“It pains me to look at you as a loser. That’s why I’m going to do it, Shawn,â€
-Triple H,  in response to Shawn Michaels as to why he accepted Undertaker’s challenge at this year’s Wrestlemania.
The opening promo for this week’s Monday Night RAW was painful to watch, but the end of it all was worth it. Shawn Michaels will be the guest referee for the Triple H/Undertaker encounter at Wrestlemania. That will be fun to see.
That was essentially the key to everything in this episode. Aside from a series of hilarious Rock promos, every match and promo felt a bit drawn out and tedious, but it built up what appears to be a solid Wrestlemania less than a month away. With a new United States Champion crowned as well, the show was unexpected and fun when it had to be.
Matches:
United States Champion Jack Swagger w/ Vicki Guerrero and Dolph Ziggler vs. Santino Marella: Swagger hit a sloppy version of his diving powerbomb and nearly got the win after Ziggler’s interference early on. John Laurinaitis, David Otunga, Teddy Long, Aksana and Kofi Kingston were all ringside. The company definitely took away from the match, but the interference was fun. Marella, caught in the Ankle Lock, countered it into a roll up to win the United States Championship. After the match, Laurinaitis tried to reverse the decision, but got escorted out of the building instead.
Alicia Fox vs. Eve Torrez: A quick match that Torrez won after a quick counter and leg sweep. After the match, Zack Ryder came out and shot a quick promo on her. A few minutes later, they kissed backstage. Explain that.
WWE Champion CM Punk and Sheamus vs. World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan and Chris Jericho: A quality wrestling match with plenty of in-ring psychology. All four of these guys are trying to build momentum going into Wrestlemania and this contest did an ample job keeping all of them hot. Of all of them, Sheamus may be the hottest right now. The pop he gets with every move is significantly louder than anyone else right now. Good teamwork between Jericho and Bryan took Sheamus out of the equation though and the pressure was on Punk once he got the hot tag. Punk was on even-footing with Jericho, but Y2J was able to roll him up for a questionable, yet sneaky win.
The Miz vs. Big Show: Miz took advantage of more nonsense from Cody Rhodes before the match started, but Show countered with a spear and a big punch for the win.
Kane vs. R-Truth: Kane Chokeslam after two minutes of routine offense. Done. Randy Orton hit the ring afterward and caught Kane with the RKO. Could these two be gearing up for a Wrestlemania encounter?
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