Raw was awesome last night. Heck, if it was just the Michaels’ good bye speech at the end of the show surrounded by a bunch of crap, I would still say that, but luckily this show had some other quality stuff on it as well.

Where did this massive push for Jack Swagger come from? First he wins money in the bank and now he’s tagging with Batista against John Cena and Randy Orton? Hey don’t get me wrong, I think the guy has potential, and if it wasn’t for his lisp, he’s actually pretty good on the mic, especially for being a young wrestler. But this all seems a little rushed, as he went from an afterthought and a lower mid carder about a month ago, to qualifying for money in the bank, winning it, and being shoved into the main event scene on the biggest Raw of the year. It’s a good thing he’s a heel, and a pretty decent one, because this would be met with a terrible fan reaction if he was a face.

Christian and Ted Dibiase Jr. had a good short match, but what was really interesting was the post match interaction between Dibiase and his father, the Million Dollar Man. I hope Dibiase Sr. sticks around in an on-camera role and gets into a feud with his son. I’d like to see him manage someone or take on some sort of miscellaneous role. So this looks like the beginning of something interesting.

The women’s match sucked (big surprise).

I loved the whole Bret Hart/Miz promo and the consequent tag match afterwards between ShowMiz and the Hart Dynasty. Nice to see Kidd and Smith get the win too, even if it was by countout. Hopefully this will lead to a tag team championship run by them, with Bret as their manager. Hell, why not bring the Jim the Anvil Neidhart back to mentor them too?

I think Orton just became the biggest face on Raw and maybe in the company with Michaels leaving. I would say Cena still is, but most males above 12 years old don’t like him, if you didn’t happen to notice that. And just in case Vince didn’t notice, a large portion of his audience is still males age 13-40. But then again, little kids and teenage girls buy more merchandise I guess, or at least get their parents to buy them more merchandise. Nevertheless, Orton was the star of the tag team match tonight and he showed that he is way above Cena as an in ring competitor in just a few short minutes. We already know he’s better in every other area already. If he keeps his heel-like edge and stern attitude, Orton could be the guy that sparks the company and creates another hot period for wrestling. That’s probably wishful thinking, but at the very least, he could be the number one guy in a matter of a few months and have the full support of the hardcore fans.

I can’t do the Shawn Michaels speech justice here with my words. You have to YouTube it if you didn’t see it. Hopefully the WWE will put it on the Wrestlemania 26 DVD as a bonus. It was so great, and so emotional. It was real. That’s not something you can say about too many promos in this business, but this was a retirement speech and it was 100% straight talk, from the heart. I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard a better retirement speech in pro wrestling history. So definitely check that out if you missed it or any parts of it.

I couldn’t even flip over to TNA at all from the time he came out until the end of the show, at 11:12 p.m. And I’m usually flipping back and forth constantly, no matter what’s on one show or the other, just to see what’s happening on both shows. But this had me glued to the TV like I haven’t been since Bret Hart came back on January 4, and before that, since Hogan was on Smackdown in 2003.

So this was a very memorable Raw. Almost everything before the Michaels speech was solid, but his good bye sent this Raw from a 7 to about a 9.5 on a scale of 1-10.

I feel sorry for TNA tonight. WWE could have put on a much worse show and still destroyed them in the ratings, but with the focus on Shawn Michaels, TNA not being live and the lack of Hulk Hogan on the show, this could be the biggest landslide victory we ever see in the new Monday night wars. I’m gonna say it’ll be something like 3.8 to 0.7 in favor of Raw. TNA just had no chance tonight, but next week they have a big opportunity to grab some early viewers at 8 p.m.

As far as last night’s show goes, from what I saw, it was pretty good. It seems to me that the production of the show is noticeably better when they tape it as opposed to broadcasting live, but like I’ve said before, you can’t beat that live feeling and it’s worth it to sacrifice some production quality for a while in order to go live.

I’m pissed I missed Hogan doing a Randy Savage imitation while Jay Lethal was in his office. I’ve gotta check that out later.

