Mania Mismatches
Tonight on Raw we were treated to a variety of matches that featured the players of Wrestle Mania 24 against opposition that had nothing to do with their upcoming matches on the big stage except for a few scattered ones here and there. It made for an interesting evening of decent matches, while some others could have never happened and I don't think anybody would have cared.
We started off with a mini preview of the Money in the Bank match with Carlito up against CM Punk. The match was a decent exchange between the two, but the most important aspect of this match was Punk showing up on Raw. As I have stated in the past Punk will no doubt win Money in the Bank. I doubt he will use it to cash in on the ECW championship so he will be moving on to one of the major shows. Tonight showed the fans still back him and he definitely did not look bad.
On the women's front we saw the Playboy Bunnies Maria and Candice take on resident bad girls Jillian and Victoria. We would even be blessed with a ring side presence of Santino Marella. Of course the good gals would win, but Santino would have the last laughs. He threw soda on Jerry Lawler and stole his sandwich that Jerrod from Subway gave him during an earlier plug. Santino then would celebrate with Jillian and Victoria on his craziness at ring side. My only complaint was Jillian refusing a bite of the victory sandwich. Come on Jillian, Victoria took a bite, why do you think your better than that.
Jericho took on the Big Show after they had a spat on Jericho's Highlight Reel segment. Jericho walked out with his Intercontinental title after using it to bash the Show in the head. This of course lead to a DQ. But he did not go away unscathed, as the Big Show unleashed some big chops early in the match, then planted a big fist upside Jericho's noggin. I can see this one developing into something after Mania as the Big Show will need a major program after his big match with Mayweather. A title run with Jericho could fit the bill.
In the who cares category, JBL beat on Colin Delaney as a preview of what Finlay can expect. Enough said on this one folks. Also Umaga defeated London and Kendrick. Another who cares moment saw Kendrick leave his partner to face the full wrath of the Samoan Bulldozer. It looks like this may create rift between the two, but again who really cares as these two are great together, but a rival program with them really won't do much to peak interest in them.
One of the big matches featured the Chairman himself, Vince McMahon take on Rick Flair in a street fight. We saw tons of blood courtesy of Flair, but some of the big shots were a bit lame. The duck by Flair to avoid the monitor to the head was bad. Vince looked like he caught him more in the back but for some reason Flair's head was busted wide open. Also the finishing leap off the top rope by Flair onto a prone Vince on a table was lame. The table barely broke and there was not much to Flair's leaping ability. Some heat was added to the HBK and Fair match as HBK prevented an early pin fall by dragging the Ref out of the ring. He and Flair had an exchange in the locker room about how Flair does not need the help of HBK to keep the win streak for the Nature Boy alive. These exchanges are doing a great job to make the match one of enemies instead of friends, like it started when they both excepted to face each other. This will only make the stake higher for what could possibly be Flair's final match.
In the main event we saw Cena and Orton take on the whole Raw roster. This match was put together by Triple H who was acting as GM and was supposed to weaken his opponents for Mania. But despite the odds the two were able to work together and fend off most of the opposition. But Umaga and JBL saw to it by beating on both the Champ and Cena. Of course Triple H would show up at the end to deliver a pair of Pedigrees for good measure, thus putting a stamp on his fallen foes.
We started off with a mini preview of the Money in the Bank match with Carlito up against CM Punk. The match was a decent exchange between the two, but the most important aspect of this match was Punk showing up on Raw. As I have stated in the past Punk will no doubt win Money in the Bank. I doubt he will use it to cash in on the ECW championship so he will be moving on to one of the major shows. Tonight showed the fans still back him and he definitely did not look bad.
On the women's front we saw the Playboy Bunnies Maria and Candice take on resident bad girls Jillian and Victoria. We would even be blessed with a ring side presence of Santino Marella. Of course the good gals would win, but Santino would have the last laughs. He threw soda on Jerry Lawler and stole his sandwich that Jerrod from Subway gave him during an earlier plug. Santino then would celebrate with Jillian and Victoria on his craziness at ring side. My only complaint was Jillian refusing a bite of the victory sandwich. Come on Jillian, Victoria took a bite, why do you think your better than that.
Jericho took on the Big Show after they had a spat on Jericho's Highlight Reel segment. Jericho walked out with his Intercontinental title after using it to bash the Show in the head. This of course lead to a DQ. But he did not go away unscathed, as the Big Show unleashed some big chops early in the match, then planted a big fist upside Jericho's noggin. I can see this one developing into something after Mania as the Big Show will need a major program after his big match with Mayweather. A title run with Jericho could fit the bill.
In the who cares category, JBL beat on Colin Delaney as a preview of what Finlay can expect. Enough said on this one folks. Also Umaga defeated London and Kendrick. Another who cares moment saw Kendrick leave his partner to face the full wrath of the Samoan Bulldozer. It looks like this may create rift between the two, but again who really cares as these two are great together, but a rival program with them really won't do much to peak interest in them.
One of the big matches featured the Chairman himself, Vince McMahon take on Rick Flair in a street fight. We saw tons of blood courtesy of Flair, but some of the big shots were a bit lame. The duck by Flair to avoid the monitor to the head was bad. Vince looked like he caught him more in the back but for some reason Flair's head was busted wide open. Also the finishing leap off the top rope by Flair onto a prone Vince on a table was lame. The table barely broke and there was not much to Flair's leaping ability. Some heat was added to the HBK and Fair match as HBK prevented an early pin fall by dragging the Ref out of the ring. He and Flair had an exchange in the locker room about how Flair does not need the help of HBK to keep the win streak for the Nature Boy alive. These exchanges are doing a great job to make the match one of enemies instead of friends, like it started when they both excepted to face each other. This will only make the stake higher for what could possibly be Flair's final match.
In the main event we saw Cena and Orton take on the whole Raw roster. This match was put together by Triple H who was acting as GM and was supposed to weaken his opponents for Mania. But despite the odds the two were able to work together and fend off most of the opposition. But Umaga and JBL saw to it by beating on both the Champ and Cena. Of course Triple H would show up at the end to deliver a pair of Pedigrees for good measure, thus putting a stamp on his fallen foes.
