3-5-12 Raw results and thoughts

Coverage and thoughts on the March 5, 2012 episode of Raw

The show starts with Shawn Michaels coming out. He comes out to his music and the pyro goes off. He slaps a few fans’ hands and then heads to the ring and poses more. The fans chant HBK. Then he gets the mic and talks about how he came out a few weeks ago and caused some trouble. The fans chant HBK more. Shawn says that it got heated with him and Hunter because he wanted Hunter to step in there with Taker and take down the streak. He says that it will happen and that Hunter upped the anty making it a hell in the cell. Then he asks Hunter to come so he can find out why he changed his mind. Triple H’s music plays and he comes out in his COO suit. Shawn says that he was hard on Hunter a few weeks back and says that he hit Hunter below the belt and is amazed that Hunter never buckled. He says that Hunter is a man of conviction, honor and integrity. Shawn says that Hunter never caved in despite Shawn calling him a coward. Then he asks what made Hunter change his mind and says that somebody must have said something so degrading and asks what it was. He was about to speak but Shawn then says that he doesn’t want him to tell him and that he wants to see it so they can share the moment together. They replay the Taker-HHH promo from last week. Then Hunter & Shawn stare at each other for a bit and then Shawn says that the worst thing that anyone can say to Hunter is that Shawn is better than him. Hunter says it has nothing to do with who is better and he says that he is tired of listening to people like Taker talk behind Shawn’s back saying he couldn’t get the job done, is a failure and that on the way out he couldn’t do it because he wasn’t as good as he thought. Then Hunter says that eats at him and says that Shawn is the greatest of all time and that it pains him to look at him as a loser. He says that is why he is going to end the era and do what everyone runs their mouth saying Shawn couldn’t do. He says that he will do this for both him & Shawn. Shawn says that like always HHH in his nice suit has everything under control. Then he says that it hurt him last year to tell Hunter that he couldn’t get it done and then he says how he saw the epic match he & Taker had, but that Hunter lost and he was right. Then he says that he knows who will win this year too and will be right again and that is because he will be the guest referee. Shawn’s music hits and he walks up the ramp while HHH stands in the ring with a disgusted look on his face. This was a decent opening segment. I had a feeling that they were going to have Michaels referee the match. I don’t think the match needs it, but I’m not surprised that they went with that.

Santino Marella vs. U.S. Champion Jack Swagger for the Title. Santino gets the pin to win the Title. Johnny Ace & David Otunga came to ringside. Then Teddy Long came out with Aksana & Kofi Kingston. Long & Ace argue AGAIN! Time for commercial. Back from commercial and the mach continues. Ace distracts the ref and Long yanks him off the apron, David Otunga got in the way and more crap happens. Then Ziggler nailed Santino from behind but then Santino got him with the cobra. Vickie got on the apron and Santino was going to cobra her. Then Aksana shoves Vickie down and more crap happens and Santino roles up Swagger for the pin. Then Ace says that this won’t happen on his show. Long then says that it’s his show tonight and he has security come out. Long says that the best thing for Ace to do is to get out of the building and to take Otunga with him. Security take Otunga & Ace out and Long tells the ring announcer to re announce Santino as the new U.S. Champion. Then Santino & Long do the trombone bit. This fricken sucked! There was way to much crap happening on here. This GM vs. GM storyline is so f’n idiotic!

The show The Rock somewhere in Boston on the tron and he says that Cena will get history lessons from The Rock. He mentions that like Cena, people had enough of the British and they started a revolution and there will be a Rock revolution tonight. Then he talks about the Boston Tea Party and says that he will have a Boston Party of his own. Then he takes out some Cena merchandise (some of it looks pretty stupid too) and he throws it all in the water. Then he says the revolution starts tonight and tells Cena to take his merchandise, turn it side ways and….you know the rest. He says that the People’s party starts tonight. This was a decent promo. Not Rock’s greatest but he wasn’t off like last week. Probably because it was pre taped.

Alicia Fox vs. Eve Torres. Eve gets the really quick pin. Kelly was on commentary. Afterwards she stares at Kelly and then Zack Ryder’s music hits and he comes out. He tells Eve that he’s glad they never hooked up. Not much of a return for Ryder and the match was short and pointless.

They show John Cena from earlier today sitting in the empty arena and he will give his comments on The Rock next.

They show Zack Ryder backstage and Eve runs up to him and says that she has something to tell him and then she kisses him. I’m not sure what they’re doing here.

We go to John Cena and he says that WrestleMania 28 will be full of moments but all eyes will be focused on him & Rock. He says that this will be more than a match. This is a once in a life time opportunity. Then he puts over Rock for what he accomplished. Then he says that he needs to win this match. He says that he grew up in Boston and that it’s a city of champions. Then he talks about how it used to be a city of heart break and that biggest heart break was the year the Patriots won every game and lost the Super Bowl to the Giants. Then he says that if Rock beats him then he will be another name in the notebook of people Rock beat. But if he can beat Rock at WrestleMania then he wins the big one. He says that this is an event that will make history and will break every record in WWE history and that no one will remember second place which is why he needs to win. He says that this will be all or nothing him. This was a good promo. Having Cena cut more realistic (as realistic as possible for WWE) promos is way better than the cartoon Cena.

