Pro Wrestling Power

This Raw was a big improvement over the previous week’s show in my eyes. There wasn’t a whole lot of great in ring action, but there were some really good promos and the overall show felt like a much better endorsement of Wrestlemania 26 than anything they’ve done so far. The only things that kind of fell flat for me were parts of the Bret Hart/Vince McMahon segment, but that’s nothing new for this feud, and the end of the show with Sheamus attacking Triple H, which I’ll comment on below.

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.