WWE/TNA: My Top 10 Moments of the Week (Feb. 19-23)

Another week of professional wrestling has come to an end!

The Elimination Chamber pay-per-view was this past Sunday and the show as a whole was a bit of a letdown. The WWE Championship match was great, but the rest of the show wasn’t the best.

WWE Monday Night Raw was quite the good show. While most of the matches were subpar, the in-ring segments were great!

WWE presented Super SmackDown live this Tuesday, but there was nothing “super” about it. While it had its moments, the overall show was a bit disappointing.

TNA Wrestling delivered another solid episode of Impact Wrestling this week, and they continued the roll that they’ve been on so far this year.

Who had the best show this week? I’m torn between Raw and Impact Wrestling, but I think I have to go with Monday Night Raw.

WWE has ended TNA’s two-week reign as “best show.”

There were many moments this week, but only 10 can make the cut!

Here are my top 10 moments of the week!

10. The Battle for Sole General Manager

There have been two general managers since Raw and SmackDown became two different rosters all those years ago.

Whether it was Eric Bischoff, Stephanie McMahon, Steve Austin or even an anonymous one, both Raw and SmackDown have had separate general managers.

That may change soon, though.

When John Laurinaitis got his job back as interim general manager of Raw, his legal advisor, David Otunga, came up with a plan to get Laurinaitis the job of sole general manager.

At the Royal Rumble, Alberto Del Rio, Mark Henry and Christian endorsed the man in charge of Raw while this past Friday on SmackDown, Teddy Long was endorsed by the WWE champion CM Punk.

On Raw, the two of them bickered over who was better, and on SmackDown they argued over the way things were run.

This feud over general manager is quite the interesting one.

I think that having one man in charge of both brands could be beneficial in the long run, but I fear that WrestleMania will feature John Laurinaitis vs. Teddy Long.

This feud has the capability of staying intriguing all the way to the big event and as long as they don’t have a one-on-one match, I think it’ll payoff big time.

9. Zema Ion vs. Alex Shelley

TNA Wrestling’s X-Division had another good showing this week as No. 1 contender Zema Ion took on one-half of the Motor Machine Guns, Alex Shelley.

These two X-Division athletes had a good match that saw some nice action and had a good pace to it. It also furthered the Austin Aries/Zema Ion feud.

The X-Division champion sat ringside for the match and he showed his cocky attitude just by sitting there eating popcorn and drinking wine.

He gave the occasional golf clap and declared that he was watching a good match despite himself not being in it. While he didn’t get involved, Ion knows the he’s being scouted by the champion.

Both Ion and Shelley had a good showing in this match.

Ion is starting to impress me. Minus his screw-up at Against All Odds, Ion has been great in the ring since his debut. He is without a doubt a future holder of the X-Division Championship.

Will it happen at Victory Road? I highly doubt it, but if TNA can keep his push going strong into the summer months, I can see him winning the belt then.

Shelley never disappoints in the ring, but he needs Chris Sabin to return as soon as he’s healthy enough to do so. Shelley can only do so much on his own.

The Motor City Machine Guns could not only have an impact in the tag division but also in the X-Division as well.

8. Hell in a Cell Is Coming to WrestleMania

The last time Hell in a Cell was at the big event was WrestleMania XV, when the Undertaker took on the late Big Boss Man.

It’s been 13 years, but now Satan’s Structure is returning to the Super Bowl of professional wrestling.

Last year saw the Deadman take on Triple H for a second time, and the Undertaker extended his streak to 19-0. Something else happened, though, and the WWE Universe saw the Demon of Death Valley in a way they’ve never seen him before.

The Undertaker had to be carried out of the ring, but his opponent walked out on his own power.

The Undertaker was gone for almost a year, and he returned the night after the Royal Rumble.

After Triple H denied him a rematch, the Game finally gave the Undertaker a shot at vengeance this past Monday on Raw while the Deadman gave him a third chance to break the streak.

