WWE Raw Review: February 28, 2011

I ask you, who wouldn’t be excited for this week’s Raw after the last two installments? We’ve seen the return of The Rock, Triple H, The Undertaker, "vintage" John Cena and the best promos cut in years. Yes sir, I was looking forward to Monday Night Raw.

What better way to kick off Raw than to have The Game come out first! Oh wait, I know—how about the fact that Michael Cole isn’t on commentary and Jerry Lawler can now get a word in edgeways.

Triple H cut a promo about how the only challenge left for him in the wrestling business is ending The Deadman’s streak, and all The Undertaker has left to do is keep the streak alive. As Triple H put it: If the streak dies, The Undertaker dies.

I think this was an excellent turn of phrase, because for me, it gave an explanation as to how he has kept coming back every time he is buried alive. It was saying to the audience that the Undertaker survives by his streak and no matter what you do to him, ultimately it is only the streak that can end him.

Or maybe I’m looking too much into it—nevertheless, it legitimized the Undertaker’s character in my mind, as it had irritated me seeing him being buried alive over and over again.

Sheamus interrupts Triple H’s music, and as he enters the ring, The Game simply floors him with a boot and destroys him outside of the ring. Speaking of The Deadman, I’m pretty sure Sheamus is rather close to beating his record when it comes to being buried. I don’t know what he has done to annoy backstage officials, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone demoted to this extent in such a short amount of time.

This man, I might add, is our 2010 King of the Ring, and he is the guy who is supposed to have put Triple H out of action for almost a year, and now he is just a glorified jobber. Anyway, needless to say, he was obliterated by a pedigree on the announcer's table. I’m not surprised you have no challenges left Triple H, you bury everyone who might be the next big thing.

Also—to rub salt in the wound—Sheamus was then beaten in about 30 seconds by a returning Evan Bourne. Need I say more?

Michael Cole then saunters to the ring and accepts Lawler’s WrestleMania challenge, if he can have his trainer in his corner and choose a special guest referee.

"Who was his trainer?" I hear you ask. Well, if you don’t already know, it was demoted champion No. 2, Jack Swagger. Fancy going from World Champion to training the most hated announcer in the WWE. It’s no wonder they’ve had to bring in old talent to promote the biggest event of the year—who else is going to draw for them?

Cole proceeded to blabber on about how the GM’s agreement about no violence between the two was just for Lawler but this was all a retcon just so Cole could get a slap in on Lawler, who was set to retaliate before being popped in the ankle lock by Swagger. Then Cole was back on commentary and it’s annoying me thinking about it now, so I’ll stop talking about him, otherwise he’ll eclipse my whole review.

Orton cut a dire promo regarding CM Punk, saying he was going to end his career, etc. It was clearly designed to add intensity to his character, but I think Orton says it best when he says nothing at all—or maybe not.

The match that followed was the most boring match on Raw in a long time—and I’m including Diva matches. I was so grateful for the commercial break. It was slow and there was no intensity. Not many wrestlers (sorry, I mean superstars) can pull this style off and I’m sorry to say that it did not work on this occasion. The ending was so predictable, straight into the three "vintage" moves of Orton, then the pin. Boring.

The stipulations being that each member of Nexus beaten by Orton will be banned from ringside at WrestleMania, the squash was pretty much a given anyway. I think this will be a good way to promote Mason Ryan as the new Batista, if he can beat Orton clean to earn his place at Punk’s side at WrestleMania.

I’d have him dominate Orton to present him as a legitimate threat. It would be good for a while, until WWE decides to bury him like Sheamus and Swagger. It’s probably worth mentioning that McGillicutty was punted and so will probably be out of action for a couple of weeks.

A cage match, with the stipulation that Alex Riley be fired should he lose, was set up by an interestingly humorous promo from Cena.

I think he is trying to emulate the comedy that the likes of The Rock, Chris Jericho and Triple H used to inject into their promos, but in my opinion he isn’t quite there. Miz explains he will beat Cena and Rock in the same night at WrestleMania to prove he is as "awesome" as he says he is. (Shades of Chris Jericho anyone?)

Divas Battle Royale was next and it was over before I could get up for my Divas match toilet break, with the Bella twins pulling off a win by switching again. Yawn.

The Rock executed another good promo but I can’t believe he wasn’t even in the arena. What happened to never going away Rock? I’d rather they keep him off television than have him appear via satellite, as it just wasn’t the same.

Despite not even being there, he still captured the audience. You could hear a pin drop in the arena when he was talking. Something tells me Fruity Pebbles should be left out of this now as it’s getting a little stale. It was funny the first time, but I don’t want to hear about it week in and week out. Think of something else multicoloured you could reference. Skittles maybe? Oh yeah, “yabba dabba B*tch!” What a catchphrase, I am going to steal that.

Just as I think we are about to get a rare midcard match, Miz comes out and just annihilates Daniel Bryan. Well, I guess that seals the fate of this Raw then. Stale segment after stale segment.

Triple H kicks things off well and it’s downhill from there. These Raw shows are supposed to be getting me excited for WrestleMania, not get me thinking about how many things I would do to change the booking.

The cage match was decent enough, but I think it was a foregone conclusion that Cena would win. The match flowed and it was good to see some actual wrestling after almost a two-hour wait.

Way too much filler in this episode and it wasn’t even needed. It didn’t really tell me anything worth knowing about WrestleMania. The most exciting part was hearing that Stone Cold would be back on Raw next week.

When Cena eventually forced himself out of the door, Miz was there to greet him with a skull-crushing finale, after tweeting throughout the match at the commentator’s table. Now there is a good promotional technique—having your WWE champion tweet and take pictures at ringside!

I only have one word for that—"awesome".

This is my first article for Bleacher Report, so please let me know what you think, and please comment! Thank you.