 Wrestlemania 28 is near with no point of return.
If WWE ever needed a time to come through, it’s now.
Fortunately, Raw hyped the hell out of Wrestlemania. Every match and segment was Wrestlemania-related. Each feud somehow progressed and that’s how it should be. No filler, even if some Wrestlemania matches feel like throwaways (Kane/Orton, Divas tag match, etc.)
The Punk/Jericho segment was strong, as Punk showed his usual pipe bomb passion while Jericho did enough to stay in Punk’s head when he brought up Punk’s sister’s substance abuse. Punk vowed to beat the “B.S.†out of Jericho at Wrestlemania and this feud now has a personal edge to what should already be a clinic.
Same can be said for the HBK/Undertaker/Triple H segment. The aspect of how Shawn Michaels and his ego will play out in the Hell in a Cell match as Special Guest Referee and his smirks at Triple H were great. These segments share redundancies over time, but all bases are covered and the payoff will be colossal.
The Cody Rhodes /Big Show feud moved along too, as Rhodes looked like a badass with his pre-match comedic video package that recapped Show’s Wrestlemania failures and post-match attack with boxing gloves (in reference to Show’s WM 24 loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr.) while Show was handcuffed to the ropes. Show’s glares at Rhodes afterwards were priceless. This has shaped up to be a great mid-card feud.
Kane beat Big Show and looked strong headed into his match with Orton. Orton cut an old-school promo on the side of the stage and basically called Kane a monster. While the handshake bit was weak, the rest was effective.
Sheamus and Daniel Bryan both won their respective matches and looked solid going into their match. Bryan was flawless and his obnoxious celebrations gave him great heat. Sheamus was also fantastic as his Brogue Kick led him to another victory and another loss for The Miz.
The Team Johnny/Team Teddy feud advanced, as David Otunga beat Santino with Laurinaitis’ help early in the show. Laurinaitis mocked Teddy, so Teddy slapped him and ran away, which seemed heel-ish, but was effective. Later, Dolph Ziggler and Jack Swagger were added to Laurinaitis’ team and won their match with Vickie’s assistance. Aksana and Vickie even partook in a catfight. With Zack Ryder on a quest to join Team Teddy and Miz yet to have a Wrestlemania match, next week should provide the final pieces for this 6-on-6 tag match.
Now for the biggie: Rock and Cena. Rock cut a promo on Cena in front of the Rocky statue and mentioned suggestive uses for Philly Cheesesteaks to rile up the crowd. Rock excels in these segments. The mention of who inspired him to become who he is today was a nice touch. Cena pulled out the stops for a huge win over Mark Henry before Rock came out and Rock Bottomed Henry in front of Cena to send a message. It didn’t overshadow everything else and gave the crowd enough to savor.
With the go-home show of all go-home shows next week, this week’s show did a stellar job of doing enough to get us there. Things progressed, but Creative also gave fans an incentive to tune in next week.
Plus, all the little replays throughout the night emphasized the importance of the feuds and was effective.
Wrestlmania 28 has promise in Rock/Cena, Triple H/Undertaker, Sheamus/Daniel Bryan, Punk/Jericho and Team Teddy/Team Johnny. The rest sounds like pure filler, but this can be changed with an excellent go-home show and WWE is in position for it.
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