the Cody angle. Santino v. David Otunga-John Laurinaitis and Teddy Long were out with each guy for this match. There was a Santino chant as they both did a posedown. Santino had makeup on his abs to match Otunga's abs definition. Santino ended up pulling a muscle and Otunga attacked him to start the match. Nothing spectacular here but Santino hit his haymakers and then his split into a hip toss and then went for the cobra. Ace threw his phone into the ring but Santino stomped on it. When he turned around, Otunga hit his spinebuster for the finish. Laurinaitis did the trombones dance afterwards but Teddy Long got in his face and slapped him and ran away like a heel. *
Recap video for HHH accepting the Taker match for WM. This is the big program they're hyping for this show.
The Rock is live, in front of the Rocky statue in Philly and he's talking about great Mania moments. He references Hogan and Warrior and then says how he lost to Austin at Wresltemania XV. He says he got better after that loss and went on to beat Austin in their WM re-match and how he beat Hogan at WM18. Now, if he can beat Cena at WMXXVIII, he will be able to solidify himself as the greatest off all-time. This really put over the match I thought. He said he's coming to the arena to send a message to Cena tonight. Good segment here and it was almost like it was Rock's version of Cena's empty arena promo from a couple weeks back.
Daniel Bryan v. Zack Ryder-It's funny that Ryder was injured so heavily a couple months ago by Kane and he just comes back and forgets the whole thing. Must have been traumatic for him! Earlier tonight, Ryder was shown having a Ryder's Rally in the parking lot in Philly. He was doing this in order to get a spot on Team Teddy for Mania. AJ and Bryan kiss before the match, which was just a match to put over DB. Bryan was in control until Ryder hit his comeback and nailed the Broski Boot. He went for the Ruff Ryder but DB countered it into the LaBelle Lock for the win. Ryder looked like a jobber here. * and a quarter
It's the 10 PM quarter hour for John Cena v. Mark Henry-Cena got mostly boos for this one. Cena started by trying to outpower Henry but that didn't work. Henry worked on top almost the whole match and Cena got no offense in until his comeback. Henry pummeled him inside and outside the ring until he went for a splash in the corner. Cena moved and hit a back suplex on Henry and then hit the 5 Knuckle Shuffle but he was still selling the offense from Henry from before. He went for the AA but Henry stopped that and then he went for a crossbody but was caught. Henry tried for the World's Strongest Slam but Cena flipped behind him and hit the AA for the win. The Rock came out, ran down to the ring, and hit the Rock Bottom on Henry, stared down Cena, and left. I guess that was his message but this felt like they were building up to last year's Survivor Series more than Mania. This whole program has been dull. * and three quarters
Recap of HBK announcing he is the ref for the Taker/HHH match at Mania. Another video was shown from Extra as Maria Menounos was interviewing Kelly Kelly but Eve and Beth interrupted. Eve's acting was absolutely awful here but no surprise, right? Beth looked much tougher as she got in Maria's face and went to go hit her but security stopped her. Maria was challenged for a match at Mania and she accepted while smiling and acting like it was nothing. This was awful but again, no surprise.
After commercial, The Miz was in the ring and he talked about how King Kong Bundy main evented WrestleMania II but by WrestleMania III he was just wrestling Hillbilly Jim and how this was the biggest dropoff for a wrestler between Manias until now. He said how he main evented last year's Mania and now he isn't even on the card for this year and he won't stand for it. He wants on Team Johnny at WM and will wrestle anyone to get there. He's desperate it seems. Out comes Sheamus.
