I
recently read a report on Wrestlezone.com about WWE superstar, Big Show, being
sued by a former WWE producer. In short, Big Show was in no mood to do an
interview after his match at this year’s Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View. He then,
supposedly, verbally berated the producer and struck him in the face as well as
grabbed him by the throat. While I do not know if these claims are accurate,
what I do know is that this incident is not good for either Big Show, or World
Wrestling Entertainment. Here’s hoping that this lawsuit will get dealt with
and we will never hear about it again. I am a fan of Paul Wight a.k.a Big Show
and have been for as long as I have watched wrestling. I hope that this does
not harm him professionally or personally as he can only have a few years left
in the business, and I would love to watch him finish his career with no
further incidents as well as in WWE.
Raw
24 hours after WrestleMania 29
ended, the new WWE Champion, John Cena, comes out to start the show. He says
that he is going to start his era as champion with a title defense tonight and
issued an open challenge to the locker room. I personally loved Mark Henry
answering the challenge. It is also worth noting that Henry’s interactions with
other superstars are always entertaining and underrated. It appears as though
the new nameplate for the WWE Championship is going to come in the form of each
superstar’s personal insignias. I personally believe that a nameplate could and
should have somehow made its way onto the new belt, but overall, the belt looks
very sharp and I definitely do not miss the clunky old one. All in all, this
was a good way to start off the Monday Night Raw after WrestleMania, especially
with a raucous crowd that was more present throughout the night, than the 80,000
at WrestleMania on Sunday.
The Big E. Langston vs. Daniel Bryan
matchup was not very long, but was still a good little match to give Langston
an impressive Raw debut. I guess Big E.’s finisher is called the Big Ending?
Were the people behind this naming the same ones behind the names of Michael
McGillicutty and Fandango?
The next matchup saw Wade Barrett
regaining the Intercontinental Championship from The Miz just 24 hours after
dropping the strap on the Pre-Show of WrestleMania. This match was pretty
decent and could have been pretty good if not for a botched spot on Miz’s
neckbreaker combination. I could not believe that none of the commentators
called Wade Barrett emulating his inner Cactus Jack when he did the classic
running elbow drop from the apron to the outside as well as the “Bang Bang!” he
did before that.
The 2 on 1 Handicap Match achieved
the purpose that Creative set upon it, which was to setup the Dolph Ziggler
cash-in. I must say that I was shocked and extremely disappointed that Ziggler
did not cash-in not only because it would have been at WrestleMania, which
nobody had ever done, and not only in front of 80,000, but it was a chance to
cash-in the briefcase in front of the world. It would also have been good to
get the crowd fired up early in the night at WrestleMania as it seemed like
everything was set-up for a Dolph Ziggler cash-in, but they did not pull the
trigger. At the very least, Creative and WWE realized that they made a mistake
and finally pulled the trigger 24 hours later. The incredible crowd made this
Dolph Ziggler’s career moment and I hope that Creative does not screw up
Ziggler’s run and potential chance at being a top guy for years to come.
Even though I called it as soon as
they showed The Shield’s tweet about making an impact, I loved the
confrontation between The Shield and The Undertaker. It made sense logically to
have Team Hell No make the save, especially with Kane being The Undertaker’s
brother, and it got me hype for a possible future 6-Man Tag involving these six
superstars.
After a brief appearance from the
2013 version of the J.O.B. Squad, which included 3MB, R-Truth, Santino Marella,
and Zack Ryder, we were treated to Randy Orton squaring off against Sheamus.
The crowd was nuts during this contest as they did various chants, including
the Olay chant. I loved the crowd’s presence, but it did take away from a
competitive contest as it was hard to concentrate on what was going on in the
ring. After this match got interrupted by Big Show, the “World’s Largest Athlete”
knocked out Sheamus and destroyed Randy Orton as well as two innocent announcer
chairs, much to the delight of the crowd.
The crowd humming Fandango’s theme
song during his matchup with Kofi Kingston was downright hilarious. I also
thought that Chris Jericho attacking Fandango in the middle of his match, and
taking him to the woodshed, happens to be a good way to continue their feud
after WrestleMania.
It appears that the WWE Universe did
not miss much as far as the 8-Person Mixed Tag Match being bumped from
WrestleMania. The 8-Person Tag Match was nothing to write home about and
probably did not belong on the WrestleMania card anyway.
The Main Event was the John Cena vs.
Mark Henry non-title match, as made by Booker T because he wanted Henry to
prove himself, and ended with Cena winning by count-out. Ryback then came out
and slammed Henry after he started to attack Cena, before Shell-Shocking Cena
and ended the first show of the season with himself holding Cena’s belt above
the laid out champ. It appears as though Creative is going to go ahead with a
Ryback and Cena feud, although I hope that this does not mean that Ryback is
officially a heel. I liked the shocking ending, but in the long run, I am not a
fan of throwing Ryback, who has already lost momentum over the past few months,
to a guy that is no CM Punk or Chris Jericho when it comes to putting guys
over.
I will say that I am looking forward
to hearing what CM Punk has to say next week concerning his WrestleMania loss.