Matches like Doug Williams and Brian Kendrick vs. Kazarian and Shannon Moore are what’s going to set TNA apart from the WWE in the long run. That’s why these guys and all the other X Division guys need more TV time in the future and prominent roles on pay per view, because there is a segment of fans who are going to tune in just for that. Most of those types of fans are also the ones who are not happy with the WWE product right now too.

I saw the whole Pope segment and I thought it was very entertaining. This guy has something going for him. He gave a good promo and I liked how he knew Desmond Wolfe was coming at him from behind so he disposed of him and then went back to talking to Chelsea.

The Orlando Jordan stuff is troubling to say the least. I hope they think better of this before going too far with it.

People are really getting into this knockouts feud between Daffney and Tara. I’ve made it clear that I think women’s wrestling is a waste but TNA’s girls are a little more talented than the WWE’s. That being said, I still don’t care, and I don’t feel like wasting any more time on it.

I saw a good portion of the AJ Styles vs. Jeff Jarrett match and I was once again impressed with Jarrett’s work. Although it’s nowhere near the quality or importance of Michaels vs. Undertaker from Wrestlemania, obviously, I would like to point out to young wrestlers that matches like these two are what wrestling is supposed to be. These guys can not only work, but they know how to tell a story and Jarrett in particular uses that old school style that’s, how do I say this, much much better than the modern style.

I mentioned Lethal above, but it’s cool to see him finally get some airtime again and grab an upset win over Beer Money in a handicap match. Now that doesn’t look too good for Beer Money, but they need to get Lethal back on the right track. He could be much more than just a Macho Man knockoff.

I like how they are trying to push Wolfe again too, but not at the expense of the number one contender to the TNA title at Lockdown, the Pope.

Mr. Anderson cut another great promo and set up a ladder match with Angle next week on Impact. This is probably TNA’s best feud right now.

The six man steel cage match seemed like a pretty good, short match. Scott Hall has lost a lot of weight and almost looks like he used to. He must have busted his butt to get back into somewhat decent shape. Rob Van Dam provided a cool spot with the elbow on Sean Waltman to get the win.

The Team Hogan vs. Team Flair concept at Lockdown has a chance to go over well with the fans if they do it right. Adding Jeff Jarrett to Hogan’s team, along with Abyss, was a step in the right direction. But the match that will really have to sell that PPV is the world title match between Styles and the Pope. So they have to really set that feud, and the Pope’s push, into fast forward in the next two weeks. As I’ve been saying all along, Lockdown needs to be a success for the short term and long term health of TNA. But I think they are on the right path and they’re going to be ok with the rumored card.

What an exciting and emotional night of wrestling, especially on Raw. Next week, both shows are going to have to compete with the NCAA basketball championship game, Raw with their entire show and TNA with their second hour, but they should be shows that are worth watching, and they still might do rather well in the ratings. Actually, for the first time in a long time, I think a good number of people are getting excited to watch wrestling again each week, and that’s definitely a positive sign going forward for both the WWE and TNA.

Here’s my comments for Raw:

I’m glad they finally put Kofi Kingston in the money in the bank match. His athleticism could really add to the match, but I worry about it being kind of a mess with 10 participants. I’m hoping Christian gets the win and waits to cash it in sometime this summer.

It’s good to see the tag division actually getting some attention and some build up. It was a good idea to have John Morrison go over Miz too, not just for Sunday but for Morrison’s post Wrestlemania push.

The WWE also did a nice job of promoting both the Triple H vs. Sheamus match and the Legacy vs. Randy Orton triple threat by having a solid tag match on Raw.

The Shawn Michaels vs. Kane match, with Undertaker’s interference, was very good. There’s not much more they could have done to hype this match, and by all rights, it should be last on the card at Mania. I also love the interaction between Pete Rose and Kane. I just wish there was another tombstone or chokeslam delivered. Rose could have been an awesome heel in the business when he was younger.

