RacinCD's Corner

Opening segment - Wow, I didn’t see that coming. I figured an Eve heel turn was coming, but didn’t see it coming like that. Only thing is I wish John hadn’t been there to see it. That story of her using him could have been amazing.

Cena’s opening - “Skank juice” Great! Had me laughing. Cena had plenty to say about Eve, and it all had me rolling in my seat. Eve acted pretty well, if anything she over acted. Cena got in a few jabs at The Rock two, which was pretty funny. Nice way to start off by moving Cena past his current story and onto the bigger picture with The Rock.

Undertaker segment - Promo was great as usual. These all have been great and build up for the Wrestlemania match.

Sheamus vs. Mark Henry - Decent match. Lots of high impact moves. Very bruising match. Decent first match of the night. No complaints. Obviously Sheamus was going to win to look stronger for Wrestlemania.

Johnny Ace and Teddy Long segment - Another good segment. Clearly they are looking to end the brand extension and return to just one brand. I’m still not sure they would combine the titles, but perhaps they will. It definitely looks like they will combine the brands with a power struggle storyline involved as well.

R-Truth/Kofi vs. Epico/Primo - Kofi goes from Evan Bourne who can’t keep from smoking, to R-Truth who also was busted for it? Poor Kofi. But I liked this tag team. They can put on some great matches. And the tag team division needs it. Good win for Kofi and R-Truth. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of them as a team. Time to get some decent tag teams and actually follow through on building up the tag division once again. There are plenty of guys floating around doing nothing, so why not build a few teams and give these guys something to do.

Jericho Promo - Nothing special. Very predictable. Setting up for their match at Wrestlemania, and showing some anger and intensity. Not bad, but exactly what I would have expected.

Otunga vs. Ezekiel Jackson - Not much here. Quick match. I’m suprised Zeke was the best Teddy could get. Obviously this was just so Otunga and Johnny Ace could get the win.

UNDERTAKER!! Still one of the best enterances ever. Taker seemed a bit rusty on the mic though, and the crowd was horrible. Quit what’ing the man. You sound stupid. This picked up when HHH came out. A decent promo, but didn’t blow me away since its the same thing they both have said for a few weeks now. But wait, it all picked up when Taker ticked off HHH. Now that’s much better. That’s how a promo should be done. Well done boys.

Daniel Bryan vs. Santino - Quick smash match. So much for Santino’s great night last night. Bryan quickly finished him off in a diva’s length match.

Diva’s - Nothing great. Twin magic at it’s finest. Good to see Aksana in the ring again though. Kelly Kelly once again costs her own partner by distracting the ref.

Cena segment - Decent segment again. Nothing new from Cena. Same lines he’s been saying all along with some new jokes mixed in. Good promotion of their match, good promo. Nothing special.

Battle Royal - Punk comes out to do commentary. And here I thought we wouldn’t have to listen to him talk this week. Silly me. He’s gotten stale. And the power has gone to his head. He did have some funny lines, but I’d like a week where we didn’t have to listen to him trash the whole rest of the WWE for once. Khali out first wasn’t a surprise. Miz being out next was a surprise. Barrett injury is legit I think. That spill by Dolph was nasty. Truth and Barrett both took hard hits, and Dolph did as well. I would be suprised if Barrett isn’t legitimately injured though. It looks nasty. Broken arm or possibly dislocated elbow. They were clearly rushing to help him out. Jericho winning was no suprize though. Knew it was going to happen. Overall the match was pretty solid.

Overall this was a decent RAW. It helped further some of the stories for Wrestlemania. There wasn’t all that much in ring action, but what there was ended up being decent. There weren’t many suprises and most of the night was predictable.

Ok, so I feel like posting my thoughts on WWE Events. So starting now I will try to post my review after every PPV, RAW, and Smackdown event. So here goes my first review. These are my thoughts and opinions, not fact, and not necessarily right. You don’t have to agree with me, these are just my thoughts and observations.

WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match - Overall this match was pretty good. I was a bit surprised that Punk retained the championship, but not overly upset about it. Going in I figured this had to be Punk or Jericho winning with all the thoughts that they will have a match at Wrestlemania. I think Punk chasing Jericho to get his title back would set up a better match, but if they didn’t want Jericho to have a one month reign as Champion then they had to have this match finish the way it did. Now at least Jericho has a valid reason to get a title shot at Mania.

Other thoughts are that this match was pretty solid all around. By far the best match of the whole PPV. I’m surprised it was first without anything happening later on (was definitely expecting a Jericho vs. Punk match later on last night, but never got it). I realize this had to be before the Smackdown match since Big Show destroyed the chamber, and Sheamus was making his choice after both matches, but still was surprised they started with this. I thought Kofi did great. He had some great spots.  I was surprised R-Truth and Dolph were out so quickly, but somebody had to be. My biggest surprise of the match though was Miz. Last night he looked great. In fact I think he had the best performance of the 4 (not including Punk or Jericho who you knew would be the centerpieces). I hope they keep Miz with the attitude he had yesterday. Less talking, more anger. Iceman Miz needs to take over. I thought we were seeing a change in character when he took out R-Truth and Morrison before, but then he reverted back. He can still talk and be cocky, but I hope he stays with his Iceman attitude and starts to look more credible and dangerous.

Diva’s Championship - This was a better than expected match for the way that the diva’s have been lately. Both Tamina and Beth looked great and can wrestle. I was glad they put on a decent show. Maybe we will finally see more wrestling matches out of the diva’s. I was hoping for a Tamina victory, but knew it wouldn’t happen since they seem to want Karma and Beth to fight at Wrestlemania. Tamina looks like a credible threat though, so that was enjoyable.

Johnny Ace’s Segment - This was classic Johnny Ace. Taking something small and making it seem big. I think it was a waste of Christian and Del Rio’s return, but it did its purpose of setting up something for the future between Johnny L and Teddy. Now if they just follow through with it, there could be something there.

WHC Elimination Chamber match - Overall this wasn’t that great. It was slow moving, and lacked the excitement that the WWE Championship chamber match had. There were a few good things (Big Show breaking into Daniel Bryan’s chamber, Santino stealing the show, and Sheamus making his decision by whooping Daniel Bryan). But overall there wasn’t anything special. I knew when it came down to Santino and Daniel Bryan that Santino wouldn’t win, but he did a great job of making me think he at least had a chance. I didn’t like Cody losing the way he did, and having both him and Barrett lose to Santino hurts them in the future. It made Santino look like he might win, but that’s about all it accomplished. Khali was pointless. Glad he was eliminated so fast, but why have him there just for that? Biggest surprise of the night was that all the participants actually made it to the ring without any interference.

US title match - This was pointless. There was no buildup. It wasn’t a great match. And it was rushed. It was filler, but horrible filler. This time could have been used elsewhere to improve other segments.

Kane vs. Cena - Didn’t care for this match. The buildup was great, but the match wasn’t. Cena didn’t sell much. After all that beating, he was perfectly fine at the end, and of course won in SuperCena fashion. He didn’t embrace the hate, and he didn’t turn heel. So basically all this and Cena didn’t change at all. It was two guys with limited movesets fighting with a predictable ending. This match had all the makings of a great match, but fell well short of how it could have been. And where was Eve and Ryder? Why have them so involved and not include them at all. Perhaps they will finish things on RAW tonight, but this match was a let down and should never have been the main event of the night.

Overall, the PPV was lackluster. I wasn’t impressed and wish there had been more buildup of stories leading into mania. I’m hoping tonight’s RAW and tomorrows Smackdown both set things up much better, but a lot could have been accomplished last night that wasn’t.