I was pretty pumped about this Raw. The “only Wrestlemania matches” gimmick is a pretty solid one. I’m kind of surprised that this was the “three weeks before Mania” show instead of the “six days before Mania” show, but whatever. Another high-quality Raw on the lead-up to the big show.
I have nothing useful to say in the intro this week so let’s get on with it.
I will also be in Boston next weekend to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. If anyone would like to volunteer 10 Thoughts for Smackdown, let me know.
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1) They started with the thing I most wanted to see this week. Ric Flair in full red-faced, about to have a heart-attack craziness demanding that Shawn Michaels wrestle him. Shawn agreed… and his lips were a weird white during the interview. Either he had a powdered donut before the interview or he’s eating coke now. I report… you decide. I’m a little bummed they didn’t go with a “Ric does something awful to Shawn to convince him” angle, but I’ll take what I can get.
2) WWE really wasted the Undertaker Wrestlemania re-match. Why wouldn’t they do Batista/Undertaker with a Umaga run-in? Wouldn’t that have accomplished like… 10 different things? Instead we get awful Mark Henry. Hasn’t the Mark Henry experiment failed… like 20 times now?
3) Are we assuming that the entire “Vince Has A Son” thing was a lie or the identity of the son was a lie? If it’s the former… bleh.
4) At the end of the casket match Mark Henry was bleeding from the mouth. JR suggested that perhaps Henry had sustained some internal injuries from Undertaker’s triangle choke. … Internal injuries. From a move involving a choke.
5) They aired a cool segment where Michael Buffer, Antonio Tarver, and Burt Sugar (a boxing historian) do kayfabe interviews for Mayweather/Big Show. They give totally serious soundbites about fighting out weight-class and stuff like that. As an aside, Michael Buffer’s speaking voice sounds absolutely NOTHING like his Michael Buffer voice. I mean, I didn’t think he walked around talking like Michael Buffer all the time (Gimme some muenster CHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSEEEE, gimme a number four SUPER-SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIZED, etc) but I didn’t think his voice was thin and like two octaves higher than his ring voice. Jennifer Garner has a manlier voice than he does.
6) For all the months I was on Smackdown Ban, I never knew precisely why Eric S loathed Mr. Kennedy with every fiber of his being. I also didn’t know he billed from Green Bay. It all makes sense now.
7) After seeing these last couple of matches with Chris Jericho and Jeff Hardy, I’d be perfectly satisfied to see like a year-long DDP/Macho Man style feud or Booker T/Guy Who Can No Longer Be Named best of seven for the IC Title. This is also the first time I’ve seen the Code Breaker. Good finisher. In a bit of an unexpected twist of fate (ha!), Chris Jericho pulls the the IC Title off Jeff Hardy. Does this make Jeff Hardy the favorite for the Money In The Bank?
8) Very bad job by the crowd in Milwaukee. First, they’re booing the Soviet National anthem AND they don’t get an “IRS” chant started. Show of hands: who would be freaking out and cheering for the national anthem of a union that no longer exists? I would. Also, they get the four guys to the ring and all they do is use it as a crappy excuse to have Jillian come out and butcher “Born In The USA”? I was expecting Barry Windham to superplex the Iron Sheik.
9) It would be nice if someone told Maria that when one takes a finisher whose points of impact are theoretically the back of the head and the solar plexus, holding the FRONT of your head really does nothing to sell the move.
10) I was unaware that, for wrestling, the official weigh-in was done three weeks in advance of the match. One might think these matches weren’t on the up and up. I like this active effort to make Mayweather heel. Usually wrestling companies always push the celeb as the good guy, regardless of what the fans want. Mayweather is reveling in this heely-ness. Mayweather also scored the line of the week: “I can’t tell you who the president is right now… I can tell you who Ben Franklin is, though.” I’m going to assume that line wasn’t scripted… God Bless boxing.
11) Yet another great bit of angling, the Big Show calls out his “posse” which is all the guys in the locker room pissed off that the E would pay $20 million to get Mayweather to appear at Wrestlemania. Everything they are doing with this angle is fantastic.
12) Triple H finally gets it right. After the Cena/Michaels match Triple H announces his plan for next week. He also takes my suggestion as he announces next week’s match. John Cena and Randy Orton in a tag team handicap match against THE ENTIRE RAW ROSTER. I knew if anyone got it right it would be Trip.
