WWE Raw 2/27/2012

Tonight: FINALLY! The Rock comes back to Raw!

We start with a recap of last week's epic Cena promo, then a recap of last week's fantastic Champion vs. Champion match. Jericho comes out instead of Daniel Bryan, and cuts an excellent promo saying that he's always been the best, and how he's the last of a dying breed. He goes on to claim that Punk just wants to be him. Punk starts mocking Jericho because Bret Hart was “The best there is, the best there was, the best there ever will be” and Jericho claims he was the first calling himself the best. Jericho then uses the truth (that he has dozens of the best moments that will go down in history). Punk claims that Jericho has lost his confidence, and is insecure. Punk gets some cheers when he brings up the various things that Jericho has done when he hasn't been wrestling. Jericho is the best on the mic in his generation, and Punk is the best in his, and this promo proves it.

After the promo, Daniel Bryan and his posse come to the ring. Seriously, he is followed by AJ, Mr. Excitement and David Otunga. The bell doesn't even ring before the brawl starts. After the commercial, the match is already under way. Unfortunately, the commentators basically ignore the in-ring action to try and push the feud between Teddy Long and Johnny Ace. That could be interesting, but there is some fantastic wrestling going on that they're distracting from. After Punk throws Bryan out of the ring, Bryan uses AJ as a shield to prevent Punk from doing a suicide dive. I've said it before, but that just strengthens the fact that they're drawing from Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth for his heel persona. Otunga, Santino and the GMs cause a distraction, nearly allowing Bryan to escape, but Sheaus throws him back in. This makes Laurinitis call for the bell, and Teddy Long shoves him, almost causing a brawl to break out. As Punk leaves, Jericho ambushes him and body slams him on the stage before putting Punk in the Walls of Jericho. THIS is how you build a feud. This also fully turns the crowd against him for the first time since he returned.

Back from break, Josh Matthews says that Punk seemed more angry than hurt when he was helped to the trainer. We then get a promo about last year's match between Undertaker and HHH. This was one of the best matches I've seen in the past several years. The final moments of the match, where Undertaker wins using the Hell's Gate is one of the best endings to a match I've ever seen. Apparently there's going to be a Cena vs. Miz match later, which I barely care about.

Sadly, the next match is between Nikki Bella and Kelly Kelly. It lasts about as long can be expected, and I found myself extremely bored. The way Kelly pins Nikki at the end seems like she isn't holding Nikki down at all.

There's the same Rock video they've been playing since the Royal Rumble, and then John Cena comes out to a whole lot of applause. Miz gets an appropriately whiny promo where he complains about not being in Wrestlemania this year. This Cena Sucks/Let's Go Cena dueling chants start during the match, but they seem more even than they used to be. This is not a bad match, with decent back and forth and some good counters. I'm surprised they allowed Miz this much time, when the Rock is in the building. Cena hits the Five Knuckle Shuffle into an Attitude Adjustment, followed by an STF for the win. They show the Rock on the titantron, who does Cena's “You can't see me” hand wave.

Next, we have a Triple Threat Tag Match for the Tag Team Championship, which is a great idea, but should be saved for a pay-per-view. Remember when the WWF had a great tag division? The match is between Boom-Truth, American Show-offs and Primo & Epico (those names are not official, but they should be). The only problem with this match is it gets tricky remembering who the legal men are. There isn't a whole lot of good tag manuevers, though Primo and Ziggler teaming up on R-Truth is a nice heel tactic, though R-Truth has a nice move to take them both out. Primo and Epico pick up the win after Swagger gets hit with both a Trouble in Paradise and a Backstabber, and then... Kane? He takes out everybody, and I don't know what his intention was here. Unless Kane is going to form a tag team division?

There's a brief promo that leads to the crowd chanting “horse's ass” about Johnny Ace, and apparently Laurinitis won't be running Raw next week. After we return from break there's a recap of what happened with Eve last week, and she comes out to talk to the crowd. This is a decent promo, acting like she's the victim in all this, and this does not endear her to the crowd at all. I find myself hoping that Lita or Trish Stratus would come out an interrupt her. Unfortunately, she gets to walk out without anyone stopping her. However, she gets confronted by Kelly Kelly backstage. I start liking Eve more when she just laughs at Kelly.

There's a commercial for Edge's movie, Bending the Rules. I want to watch for Edge, but the fact that Jamie Kennedy is in it makes me reluctant. There's a promo teasing the return of Randy Orton this Friday, where he'll face Daniel Bryan. Bryan needs to win decisively or he'll look weak.

We get another embarassing Big Show moment from Coy Rhodes before the next match (Big Show and Sheamus vs Cody Rhodes and Mark Henry) which is fantastic. Cody is an amazing heel, and he'll deserve a shot at one of the world titles within a year. The match lasts only a minute or so, but it was worth it for the continuation of the feud between Big Show and Cody Rhodes. They tease a big announcement tomorrow morning on WWE.com.

HBK is coming back again next week! Exciting, we get to see what part he'll play in the Undertaker/HHH feud. The Rock comes out to the expected crowd response. The crowd won't even quiet down to let him talk for a while. He defends his words from last year, where he said he would never leave again. It's amazing how quickly he gets the crowd back on his side – though I'm not sure about him being made for this business, when he's facing away from all the cameras. You'd think that would be something that the movies would have reinforced in him. This is a good promo, though I don't think it's as good as Cena's last week. The Rock doesn't seem to say anything new here, and the only thing he really says about Cena is that he's a “king pow bitch” and that the crowd latches onto what he says. Admittedly, that's important in this business, but I'm bored by the time Cena comes out.

Cena once again shows that he's still good on the mic, and the Rock finishes it up with some of his catchphrases. A good ending to a decent show. High points were Bryan vs. Punk and The Rock and Cena finally facing off on the mic, while the low points were the Divas match (as always) and Kane's odd appearance.

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So, it's Tuesday morning and I just felt the need to edit this to point out that Cena insulting the Rock about needing notes is (surprisingly) true. That makes me feel a lot worse about the Rock's half of the promo, and it puts me completely in the Cenation for Wrestlemania. Proof here: http://twitpic.com/8pnmb1