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Tuesday, March 27, 2012

WWE Raw 3/27/2012

Tonight: The last show before Wrestlemania does its job hyping up the crowd.


Welcome to the final Raw before Wrestlemania! To start off this show, we have Randy Orton and Sheamus vs. Kane and Daniel Bryan. For some reason, Bryan kissing AJ looks really gross. It starts with Bryan and Orton, with Orton taking control for the most part. After Kane and Sheamus tag in, Sheamus gets knocked out and Bryan does his great running dropkick. After we get back from break, Sheamus and Bryan are in the ring, with Bryan in control. Sheamus tags out, and Orton quickly goes into his Five Moves, only prevented from doing the RKO because Kane pulled Bryan out of the ring. This enables them to regain control, leading to Kane being tagged in. Eventually Kane lands a flying clothesline, leading to an attempted chokeslam, countered by a dropkick which leaves both of them on the mat. After Sheamus and Bryan tags in, AJ gets in the ring to distract the ref, allowing Kane to hit a chokeslam so Bryan can pin Sheamus for the victory.

After the break, Michael Cole is in the ring and puts on a Team Johnny shirt. Cole introduces Johnny Ace, who really needs theme music. He then announces that Vickie Guerrero is his flagbearer, then introduces David Otunga, who looks like he's wearing a bib. This leads to Booker T introducing Teddy Long, who brings out Santino and Hornswoggle. There's a great moment in this match when the flags enter the ring, leading to Otunga hitting himself in the face, getting hit by the Cobra and pinned. Teddy pushes Johnny down, and Santino sets up to hit Mr. Excitement with the cobra, but Miz stops him and earns the last spot on Team Johnny.

They're showing highlights of the Rock/Cena feud over the past year, and they're pretty good. They then show a great montage hyping up Undertaker vs. Triple H. The montage ends, going into a recap of the feud leading up to their match, and it reminds me how excellent it has been. Sadly, we then go into a match between Eve and Kelly Kelly.

Kelly Kelly starts a hoeski chant, and the match is as weak as expected. I continue to hate Kelly Kelly's pathetic excuse for a huracanrana, which was preceded by the worst example of hitting the ropes I've ever seen. Then there's the weirdest attempt of a small package pin ever. Ugh.

The next match should be better – Christian vs. CM Punk. Before the match Jericho comes on the Titantron to taunt Punk some more. Tonight he brings his mother into it, saying that she's the only person that's not an embarrassment. He then brings up that Punk's parents weren't married when he was born, saying that makes Punk the “legal definition of a bastard.” Christian sneak attacks Punk before the match, but Punk ends up unloading on Christian, taking out all his frustration on him and doing a variation of the GTS using the steel steps instead of his knee, followed by locking Christian in the Anaconda Vice. The match never even starts, and Punk leaves Christian lying outside the ring. This was a great segment.

Funkasaurus! He finally nails the end of his dance. Curt Hawkins manages to take Brodus down, leading to another decent match. Still a squash, but not entirely one sided, which is nice. Another little recap of the Cena/Rock feud, this one showing Cena's great promo which kicked the feud into high gear.

The next match is Big Show vs. Primo. This is completely a squash match, and Epico tries to attack Big Show after the match only to get a chokeslam. Cody Rhodes comes out for one last promo, saying that choking when it's the most important will be known as pulling a Big Show.

There's a brief segment setting up a future feud between the Bellas, then Eve stringing Zack Ryder along again. Josh Matthews “interviews” Punk, though he doesn't even get to ask anything before Punk goes off and gives a great promo.

Next is Mark Henry vs. Khali, and I don't have high hopes for this match. While they enter, it's announced that Christian has been replaced by Drew McIntyre due to his injury. Not sure why Johnny would add him to the team, considering his losing streak. This is a short match, ending with Mark Henry hitting the World's Strongest Slam on Khali. Teddy gets rolled into the ring, then Johnny calls out his team to stop anyone from helping Teddy. All the members of Team Teddy come out and get destroyed, with Mark Henry going for the WSS on Teddy, but Booker T gets involved to save Teddy and knock out Mark Henry. Thus Booker T joins Team Teddy. They finally have a respected world champion on their team. They still look weak, clearly going into the match as the underdogs.

The final Rock/Cena recap is from last weak, where the Rock supposedly looked strong by Rock Bottoming an already beaten Mark Henry. After the break, I'm kind of sad that they've already announced that Flo Rida will be playing in the Rock, and MGK will be playing in Cena. I like the surprise of the big entrances.

Out comes The Rock! He takes a long time to say anything, simply soaking in the crowd's response and encouraging their chants silently. Not a bad promo, it really builds up his egotistical character. Cena interrupts him, coming out to a mixed but overall positive reaction. Cena's promo revolves around the fact that the Rock is a great trash talker, but it doesn't phase him because everyone trash talks him. I love that he brings up that he's been an active part of the WWE longer than the Rock. This is a fantastic promo, and I would say that was a draw – both men looked strong.

Great show, as should be expected for the last Raw before Wrestlemania. I can't pick any best moments, as it was so strong from beginning to end.

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