For as much as I don’t care for John Cena or Batista, this is another match that has been built up extremely well. Batista is much better as a heel. Actually Cena is too, but he’s been more tolerable as of late. That match will probably be the last match main event at Wrestlemania, and I can’t argue that, given the popularity of both men and the audience demographics. All in all, that was a very good, heated ending to Raw. That match will help to sell the PPV in a major way, along with Michaels vs. Taker, Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon and Edge vs. Chris Jericho.

Impact had one of the most strange beginnings I’ve ever seen on a wrestling show. But you’ve got to admit two things: 1. It was very unique and made you wonder what the hell was going on. 2. Eric Bischoff actually is really good on guitar. I never thought I’d write that sentence on a wrestling blog, but hey that’s TNA for ya.

Having said that, I don’t think the Bischoff/Jarrett/Foley angle is strong enough to open or close a show, but it’s fine for what it is, a good midcard angle involving three guys who are usually main eventers, Bischoff of course in a non wrestling capacity.

As corny as the Abyss/Hogan angle has been, there was some pretty entertaining, and also comedic stuff that went on Monday night. First of all, I don’t think it was supposed to be funny, but Ric Flair in the wheelchair was freakin hilarious. The bump he took when Abyss clotheslined him out of it wasn’t so funny though. I once again feared for the health of the 61 year old legend, but I guess he can still take it. Having the Pope run down and save Hogan was a good move, as it starts to put the focus back on him as the number 1 contender to AJ Styles’ TNA title at Lockdown. The team Hogan vs. team Flair feud has a chance to be interesting as well.

Later in the night we saw that the Foley/Jarrett stuff is actually starting to go somewhere, but I hope Foley isn’t taken off TV for an extended amount of time like Somoa Joe, even though in the storyline he is fired. Though another nice touch was having Jeff Hardy and Rob Van Dam come down to save Jarrett from Beer Money.

I didn’t know that Hernandez was legitimately hurt from his brawl with Matt Morgan until reading the results online. Hopefully he’ll be alright. This feud, and Morgan’s heel push, was just starting to get interesting.

The tag team main event between Beer Money and RVD/Hardy was a good match, although I don’t think it’s such a great idea for Beer Money to job cleanly right now, even if it is to two of the most popular wrestlers in the world today. The post match set up for next week’s show was exactly what they should have been doing the past couple weeks, but I’m not sure how much interest there will be in this one: The Band (Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Syxx-Pac) vs. RVD, Hardy and Eric Young. Umm, first of all, Eric Young is really out of place in that match because he is NOT a main eventer. Not even close. And as far as workrate goes, it could be pretty ugly, but there will be some casual fan interest with all the big names involved, minus Young.

Dixie Carter and TNA made a wise decision to move Impact to 8-10 p.m. on April 5, as the entire Impact show would have had to compete not only with Raw as usual but also the college basketball championship game. That was a 0.5 waiting to happen, but now I could see it being a 0.9 or 1.0. Next week will be brutal though, because the night after Wrestlemania is usually one of the highest rated, if not the highest rated Raw of the year. Like I’ve been saying all along, the true measuring stick for the Hogan/Bischoff regime will be Lockdown and the live Impact the night after. And they should seriously consider permanently moving it to the 8-10 p.m. time slot.

But WWE delivered a great lead in show to Wrestlemania, which leads me to my next post, my Wrestlemania 26 preview. Look for it soon!

With Steve Austin being the guest host, I thought Raw had a much more electric feel to it this week and was a much better show than last week. It also was more entertaining than Impact, and that was really reflected in the ratings, with Raw doing a 3.7 and Impact drawing a disappointing 0.8. On the bright side, the Thursday night replay also drew a 0.8, but it’s going to be a few months at the very least before they can even think of getting upwards of a 1.5 on a consistent basis.

