Here we look at the inductee that is going to get me in the most trouble.  Let’s get to it.

Bret Hart

This is an easy one as Bret is one of the biggest stars the company ever had.  He showed that smaller technical guys can indeed make it to the top in the modern era of wrestling, which had never been done before.  Bret was a huge draw internationally as well, where the fans were more interested in an amateur based technical style.  Bret held things together quite well after the departures of Hogan, Savage and Warrior, a task which most people would have never been able to accomplish.  Bret was great indeed and certainly belongs in the Hall of Fame.

Gene Okerlund

Now we hit the nostalgia kick.  The problem with Gene is that while he was funny and loveable, he didn’t really do anything other than interview people.  He didn’t really do much other than hold a microphone in those interviews and nothing huge was said in them most of the time.  Gene is in the Hall of Fame because people liked him, not because he was great.  This is a no vote, but I feel dirty saying that it is.

Sensational Sherri Martel

This is a tricky one as Sherri was a successful wrestler and an even more successful manager, but I’m not sure if she was at a Hall of Fame level in either area.  If she gets in it would be as a manager due to all of the successful guys she was around, which helps her a lot.  At the end of the day, I can’t say no to Sherri.  She really was talented in two areas and had a VERY long career.  You often hear about how Michaels was put with Sherri because of how awesome of a manager she was.  If she’s good enough for Shawn, she’s good enough for me.  Sherri is a yes vote.

Verne Gagne

While I don’t think Gagne ever appeared in the WWF, he belongs in any wrestling Hall of Fame.  he was a legit amateur star and ran the AWA for about thirty years.  Say what you want about his booking skills or lack thereof at the end of his career, but you can’t take away what he did accomplish both in and out of the ring.  At various points, the AWA was the second or third biggest wrestling organization in the country, which says a lot when it’s based in Minneapolis, Minnesota of all places.  Also keep in mind the names that he trained (the biggest being Ric Flair) and it’s impossible to not put him in immediately.

Tony Atlas

This is a guy who the more I watch of him, the more I like him.  That being said, I don’t think I like him enough to put him in a Hall of Fame.  Atlas’ major accomplishment was that he was the first black man to win a tag title (along with Rocky Johnson) which is indeed a major deal.  Allegedly he was going to win the IC Title but drug issues held him back.  As for being in the Hall of Fame….I can’t give it to him.  Atlas was good and a great tag wrestler, but overall he didn’t do enough to get in, no.

Blackjacks

This is another team that I forgot to add to the list.  They were basically evil cowboys with jet black hair who worked in the AWA and the WWF.  SHould they be in the Hall of Fame?  Eh maybe but as is the case with a lot of the other entries on the list so far, there are far better teams that should go in for them.  I’ll say no here though, as the Blackjacks are pretty much just another big power team that didn’t separate themselves out well enough from the pack.

William Refrigerator Perry

He was in a battle royal at Wrestlemania II and that’s it.  Next.

Eddie Guerrero

Eddie Guerrero does not belong in the Hall of Fame.  Period.  He had a dull world title reign that went nowhere and lasted roughly four months.  Other than that, he was a career midcarder and nowhere near as great as he’s made out to be.  As bad as it sounds, Guerrero is most famous for dying, not being great in the ring.  Was Eddie talented?  Absolutely.  Was he good to even great?  Yes.  Is he elevated WAY higher than he should be because he died?  Without a doubt.  Eddie won his title because Lesnar was leaving and there was no one left to put it on.  Think about it: he spent months feuding with Chavo Guerrero and all of a sudden he was world champion?  That doesn’t work for me.  Again, Eddie was very good, but he’s in the Hall of Fame because of how he died.

Bret and Gagne belong in for sure, but the rest is pretty lame.

Monday Night Raw
Date: January 28, 2002
Location: Richmond Coliseum, Richmond, Virginia
Attendance: 9,034
Commentators: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler

We’re inching closer to No Way Out and I don’t think we have any matches announced for it yet. Granted it’s not like it matters as that’s just a stop before we get to HHH’s moment at Wrestlemania which I’m sure everyone is thrilled about. The main event tonight is Austin vs. Angle which sounds like a #1 contenders match to me. Oh and in case you were wondering what Vince’s announcement was, keep reading. Let’s get to it.

Kane vs. Big Show

We immediately open with a match and Big Show runs him over quickly. A clothesline puts Kane down again and an elbow drop gets two. Kane fights up and wins a brief slugout, only to get kicked in the face. That’s fine by Kane as he pops up and slams Show, only to go up and jump into the chokeslam for two. Show is STUNNED so he tries another chokeslam but Kane hits his version first for the fast pin. Not horrible actually.

Flair is in the office when the APA comes in. They yell about the people Vince is bringing in (I’m saving the reveal for later) and say these people are poison. Bradshaw wants a fight right now but the guys haven’t debuted yet.

Goldust quotes the Usual Suspects and talks about presumably Rock some more.

We get another clip from the Rumble of Maven eliminating Undertaker and the beating that followed. Since Maven was never eliminated from the Rumble, Maven gets a world title match tonight.

Jericho says he granted Maven the title match tonight because he’s a fighting champion. However, why are the people talking about Maven when Jericho got the biggest win of his career at the same Rumble? Tonight Jericho is going to watch Angle and Austin beat each other up and then at No Way Out, he’ll pick up the pieces.