Sheamus v. The Miz-The Miz got more offense than any other loser tonight besides Mark Henry but he still looked bad. He started by trying to attack Sheamus but that didn't work and Sheamus nailed his Irish Hammer/Polish Hammer move. Later, Miz went for his crappy DDT but Sheamus countered it with his rolling suplex from a fireman's carry position. Miz regained control but couldn't put him away and he locked in a chinlock. Sheamus hit his comeback to some chants for him, no heat for The Miz though this whole match. Sheamus went for the Brogue Kick and he missed but he tried again and won. * and a quarter
Recap of Jericho/Punk from earlier. Josh Matthews is out on the old-school interview podium to the side of the ramp like in the 80's and 90's. He introduces Randy Orton and Orton reminds everyone that last summer he beat Kane and they shook hands as Kane showed his human side. However, now Kane is nothing close to being human and Orton will beat him at Mania. Very short.
Vickie comes out to intro Swagger and Dolph as two new members of Team Johnny.
Dolph Ziggler/Jack Swagger v. Kofi Kingston/R-Truth-Kofi begins with the advantage and some good offense. He was zooming around and nailed a crossbody from the top. Ziggler and Swagger worked together though to isolate Kofi in their corner for the majority of this match. It had good heat on Kofi to make the tag to Truth. Dolph hit a neckbreaker but Kofi countered into a backslide for a two-count. Swagger was doing push-ups on Kofi's back at one point. Swagger lifted Kofi out of the corner but Kofi countered with a DDT and made the tag. Truth bolted in and hit his comeback and Swagger got thrown out of the ring. Kofi then came down, ran at him, and jumped off the steps onto Jack. In the ring, Swagger hit the Namedropper on Truth for the win. Afterwards, Vickie and Aksana brawled. Like that makes you care about the tag match at Mania any more. * and three quarters
Video was shown from the MSG show over the weekend of HHH doing Taker's moves to Dolph in his match. He hit the tombstone on him and pinned him like Taker does in his matches.
HBK is out and he said Taker was in the same position he was in two years ago at Mania. Taker was at his end. Taker came out and starts talking but was interrupted by HHH. He mentions that there have been twenty-four Hell in the Cell matches and that Taker and HHH have been in nineteen of them. This is the match that HHH thrives in and excels in. The whole world will see the end of the Undertaker at Mania. Taker asks HHH if he is willing to put his family, his career, and everything encompassing his life on the line to end Taker. HHH says yes if it means ending Taker. They stare each other down, Taker leaves but stops. He talked about how people were saying HBK was better than HHH. Taker said it was true, that Shawn is better than HHH, and he leaves. HBK is smiling at HHH and the show ends. Nothing new here but the last couple weeks have been good enough for this program so far.
This whole episode was pretty uneventful as far as advancing Mania storylines. Nothing really new was shown that hasn't been already done in the last couple weeks. I'm a little disappointed that Cena has been booked like a chump this whole time for this match. He never gives me the impression that this is nothing more than another match he has to win. The Rock provokes him so much and he never really responds. I thought for sure they'd finally touch next week but to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if they still didn't. We'll see, I guess. They only have one more week to squeek some buys in and tonight's episode didn't do that.
Workrate average: * and a quarter
The show started with Punk coming out to address Jericho from last week, a recap of which was shown. Punk says that Jericho isn't there and his dad being an alcoholic is not his business to share. He knows Jericho wants to get into his heads and play mind games to gain an advantage for their match at Mania. Punk says that if there is a monster/demon inside of him he will let it loose on Jericho at WM. His dad overcame his demons and he is proud of him. Jericho is on the tron via satelite and he apologizes because he was out of line. He won't talk about his father again on television but his sister is not offlimits. He reveals that Punk's sister has drug problems and that there's a pattern within Punk's family. He says Punk will drink and that it's his destiny to do so. Jericho knows that Punk's dad and sister overcame their problems but Punk won't be able to overcome losing at WM. Punk responds by saying he will beat the shit out of Jericho at Mania. I liked this segment and I loved Jericho's line about a pattern developing. It makes total sense and Jericho is trying to use that against Punk to gain an advantage and it seems to be working.
