Welcome to this week’s edition of 10 Thoughts on WWE Raw for 02.28.2011. I’m Rhett Davis and let’s get down to business shall we?
1. Triple H’s promo on all that remained for Undertaker and he to accomplish was the same goal (the Streak at Mania) was great! The Game has accomplished everything and, like Michaels, had only one feat left and that was being the man to end the Streak. At one point, Game said that Taker losing the Streak would be the death of him and that H would die trying to end it. Seeing the determination really makes me realize how H was the best option for the shot at the Streak. No way could Barrett have gotten this kind of reaction when building a feud with the Deadman. Wade just doesn’t have the history that H does both with Taker and with Michaels to get the emotional connection.
2. Sheamus getting obliterated by Triple H and then defeated by the returning Evan Bourne makes me worry for his direction. Is he going to be thrown into the Triple H/Undertaker feud? Or is he going to go with the Daniel Bryan feud they hinted at last week? It could go either way, but adding him to the battle of the veterans would be an interesting twist. The Streak would be in jeopardy more than ever as he defends against the revengeful Triple H and the brutal rookie in Sheamus. It would make the feud more dire to Undertaker and not totally be focused on two veterans as it was the previous two years. (Not that those were bad matches.)
2a. It was great seeing Evan Bourne back and he looks in good shape. Even if he totally missed with that kick to set-up the Airbourne Shooting Star Press.
3. With the addition to the Cole/Lawler feud, the new question is who will be the guest referee for their match at WrestleMania? Jack Swagger is now the ‘personal trainer’ for Michael Cole and will be in his corner at Mania. It’s good that Swagger was given a role for WrestleMania instead of being thrust right back in the Money in the Bank Ladder Match that appears to not be happening this year. Personally I’m glad they aren’t having it because three MITB winners in one year is really overkill. Swagger didn’t make a huge impact as champ, but it’d be a crime for a previous World Heavyweight champion to not be at WrestleMania when he is perfectly healthy.
4. CM Punk vs Randal Orton is confirmed for WrestleMania tonight which was inevitable, but the stipulation of Randal fighting all of the Nexus is interesting. Orton will fight each member of the Nexus in the next few weeks and if the member beats him then they will earn their place in Punk’s corner at the granddaddy of them all. If Orton defeats them, then not only will they be banned from the match, but they will be banned from the entire show. With Orton defeating McGillicutty and punting him in the skull, it appears the Nexus/Corre battle at Mania is not going to be happening. The Tag Team Division dwindles yet again…
5. The Miz and John Cena segment did what it was supposed to do by bringing Cena back to his condescending kid-oriented self by pulling out a paper with ‘Doctor’s Note’ to explain that Miz has OCD and makes a mockery of A-Ri. Not much in that other than setting up the main event which is interesting, but is it really fair to put one’s career against the opponent merely saying your boss is AWESOME?
6. The Maryse distraction to allow the Bellas to do ‘Twin Magic’ was well done as this continues to show how cunning these Twins are. They just cheated their way into the Divas title picture and took out Eve in the aftermath. Good showing by these girls tonight. Brava.
7. The Rock’s promo didn’t quite have the sheer amazement as the one two weeks ago, but it could’ve been because of the fact that instead of showing up to the show he sent in a ‘Live’ Video Via Satellite. Just like he did for a couple of special SmackDown shows. I guess Buffalo was too far for Rocky to go. Anaheim must have taken forever for Rock to get to from L.A.
8. Having two videos back-to-back seems like a mistake. It kills the audience and Shawn really didn’t say much in the video other than he would root for H, but he would feel jealousy if he managed to beat the Streak.
9. They could have easily have taken that video of HBK out and moved that to SmackDown instead of having two videos directly following each other. I don’t understand the motive for Miz to attack Daniel Bryan except that Miz did it just because he can, as he stated. Seemed like a terrible way to bury Daniel Bryan when they could’ve just let him have a match in replace of the HBK video.
10. The Miz taking a photo of Cena while A-Ri smashed his face in the Steel Cage was brilliant. Miz interfering only made sense as the rookie would have no chance in a Steel Cage against a multi-time WWE Champion.
10a. So I guess A-Ri is gone from Miz’s company. Does that mean Bryan and A-Ri will be fighting for the United States Championship at Mania, or will A-Ri be Cole’s special guest referee? Or will he just disappear back to FCW with Husky Harris and maybe McGillicutty?
Show Thoughts:
Raw seemed a little poorly organized tonight. There was a lot of talking tonight with only a few quick matches. Not to mention two lengthy video packages back-to-back to kill the crowd’s enthusiasm. Well… I wasn’t impressed by tonight’s show, but it set-up many things to come for Wrestlemania.
Thanks for reading.
And quite frankly my dear… that’s a wrap.