Intercontinental Title: Rob Van Dam vs. William Regal

Regal is defending. Van Dam jumps Regal during the brass knuckles search and the fans go NUTS. Rob rams him into the steps before we head inside for the first time. There’s the stepover kick for two on Regal followed by the standing moonsault for the same. Not that it matters are Regal kicks Rob low for the LAME DQ.

Regal shoves the referee down and leaves with his belt. Rob goes after him though and pounds away but cue the Dudleys to beat down Van Dam. Edge makes the save for no apparent reason. I smell a tag match here. Regal comes back in and lays out Edge with the knuckles.

Stephanie comes in to yell at Flair for making HHH vs. Booker later tonight. Apparently it was Papa McMahon that made the match, not Flair. Ok then.

Lance Storm/Christian vs. Godfather/Diamond Dallas Page

Apparently Page is a client of Godfather’s escort service. Godfather and Storm start things off and a big back elbow puts Lance down. Christian pulls the rope down to stop Godfather and send him to the floor. Back inside a Storm dropkick gets two and Christian comes in to stomp away for a bit. A double Canadian suplex gets two and it’s back to Storm for a legdrop for two. Christian gets another two count but starts having a fit. Not hot tag brings in DDP who cleans part of the house. Christian goes up but gets crotched, allowing Godfather to hit the running splash, followed by a Diamond Cutter to Storm for the pin.

Rating: D. This came and went and was nothing of note. Godfather didn’t fit at all in the new WWF and it was very clear in a hurry. Page didn’t work in WWE either as there was no connection with the fans. Page grew up in WCW before the fans’ eyes, but here he’s a guy who used to be a big deal in WCW and that’s it. That isn’t going to work and never has before.

Vince is here and is almost in a trance. The limo was late to the show so the driver apologizes, but Vince just taps him on the arm and walks away. That’s not normal McMahon behavior to put it mildly.

Here’s Flair as we’re somehow in Flair Country again this week. He talks about beating Vince at the Rumble a few weeks ago, which led to Vince having a meltdown on Smackdown. The show saw Vince sitting in a chair for the entire show, talking about how he was going to destroy his own creation. At the end of the night, Vince spun around, revealing the letters N.W.O. on the back of his chair.

That’s who people have been worried about all night long and that’s who Flair wants to stop from coming. Therefore, Flair is going to appeal to Vince’s pride by showing a video he’s had made: The History of the WWF. Usually I don’t show videos in my reviews, but I can’t describe how good this is, as it covers EVERYTHING of note in company history. Check this out.

Flair asks Vince to come out and face him and here’s the (half) boss. Ric goes on a rant and a half about how Vince must be out of his mind to think of bringing those guys here. If Vince wants to beat up Flair, go right ahead if that keeps those guys out. If ANYONE in that video means anything to Vince, he shouldn’t do it.

Vince grabs the mic and says he wants 100% control of his company and he wants Flair out. If Flair sells Vince his stock back at the price Flair paid for it, no NWO. Vince gives him a few days to think about it, but if Flair says no then the poison of the NWO enters the WWF and destroys the company. Vince says that if his company is going down, everyone is going with him but he will be the last one to survive. AWESOME segment here and I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I want to see more of this stuff.

Nidia is at WWF New York and is excited about Maven’s title shot.

WWF World Title: Maven vs. Chris Jericho

Maven finally has some trunks. Jericho turns his back on Maven to start but gets jumped for his efforts. A decent dropkick gets two for the rookie and Jericho is STUNNED. They head to the floor where Maven gets his chest lit up by chops. Back inside and Jericho knocks him down before taking off a buckle pad. Maven escapes the Walls and launches Jericho into the exposed buckle for a VERY hot two. There’s a small package for the same and the fans are losing their minds here. Not that it matters though as the Walls are put on and Maven wisely taps out.

Rating: C+. Considering Maven debuted less than a year ago with NO seasoning, this was pretty awesome stuff. Those near falls were really close and the fans were totally into it. The one perk of having such a weak champion is that people buy into the idea that anyone can beat him, even someone like Maven. Not horrible by any account.

Post match heeeeeeeeere’s Taker for the big beatdown. He beats on Maven in the Tree of Woe and does the throat crush with a chair. Jericho is lounging back on commentary during the beating.

Taker threatens to make Coach’s teeth into a necklace if he says the name Maven in Taker’s presence again. The Dead Man goes on a rant about Maven and says that Maven is going to keep paying the price until it’s decided that the bill is paid up. As for Rock, it’s none of his business who eliminated Undertaker. Taker says he doesn’t sing and dance, and he won’t be disrespected by Rock.

Jazz finds Billy and Chuck “stretching”. Apparently groin stretches are next so Jazz leaves.

Stephanie yells about HHH’s match but HHH doesn’t seem to care who made the match with Booker. Oh and why did HHH take off his wedding ring for a match? HHH: “Because I’m wrestling.” Silly question, easy answer.

Trish Stratus/APA vs. Jazz/Billy and Chuck

The girls start and Jazz hits a big clothesline to take over. A dropkick sends Jazz out to the floor but she comes right back with a double chickenwing lift. Off to Chuck who shoves Trish down before it’s off to Bradshaw for a whooping. Chuck pounds away in the corner but Bradshaw shrugs it off and brings in Faarooq. A spinebuster puts Chuck down and everything breaks down. Trish tries a rana on Chuck but gets powerbombed down for two. Chuck made sure to not go chest to chest on her in a funny bit.