It doesn’t help them that the WWE is on a roll right now and in the midst of hyping the best looking card on paper for a Wrestlemania since Wrestlemania 19. It also doesn’t help that Stone Cold was a refreshing change to the B-list celebrities of the past few weeks and that Impact was a taped show this week. They’re eventually going to have to go live every week if they seriously want to contend in the new Monday night wars.

The three Wrestlemania rematches were all solid matches, especially Shawn Michaels vs. Chris Jericho, which was one of my favorite wrestling matches of all time when they fought at WM 19. It could have went much longer but it was good while it lasted and definitely above average for a TV match.

This show was built around the Bret Hart vs. Vince McMahon contract signing, and along with Austin overseeing the whole thing, it was definitely the most electric moment on Raw in a while. I believe the overrun drew a 4.2. I thought Austin would announce himself as special guest referee for the match but there’s still time for that to happen. I think they have the attention of a lot of casual fans and as long as they can put together one more exciting Raw tomorrow night that builds up Mania properly, they are going to do one heck of a buy rate.

Honestly, I didn’t see nearly as much of Impact, but from what I did see, it was just an average show, and the fact that it wasn’t live did seem to take away a little of their momentum. The rating is a minor disappointment, but at this time, in March, and at this early stage in the game, it’s really not that bad, especially when you consider the replay on Thursday nights the past two weeks has matched the rating on the Monday show itself.

This leads me to believe that most TNA fans are also WWE fans who don’t want to miss Raw but still want to check out Impact when it replays. For this reason alone, they should keep the Thursday replay around for a while longer, especially if it keeps producing in the ratings like it has so far. They need to pull in more casual fans, old time fans who quit watching wrestling years ago, and newer, younger fans who’ve never watched wrestling before if they want to start consistently eclipsing the 1.0 barrier.

The promotion of the Destination X pay per view was much better this week and it might save the show from doing a horrible buy rate, but like I’ve been saying all along, Lockdown will really be the early litmus test for the new regime, to see if things are indeed headed in the right direction.

I think the Hogan/Bischoff interplay in the coming weeks and months is going to be very interesting, and it should be a focal point of the show, just not too much. Hulk is so far gone physically that I really believe he has only one match left in him at this point, and it’s probably going to be against Sting, either at Lockdown or during the summer, and he couldn’t ask for a better last opponent to make the match watchable and maybe even memorable for his send off.

The Nasty Boys vs. Team 3D feud and Hall/Syxx Pac vs. Nash/Eric Young feud are ok for TV and possibly attracting some casual fans to watch Impact for a few minutes here and there, but I won’t argue that neither of them will do anything to sell a PPV. I don’t even think the Nasty Boys are going to be on tonight’s PPV, and they shouldn’t be. They need to wrap up that feud and direct some more time towards others who are being left off the show by no later than the end of April.

I think Desmond Wolfe is on the brink of becoming a star heel in the company, and the Pope D’Angelo Dinero is about to get a major push leading up to his TNA title shot at Lockdown, and that build up should start in full force tomorrow night on Impact. And the Mr. Anderson vs. Kurt Angle feud is probably the hottest thing going in TNA right now and will almost certainly help sell some PPV’s, along with the Ultimate X match and maybe the TNA title match between Styles and Abyss.

Speaking of that match, I know that most of the IWC is down on it, and to be honest I am too, but I still think there’s a possibility we’re in for a major swerve on the Abyss character. Either way, as long as Styles retains tonight and sets up the big showdown between him and Pope at Lockdown, the booking is still headed in the right direction.

Beer Money really might be the best tag team in the business today and it looks like TNA is trying to make their tag division mean more than any tag division has meant in the past 7 or 8 years at least. Also, if you listen to Bischoff and a recent interview with Christopher Daniels, the X division should be getting much more of the focus on TV and PPV, even after tonight’s Destination X show. Along with the Knockouts division, these are areas in which TNA can really differentiate themselves from the WWE and steal some viewers in the coming months.

