WWE Raw Review: 5 Things We Learned from WrestleMania Go-Home Show (March 26)

Monday Night Raw is over. Next stop: WrestleMania 28.

After months (and in some cases, years) of build, the WWE is finally just days away from one of the most anticipated WrestleManias in company history, and that anticipation only grew with tonight's Raw episode.

We saw what will be some of the final build for Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk, Undertaker vs. Triple H and The Rock vs. John Cena, among others, and I for one can't wait until this Sunday.

Though tonight's Raw certainly had its hits and misses, we learned a lot from the show and can now look forward to what will go down in Miami.

But first, let's take a look at five things we learned from the go-home-to-WrestleMania edition of Monday Night Raw.

5. The Teams for Team Teddy vs. Team Johnny Are Set (We Think)

When the night started, five team members had been announced for both Team Johnny and Team Teddy, but a lot of finagling drastically changed the makeup of both teams.

The Miz was added as the final member of Team Teddy, Christian was "injured" by CM Punk and removed from the team and then Drew McIntyre was chosen (see what I did there?) to be Christian's replacement. On the other side, it was revealed that Booker T would be the final member of Team Teddy.

I like the idea of adding The Miz to the match because he deserved to be on the card, and given that it took him multiple tries to get on Team Laurinaitis, perhaps he uses his spot on the team as the vehicle for a face turn. 

I also can't complain about Booker T being on Team Teddy. Though it doesn't say much about the WWE's baby face side that they had to put a semi-retired announcer on the squad, Booker T brings the match some more star power, which is always a good thing.

The only decision I'm not really sold on is removing Christian from the match. While I'm glad to see McIntyre in the bout, why take out Christian?

This will now be the second straight year that he's failed to wrestle at WrestleMania, and he deserves better than that. Unless he's legitimately still injured or in some sort of trouble backstage, then there are no real excuses for leaving him off the card.

4. The Sheamus/Bryan and Orton/Kane Feuds Suck

I thought that the WWE would at least try to give us a legitimate reason to invest ourselves into either of these feuds tonight.

But nope. That didn't happen whatsoever.

As a fan of actual wrestling (meaning that storylines come second for me), I still have interest in seeing Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan and, to a much lesser extent, Randy Orton vs. Kane, but it's nowhere near the level I thought it would be at.

Tonight's Raw proved once again that there doesn't seem to be any real animosity between Orton and Kane or Sheamus and Bryan. Basically, Kane and Orton are feuding because there was nothing better for Orton to do at WrestleMania (why not have Kane face Ryder?), while Sheamus went after Bryan simply because he's the World Heavyweight Champion on Smackdown.

There's no real reason to get behind either baby face in these feuds, and especially after seeing all four men compete against one another in a tag team match tonight, my interest in their respective 'Mania matches is even lower.

3. I've Lost All Hope for the Tag Team Division

For some reason (I have no idea why), I've held out hope that the WWE will soon restore the tag team division and make it matter once again.

I'm done. I'm finished. I give up.

I literally can't believe that the creative team thought it would be a good idea to feed one half of the WWE Tag Team Champions, Primo, to The Big Show. Yes, The Big Show who's been around the WWE for 13 years now and is already recognized as one of the company's top guys.

We get it, WWE. He's a big baby face who can destroy the little heels. But having him do that by beating one of your company's champions in like 45 seconds is absolutely ridiculous.

I mean, creative really couldn't find some random indy guy or rarely used lower-card worker to lose to Show? Of course they could have, but they didn't.

Congratulations, WWE. You just set your tag team division back another five years.

2. CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho at WrestleMania Is Going to Be Awesome

Remember what I wrote about the Orton/Kane and Sheamus/Bryan feuds? Well, I feel the exact opposite way about the feud between Chris Jericho and CM Punk.

The WWE creative team had done a phenomenal job of building up this rivalry, and it got even better on this week's Raw.

Once again, Jericho failed to appear in the arena in person, and instead, he took more personal shots at Punk via titantron, this time excusing him of being a bastard child. Punk couldn't get his hands on an absent Jericho, so instead, he took out his aggressions by beating the crap out of Christian.

Essentially, Punk was doing to Christian what he really wanted to do to Jericho, and it was a marvelous segment simply because it will only increase the anticipation and make us want to see Punk finally get his hands on Jericho even more than we already do.

If every feud told a great story like Punk/Jericho has been doing, then the WWE would be a much better place.

1. The Rock and John Cena Really Don't Like Each Other

Either I'm being worked really well, or John Cena and The Rock truly can't stand each other.

When watching the final segment on tonight's Raw, you could see that The Rock legitimately dislikes Cena and that Cena loves pissing The Rock off, especially when he smirks or makes those little smart ass comments of his.

I know there have been all kinds of reports regarding the animosity between The Rock and Cena and whether it's legitimate or not, but—no disrespect to either guy—I just don't think that they're great enough actors to pull this feud off so incredibly.

When Cena was on the mic tonight, you could see the hatred and the rage in The Rock's eyes. You could see that Cena's "loyal company guy" shtick made The Rock want to punch his lights out.

If I'm wrong and The Rock and Cena get along just fine backstage, then so be it. Either way, whatever is going on between them is resulting in a fantastic feud and a huge WrestleMania match that I'm chomping at the bit to see. 

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.