Rating: D. This went nowhere at all other than a funny comedy spot at the end. The tag division was dead at this point and I honestly can’t think of who the champions are here. Oh wait it’s a team that’s been together for all of six weeks and who won’t team together again after losing the titles. Nothing to see here.

Angle tells the fans WHAT: he’s going to No Way Out.

Booker T vs. HHH

They fight over a top wristlock to start and HHH takes him down to he mat where he can pound away. Now to mix it up, HHH pounds away in the corner, only to get dropped face first onto the buckle. Booker misses a spin kick and charges into a spinebuster to put both guys down. The jumping knee to the face staggers Booker and a neckbreaker gets two.

We head to the floor and HHH nails him with a clothesline before sending him back into the ring. Here’s Christian of all people to lay out HHH to give Booker a two count. There’s a facebuster to put Booker back down as Stephanie runs out to slap Christian in the face. HHH saves his wife but Booker rams them together, allowing him to roll up the Game and use a handful of trunks for the surprise pin.

Rating: D+. It’s pretty clear that new HHH isn’t nearly as good as the old one was. This was almost all punching and signature stuff before the screwy ending. Apparently Christian and HHH had some kind of interaction on Smackdown which is fine for a reason for the interference here. HHH would take a LONG time to get back into form.

HHH went OFF on Stephanie during the break and threw her out of the locker room.

Kurt Angle vs. Steve Austin

Winner gets the title shot at No Way Out. As is his custom, Austin starts pounding away on the floor before hitting a powerslam for two in the ring. There’s the Thesz Press and Angle is in trouble. Scratch that as Angle comes right back with a belly to belly overhead suplex for two. A hard whip sends Austin into the corner but he comes back with that whip spinebuster of his for a delayed two.

Angle comes back by rolling Germans but Austin comes back by sitting him on the top and chopping away. A top rope superplex takes Angle down for two and they head to the floor. Back in and a low blow puts Austin down. Angle slides in a chair but Austin intercepts it, only to hold his cool in a surprising turn of events.

Steve loads up the Stunner but gets shoved into the referee. Angle lays him out with the chair but only gets two when the referee is back up. There’s the ankle lock but Austin finally grabs the rope. The Angle Slam gets two as Austin gets his foot on the rope but Kurt of course things he won. The referee tells him what happened but he walks into a Stunner to send Austin to No Way Out.

Rating: B. Austin and Angle were guys that had great chemistry together and they showed it again here. As I’ve said before, Austin’s in ring abilities are often forgotten, which is a shame because he’s an excellent performer inside the ring. This worked very well and it made you believe Jericho was in real trouble when we get to the PPV.

Post match Jericho charges in but gets a Stunner of his own.

Overall Rating: B. This is a show where what was weak was quite weak but what was good was OUTSTANDING. The history video is as good as you will ever see and I’d love to see an updated one for the modern era. Either way, this is pretty easily the show of the year so far with some excellent stuff and mostly short bad stuff. That’s a great help to the show and it worked quite well.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

Monday Night Raw
Date: February 18, 2013
Location: Cajundome, Lafayette, Louisiana
Commentators: Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole

Elimination Chamber was last night and the most important thing is we have our title matches at Mania (presumably) set. Rock is defending against Cena while Del Rio is going to defend against Swagger, assuming nothing is added to either match. Other than that Cena/Ryback/Sheamus were upset by the Shield in their six man tag. Tonight we continue the build to Wrestlemania. Let’s get to it.

We open with clips from last night, highlighting all of the major matches.

Here’s Cena to open the show. He talks about how ten months ago, the location for Wrestlemania 29 was announced, but only last night did the sign start to mean something. Cena mentions the two world title matches that are set, but here’s CM Punk with a rebuttal. He admits that Rock beat him last night….if you ignore Rock hitting a referee and Punk having him pinned for about 18 seconds. Cena says that for once this isn’t about CM Punk and he has to sit this one out.

Punk talks about how he was champion for 434 days so he should get another chance. Cena earned his shot in one single match and eliminated about four people to go to Wrestlemania. Also, Rock has already beaten Cena, so why would we want to see it again? Punk asks Cena to walk away and get out of his life but Cena of course says no.

John says Punk should be smart enough to know that Punk isn’t stupid enough to think Cena would hand away a golden ticket. Cena says Punk isn’t going to be handed a golden ticket, but Punk can earn it. If CM can beat him right here and right now, Punk can have the title show. Punk of course takes him up on it….just not here. Instead he wants it next week and Cena says cool.

We hear about Shield winning their six man tag last night.

Sheamus is talking about the loss last night but Ryback keeps walking in front of him. Getting annoyed, Sheamus yells at Ryback and suggests that he’s a mindless neanderthal like everyone says. A fight is about to break out but Jericho breaks it up. Chris says this is like the NWO or the Nexus and says they have to band together. Jericho proposes another six man tag and the monsters are in.

Sin Cara vs. Mark Henry

During Henry’s entrance we get some clips of Henry’s Hall of Pain. Henry pushes Cara down and stands on his back before hitting a running splash in the corner. Cara hits a quick kick to the head but a second is blocked and countered into a powerslam. The World’s Strongest Slam ends this at 1:33.

Post match Henry is beating up Cara even more but Khali comes out for the save. Despite Henry regularly destroying Khali in the past, Henry walks away without a fight. He also dances to Khali’s music a bit in a funny visual.

We get a clip of the end of the US Title match last night. Miz gets another rematch tonight in a No DQ match.