The Jeff Hardy vs. AJ Styles main event match was good and I like that Hardy went over. The aftermath was even better though. Abyss chokeslamming Ric Flair through the entrance ramp was an awesome moment and actually made you fear for Flair’s health. It also adds a little bit of the monster dimension back to Abyss’ character and did a nice job of promoting the title match between him and AJ tonight, with Styles clutching his title as the show went off the air. The production of this show seemed to be a little better than last week’s as well, maybe because it was taped, but they can afford to sacrifice that by going live each week. They did a good job of making their overrun go past Raw’s by about an extra 30 seconds or so, so fans who switched over at least got to see the conclusion of the show.

In short, TNA needs to just hang on and stay on course until Wrestlemania is over with, and the WWE just needs this week’s Raw and Smackdown to add the finishing touches on what has been a very well built card and well hyped show so far. Tomorrow night should be another very exciting one for wrestling fans, with it being the last Raw before Wrestlemania going up against a live version of Impact. Hopefully I can get out my reaction to the shows on Tuesday or Wednesday and then expect a preview later in the week of the biggest wrestling show of the year, Wrestlemania 26!

On the most important night in the company’s history, TNA came through big time with an exciting show that was similar to their January 4 debut two months ago, but was really better in almost every aspect, minus the Kurt Angle vs. AJ Styles classic.

But I’ll start with what I feel was a quality episode of Raw. I missed most of the Shawn Michaels/Undertaker promo, but from what I saw it seemed like their usual good stuff.

I don’t like teasing PPV matches, especially Wrestlemania matches, but the tag team match served its purpose and R-Truth and John Morrison should be very over with the Phoenix crowd when they take on ShowMiz.

After being excited for the past couple months over the Randy Orton/Legacy feud and eventual breakup, it’s really started to fall flat the past few weeks. They need to add something to this to spice it up and make it a memorable match at Wrestlemania. After all, Orton is one of the WWE’s biggest stars, and he should be featured prominently on the show. His face turn, if it indeed is going to happen, should be a big deal and very dramatic. This might be the last time for the next decade that Orton is not in a main event or semi main event match at Wrestlemania. He is the future of the company, as a face or as a heel.

Triple H and Sheamus are doing as much as they can to build up their Wrestlemania match, which had the potential to be really bland and uninteresting without a world title on the line.

How about Evan Bourne winning yet again, and this time gaining entry into the money in the bank match. He is going to help make that match special, and who knows, maybe a push is in store for one of the most athletic performers in the WWE after Wrestlemania.

I think the gauntlet idea for the main event was actually better than just having a normal singles match between John Cena and Vince McMahon. The ending had a lot going on with Kofi Kingston running in to help Cena, Cena almost giving the attitude adjustment to McMahon, and then Batista attacking Cena and standing over him as the show went off the air. As much as anyone can complain about the actual match, the build towards Cena vs. Batista has been very good. Batista is much more effective as a heel.

Also, next week’s show was promoted well and it should be a good one, with Stone Cold Steve Austin as the guest host for the night, and the past Wrestlemania rematches that will take place, which is a pretty good idea just two weeks before the PPV.

Impact had an even more electric feel than Raw, and they managed to capture the energy of the January 4 show with more logical and interesting long term booking. They also finally gave proper hype towards the Destination X PPV, but it’s clear that a lot is going to be riding on Lockdown in April. The only thing missing was a truly great match like Angle vs. Styles, but I think TNA wants to try to reserve matches like that for pay per view if they can help it, and honestly, tonight they didn’t even need a match like that with everything that was going on.

First off, Impact looked more like a big time show than at any other point in their history, with the pyrotechnics, a new and improved song and video intro, and a sleek new backstage set at the Impact Zone.

They plugged the opening of the show for the past few days and they actually delivered. The Hulk Hogan/Abyss vs. Ric Flair/AJ Styles match opened the show, but didn’t go long before Sting made his return and shocked the world with a heel turn, using his bat to take out Hogan and Abyss.

