Overall very good Raw, definitely one of the best editions I've seen in ages.
A couple of things surprised me though, mainly Triple H and Chris Jericho being immediately penciled-in for their matches against Taker and Punk respectively. We all know these matches were inevitable, but I thought WWE would milk it a little longer, especially the Triple H/Taker match. I'm not complaining though, as that crowd tonight was saying everything I think most of us thought about that "rivalry" anyways, and they seriously needed to just get the fuck on with it.
Announcement of the Hell in a Cell match between Taker and Triple H was definitely the highlight of the night for me. It's been 13 years since a HIAC match took place at Mania. Last time the match ended in Taker and the Brood lynching Bossman (RIP). Hopefully this match has a better ending.
Cena's promos were excellent. Not usually a fan of the guy, don't really even like his promos most of the time, but the dude was on point tonight. The opening segment with Eve that bled through the opening credits into the first actual segment was a great touch, I really love it when they do that. Legit shock factor in play there, showing a pitiful woman being publicly humiliated and shunned by the crowd and left her crying into the first commercial break... powerful stuff there.
And I can't wait to see what Rock has for Cena next week, but I'm just going to predict right now that it will be nowhere near as good as what Cena delivered tonight. I'm sure it will be something along the lines of "I came back for the fans. You are fighting for people in the locker room, I am fighting for the fans. I'm the people's champion. Ha ha, get it? Yo mama. Jabroni." or something like that.
The one thing that irked me about the show was Teddy Long talking that big game backstage, saying the entire Smackdown roster makes Otunga look like garbage, gets to pick ANYONE on the Smackdown roster to wrestle him, and the guy he chooses ends up losing cleanly. Serious WTF moment there.
Hope everyone in the last match is okay, because it looked like Barrett, Ziggler, and Kofi all got dinged up a bit. I guess it's a good thing for Miz he wasn't in the ring when it all happened. It's bad enough the guy was single-handedly responsible for the terrible ratings at Survivor Series, but he doesn't need to get blamed for injuring three wrestlers in one match. Although I can't imagine things getting any worse for that poor bastard.
Very good show.