The Miz vs. Antonio Cesaro

This is No DQ and I believe non-title. Miz attacks quickly to start, but we head to the floor where Cesaro rams the injured shoulder into the post. The champion brings in a chair and a kendo stick to pound away on the badly injured Miz. After a fast rollup gets two for Miz, a kendo stick shot gets the same for Antonio. Cesaro uses the chair on the arm before putting on a fast arm hold. The bad shoulder is sent into a chair wedged in the corner but Cesaro misses a charge into said chair, hitting it knee first. That and the Figure Four are enough to give Miz the win at 3:40.

Rating: C-. I’m really not wild on the idea of Miz getting destroyed like that and then getting a fluke win out of nowhere. The match was way too short for a submission loss for the US Champion, especially to a guy like Miz. This clearly is setting up a rematch later on for the title, but why? Miz has lost twice, one of which was clean. Losing twice then winning twice doesn’t make you look good. It makes you look even.

We get a video from Zeb Coulter and Jack Swagger about how illegal immigrants here for a handout are ruining America. If the government won’t do anything, Coulter and Swagger will do it for them.

Daniel Bryan yells at Kane for attacking him last night and tonight it’s Bryan vs. Swagger. Kane is going to get a singles match of his own and neither wants the other to come out for their match. Kane says he doesn’t deal well with snakes, which gets the attention of Orton, who just happened to be standing behind them. Randy says Kane is more like Barney the Dinosaur now. Orton vs. Kane is teased for later.

Vickie is on the phone when Paul Heyman comes up. She makes fun of him for the stipulations meaning nothing last night and promises a huge announcement for later tonight. Heyman doesn’t like surprises, which is why she’s going to surprise him.

Alberto Del Rio vs. Dolph Ziggler

Ziggler starts fast but is sent to the apron where an enziguri puts him on the floor. We take a break with Del Rio standing tall in the ring. Back with Ziggler choking Del Rio on the ropes followed by a dropkick for two. Langston gets in a cheap shot which gives Dolph another near fall. The Fameasser gives Dolph another two count but he goes to the top and gets crotched down.

Alberto follows up with a reverse superplex to put both guys down. Del Rio wins a slugout and hits his low superkick for two. The cross armbreaker is countered into a neckbreaker by Dolph but Del Rio sends him into the corner and hits a Backstabber for two. The cross armbreaker gets the tap out 9:24.

Rating: C+. This was fine but again, Ziggler gets to get beaten up by the guy he is supposed to cash in on. This is the trap they lay for themselves: if they finally do give Ziggler the belt, why would the fans buy him as a legit threat? He’s lost to EVERYONE more than once and hardly ever wins anything anymore, so why would we buy him as champion? My guess is we wouldn’t, but he’s got the belt and that’s all that matters right?

Post match Langston lays out Del Rio with the Big Ending and Ziggler tries to cash in. Ricardo steals the case though and runs off with it, only to drop it while Big E. chases him. AJ hands it back to Dolph but Alberto hits an enziguri to lay Ziggler out. No cash-in.

Wade Barrett shows us a trailer of a movie he’s in called Dead Man Down. After the trailer, Sheamus pops up on screen to make fun of how small Barrett’s part is in the movie.

Lawler and Cole do a commercial for the new WWE toys.

Brodus Clay/Tensai vs. Epico/Primo/Rosa Mendes

The girls get us going here with Naomi taking over quickly. Primo and Tensai come in but Brodus scares Primo to the floor. Brodus comes in legally and the double splash is enough to pin Primo in 1:30.

Clip from the press conference announcing Wrestlemania coming to New Orleans.

Here are Swagger and Coulter for the State of the WWE. Swagger says he did what he did last night for America before turning the mic over to Coulter. Zeb talks about how it’s Presidents’ Day and they have the freedom of speech. If the people don’t like what’s being said, that’s too bad. Very true point. Coulter blames the problems of the union on illegal immigrants and says that Swagger can do something about it.

The title match at Wrestlemania isn’t just a title match. It’s a battle for America between a real American and a man who came to this country to reap the rewards of the motherland. Swagger is going to reclaim America from someone trying to steal it. Swagger shouts WE THE PEOPLE a lot until Daniel Bryan’s music cuts him off.

Daniel Bryan vs. Jack Swagger

We return from a commercial to see the match already in progress. Bryan fires off kicks to the leg to slow Swagger up a bit before hooking a kind of sunset flip for two. Swagger blocks a surfboard but Bryan goes to the arm to slow him down again. Jack sends him out tot he floor but gets dropkicked down by Bryan. Swagger comes right back by ramming Bryan’s taped ribs into the barricade.

Back inside and Swagger hits a running charge to crush Bryan in the corner again. A knee to the ribs puts bryan down again and the Vader Bomb out of the corner gets two. Bryan fights back and sends Jack to the floor where he hits a suicide dive to put both guys down. Back in again and a missile dropkick gets two for Bryan.

Daniel fires off a bunch of kicks but Swagger counters into a spinebuster. The cover is countered into the NO Lock but Swagger gets a rope. Bryan misses a running clothesline in the corner and hurts his ribs again, allowing for Swagger to start in on the ankle. A chop block takes the leg out and the Patriot Lock (not Act) gets the tap out at 8:07 shown.

Rating: C+. The match was fine but I couldn’t stand the lack of psychology at the end. Why in the world would Swagger need to go to the ankle lock when Bryan had bad ribs? Swagger had worked on the ribs for the entire match but then has to go for the ankle to end the match. The fact that Jack has a move that works on the ribs (gutwrench powerbomb) makes this even worse. I can’t stand it and it happens far too often.