I wasn’t sold on a third Undertaker/Triple H match since the day the rumors started circulating.

When Undertaker returned and the match was all but confirmed, I was a bit disappointed that WWE didn’t go in a different direction.

There was only one way I’d get behind this match, and that’s if it was inside Hell in a Cell.

Well, it’s inside the cell, and it’s a fitting ending to an era.

Even though there are guys on the roster who were in WWE during the Attitude Era, Undertaker and Triple H are the only main event stars who are left.

It doesn’t matter who wins or loses this match, as the real winners will certainly be the fans.

7. Gail Kim vs. ODB, and Madison Rayne’s Post-Match Actions

This was a good women’s match that saw some nice action and had a decent pace to it.

Since becoming champion, Gail Kim has been boring the hell out of me! I think that’s due to the fact that she was constantly facing Mickie James.

Now that she’s facing other Knockouts, she doesn’t seem as boring anymore!

Gail is quite good in the ring and she showed that here. WWE really were foolish in letting her go.

ODB is sometimes incredibly underrated. She can be very good in the ring, and she’s always over with the crowd.

Her gimmick is something you can’t help cheer for, as she pumps up the crowd with her actions in the ring.

I hope TNA puts her back into the title hunt soon. It has seriously been way too long since she’s had the title.

Madison Rayne intrigued me with her actions after the match.

Last week when she became the No. 1 contender for Gail’s title, it seemed like she did it to screw over her partner. This week, though, she tried to tell everyone that they were still friends and she tried to celebrate with Gail after her victory.

I think Madison is playing some clever mind games with Gail Kim here.

If she is, it would be a nice change of pace for the Knockout’s division!

6. John Cena’s Promos

It’s not often that just John Cena makes this list.

This past Monday on Raw, though, Cena was quite entertaining.

For the past year we’ve only see him insult the Rock, and while he did that later on in the night, he laid into someone else at the beginning of the show.

The show strangely opened with Eve turning heel. She used Zack Ryder and now she planned on using the face of the WWE.

Unfortunately for her, Cena was standing right behind her at that moment.

Cena then headed to the ring where Eve wanted to explain, but he pulled out some “vintage” John Cena.

He said Eve had too much of the skank juice and called her a hoeski. As she tried to grab Cena, the referees pulled her off and he declared that he was disease free and planned to stay that way.

For the first time in quite a long time, I actually laughed at what John Cena was saying.

It was a return to form, and while he didn’t do it as a rap, it seemed like the Doctor of Thuganomics was back to a certain degree.

Cena’s been quite good on the mic lately, but he has returned to a bit of comedy.

Later on in the night, Cena went into the Rock, and it was the same old “I’m here and you’re not” shtick Cena’s been preaching for the past year.

Despite being the same old thing, Cena was great on the mic this past Monday!

5. CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho Is Set for WrestleMania

When Chris Jericho lost the Royal Rumble, I feared that the much sought-after CM Punk/Chris Jericho match could be off.

They call it “card subject to change” for a reason, but it was still worrisome.

Thankfully, he attacked Punk the next night and the match was in the process of happening! Then something else happened, and Chris Jericho was knocked out at the elimination chamber.

He looked legitimately injured and that put the match in jeopardy.

Thankfully, Jericho was fine and won a 10-man battle royal this past Monday on Raw to become the No. 1 contender for the WWE Championship.

This year’s WrestleMania is already looking 10-times better than last year's with matches like this.

I’ve been waiting for this match ever since Jericho started taking shots at Punk on Twitter.

I knew it was only a matter of time before Y2J returned to WWE and gave us a battle between two wrestlers who call themselves “the best in the world.”

Wrestling-wise, I think this will be the best match that night and I can’t wait!

4. The Daniel Bryan/Miz/Sheamus Promo

World heavyweight champion Daniel Bryan opened Tuesday’s live SmackDown with another great promo.

