Raw After Thoughts.

[Johnny Scumm]

3 Things I wanna talk about here.

1) The Returns of Undertaker and Triple H.
Firstly, I loved this segment. I mean, come on, we'd been waiting on this for a month! Obviously, this is the set-up for their Wrestlemania Match. We've got 6 weeks now. Possibly, we see the men have 1 or 2 Matches before Wrestlemania, just to show how dominant they truly are. I would imagine that they would try to save the guys, as Undertaker is usually working through injury, as well as the ages of them as well. There'll be a Verbal Promo, I hope, sometime soon, where it'll be announced as a Streak vs Career Match. If it isn't that Match Stipulation, I think we will all be very surprised. But this is definitely going to be good, that's for sure. Bring on Wrestlemania. I hate to say it, but Bill Lesnar, DAMN you were right, this will be awesome.

2) Sheamus - New U.S Champ?
Well, Sheamus lost to Mark Henry last night, which was a surprise to many, as they were expecting him to win. However, Sheamus did lose. After the Match, Backstage, we saw Sheamus approach Daniel Bryan, have a go at him, threatening to "Rip his head off?", correct me if I'm wrong. That brought along the idea that MAYBE, just maybe, that Sheamus is going to end up going after Daniel Bryan and the U.S Title? Maybe Sheamus becomes champ, who knows. This is certainly something to watch out for if they follow it up. If they don't, then I'm not sure they needed to bother last night, 'cos this could be an interesting feud, with a Title being an allright way to bring Sheamus back up to.

3) Jerry Lawler vs Michael Cole?
Definitely my second favourite thing that took place last night. Cole interviewed Lawler, then asked about his Mother. It was at this point Lawler snapped, grabbing Cole by the Lapels of his Jacket, finishing off by challenging Cole to a Wrestlemania Match. Cole called Lawler a "Senile Old Man", followed by running back to his Announce Desk. Eventually, Cole threw Water into Lawlers face and ran away. There will be a Match at Wrestlemania with these guys, eventually, Cole will snap and give in to temptation. Just have to wait and see.

What were your thoughts on Raw?

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

I'll just address your points I think.

1) Didn't like the returns, neither of them. Taker had a series of about 3/4 different vignettes hyping his return and the only thing separating his entrance from a standard one was the large symbol in the background. I see what they were trying to do, a promo without words because it's so deep-rooted it doesn't require words to understand the significance of a challenge, but I just have a host of problem with it.

When it comes down to it, they condensed all the information they were giving us too much. In the space of 10 minutes we went from knowing Undertaker was coming back to him and HHH having a match at Wrestlemania, too many bombshells in the same vicinity. As a result It didn't get as much of a pop as if they all happened separately. Think about it. HHH returning after something mad like 9 months, Undertaker returning after another 4 or so, a match between two of the last elites in the company perhaps the only two elites of the older school left. I see what they were going for, but I didn't like it.

From here on in this feud can only get better though. First stop, HHH brings up HBK's retirement.

2) I'm getting very very worried. You see Henry got a clean win over Sheamus, that means you can't just drop him from the picture now. The little backstage thing with Bryan may set up something else but how are you going to divert people's attention from the fact Sheamus lost to Mark Henry? You either involve Henry in the picture or take him in another direction, but you can't drop a guy heading into mania who has a clean win over a guy of Sheamus' current standing.

And then there is the problem that, for me, the US title is below Sheamus. The King of the Ring tournament has a great track record for taking potential stars and being the first thing they get on a long road to super-stardom. In this instance, however, it's been a plague for Sheamus, ever since he won he's been suffering for it and that devalues the tournament for future use and brings Sheamus down a peg or two in overall standing on Raw. I think a feud between the two would be adequate, but for a guy who went in to face HHH at last year's mania, it just feels like he's spiralling downwards.

3) Now your talking. This was great, no other way to put it. I'm not a fan of the comment about Lawler's mother. I felt bad enough for the Big Show when he was in that storyline with the Bossman and Show' father died years before that happened, the incident involving Jerry is less than 2 weeks fresh of his loss, if your going to make some sort of a comment like that, this was entirely too soon to do it. But without that it would have worked fine anyway. Everything about it worked for me, Cole's interview was top-notch and Lawler's reply grabbing him by the shirt was also very good.

I don't think Cole is going to agree to the match at any point though, it'll be like last years fiasco with Bret and Vince, he'll be conned or forced into the match unwittingly somehow. It was wonderful little segment though and set up their match wonderfully. Only thing that confused me was Lawler going onto commentary after Cole left. He turned up for an interview but then takes up the headphone? Lawler should have walked into the back and Striker should have come out to call the rest.


Aside from these things though any other comments I have. I still don't know where Morrison is headed at Wrestlemania. The win made sense as Punk is a bigger star than Morrison and it worked to set up his Orton feud (which by the way I thought was great, very good Punk promo, Orton looked hot-headed and ready to go). I think the match could have done with being a little bit longer for Morrison's sake, I just hope he wins MITB if it happens to be on.

Divas match - You can tell The Bellas are heel, they wear black, just a trend I noticed.

Oh yeah, the Cena, Miz and Rocky saga. I liked it, the end segment that is. I was one of those guys grasping my forehead when Cena decided he was going to rap, but I was pleasantly surprised, lots of powerful cheap shots that pooled a few more horsepower into the engine of this feud. I've gotta say, Miz looked pretty good in the ring also, he more than held his own against fairly decent opponents in Gabriel and Slater. The end bit with Miz skull-crushing Cena would have worked the first time round, they didn't need to win the belts but that's negligible, it still worked as well. Look forward to next week on that one.

I think that's all of it.

 

[Johnny Scumm]

From here on in this feud can only get better though. First stop, HHH brings up HBK's retirement.

Definitely. Well, if not Retirement as a subject, just maybe the whole idea of "You took out Shawn, made him lose his Job, but you could never do that to me. So here we are, you and your 18-0, which this year, is going to be broken, by me. If not, then, just like Shawn, I'm outta here, plain and simple".

And then there is the problem that, for me, the US title is below Sheamus. The King of the Ring tournament has a great track record for taking potential stars and being the first thing they get on a long road to super-stardom. In this instance, however, it's been a plague for Sheamus, ever since he won he's been suffering for it and that devalues the tournament for future use and brings Sheamus down a peg or two in overall standing on Raw. I think a feud between the two would be adequate, but for a guy who went in to face HHH at last year's mania, it just feels like he's spiralling downwards.

Agree, agree, agree. You are totally on the mark here. It's like the WWE done everything they could with him right at the start, now they've noticed they fucked that up a bit, so they've nothing left to do with him. Then again, maybe winning a Title again could make him think himself credible? It's totally possible that he does a Miz, sort of. That he wins the United States Title, followed by winning the WWE Title, simultaneously holding both. Maybe that's what Sheamus needs to get himself back up there.

Lawler should have walked into the back and Striker should have come out to call the rest.

Yeah, that didn't make much sense to me either.

The end bit with Miz skull-crushing Cena would have worked the first time round, they didn't need to win the belts but that's negligible, it still worked as well.

Finally, to cap off what you've said. Yes, it could've happened first time round, but by doing this, Miz & Cena have automatically captured another title, even though for 10 minutes, they've put themselves up a notch. Much like John Cena/Randy Orton, John Cena/Batista and finally, John Cena/David Otunga.

 

[Johnny Scumm]

Oh, I apologize. Cena/HBK, not Cena/Orton.