Here are Heyman and Vickie in the ring for Vickie’s announcement. Vickie announces her new assistant: Brad Maddox. Brad comes out to talk about how he got this job from Vince himself because he exposed the relationship between Heyman and the Shield. Heyman goes to leave but Vince pops up on screen to say not so fast.

Actually that’s not the surprise for Heyman. Vince asks about the stipulations in the title match last night and we get a clip of Heyman saying he would do anything to get those rules in place. Vince says anything means anything, so he could fire Paul right now. McMahon doesn’t do it yet because next week, Heyman and Vince are going to have a fight.

We see Cena and Punk’s challenge from earlier tonight.

Chris Jericho/Sheamus/Ryback vs. Shield

Ryback starts by launching Rollins into the corner and firing away shoulders. Jericho tries to calm him down before beating on Ambrose for a bit. A suplex puts Dean down and it’s off to Sheamus vs. Reigns. Sheamus pounds him down and sends him into the corner for a running knee lift. White Noise hits but Rollins pulls Reigns out of the ring before the Brogue Kick. Sheamus kicks Ambrose to the floor instead as we take a break.

Back with Reigns holding Sheamus in a chinlock. That doesn’t last long as it’s off to Rollins for some stomping in the corner. Reigns comes back in for more of the same but Sheamus fights back with a clothesline. A double tag brings in Ryback to face Rollins and it’s power moves all around. There’s the Meat Hook but Reigns spears Ryback down to break up Shell Shock again, but it only gets two. The fans cheer for Jericho as Ambrose keeps beating on Ryback. Rollins comes back in and stomps away a bit more for two.

Dean comes back in with a neckbreaker for two and it’s back to Reigns. Roman misses a splash in the corner and gets caught on the top rope, allowing Ryback to make the hot tag to Jericho. He gets to fight Ambrose but has to dropkick Rollins down as well. The bulldog takes Ambrose down and there’s the Lionsault for two. The Walls are countered into a small package for two as Reigns sends Ryback into the post. Jericho hooks the Walls on Ambrose and Sheamus takes out Reigns but it distracts the referee. Rollins kicks Jericho from the top rope for the pin at 13:31.

Rating: B-. Another solid match by Shield, who could be just fine taking out random three man combinations. They’ve been kept VERY strong so far and using them sparingly is the best idea the company could have had. This furthers the issues between Ryback and Sheamus and/or Jericho which could make for an interesting Mania fight. Good stuff here.

Kofi Kingston vs. Damien Sandow

Before the match Sandow says today is President’s Day, which Sandow holds close to his heart. Apparently members of his family have served as advisers to Presidents, including his great grandfather who came up with the idea of the New Deal. Sandow jumps Kofi before the match and it’s a big fight. Kingston’s shoulder is sent into the post and keeps up the beating until R-Truth returns and beats up Sandow.

Josh talks to the same two actors from G.I. Joe 2 that he spoke to last night. This leads to a clip from the movie.

Randy Orton vs. Kane

Kane runs him over with a shoulder to start and we stop and stare for a bit. Orton goes after the arm but gets punched out to the floor as we take a break. Back with Kane holding Orton in a chinlock and getting two off a big boot. A DDT gets the same and Kane is getting frustrated. Back to the chinlock but Orton fights up and hits some punches in the corner followed by a dropkick.

Kane fights back with a low dropkick of his own and we hit the chinlock for the third time. Both guys hit a variety of a slam (Power for Randy, side for Kane) but Kane misses the top rope clothesline. Kane takes Randy down again and loads up the chokeslam but here’s Bryan for a distraction. Orton and the RKO finish this at 9:33.

Rating: D. I’m a Kane fan but this was a pretty lame match. When you have three chinlocks seen in a less than ten minute match, it’s pretty clear that you don’t have much to do out there. This match kept going on and on which made for a very dull match overall. Orton was basically just a warm body out there instead of anyone of importance. Bad match.

Rock is played to the ring for his Championship Celebration by a university marching band. That’s pretty cool indeed. Rock talks about how much of a coward Punk showed himself to be by spitting in Rock’s face last night, but Rock pinned him anyway. Rock says that he’s going to Wrestlemania, but he’s not going with this title. There’s a table set up next to him with something under a blanket. Rock talks about the current belt being introduced eight years ago and some people thought it looked cool. Then again some people think Bigfoot is real so take that for what it’s worth. Also, the belt should never spin.

Rock hands a stagehand the belt and says take it to the Hall of Fame. He talks about the greats that have held the world title over the years (biggest pop might have been for Bret actually) before unveiling the new belt. It looks like the US Title shape but has a big WWE logo in the middle and Brahma Bulls on the sides. I’ve seen worse.

Moving on though, Rock says he has to face someone at Wrestlemania. The fans seem more interested in Rock vs. Cena II, so here’s Cena to the stage. Punk pops up from behind and hits Cena in the back with the old belt, laying him out. Rock is ready to fight but Punk walks away to end the show.

Overall Rating: B-. The show was certainly entertaining but these Raws after a PPV are tough to sit through. Six hours in two days is just WAY too much time and I was getting tired halfway through the show. That being said, it was still an entertaining show and a lot of stuff was done, which is the most important part. Next week’s show looks big, which shows the stupidity of what WWE does most of the time: why don’t they announce something for next week more often? You very rarely hear something like this anymore, which makes no sense given how easy it is to do. Just be patient and things will be better.

