WWE Raw Review: April 4, 2011
Hey bleachers! I’m back with my weekly Raw review and what a Raw it was! Just 22 hours removed from WrestleMania, Atlanta hosted one of the most explosive Raw episodes this year. The debut of a ridiculously talented Mexican followed by the confirmation of the main event for WrestleMania 28!
Raw caught my attention from the opening moments when the familiar voice of J.R resonated through my headphones. If I wasn’t excited for Raw before that, I certainly was when I heard that the commentary team that ended WrestleMania would be calling the action!
Triple H kicked the show off with a promo. I was rather confused at first this week—the stage was set up the opposite way and the camera was on the other side of the arena. I started to wonder if I’d stepped into an alternate universe, what with the stage set-up and the commentary team. I half expected Triple H to start celebrating a victory over the Deadman!
TOP NEWS
Fresh Backstage WWE Rumors 👊
Modern-Day Dream Matches 💭
Most Likely Backlash Heel/Face Turns 🎭
He was met with chants of “you tapped out!” as he explained he had never been as nervous as he was when he fought The Undertaker the night before. Breaking news—Triple H acknowledged the fact that they had fought at WrestleMania before! I was one of the skeptics who thought WWE had tried to remove this match from all present knowledge, to promote it as an epic encounter that had never happened.
However, I now see that they did not mention it because it did not need to be mentioned—not until after the event. Would you still have had the same belief that Triple H may end the streak if they kept reiterating how he lost at X-Seven? I certainly wouldn’t.
The Game thanked the Undertaker for giving him the fight of his life and left the arena, but not before implying that The Undertaker would return next year. Triple H remarked that if he does return, “I’ll be waiting.”
Cole arrived in his amateur wrestling gear to resounding boos and talked about being 1-0 at WrestleMania. To be fair to him, he was right when he said it’s a better record than most of the locker room.
King called him a “worthless jackass” and Cole challenged him to a rematch. Just as I thought I was going to see Lawler versus Cole II, Cole alerted everyone to the fact he meant a rematch between Lawler and Swagger from Raw last week.
I find it amazing that the King can wrestle well against a Superstar as young and fit as Jack Swagger, as it takes incredible fitness. I was amazed at how good the match was and was happy when the decision was reversed because Swagger didn’t release his ankle lock after picking up the victory.
Cole then soaked J.R in BBQ sauce. I know, I was angry too.
Josh Matthews, Booker T and Michael Cole were on commentary for the remainder of the night and I can’t find the words to describe how disappointed I was at this decision. However, the tag match that followed more than made up for this lack of judgement.
Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio took on Cody Rhodes and CM Punk. This just shows how far Cody is expected to go in the business now that he is featuring on both Raw and SmackDown, with high profile superstars no less.
I only realised how good it was that Cody was facing Randy Orton first when I remembered they had been in Legacy together.
Mysterio went for Cody’s mask multiple times in the match. I thought it was a little hypocritical, as Rey certainly wouldn’t like it if Cody kept trying to rip his off. Fair enough, he removed it on SmackDown, but Rey exacted revenge at WrestleMania by returning the favour. Let it go Rey. If this turns into a mask versus mask match, that will signify the end of Cody Rhodes’ character and something tells me it’s only a matter of time. But I digress...
This tag match was the best match I’ve seen on Raw all year. Lasting through two commercial breaks, the match never once failed to keep me interested. This shows that the formula that WWE returned to just before WrestleMania, of putting two feuds together in a tag-team match, is an extremely successful one.
The crowd were well into the match because they probably realised what a rarity they were witnessing. They erupted when Randy was tagged in to do the “power” section of the tag match. He used an Olympic Slam like he did at WrestleMania and I hope it was in retaliation to Kurt Angle’s comments.
Orton pinned Rhodes after a 619 and an RKO!
Austin met Triple H in a backstage segment and congratulated him on his match against The Undertaker and said that should it happen again, he’ll be there.
Steve Austin introduced the Tough Enough contestants after the commercial and the guys in the front row chanted, “STUN THEM ALL!” It tickled Austin as he knew that’s what the whole arena wanted to see, but it wouldn’t make sense for him to do that to his students. The Miz interrupted this celebration and came out to cheers...?
He proceeded to ask Stone Cold if he had one more match in him and attacked him with a cheap shot before leaving Riley to finish him off. You can probably guess what happened next. Let’s just say Cole ended up being soaked in beer.
Del Rio faced Evan Bourne next and didn’t come out in a car. On reflection, Edge’s celebration was a pretty good way to stop that entrance featuring ridiculously expensive cars. He won with his arm-breaker after a good match with some entertaining spots, including an enzuigiri on the top rope to Evan Bourne.
Vicky came out and blamed her team’s loss on LayCool and teamed with Dolph Ziggler to take on Morrison and Trish Stratus. Trish was tagged in to loud cheers from the crowd, and Vicky was met with laughs as she attempted to emulate Snooki’s handspring elbow.
Other highlights included a ridiculously good suplex from Dolph Ziggler and Starship Pain form Morrison.
A US Championship match followed! Sheamus came out in new red, white and blue attire to represent his US Champ status. He looked like a ginger Captain America.
The commentators got the giggles at ringside. The beer fumes must have got to them. Sheamus retained the title with the Brogue Kick and started laying into Daniel Bryan before the much anticipated debut of Sin Cara!
Sin Cara exploded over the top rope, accompanied by pyrotechnics. He showed off an insanely impressive moveset against Sheamus—it is what everyone used to expect of Rey Mysterio. He wasn’t cheered loudly, but received a round of applause for his athletic ability. He covered a partially-botched jump over the top rope which I think can be put down to nerves.
The final segment of the night began with a very engaging promo from Cena which, again, included comedy to lighten the mood. The seriousness of the encounter was not over-shadowed by this comedy however, and the crowd was on the edge of their seats as Cena challenged Rock to one more match on Raw!
The Rock refused.
He wants to wrestle Cena at WrestleMania 28!
They shook hands on it. Hopefully this means the Rock will be sticking around for the next year.
The Corre interfered in the middle of this iconic moment but became the subject of a competition between the Rock and Cena, to see who could outdo each other. They shook hands again and the audience was in awe that the main event for the next WrestleMania has already been set!
This Raw was the first event of the wrestling calendar, and what an event it was. Great matches, great promos—I couldn’t really fault it. Raw definitely started the year as it means to go on.
Please leave comments in the comments section below! I do my best to reply to all comments that warrant it. Thanks for reading.
Also if you missed my detailed WrestleMania review this week, please head over and check it out!
.jpg?w=600 "WWE Raw Results & Grades 🔠")
