WWE Raw: 5 Things You Need to Know about Tonight's Episode

The WWE is officially headed for the WrestleMania home stretch.

The company's biggest pay-per-view of the year is just 13 days away, which means all we have are two more episodes of Raw and two more episodes of Smackdown until we see what should be a great show in Miami.

The end of that WrestleMania road starts tonight with this week's episode of Monday Night Raw, which is shaping to be a loaded show that, in all likelihood, will be quite memorable.

So, what should you be on the lookout for at tonight's huge event?

Well, here are five things you need to know about today's major episode of Monday Night Raw.

5. More Wrestlers Added to Team Long vs. Team Laurinaitis?

So far, only six total competitors have been announced for Team Long vs. Team Laurinaitis at WrestleMania 28.

On the heel side, we have captain David Otunga, Christian and Mark Henry, and on the baby face side, we have captain Santino Marella, Kofi Kingston and R-Truth. So with only 13 days until WrestleMania, the WWE only has announced half of the competitors in this match.

We still need six more participants for this match, and we've all heard a bunch of rumors as to which superstars will fill those final six spots. I'm thinking we'll see Dolph Ziggler, Jack Swagger and Alberto Del Rio on Team Laurinaitis and Zack Ryder, a returning Evan Bourne and perhaps Brodus Clay on Team Long.

But that's nothing more than just a guess on my part, and another guess is that we'll see some more participants (if not all of the remaining ones) announced on tonight's Raw.

Well, it might not happen, but it certainly should.

4. The Rock Has a "Surprise" for Us

The Rock has a surprise planned for tonight's episode, and over the weekend, he dropped a little hint on Twitter as to what that might be:

He wrote: "PHILADELPHIA! Damn good to be here - been too long. I have a little surprise for you on RAW.#EyeOfTheTiger."    

Let the guessing game begin about what The Rock will be doing tonight, but my guess is that it probably has something to do with this. We all remember that The Rock visited some historical landmarks in Boston a few weeks back, and chances are he'll do something similar again this week.

Most of us know that one of the most memorable moments of the Rocky movie series features Rocky Balboa running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and I'd bet at least 25 cents that The Rock is going to channel his inner boxer tonight.

What exactly that entails, I don't know. But Philadelphia better be prepared for Rocky imitating, well, Rocky. 

3. The Undertaker, Triple H and Shawn Michaels Will All Be in the Ring at Once

The feud between Triple H and The Undertaker has seen a number of strong promos from everyone involved, including the special guest referee, Shawn Michaels.

On tonight's Raw, however, we'll see all three of those men in the ring at the same time for the first time since Triple H and Taker agreed to face each other in a Hell in a Cell match at WrestleMania and Michaels agreed to referee it.

We witnessed a fantastic promo between these three right around this time last year, and with this year's HHH-Taker feud being even hotter than the the last one, it should be one hell of a sight to see these three legends back in the ring together.

HBK seems to be hinting that he will screw over The Undertaker at WrestleMania, and it will be interesting to see both how the Deadman addresses Michaels' statements from last week's Raw and how he responds to Triple H's crotch chop. 

2. CM Punk Responds to Chris Jericho's Accusations about His Father

Although Chris Jericho and CM Punk didn't even step in the ring together on last week's Raw, that didn't prevent Y2J from making this feud a lot more personal.

Following Punk's win over The Miz, Jericho appeared on the titantron and cut an amazing promo, in which he accused Punk of being Straight Edge because Punk was trying to avoid becoming like his alcoholic father.

The promo (and Punk's reaction to it) brought a sense of realism to this feud that had been sorely lacking, and suddenly, I'm a lot more interested in it than I was just last week. In particular, I can't wait to see how Punk responds to Jericho.

For the first time in awhile, Punk was left speechless, instead appearing to be genuinely affected by Jericho's harsh words.

On tonight's Raw, we'll see what Punk thinks about Jericho's comments and whether he gets back at Y2J through his words or through his actions.

1. John Cena Involved in a Car Accident; What's His Status for Raw?

A short while ago, WWE.com made a very shocking announcement regarding John Cena.

It read:

"

WWE.com has just gotten word that John Cena has been involved in an automobile accident in Philadelphia. The SUV the WWE Superstar was traveling in was reportedly rear ended by a tractor trailer. Police arrived at the scene and no immediate injuries were reported.

Cena is scheduled to meet with WWE medical personnel when he arrives at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center for tonight’s WWE Raw SuperShow event.

"

Don't worry, folks. According to TMZ.com, Cena is OK, and his WrestleMania match with The Rock is not in jeopardy.

Still, we will be left to wonder what this means for tonight's Raw: Will Cena appear? And even if he does, will his planned match with Mark Henry still happen?

That depends on a lot of factors, but we'll find out for sure on tonight's Raw.

Note: As part of the new WWE blog, I'll be asking all of the B/R wrestling readers for questions for a new mailbag that I will post on Fridays. It will be a slideshow featuring 10-20 questions and answers on a wide range of topics. You can submit questions either through Formspring or Twitter, and the best ones will be answered in the B/R mailbag.