Results

Mark Henry b. Sin Cara – World’s Strongest Slam

The Miz b. Antonio Cesaro – Figure Four

Alberto Del Rio b. Dolph Ziggler – Cross Armbreaker

Jack Swagger b. Daniel Bryan – Patriot Lock

Shield b. Chris Jericho/Ryback/Sheamus – Ambrose pinned Jericho after a top rope kick from Rollins

Randy Orton b. Kane – RKO

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews and pick up my new ebook of 1998 Monday Night Raw Reviews on Amazon at:

After eight years, dare I say…..FINALLY?  Photo coming when I can find one.  It looks like the US Title shape but has a big WWE logo in the middle and Brahma Bulls on the sides. I’ve seen worse.

Here’s a picture of the new title:

BUT DOES IT SPIN???

In Your House 6: Rage in the Cage
Date: February 18, 1996
Location: Louisville Gardens, Louisville, Kentucky
Attendance: 5.500
Commentators: Vince McMahon, Jerry Lawler

This show took place an hour away from me, and somehow I never heard about it once. I didn’t know it was in Louisville until I rented the tape in May. That’s how great the advertising was. Anyway, this was the follow up show to the Royal Rumble and the build up for Wrestlemania 12. At the previous show, the winner of the Rumble was Shawn Michaels as he was finally launched into the main event scene which he has never really left.

Also on the card, Goldust got the IC Title from Razor in what was supposed to be culminated in a street fight at Mania in March, but Razor was suspended for drug issues. He was gone in May and 8 days after his last match he was on Nitro, officially beginning the NWO angle which changed wrestling forever.

The other big match was Taker vs. Hart for the world title, which Taker won by DQ when Diesel interfered at the end and was caught. Since Taker had his shot already, Diesel was named the new #1 contender, which is your main event tonight: Diesel vs. Bret in a cage match. Taker, for some reason, is YET AGAIN in the dark match, this time continuing his completely forgotten IC Title feud with Goldust.

However, he’s featured prominently in the recap video at the beginning, so him doing something in the main event is pretty much a given at this point. In what I am completely stunned by, we start with that age old struggle of good vs. evil: Razor Ramon vs. The 1-2-3 Kid!

Razor Ramon vs. 1-2-3 Kid

This is a crybaby match, meaning the loser is put in a diaper.  Ok, let me make sure I’ve got this straight. The Kid got his first win over Razor in May of 1993, and now, THREE YEARS LATER they’re still in the same program? My goodness this is absurd. You have one of the most over faces on the roster and you stick him with the exact same guy for this long? Seriously, no program goes that long. Even Austin and Vince had some time apart in their epic feud and I don’t think that went three years did it?

Good grief no wonder Razor bailed as soon as he could. In this brilliant idea, they have a standard match and the loser is put in a diaper. As I’m writing this review, I’ve got my eyes closed and am shaking my head. This is mind numbingly stupid. Did Razor light Stephanie’s dog on fire or something one day?

Fink is announcing tonight, so this show just went way up in value. They do us the favor of showing us the “in depth” history of these two, which apparently goes back 4 weeks instead of three years. Kid cost Razor the IC Title at the Rumble in case you were interested. The Kid brings out a stroller with a Razor teddy bear in it as my intelligence is withering away at this. Yes kids, the WWF can actually make you stupid.

Oh and Kid’s face and heel music are still the same, which is never a good idea. Are you listening Jericho? Change your freaking music already. Hokey soke the Kid used a springboard move. THAT’S WHAT HE SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE DONE! No one would buy the Kid, a guy that weighs about 210 being able to go toe to toe with anyone. Him using the ropes made sense, but I don’t ever remember him doing it other than right there, and so far he hasn’t done it again in this match. In a really dumb spot, DiBiase throws baby powder in Razor’s eyes. Ok, that makes sense.

However, the referee is looking RIGHT AT HIM when he does it and says nothing at all. Kid is slowly starting to incorporate the crotch chop. The awfulness of that gimmick was apparently long standing. Oh great, it’s a sleeper. Oh sweet he’s not in it long. They botch……something. Not sure what that was supposed to be, and they end up in yet another sleeper, this time with Kid on Razor’s back. Oh the symbolism in that.

The Kid, hanging on to Razor, forcing Razor to carry the Kid, yet at the same time cutting off Razor’s life and making him drowsy and boring. I’ve been watching WAY too much wrestling lately. Vince actually says Razor is going nighty night. My life is now complete. Eventually the powder trick backfires as the Kid takes it in the eyes, Razor’s Edge, 1, 2, Razor picks him up. I want to hurt that man severely.

What have I done to deserve such torment? Why does this have to continue? Another Edge, and that ends it……please? THANK GOODNESS. Post match….blast it, the Kid is put into a diaper and fed a bottle as I could go for a bottle myself, but I’d like something with massive amounts of either alcohol or drugs mixed in so I can hopefully forget this match happened.

Rating: D. The wrestling is ok I guess, but dear lord these guys have been either teaming or feuding for almost three full years. What’s the point anymore? No one wanted to see this match again. Razor would have drug issues soon thereafter and not get to have his blowoff match with Goldust at Mania. He would come back to job to Vader and he would be in WCW within a month. He’s a lucky man indeed.

HHH vs. Duke Droese

Droese is a wrestling garbage man. I wish I was making that up, and that’s all there really is to say about that. Duke says he’ll take HHH out like yesterday’s garbage. Duke’s nickname is the Dumpster. Who in the world thought that would be a good nickname? Anyway, this started because HHH cut Duke’s hair on Superstars a few weeks ago.

