WWE RAW Coverage: Promos and Squashes

With less than a week before Wrestlemania 28, last night’s episode of WWE RAW needed to be as close to perfect as possible.

By today’s standards, it was.

That mainly had to do with the last 15 minutes of the show, where John Cena and The Rock set up what can be one of the best matches in Wrestlemania history with some entertaining promo.

Speaking of which, sure, there was a lot of promo in this episode, but it was the good kind- the type that teases and entertains and doesn’t waste time.

Every angle picked up some steam and this year’s Wrestlemania looks to be an even stronger show than it was before RAW.

The first few matches were physical and pushed a good pace. The rest were all squashes, but were adequate enough and set up more promo work. Speaking of which, all the video packages were well-produced. Between the Metallica tunes and looks back at many of the Superstars’ careers, the WWE has done a solid job of making fans care about these matches.

Matches:

Randy Orton and Sheamus vs. Kane and World Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan w/ AJ: Strangely, Orton and Bryan looked solid together. They delivered some great, hard-hitting action. Sheamus and Kane were good as well- both are big guys in excellent shape. Kane’s basement dropkick on Sheamus and the Celtic Warrior’s diving clothesline on the Big Red Machine were proof of that. Aside from routine offense, this match featured a ton of kick outs and signature maneuvers and wasn’t predictable. After Kane took care of Orton on the outside, AJ got involved and caused Sheamus to miss the Brogue kick. Soon after, Kane chokeslammed Sheamus. As always, Bryan took advantage of the opportunity and got the win.

United States Champion Santino Marella vs. David Otunga: A whimsical encounter that saw Hornswoggle initiate Otunga’s demise. After he “accidently” hit himself with his own flagpole, Santino hit the Cobra for the win. Soon enough, The Miz was ringside and nailed Marella with Full-Nelson Facebuster finisher. Within seconds RAW GM announced that Miz would be a part of his team for his 12-man tag match at Wrestlemania.

Eve Torrez w/ Beth Phoenix vs. Kelly Kelly: Chants of Hoe-ski started the match, but the contest ultimately disrespected the fans more than Kelly’s taunts towards Eve. After a missed moonsault, Kelly hooked on a mediocre cradle for the win.

WWE Champion CM Punk vs. Christian: Captain Charisma’s new hair style makes him look a bit too much like he’s going to High School prom, but luckily for him, Punk took him to school. Delivering a modified GTS on the ring steps and an Anaconda Vice on the outside, Punk got himself DQed. Christian’s hair survived the beating.

Curt Hawkins vs. Brodus Clay: T-Bone suplex, splash- another win for Clay. A shame. Hawkins has some Clay doesn’t- talent.

The Big Show vs. Epico w/ Primo and Rosa Mendez: Another squash as Epico caught a monster Chokeslam from Show.

The Great Khali vs. Mark Henry w/ John Laurinaitis: Another… you guessed it, squash. Henry nailed Khali with the World’s Strongest Slam and beat the former World champion in less than a minute. After the match, Booker T was announced as the final member of Teddy Long’s team for Wrestlemania.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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