WWE Champion CM Punk & Sheamus vs. Chris Jericho & World Champion Daniel Bryan. Jericho & Bryan win when Jericho pins Punk. This was a good back and forth match.

Back to more pre taped comments from The Rock. This time he talks about Paul Revere and says that what if it was Cena riding the horse and that he would have been shot on sight and the British would have won. He says that he would invent a time travel machine to whoop John Cena’s ass and he talks about how he would step out of the time machine and the fans would go bonkers. He says that Ben Franklin would have said that Rock invented electricity. He says that they would be so happy and singing songs about The Rock and then sings his version of Yankee Doodle. Then he says that if Revere were alive today he’d be riding his horse saying The Rock is coming. Then he says that he is coming to the TD Garden to get in Cena’s face. This was another decent Rock promo. He was good with his delivery but I’m not really digging this whole tie in with the history lesson.

Big Show vs. The Miz. Big Show gets the really quick pin. The bell rang but before anything happens Cody Rhodes comes out before the match starts and rags on Big Show again. This time he has a clip of him at WrestleMania 18 eating at WWE’s old New York restaurant. They show the clip of from 10 years ago. Then Miz attacks Big Show from behind. Then Big Show punches put Miz and gets the pin. This was short too. Man Miz has really gone down hill in the last year.

Time for a third history lesson from The Rock. This time he is standing in front of the State House that overlooks the Boston Common. He talks about how the Americans never stopped fighting till they won. Then he says that the Rock revolution with over through Cena. He says that he has that charisma of George Washington, the intelligence of Ben Franklin and the you know what of John Hancock. Then he says that he will beat Cena at WrestleMania. Then he says that he will be coming to the TD Garden and tell everyone what he sees and tells Cena to get ready. Then he says the if ya smell line. This was decent too. I wasn’t a big fan of the whole history lesson bit but Rock’s promos were good.

They announce that next week Undertaker will respond to Triple H and Shawn Michaels will be there live.

R-Truth vs. Kane. Kane gets the pin. This was pretty much a squash. Afterwards Randy Orton’s music hits and he comes out. Truth holds on to Kane’s ankle. Then Orton gets in the ring and gives Kane an RKO. Then he gets the mic and he says that it is good to be back. This was ok. It looks like they’ll be having Orton vs. Kane at WrestleMania.

John Cena is in the ring and he gets booed. Then he says that finally The Rock is back, the real Rock that he needs to face at WrestleMania. He talks about Rock’s history lesson promos and says that they’re everything The Rock needs to be. Then he says he told Rock what he is going to do and then asks what Rock’s saying about him. Then he asks if he’s fighting Rock or the situation from Jersey Shore. Then he says that for the first tome in Rock’s career he was shook up and that he wasn’t sounding like The Rock. Then he mentions that he was the guy who shook him up. Cena then mentions how dumb he himself looks and rags on himself at the way he dresses. Then he says that The Rock is back with the Hollywood Swagger. He then says that talking to Cena face to face might not be the best idea for Rock and then asks which version of Rock we’ll be seeing. He says that he hopes The Rock comes out not Dwayne Johnson. He says that he doesn’t want to beat the second best at WrestleMania. Then he asks the fans if they want to see them face to face. The crowed cheers and Cena says to bring out The Rock. The Rock’s music plays and he gets in the ring and says that finally The Rock has come back to Boston. He says that he was going to look Cena in the eye and tell the world what he sees. He says that he sees fear in Cena. Fear that Rock is taking everything that he worked hard for. He says that he sees right through him. Rock says that he has never been more confident about anything in his life. The fans chant tooth fairy and Cena plays off of that. Rock tells Cena that if you strip away WrestleMania, Hollywood, Twitter, etc. The Rock will rip his throat out. Then he says that at his core Cena will always be a little boy who will go down in history as the Rock’s b**ch. Rock’s music plays and he walks to the back. Then Cena says that Rock doesn’t intimidate him and says that Rock has other options but his back against the wall. Then he says if Rock thinks Cena’s afraid of him he lost his mind. Then he says that at WrestleMania he will be the SOB that whips Rock ass. Then Cena’s music hits and he hugs a fan and poses with a few. Then he poses in the ring with his music playing. Then he goes the front row to hug his dad and the rest of his family saying that these are his people to end the show. This was a really good promo. I liked how they had Cena playing off of Rock reading his wrist notes last week by having notes on his wrist. Rock & Cena both cut good promos and I think Cena’s was actually the better of the 2 once again.

I wasn’t into this week’s show for the most part. The Shawn Michaels-Triple H promo at the start was good and I liked the Rock-Cena promo at the end. Everything else was mostly crap. Punk & Sheamus vs. Jericho & Bryan was the only other good part of the show. The rest of it I didn’t care for. I wasn’t into Rock’s history lesson promos too much either. His delivery was decent but the promos were not as good as other ones he’s cut. There were only 5 matches on the show and 3 of them were pointless squashes (Alicia-Eve, Truth-Kane, Show-Miz) the other was overbooked with too much crap (Santino-Swagger) and the tag match (Punk & Sheamus vs. Jericho & Bryan). Zack Ryder’s return was also pretty anti climactic and Eve kissing him backstage made no sense to me. So overall I didn’t think there was much memorable material this week.