WWE Monday Night Raw Thoughts: 3/19/2012

This week's episode of Raw was pretty solid from where I stand.  The matches fell a bit flat, but they did a pretty good job of building hype for the primary matches at Wrestlemania.  Still, I was again left wanting a bit more by the shows end.  Want to know why?  Find out after the jump!






The opening promo by CM Punk was very well done.  You could really feel his passion pouring out and he spoke from the heart and everything came off as believable and honest.  I really didn't even need a storyline with two athletes as good as Punk and Jericho, so to have such good material this week only adds to the mountain of expectations I have for this match.  All credit to Punk for coming off as an inspiring and strong hero, but every hero is only as good as his villain.  That being said, I thought Jericho has made a brilliant return to form over the last couple of weeks.  I am happy to say that the asshole who harassed Shawn Michaels and Rey Mysterio in his great 2007-2010 run, is back with a vengeance. 

It's this segment that truly shows what Jericho does best....make things very personal

This feud has gone from promising to incredibly well thought out in a matter of weeks and I would expect no less from a master storyteller like Jericho.  The comments about Punk's sister really seemed to genuinely piss Punk off.  Punk holds his sister very near and dear to his heart and I loved the fact that all of Punk's swagger and bravado went out the window after Jericho targeted the people closest to him.  He literally goes from 0-100 on the anger scale tonight and I loved every minute of it.  This is slowly becoming the real diamond of the Wrestlemania card and I fully expect them to steal the show this year.  Bravo gentlemen.  A job very well done.



Match 1: Kane vs. The Big Show


As soon as they announced this match, I kind of rolled my eyes a bit.  I have never really cared much about the chemistry between these two.   Thankfully I had a savior in Cody Rhodes

The IC champ is criminally underrated

I love the hype Cody Rhodes has almost single-handedly built for his IC title match with The Big Show.  His Floyd Mayweather-like assault on Show this week was just awesome.  I'm a big fan of the classic mind games storylines heading into Mania, and the WWE has delivered a couple of great old school builds out of this and the Punk-Jericho match.  I still think Cody will have a career defining night at the big show (no pun intended) and continue his title-resurrecting run straight to the top of the card.


Match Rating: N/A



Am I the only one who's actually extremely excited for the upcoming Rock-John Cena video special next week?  I think this is a masterstroke by the WWE that will only make the match even bigger.



Match 2: David OIL-Tunga vs. United States Champion Cinder-Marella


This match was entertaining enough.  I loved Santino's faux abs.  Seriously, if that didn't make you laugh, then you have no personality.  This match was meant solely to promote Team Johnny vs. Team Teddy at Wrestlemania, which is fine by me.  Still, I thought it was a bit silly that a cell phone was all it took to distract Santino, costing him the win here. 


Match Rating: *

The Rock wants YOU, to join Team Bring It

Before I get into The Rock's promo, I just want to note that I am more than pumped to find out who the fuck Tensai is

This should be interesting.....could it be the WWE's version of Keiji Mutoh?

Back to The Rock's promo.  I know I have been hard on Rocky these past few weeks, but trust me, it's only out of admiration.  The Rock was always one of my favorite talkers....shit he WAS my favorite in his prime, thus leaving my expectations for him very high.  I'm glad to say that tonight, I was pretty entertained by his Philidelphia themed promo this week.  I'm glad he managed to find a way to compare John Cena to the greats and to then note that he is the only person worthy of The Rock coming back.  Giving John the rub, only helps build the hype for the match.  John Cena needs to appear to be on Rock's level for this thing to work and The Rock seems to be taking Cena a little bit more serious now.  The Rock also gave us his personal motivation here, explaining that he will fulfill his lifelong dream of being the greatest of all time by beating Cena at Wrestlemania.  THIS is what I've been asking him for....THANK YOU ROCK....you finally get it.  Wrestlemania isn't about bravado and funny promos, it's about fulfilling destiny and achieving greatness.  I've been waiting for The Rock to have some sort of real motivation for this match other then "I hate John Cena, Boots 2 Asses".  You've got me back on board tonight and you've got no complaints here.  Welcome back Rock.  See you again next week.



Match 3: World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan vs. Zack Ryder


The vegan parade ran straight through the returning Zack Ryder tonight and it's fine by me.  A former US champion should be easy work for the World Champ, even though it would have been nice for Ryder to get in a bit more offense.  Either way, how awesome was that finish!?


Match Rating: **1/4



Match 4: John Cena vs. Mark Henry


Solid match here.  Glad to see Mark Henry being booked like the monster that he is again.  Still, it could be a bit too late.  After being dominated for much of the match, Cena levels Henry with the Attitude Adjustment.  The Rock then arrives to a massive pop and hits Henry with The Rock Bottom, sending a message to John Cena.  I think these two will finally lose their shit next week.  Looking forward to it.


Match Rating: ***



The divas tag match is here to serve as the annual "find a random celebrity to throw into the mix" match this year.  Fine by me, I would rather Beth Phoenix face Kharma, but Kharma's apparently not ready to return full time.  Look for Eve and Beth Phoenix to lose this one.  I mean c'mon, EVERYONE knows celebrities have superpowers at Wrestlemania.



Exhibit A

Yeah....



Next up, we've got another whiny promo from The Miz

Gotta say, I do feel a bit bad for the guy.  Okay....I'm over it.  The Miz's aura has been eaten away faster than a cheeseburger at The Big Show's house.  He might as well accept the fact that he'll most likely end up feuding with Santino over the US title in the upcoming months.



Match 4: The Miz vs. Sheamus


See what I mean?


Match Rating: **



Randy Orton aka "the naked baby" cuts a pretty dry promo...then again...with Randy, this is to be expected.  To his credit, it doesn't really matter.  The guy always delivers the goods in the ring and that's all I ask of him.  Still, "my name, is Randy Orton" is pretty much literally all he's managed to say in two promos.

Josh: "Randy, how're you preparing for your big match with Kane?"  Randy: "....my name, is Randy Orton"

Match 5: R-Truth and Kofi Kingston (the Hip-Hop Express)w/Aksana vs. Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger (the Show Offs)w/Vickie Guerrero


Another match that's meant to build hype for Team Teddy vs. Team Johnny.  It was a solid match, but I don't think they needed to promote the same match twice.  Would rather they've used this time to get the Tag Team champs over and throw in a ladder match with The Usos or something like that.  I just feel as if every title should be represented at Wrestlemania or they'll again lose their significance.  But I digress....


Match Rating: **



The final segment between HHH, The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels was a good ending to the show.  Taker pretty much could give a shit about the brewing animosity between HBK and The Game and the whole segment was almost meant to tease a possible turn by Shawn at the big PPV.  I loved the bit at the end with HBK smiling behind Hunter's back after Taker again tells him that Shawn is better than he is...

"dude, why're you lookin' at me like that?  what?  HE said it, not me!"

Not much else was said here that we haven't heard in the past weeks, but that's OK because the tension between Shawn Michaels and Triple H is almost more intriguing than this whole "end of an era" thing.  I'm really curious to see how this will play out.  That being said, I'd say that this segment was effectively done.







Overall episode rating: 7.5 (A good show promo-wise, but they're going to have to pull out all the stops next week)


What to watch if you DVR'd the episode: Pretty much everything but the matches, which is sad to say, but on the Road to Wrestlemania, the stoylines are more important.  A very good job was done this week building hype, and if you are not pumped for Wrestlemania yet, give these promos a view.