Kane v. The Big Show-Cody comes out in the beginning and Cole reveals Rhodes persuaded him to show a highlight package of Show's Mania moments. This was a wacky reel of his mistakes accented with zany sounds effects whenever something bad happened to Show. I guess Cody is trying to get under his skin but this did nothing to make you care about their match at all. Of course, it won't move any buys no matter what they do. Show starts by pushing Kane into the corner and they fight. They both went for chokeslams but neither got them. Show hit a diving spear and went to the top but Cody distracted him enough so that Kane could slam him off for the win. Cody was also shadowboxing with boxing gloves on outside the ring like Floyd Mayweather and he looked funny! Cody came in from behind Show and hit the Disaster Kick and then went outside and got some handcuffs. He tied his hands together, grabbed the gloves, and pounded on Show with weak looking punches. He nailed him some more with punches and kicks and he left. The officials cut Show free and Show looked up at Cody with an angry look and he couldn't get up without stumbling. Not an amazing way to build up a match but it's only the IC Title match at WM so no big deal I guess. Match was *.
After commercial, they showed a replay of the Cody angle. Santino v. David Otunga-John Laurinaitis and Teddy Long were out with each guy for this match. There was a Santino chant as they both did a posedown. Santino had makeup on his abs to match Otunga's abs definition. Santino ended up pulling a muscle and Otunga attacked him to start the match. Nothing spectacular here but Santino hit his haymakers and then his split into a hip toss and then went for the cobra. Ace threw his phone into the ring but Santino stomped on it. When he turned around, Otunga hit his spinebuster for the finish. Laurinaitis did the trombones dance afterwards but Teddy Long got in his face and slapped him and ran away like a heel. *
Recap video for HHH accepting the Taker match for WM. This is the big program they're hyping for this show.
The Rock is live, in front of the Rocky statue in Philly and he's talking about great Mania moments. He references Hogan and Warrior and then says how he lost to Austin at Wresltemania XV. He says he got better after that loss and went on to beat Austin in their WM re-match and how he beat Hogan at WM18. Now, if he can beat Cena at WMXXVIII, he will be able to solidify himself as the greatest off all-time. This really put over the match I thought. He said he's coming to the arena to send a message to Cena tonight. Good segment here and it was almost like it was Rock's version of Cena's empty arena promo from a couple weeks back.
Daniel Bryan v. Zack Ryder-It's funny that Ryder was injured so heavily a couple months ago by Kane and he just comes back and forgets the whole thing. Must have been traumatic for him! Earlier tonight, Ryder was shown having a Ryder's Rally in the parking lot in Philly. He was doing this in order to get a spot on Team Teddy for Mania. AJ and Bryan kiss before the match, which was just a match to put over DB. Bryan was in control until Ryder hit his comeback and nailed the Broski Boot. He went for the Ruff Ryder but DB countered it into the LaBelle Lock for the win. Ryder looked like a jobber here. * and a quarter
It's the 10 PM quarter hour for John Cena v. Mark Henry-Cena got mostly boos for this one. Cena started by trying to outpower Henry but that didn't work. Henry worked on top almost the whole match and Cena got no offense in until his comeback. Henry pummeled him inside and outside the ring until he went for a splash in the corner. Cena moved and hit a back suplex on Henry and then hit the 5 Knuckle Shuffle but he was still selling the offense from Henry from before. He went for the AA but Henry stopped that and then he went for a crossbody but was caught. Henry tried for the World's Strongest Slam but Cena flipped behind him and hit the AA for the win. The Rock came out, ran down to the ring, and hit the Rock Bottom on Henry, stared down Cena, and left. I guess that was his message but this felt like they were building up to last year's Survivor Series more than Mania. This whole program has been dull. * and three quarters
Recap of HBK announcing he is the ref for the Taker/HHH match at Mania. Another video was shown from Extra as Maria Menounos was interviewing Kelly Kelly but Eve and Beth interrupted. Eve's acting was absolutely awful here but no surprise, right? Beth looked much tougher as she got in Maria's face and went to go hit her but security stopped her. Maria was challenged for a match at Mania and she accepted while smiling and acting like it was nothing. This was awful but again, no surprise.