However, I cannot ignore the incredible crowd that was on Monday Night Raw. The
crowd continued the trend of the crowd on the Raw after WrestleMania being
better than the WrestleMania crowd the night before. A
good example of this being fact would be last year when Brock Lesnar returned
to World Wrestling Entertainment. However, there is little doubt that this
Raw belonged to the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey and the crowd
packed into it.
Main
Event
The one hour show starts with The
Shield’s first in-ring action appearance on Main Event. I liked the usual
hectic finish that we are getting accustomed to seeing with The Shield. I loved
how they triple power bombed not only Tensai, but Clay as well because that was
a good statement to make after their previous statement they made on Monday
Night.
Big E.’s interview was interesting
as he continued to do that “announcer” voice, which garners a laugh or two. I
will not go as far to say that Big E. can speak on the mic, but he definitely
has a presence on the microphone that some superstars just do not and never
will have.
After his interview, we are treated
to Big E.’s Main Event debut along with the debut of his entrance music. I do
not know if I am a fan of the rap music, but it is better than Barrett’s
generic music. The match was against Zack Ryder, and was a quick squash match.
It looks like Creative could be slowly building/booking Big E. like they have
done with Ryback as it appears they are protecting against his weaknesses in
the early going. I loved his powerful belly to belly suplex by the way.
I will say that the Zeb Colter and
Yoshi Tatsu Japanese segment was not only entertaining, but was the best part
of this show. The matchup between Yoshi and Jack ended with Tatsu tapping out
to the Patriot Lock.
This was the best Main Event show in
a while as it featured several matches/segments and did not just show Raw
segments to get through the hour long run time like usual.
Smackdown
The new World Heavyweight Champion,
Dolph Ziggler, started the show off in the ring in order to gloat about his
cash-in. He then got interrupted by Jack Swagger/Zeb Colter, Alberto Del Rio,
and Chris Jericho. These interruptions were necessary in order to setup
possible opponents for Dolph Ziggler’s World Title as well as helped setup the
night’s main event with Chris Jericho. P.S. How funny would it be if Dolph’s fans
were called Dolphins from here on out?
While I was not a fan of Team Hell
No facing and defeating the Prime Time Players, again…, I did like The Shield’s
Titantron promo, which further got me hype about their next 6-Man Tag Team
Match.
I am curious to see if Creative is
setting up a possible Booker T and Teddy Long power struggle over control of
Smackdown as that seems how their little tiffs backstage are being booked.
I had a lot of hope for the 6-Diva
Tag Team Match involving the Bella Twins and Tamina vs. The Funkadactyls and
Kaitlyn. However, this matchup was too quick and uneventful for my liking.
Triple H, just like The Undertaker,
ends up getting interrupted during his post-WrestleMania promo, first by 3MB
and then The Shield. I thought it was funny that The Shield took out 3MB so
that they could surround the ring themselves. Team Hell No once again came out
to make the save. So we could either get a future 6-Man Tag involving The
Undertaker, Triple H, both, or neither?
The 2 on 1 handicap match was slow
and never really flowed as well as ended due to a Big Show self-count out.
The Antonio Cesaro vs. Kofi Kingston
match was a pretty decent contest that I personally loved, especially the out
of nowhere uppercut by Cesaro. Kofi getting the win could potentially setup a
good feud over the U.S. title, which I would not mind seeing.
The Main Event featured Dolph
Ziggler facing off against Chris Jericho with Fandango at ringside. By the way,
I loved Dolph coming out wearing the World Title backwards because it fits
perfectly with his character. I would have liked to hear Fandango on commentary
because I was curious to hear what his character had to say regarding the fans
humming his theme song. Nonetheless, this was a pretty good contest and I
thought the finish was perfectly executed with the referee getting distracted
by Fandango and interference by Langston, leading to Dolph getting the win via
rollup. The post-match attack by Fandango was repetitive, but necessary. I just
wish I could keep a straight face watching Fandango’s mannerisms.
WrestleMania
29
I felt that this year’s WrestleMania
was entertaining, but it continued the trend of recent WrestleManias not
feeling like WrestleManias. Once again, WWE put The Undertaker’s “Streak Match”
in the middle of the show, which drained the crowd’s energy for Triple H and
Lesnar as well as Dwayne vs. Cena. The only match that lived up to the hype was
The Undertaker vs. CM Punk match, although I did like the Lesnar vs. Triple H
No Holds Barred Match as well. It was a night of good wrestling, but there were
not a lot of memorable moments that make WrestleMania the hyped up phenomenon
it is today. I was disappointed, but at the very least, the matches that I
wanted to see, lived up to the hype.
Clean
Finish(Final Thoughts)
Earlier
this week, I read a report from Wrestlezone.com that showed Fandango’s theme
song is charting in the UK’s singles charts after this past Monday Night Raw.
I have never heard of anything like this happening. All I can say is that
people should never underestimate the power of professional wrestling fans.
Match
of WrestleMania 29
The
Undertaker vs. CM Punk “Streak Match”
No
Video Due to Pay-Per-View Copyright
Match
of the Week
Photos
and Videos Courtesy of WWE.com and Youtube
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