What a fantastic move by TNA! Sting is still one of the most well-known names in wrestling today, and for him to turn heel in the fashion he did not only made it a great moment on the show, but also set up long term interesting feuds between him and the TNA babyfaces that should do very good business on pay per view or on free TV. His interaction with Dixie Carter afterwards was a nice touch, and it was sold very well by Mike Tenay and Taz.

The whole X Division segment was great, from the promo to the match, and it really helped to spur some interest in the March 21 PPV. The Epics program next week before Impact on Monday night should also do a lot to help the buy rate of a show that appeared like it was being looked over in favor of the build towards Lockdown. But now it has a shot of being a quality PPV, and maybe even a financially successful one. Hopefully this is a new beginning for the X Division and it shuts up a lot of the hardcore fans, who have been unhappy with the way the division has been handled since Hogan and Bischoff took over.

That was a good idea to put the women’s tag titles on the Beautiful People, and an even better use of camera work during that segment. This was just another sign that TNA may be actually starting to figure out who their demographic is and what they want from a wrestling show.

Rob Van Dam’s debut as Sting’s surprise opponent was one of the biggest pops I’ve ever heard from such a small crowd. He is going to be a HUGE face in TNA if booked properly, which I think he will be, and his quick victory over Sting was a good start. Sure Sting beat the crap out of him with the bat after the match, but that just did more to solidify the heel turn and took nothing away from RVD, who should be a big help to the company in the ratings, PPV buyrates, attendance and merchandise. Again, the importance of this pickup for TNA cannot be understated, especially over the course of the next few months.

The whole Kevin Nash/Eric Young vs. Scott Hall/Syxx Pac angle might be the least interesting thing among the major TNA storylines right now, and even THAT was pretty over last night. Waltman looked very good for a short spurt with his ring work, and Eric Young finally seems to be gaining the crowd’s attention. Next week’s tag team match will be an interesting point in this feud.

It looks like Beer Money is once again being established as a top tag team. Look for them to win the tag titles from Matt Morgan and Hernandez at Destination X as the result of a Morgan heel turn on Hernandez. TNA has a much more impressive tag team division than the WWE right now, although you have to give them credit as well for effectively building towards the tag team title match at Wrestlemania.

Jeff Jarrett and Mick Foley’s respective feuds with Eric Bischoff appear to be bringing them together in their fight against the arrogant boss, which I think is a good move. There will probably be some type of payoff with this angle at Lockdown.

Speaking of a payoff to a feud, Kurt Angle and Mr. Anderson are probably going to have a great one. This is a very well booked feud that is building more each week. Plus Angle is capable of getting a very good match out of Anderson, and this might even be a series over the course of the next couple PPV’s.

Finally, the main event was an awesome display of how a match, and ending to a show, can be entertaining and exciting without necessarily having high workrate. It was nice to see Abyss get the pin on Styles after Hogan and Flair surprisingly did a majority of the work, and the post match stuff was chaotic, but in a good way. Desmond Wolfe and the Pope ran out to save the heel team and face team respectively and the crowd was loving it. But not as much as they loved Jeff Hardy running down to tilt the odds in favor of the good guys and cleaning house as Impact went off the air.

This was easily the best TNA show I’ve ever seen, and all indications are that not only did the crowd at the Impact Zone enjoy it, but many fans around the web did as well, even more so than Raw. I already can’t wait to see what they do for next week. I just hope they can keep the momentum going and not lose sight of what the fans really want to see. I know that it’s hard to capture the energy of a big show like this with surprise returns and debuts, but they can definitely continue to put out a quality product with the talent they have, both on the roster and backstage.

I hope it’s not long before they can go live every week, because the taped shows every other week have the potential to fall flat with TV audiences and live audiences, but it once again looks as if TNA is on the right path to eventually challenging the WWE for the title of number one wrestling company in the world.