After commercial, The Miz was in the ring and he talked about how King Kong Bundy main evented WrestleMania II but by WrestleMania III he was just wrestling Hillbilly Jim and how this was the biggest dropoff for a wrestler between Manias until now. He said how he main evented last year's Mania and now he isn't even on the card for this year and he won't stand for it. He wants on Team Johnny at WM and will wrestle anyone to get there. He's desperate it seems. Out comes Sheamus.
Sheamus v. The Miz-The Miz got more offense than any other loser tonight besides Mark Henry but he still looked bad. He started by trying to attack Sheamus but that didn't work and Sheamus nailed his Irish Hammer/Polish Hammer move. Later, Miz went for his crappy DDT but Sheamus countered it with his rolling suplex from a fireman's carry position. Miz regained control but couldn't put him away and he locked in a chinlock. Sheamus hit his comeback to some chants for him, no heat for The Miz though this whole match. Sheamus went for the Brogue Kick and he missed but he tried again and won. * and a quarter
Recap of Jericho/Punk from earlier. Josh Matthews is out on the old-school interview podium to the side of the ramp like in the 80's and 90's. He introduces Randy Orton and Orton reminds everyone that last summer he beat Kane and they shook hands as Kane showed his human side. However, now Kane is nothing close to being human and Orton will beat him at Mania. Very short.
Vickie comes out to intro Swagger and Dolph as two new members of Team Johnny.
Dolph Ziggler/Jack Swagger v. Kofi Kingston/R-Truth-Kofi begins with the advantage and some good offense. He was zooming around and nailed a crossbody from the top. Ziggler and Swagger worked together though to isolate Kofi in their corner for the majority of this match. It had good heat on Kofi to make the tag to Truth. Dolph hit a neckbreaker but Kofi countered into a backslide for a two-count. Swagger was doing push-ups on Kofi's back at one point. Swagger lifted Kofi out of the corner but Kofi countered with a DDT and made the tag. Truth bolted in and hit his comeback and Swagger got thrown out of the ring. Kofi then came down, ran at him, and jumped off the steps onto Jack. In the ring, Swagger hit the Namedropper on Truth for the win. Afterwards, Vickie and Aksana brawled. Like that makes you care about the tag match at Mania any more. * and three quarters
Video was shown from the MSG show over the weekend of HHH doing Taker's moves to Dolph in his match. He hit the tombstone on him and pinned him like Taker does in his matches.
HBK is out and he said Taker was in the same position he was in two years ago at Mania. Taker was at his end. Taker came out and starts talking but was interrupted by HHH. He mentions that there have been twenty-four Hell in the Cell matches and that Taker and HHH have been in nineteen of them. This is the match that HHH thrives in and excels in. The whole world will see the end of the Undertaker at Mania. Taker asks HHH if he is willing to put his family, his career, and everything encompassing his life on the line to end Taker. HHH says yes if it means ending Taker. They stare each other down, Taker leaves but stops. He talked about how people were saying HBK was better than HHH. Taker said it was true, that Shawn is better than HHH, and he leaves. HBK is smiling at HHH and the show ends. Nothing new here but the last couple weeks have been good enough for this program so far.
This whole episode was pretty uneventful as far as advancing Mania storylines. Nothing really new was shown that hasn't been already done in the last couple weeks. I'm a little disappointed that Cena has been booked like a chump this whole time for this match. He never gives me the impression that this is nothing more than another match he has to win. The Rock provokes him so much and he never really responds. I thought for sure they'd finally touch next week but to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if they still didn't. We'll see, I guess. They only have one more week to squeek some buys in and tonight's episode didn't do that.
Workrate average: * and a quarter
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