They had a one on one match before the Rumble with the winner getting the 30 spot and the loser getting the 1 spot. Duke of all people wound up getting the 30 spot and of course, he was gone in about a minute. This match is just hard to comment on as absolutely no one cares at all. The crowd is so dead that it’s pitiful. The biggest problem here is that no one, and I mean no one cares about Duke.

I mean really, a freaking garbage collector? He has his name across his shirt. Is that in case he gets lost or something? They keep cutting to a split screen with HHH’s date and Lawler. No one cares. The hype for the Superstar line is never ending. It was a thing where you could talk to the wrestlers in the previous matches. Cool idea, but it was a one in a million shot of getting through. Either that or it was likely prerecorded comments.

The crowd is so dead it’s pathetic. They were somewhat hot for the last match so it can’t be the crowd as a whole. This match is just awful in general. Duke hits his finisher but of course doesn’t cover. He instead goes and gets his garbage can, but the referee throws it out. HHH hits him with the lid and pins him.

Rating: C-. Simply put, no one wanted to watch this and it was obvious. You could see that there were big plans for HHH, but no one knew how big. I’ll get to what the full extent of those plans were as well as how they inadvertently saved the company in our next review. Also, the next woman that HHH had with him will be known as Sable, at Wrestlemania.

We see a recap of two weeks ago when Yoko turned face by attacking his manager Jim Cornette. That leads us to this match.

For the first time, Yoko cuts his own promo, with no Japanese accent at all. He says he’s tired of Cornette taking all the credit for the work he did. Makes sense actually. Michael Hayes being taller than Yoko makes me laugh. Hayes saying get ready for a train wreck makes me laugh even harder.

Yokozuna vs. British Bulldog

Oh this isn’t going to be pleasant at all. Yoko at this point was just too fat to do anything with. He was nearing seven hundred pounds and was on his last legs in the company as well as in his career. They figured that the best way to do anything with him would be to put him with a power guy so they put him with Bulldog. It is failing miserably. Yoko is dominating at the beginning but after that it’s just bad.

More or less Yoko destroys Smith and goes to set up for the Banzai but Cornette hits him in the back with the racket for the DQ. Post match Yoko stalks Cornette but Vader runs out to save him. He and Smith beat down Yoko after handcuffing him to the ropes. Suits and officials run in to break it up.

Rating: F. This was five minutes of clotheslines, punches and forearms. Total waste of time and just a way to get Vader to look dominant as he was being pushed as the monster heel. Yoko’s size is just sad to look at by this point.

We see a recap of Owen and Shawn’s rivalry, mainly focusing on Owen injuring Shawn to the point where he had to release the IC Title. Since then, Owen had been bragging about putting Shawn out of action etc. That brings us here, as Shawn had already won the Rumble and the guaranteed title shot. He puts it on the line for a chance at retribution with Owen.

Owen Hart vs. Shawn Michaels

As I’ve said many times, this should have been your main event at Royal Rumble 1998 instead of Shawn vs. Taker or whatever. Owen did the run in at the end of DX IYH, yet Shawn was afraid Owen would shoot on him and humiliate him, so instead we got Shawn vs. Taker where Shawn hurt his back.

Tell me Shawn vs. Owen after Montreal wouldn’t have been straight MONEY. A guy like Owen that could keep up with a guy like Shawn? How could that not just be sweet, factoring in the Montreal aspect? Oh well at least we get it one time. Here you are. Note the foreshadowing of the legendary WM 12 entrance by how he comes to the ring here.

Shawn says he’ll win tonight and that’s a guarantee. He comes in off the roof of the In Your House set which is kind of cool. Owen bails as we fill in even more time here. We get fireworks before the match starts. The ending is pretty clear here but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to have a good match. Can’t beat that.

Technical stuff to start which shouldn’t surprise anyone. Shawn is showboating already so at least he’s not wasting time in that regard. Owen heads to the floor and Shawn hits a huge dive to take him out. Nothing serious at all so far but it’s all Shawn. Both guys nip up and Shawn gets a Frankensteiner to continue his dominance.

Big old belly to belly catches Shawn and Owen takes over. Jerry begs Owen to kick him in the head. You can’t say he’s not violent. Camel clutch goes on as Shawn is in trouble. Shawn has a bad head and neck so Owen goes on his back. Jerry gives Owen credit for the camel clutch. As in saying Owen invented it.

After some brief comeback attempts by Shawn he gets a suplex over the ropes to the floor. There’s a different look here as it looks less professional which isn’t something you often have to say about a WWF show. And then Owen catches him in a powerslam from the apron to the floor which looked painful.

Back in the ring and Owen takes his head off with a running clothesline but doesn’t cover. Even Lawler thinks that’s a bad idea. Sharpshooter goes on but you can tell it’s not a Bret one as the bell hasn’t rung yet and we’ve had it on for more than 2 seconds. Ropes are grabbed shortly thereafter.

I forgot how annoying Vince’s “HE GOT HIM! NO HE DIDN’T” stuff was. The head killing enziguri hits and Shawn goes to the floor. This only gets two though and the fans are happy. Or maybe they found pennies. Forearm and nip up follow but oddly enough Owen gets up first. How often do you see that?

Big elbows hits and Shawn drills Cornette for general purposes. Enziguri #2 misses and Sweet Chin Music sends Shawn to Mania, which I’m sure he would have been at anyway but since that’s a common expression we’ll say it anyway. Solid match as you would expect. He dances with a little girl in the ring too.