He went into how no one believed that he’d main event WrestleMania, but that he was in fact doing so. He screamed, “Yo A.J., I did it!” before telling Sheamus that he’d ruin his WrestleMania moment much like he ruined his at the Elimination Chamber.

The Miz of all people then came out and put over the champion big time and wanted to form a team after WrestleMania.

That brought out Sheamus. He took the Miz’s mic and buried Bryan as well as the Miz. Bryan slapped Sheamus and ran out while the Celtic Warrior and Miz ended up in a match.

This was an overall great segment! Bryan was phenomenal on the mic, and it really makes his heel character the best in the WWE.

I was surprised to see the Miz out there praising his former NXT rookie. The Miz never praises anyone but himself, so it was a bit shocking.

The Miz was better on the mic here than he has been in quite some time.

I do fear, though, that this team will become a reality. While they’ll probably make a great team, it’ll mean Daniel Bryan getting demoted to the dead tag division.

Sheamus was quite good; he’s so much better on the mic as a face then when he was a heel.

Sheamus really has embraced his face character and he’s better now than he ever was!

And the look on Miz’s face when Sheamus took his mic was priceless!

3. Follow the Yellow Brick Road

This was quite the segment right here.

After Bobby Roode took out Sting last week, the Icon declared that he was done. He clarified his statement this week and declared that he was done doing things halfway.

He then put on some makeup, said he was putting his gear back on and will take out Roode at Victory Road.

Sting delivered a hell of a promo here. It was a strange promo, but a great one nonetheless.

Sting really improved on the mic last year with his Insane Icon gimmick, and he brought it back this past Thursday.

It’s been a while since he’s delivered a strong promo like this, so it was certainly welcomed!

While Sting delivered big time on the mic, it was Roode that really sold the segment.

The look on his face made it seem like he was genuinely scared and worried about what the Stinger was going to do.

I figured that this feud would end up with a match, and I’m glad it’s at Victory Road. With the Roode/Storm match booked for Lockdown, I worried that it would happen at Slammiversary.

Thankfully, it’s not, and the feud will hopefully come to an end, or at the very least slow down, after the PPV.

2. CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan

What a great match! The match was very back and forth and it had a great pace to it!

CM Punk and Daniel Bryan are the two best wrestlers WWE has right now, and they actually let them showcase their skills in the ring here, unlike their match after the Royal Rumble.

I’m usually not a fan of a match ending in a draw, but I think it really added to this match!

Both wrestlers won a fall, but both times the decision was reversed.

John Laurinaitis reversed the first fall when CM Punk won, and Teddy Long did the second after Daniel Bryan picked up the win.

The match finally ended when both champions were involved in a double pin.

Having the match end in a draw was genius! Showing one world champion beat the other one on one tells the audience that the other champion might not be as good.

The draw also opens up possibilities for the future.

Who really is the best between them? I can see this draw turning into a one-on-one feud between them sometime during the summer.

If it does indeed happen, it’ll be some of the best wrestling WWE has seen in years!

1. The Raw Elimination Chamber Match

For me, the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view was kind of boring. The best match of the night was without a doubt the Raw elimination chamber match for the WWE Championship.

The problem was that it opened the show!

The match had great wrestling, great spots and was very entertaining.

Dolph Ziggler really impressed me in this match, as he took a lot of bumps outside onto the steel. It’s a shame that he’s been pushed back down already.

Kofi Kingston also impressed in the match with his agility and his cross-body block off the top of one of the pods.

It was interesting to see what happened to Chris Jericho after CM Punk kicked him in the head and he went tumbling to the outside of the chamber.

The match pretty much stopped as it seemed like he was really hurt. With Jericho down, that left the champion and Miz.

At one point, it seemed like Miz was going to win the title and I almost had a heart attack. I didn’t want to see Miz win the title, but thankfully, he didn’t.

CM Punk won the match and held the title up high!

This really was a great match; it’s too bad the SmackDown elimination chamber match wasn’t as good!