1. I really dig the 30 man battle royal addition to the WM30 card and making it mean more than a one-off meaningless match before the show starts. It gets a lot more guys on the card and possibly makes this new Andre the Giant Memorial Trophy almost like King of the Ring as far as prestige and possibly starting a new tradition. Wrestlemania has badly need something to fill the void that Money the Bank left behind after it got it’s own pay per view, this might do the trick. But let’s not get too carried away because I’m convinced Big Show is going to win this.
2. Real American split is furthering to the point of Zeb reaching his limit and Jack Swagger gets pre-buried by Cesaro using a 5th grader’s ultimate weapon, the tight grip handshake. Those kids were always jerks…
3. Can’t help but feel like this was a wasted appearance by Undertaker and as much as I love him and Heyman, all they did was talk in circles. At least they could come up with some reason as to why Undertaker decided to fight Lesnar. Also, we’re still waiting on whatever Undertaker was going to announce. Does Heyman have amnesia powers?
4. CoDust is a fun tag team to watch almost every time they have a match but they seem to put in a bigger effort against Shield. Funny how the Shield is able to do that with most of their opponents. Also, Roman seems to have messed up the spear for the first time but given all the awesome he’s given us in such a short time, I’m willing to let this one slide.
5. Where do I begin with Daniel Bryan on this edition of Raw? I’ll admit that I rolled my eyes at first at the whole “Occupy Raw” thing because the occupy movement was about as useful as a time-travel sit-in (What do we want? “Time travel!” When do we want it? “That’s irrelevant!”) but the visual of filling up the ring and around the ring with DB supporters was a great one and served it’s purpose to force HHH’s hand. Bryan got his match and my response was basically “alright, fair enough…no surprise there.” And at the very least, we got to see the return of screamy Steph and that does something to me that I don’t feel comfortable talking about in a public forum. But then Daniel Bryan continued with another demand that made me throw my hands up as if to signal a touchdown. HHH confirmed (with a RAGE) that it was a deal and DB would be added to the main event if he beat HHH. At that point (with arms still raised), I stood to my feet and exclaimed loudly, “It’s happening!” I’ll hand it to WWE, they’re fixing a rough situation that originated at the end of Royal Rumble and color me impressed. However, let’s hold back on expectations right now because I’m sure HHH always keeps an emergency shovel in a glass case that’s dying to be broken.
6. Another Sheamus vs Christian match. Worst. Follow-up. Segment. Ever. To be fair, the Bryan segment easily could’ve ended any Raw and it felt a bit odd that it was done at the 10pm hour and it no following segment really had a chance. Sheamus and Christian could’ve had a great match (they didn’t) and no one would’ve cared. It’s safe to say that anything short of a surprise CM Punk return would’ve failed following DB’s ultimatum.
7. It’s only been a few weeks but I’m already tired of Lana’s voice and ready for Rusev to finally start wrestling. Her voice is like Vickie’s but with an accent, high pitched and about as comforting as a needle under your toenails.
8. Lost in all the shuffle of Bryan’s ultimatum was Sandow almost getting a match. That guy is still trying to recover from the MitB cash-in.
9. Cena vs Wyatt was confirmed for Wrestlemania 30 but not before Cena committed himself to Hogan’s 30-man battle royal. Making promises to the elderly only to immediately cancel on them #NotAFace.
10. Did that tag team main event even matter after all that had happened? It seemed more to try and remind people that Orton and Batista still existed. To be honest, my attention was drawn elsewhere because viewing companions were more interested in looking up an old college classmate that use to drive us insane and constantly tried to argue with/stump the professor. Turns out the guy is still a jerk, who knew? Daniel Bryan ended the show standing tall, which seemed to be the real important thing to take away from this episode of Raw.
Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do twice,
Chris
