My Thoughts On WWE Raw 3.24.14 (Triple H, The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar, The Shield)

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1. I absolutely LOVE the fact that four former World Heavyweight Champions are wrestling a fatal four-way match on Raw to be named the number one contender for the Intercontinental Championship! I’ve said ever since they unified the World & WWE Championships that either the IC championship or the United States Championship had to be built back up to a higher level. This is the perfect step in the right direction but out of the 4 potential matches that could have come out of that match, Christian versus Big E was the lowest on my list.

2. I will say this, the Scooby Doo movie is actually pretty damn good. Of course my 3-year-old son has watched the screener I received on repeat for a week straight but before I started tuning out the repetitiveness, the movie is written very well! There are inside jokes that relate both to the world of wrestling AND the Scooby Doo world. All of the wrestlers did their own voices (except for Sin Cara who only speaks “Lucha”) & they all put on a good performance. I actually hope they make a sequel to this direct-to-DVD movie.

3. I had horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE WCW Nitro flashbacks when John Cena saw the sheep’s mask in the mirror and then it wasn’t there. I’ll just leave you with this:

4. Triple H’s “sit-down” promo with Michael Cole was rather awkward the entire way though. First, I didn’t see a particular reason as to why Cole had to be in the ring for a Triple H promo. Sure, he set up some of the topics but does anyone really think Triple H needs to be walked through a promo at this point? Two things fell flat for me. One was that Daniel Bryan didn’t make an appearance at all. Even something where he was live “via satellite” would have worked better than a complete no-show. Last week’s Raw ended so hot I felt they needed to capitalize on that and two promos from Triple H, Randy Orton, Stephanie McMahon or Batista aren’t going to do the job. Secondly was Hunter’s forced attempt at trying to “name” this time in WWE history as the “Reality Era”. Aren’t times in history named AFTER they’ve taken place and not during? He said it so many damn times I wouldn’t be surprised if people come up with a different name for the time we are living in just to spite WWE TV.

5. My favorite part of Cody/Fandango was when Goldust danced over to Summer Rae who shouted “Are you mocking me?” To which Goldust simply yelled “Yes!” and they had an impromptu dance off. I don’t know what it is but Goldust looks like he’s having so much damn fun, I can’t help but laugh at things like this.

6. Before I get to John Cena versus Luke Harper, everyone needs to watch this tremendous piece of work again:

Cutting pieces like that is my actual job and unfortunately I’m not allowed as much creative liberty when working for a sports news network. But from one editor to another (whoever it was), getting the rights to that song, laying out the promos to match the lyrics and letting the video & music tell most of the story made it fantastic. Great work that deserves all the play I’m sure it will receive.

6b. Alright, back to the actual match. First off, I like how Luke Harper is getting little bits of promo time here and there. They didn’t throw him into a sink or swim scenario like so many others and this allows him to develop at his own pace. The match itself I believe exceeded a lot of people’s expectations. I’ve been saying that if they want Harper to eventually be a top heel, they need to get him going and having him work with a main-eventer is definitely the way to go. A non-finish was logical given that we are less than two weeks away from WrestleMania and the visual of Cena wearing the sheep’s mask is one that’s going to leave an impression on a ton of Cena’s fans. It was just creepy and weird enough that it probably freaked out the kids while the adults couldn’t help but be intrigued by a John Cena storyline.

7. Well if you thought the battle royal at WrestleMania XXX was going to be a clusterfuck, the Divas just stole that mantle. What are the rules? How many women are involved? Can AJ lose the title without being pinned or is it elimination? Whatever the answers may be, it’s definitely not going to be pretty.

8. So wait, is Scott Hall going into the Hall of Fame or “Razor Ramon”? I would think they would have shown SOME of his NWO days if Hall was being inducted based on his career but it seems like he’s being inducted based on the character he played. I’d pop if Rick Bognar came out to accept the award.

9. The Shield are OVER as babyfaces. This match was good but nowhere the quality of tag matches we’ve seen them put on and yet the crowd was into it for every offensive spot by them (or by Cesaro). I know they’re not ready to turn Cesaro yet, especially when the priority seems to be on when Roman Reigns will turn, but they must be chomping at the bit to have Cesaro turn full babyface. Hell, he’s already there in the fans eyes!

10. I’m confused as to why ANYONE gets freaked out when the druids roll a casket to the ring. You know The Undertaker is either in there or will be after he climbs into it from under the ring (nice directing going to the one camera that shows someone going under the ring, by the way). I’m sorry but Undertaker/Lesnar is purely senseless to me & not the huge money draw the WWE expect it to be. Now if they could only show footage of when Brock Lesnar confronted The Undertaker after Lesnar’s UFC fight…

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