The RAW before WrestleMania is the “last minute sell” for those who are unsure if they are going to buy WrestleMania XXII in Chicago, IL on Sunday, April 2nd. Promotion has always been the name of the game in professional wrestling and the video team at WWE are the best at what they do, in setting up the feeling of the story and emotions being presented from the past few months to get fans pumped up for their product.
The John Cena/Triple H video packages reminded me of how the WWE video team prepared Shawn Michaels versus Bret Hart at WrestleMania XII. Michaels was portrayed as the kid who just wanted to be WWE champion one day, training with Jose Lathario, ready to achieve his lifelong dream and wrestle in the Iron Man Match with Bret Hart. Hart was shown training, running, swimming in a pool in Canada. Bret Hart came across as the WWE champion, true to Hart is in saying he is “the best there is, was and ever will be.” However, Triple H’s video package had WWE Superstar endorsements like Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley and Ric Flair saying how hard Triple H works, as well as a Brazilian former-Mr. Universe trainer helping Triple H prepare. John Cena’s video package was portrayed as a underdog who proves people wrong his entire life, busting his ass in the gym as well as showcasing his father singing his praises, even though he is the WWE Champion and not Triple H. The video packages does not try to really sway fans either to who the WWE wants you to cheer for, it basically just reminds the fans why they support the person who they support. I love the direction of this type of packages, it seems much more serious, which is how it should be when it comes to the WWE Championship. I would have loved to have seen it done this way all along, showing how hard they were training but instead it came across as a last minute idea to throw together a clever video package before WrestleMania.
The lack of John Cena having a promo during RAW but promoting him being on Nashville Starwas a interesting contradiction. A good strong promo would have set up the Cena/McMahon main event (or lack their of) a lot better considering it was going to be a naturally pro-Cena crowd, instead, they were promoting his cross-television appeal, judging a country music competition for the USA Network. The risk they take having McMahon coming out in any kind of match before WrestleMania is risky and having a low blow end the match is also cheap anyway considering everything wrestlers can get away with in wrestling in the first place.
The good use of promo buildup for WrestleMania however was the segment with Mick Foley and the Money In The Bank match. Mick Foley was intense, the showcasing of his half torn off ear from years past in his match with Vader bringing out that intensity that has been lacking. The gift boxes with the roses, baseball bat and barbed wire bat seemed like it was done before but it didn’t lose the effect of setting up the “hatred” between Edge and Foley as Foley swings for the fences to get his WrestleMania moment as Cactus Jack. This should have happened weeks ago but fans are generally forgiving when it comes to Mick Foley.
The Money In The Bank promo with Ric Flair starting it off with the ladder was money The audience is reminded of what this hunt means to Ric Flair, that he still has “it,” and has “it” more so than most of the roster who have been wrestling for less than five years. Shelton Benjamin wasn’t as bad as he usually is when given the microphone, and came across as arrogant and a punk to Flair’s legacy which is completely appropriate so Benjamin wouldn’t be taken as a joke as he has for the last few months. Rob Van Dam making the save for Flair and then taking a rare chance to actually talk on the mic to be taken seriously and clarify that it’s every man for himself, gets poked in the eye by the Dirtiest Player in the Game. The possibilities are endless and this is the hardest match to pin-down for a winner. Sadly for Smackdown it’s like their contributions doesn’t matter to WrestleMania because they should have done a run-in to add to the excitement of promoting the match.
The most heavily pushed storyline in the last few months is clearly Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon and the most noticeably absent figure this week was Shane McMahon. Assuming this will set up a future rift between Vince and Shane for having Triple H as the right hand man this week, it is a good play. The most surprising was the lack of zero mic time Shawn Michaels was given this week. Shawn Michaels is gifted “on the stick” yet didn’t get a chance to showcase his emotions into the storyline, and in some ways, HBK is muted when it comes to giving it that extra kick before the Mecca of PPVs. I’ve always enjoyed Michaels promo work and if he had that, and they still went forward with the less-violent-but-more-blading blade job at the end with Cena and Michaels, it would have meant more to me. I don’t understand why they have to show replay after replay, showing how much the wrestlers are protecting myself (justly) during the moves that are supposed to be devastating to their bodies where they are “bleeding” from it. It only takes away from the intensity of the actual live movement and when the WWE keeps showing replays it becomes much more obvious how they are doing the illusion of their work.
The Mickie James promo where she’s looking creepy with a room full of candles, Trish Stratus posters and publicity photos with the word “LIAR” placed within camera shot on the wall saying how her new obsession is to destroy Trish Stratus got the point across very well within a short period of time. They followed the tag team match with Trish Stratus and Torrie Wilson versus Candice Michelle and Victoria up with a great video package showing how their storyline has been overall-consistently well written and not deviating too far from the appropriate pacing to have this story being told. It is very accurate to say this could be the biggest women’s match in WWE history showcased at WrestleMania given the most prime time and constant promotion.
The Hall of Fame also got a very big push during RAW with the announcement of Tony Atlas and William “The Refrigerator” Perry being added to the already long list of inductees this year. I expect the Hall of Fame to draw a good rating of USA and I expect just like last year, the HOF Inductees one way or the other will show up on WrestleMania Sunday to get their live props in front of the Allstate Arena in Chicago.
Thanks to all those who tune into Big E Sports show at rocklandworldradio.com every Tuesday between 7-8 EST to hear hosts Erik Fenton, Dave Lagreca and I to discuss professional wrestling and whatever else is going on! This week we had on Jake “The Snake” Roberts and discussed everything from Ring of Honor, the WWE Hall of Fame, pasta and the Sopranos. You just never know what we’re going to talk about next! Also, special thanks to Georgiann Makropoulos for all her support of my work and Big E Sports. She’s celebrating her one year anniversary with wrestlingfigs.com and she’s the authority of listing wrestler appearances for wrestling fans. Thank you Georgiann for your friendship and all your hard work over the years. Always remember, for things to change, you have to make movement. Thanks for reading and for all the feedback, feel free to contact me anytime at Bam@4sternstaging.com.