To start with, the Shawn Michaels/ Triple H promo at the beginning of the show was awesome. I think the Michaels vs. Undertaker match will once again sell this show more than any other match on the card. It least it has for me. Internet fans are split on whether they want to see the rematch or not, but the build up so far has been fantastic, and there is still three full weeks of Raw’s and Smackdown’s left before Mania. This should probably be the last match-main event of the show, but it likely won’t be. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to it more than everything else on the proposed card combined, and at this point I don’t care who goes over, although I’ve already stated that I’d prefer to see HBK end the streak.

I’m really hoping they end this guest host nonsense after Wrestlemania, with the exception of The Rock possibly hosting a post-Wrestlemania Raw, but I will admit that I was mildly amused at the Cheech and Chong bits last night. I could picture kids all over the country now thinking that you could get high off of Lucky Charms.

Randy Orton vs. Ted Dibiase was a decent match. It’s still looking like Orton is about to make a full face turn at Wrestlemania, and I think it will be very well received. A triple threat between Legacy, if that’s what the WWE is going to go with, has the potential to be pretty good at Mania, but I’m more anxious to see the path that each of these three men take after Wrestlemania.

It’s nice to see Jack Swagger qualify for the Money in the Bank match at Mania, but I’d rather not see Santino Marella squashed in the process. I guess his long term role is going to be as a comedy wrestler.

The Batista/John Cena promo was pretty good and did a nice job of hyping their WWE championship match at Wrestlemania. I especially liked Batista’s comments about the Attitude Era and the unjustified passing of the torch from Austin to Cena, which is true.

Zack Ryder really needs to change his gay ring attire if he wants to be taken seriously. I’m glad that they had MVP go over him in a squash and qualify for the Money in the Bank match. But I doubt he has a realistic chance of winning that match.

We got the usual Diva silliness. Kelly Kelly and Maryse looked hot, but they, along with the other Divas, could be much more useful as managers who don’t waste time on the show with a boring match, or in this case, a freaking pajama pillow fight.

The Hart/McMahon segment was ok, and I’m happy to see that it looks like the singles match between the two is on. There were some awkward moments, as usual in this feud over the past couple months, and Hart seemed to go from fired up to mellow and back again in a really strange way, almost as if his enthusiasm for this whole thing is really forced. In any event, I look forward to this match as an old school fan of the Hitman, and I guess they could be doing a worse job of promoting it than they are.

The DX vs. ShowMiz unified tag team championship match was pretty good and filled with drama, especially the ending with Undertaker appearing on the big screen and distracting Shawn, causing him to be rolled up by the Miz. Big Show and the Miz will probably end up defending their titles at Wrestlemania. The interaction between Michaels and Triple H at the end of the match leaves some unanswered questions as well.

The post match beatdown by Sheamus on Triple H wasn’t bad, but I felt like it wasn’t brutal enough for the way Triple H sold it, and I also didn’t like the commentating, or lack there of, when it was happening.

I know that sometimes it’s more dramatic to keep quiet when a heel beatdown like this occurs, but I couldn’t help but hear Jim Ross in my head screaming for Sheamus to stop and asking “WHY? WHY?” in his southern twang. I don’t feel that Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler have been all that bad in JR’s absence, as many fans do, but I now find myself anticipating Ross’s return at Mania or shortly thereafter, hopefully to Raw instead of Smackdown.

But as for the Triple H vs. Sheamus match, they are going to have to work really hard over the next three weeks to make people care about this fued. After all, it’s non title and it probably won’t offer much in terms of workrate, so they are going to have to pull out all the stops in building towards it and in executing the actual match, even if won’t be close to the main event of the show.

This was a quality show, and an important show, on the road to Wrestlemania. It was also crucial to making viewers stay put next week when TNA debuts their Monday night live Impacts. I don’t know how much appeal Criss Angel will have for casual viewership next week, but I do know that Stone Cold Steve Austin on March 15 should produce higher than normal ratings and likely destroy TNA Impact in the process.

It would also be nice if they could lock up The Rock for March 22, or March 29, the night after Wrestlemania, or even anytime after that in April. But last night’s Raw was a definite step in the right direction to making Wrestlemania 26 a show worth seeing.