Rating: A-. This match made the show. Up until now it was one of the worst shows I’d ever seen but then we get to this. While it’s not a classic or really anything close to it, this is nothing short of a breath of fresh air. You have two guys that could go in the ring, a good storyline, and while it was fairly obvious Shawn would win, it was fun to see. Good match and light years ahead of everything else so far tonight.

Next up we have an interview with the interim president of the company: Roddy Piper. At the time, Vince hadn’t been revealed as the owner of the company. He was just the commentator and nothing more than that. So, we had a guy that would be called the President. For years and years it was this guy named Jack Tunney (Santino referenced him before WM this year in case you were wondering where you had heard that name before).

Once Tunney retired, Gorilla Monsoon took over. However, the night after the Rumble, Vader beat the heck out of him, so while he’s on the shelf, Piper is in charge. His run ends at WM 12. He starts off by saying that HBK better be ready because he’ll be in for the fight of his life no matter what and there must be a winner, which is foreshadowing the overtime in the Iron Man Match.

He says he has no sympathy for Yoko getting beaten down earlier because Yoko is too big to be attacked like that. He insults Vader. Piper cracking jokes about Mr. T. is funny stuff. Piper makes Yoko vs. Vader for WM 12. That becomes a 6 man tag. Cornette and Vader interrupt but Piper shouts Cornette down which is just hilarious.

Ladies and Gentlemen, take notes: these are two of the greatest, if not the two greatest talkers of all time in this business. More or less, Cornette says that Vader will crush everyone. Piper says that there’s going to be a fight at Mania. COrnette and his lawyer argue as Piper leaves.

WWF Title: Diesel vs. Bret Hart

As we’ve already established, this is a cage match and the rematch from the Survivor Series. They’re using the old school blue cage so this should be good indeed. Bret’s always had good cage matches and this was when Nash was still solid in the ring. Pretty slow start but that’s fine here. Right now it’s just a match with walls around them. Not bad by any means though. Bret works on Diesel’s knee for most of the match for your psychology aspect.

This really is more of just a one on one match with the cage as a small element, which is workable. It’s been a good match thus far with a story to it. That story being that Bret is trying to incapacitate Diesel so his size can’t help him out of the cage. We also get some good false finishes as both get close to escape but the other makes a last second save. The way the commentators are talking, Bret is retiring after this match.

I especially love how they talk about what a great champion Bret has been, when he’s been world champion less than three months at this point. Based on that commentary alone and knowing the hidden messages that come from commentators, it was obvious that Bret was winning here. The crowd is really into this so it’s going well at least. After nearly twenty minutes, Diesel is crawling for the door and he kicks Bret off of him so he’s all alone.

As he’s about to get out, the mat splits open and the Undertaker rises through the hole, pulling Diesel down into it screaming. Smoke flies out of it as Bret climbs out of the cage to keep the title, setting up the famous Mania main event. Post match Diesel comes out of the hole and runs from Taker who climbs to the top of the cage to stare Diesel down as Paul Bearer arrives with a new urn.

Rating: B+. Very solid stuff here. No one really expected Diesel to win but they made it entertaining anyway. Everyone knew Taker was going to get involved, but these two managed to make us forget about that. That is great work as they got our attention away so the ending was surprising. Solid stuff here and by far the best main event in the series’ history.

In the back, Piper makes the obvious match for Mania: Diesel vs. Taker, to close the show.

Overall Rating: C. There are only 5 matches so we have very little to grade. The first three matches absolutely sucked. There’s no other way to describe them. They were boring, uninteresting and just a waste of time. The other two matches however, the ones used to set up Mania which was the point of the show, were both very good if not great.

It finished strong which was what it was supposed to do so it redeems a lot of the mistakes it made earlier. Not really recommended, but not recommended to avoid either.

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews

This is probably the most star studded class ever with a lot of layups.  Let’s get to it.Hulk Hogan

The greatest wrestler of all time is a yes.

Roddy Piper

This is another layup as Piper was one of the best, if not the best, villains of all time.  I stand by the statement that without him there would be no Wrestlemania, due to Piper having the fans begging to see him get beaten up.  Piper had a long and successful career which resulted in him being a top star again in WCW, eleven years after his original time on top.  As great as he was on the mic, he was also an excellent wrestler who had solid matches with a ton of guys he fought.  This is another easy one as I said before.

Bob Orton Jr.

Orton is kind of the Christian of his day: he rarely was in the world title scene but he was always good for a solid performance when needed.  He was great at putting people over and acted as a bodyguard (not a life partner) to Roddy Piper during the 80s.  After that he kind of faded away a bit but he would pop up every now and then for various companies as his usually solid self.  As for putting him in the Hall of Fame though….I’m not entirely sold on that.  The problem is that Orton was always the guy behind the guy rather than the top star himself.  He did well in that role, but certainly not well enough to be considered an all time great.  Orton was one of those very solid but not great guys.

Jimmy Hart

Another short entry here as he’s one of the best managers of all time, but you can’t put him in without having Heenan in first.  Since the Brain is already enshrined, I can more than live with Hart going in.  As evil as Heenan was, Hart was kind of a step beneath him as Hart was more along the lines of annoying and a nuisance than the top evil mind.  That being said Jimmy was more than successful and played his role perfectly.  I’m fine with him going in.

Paul Orndorff

This is one of the trickiest ones on the entire list.  Orndorff was an awesome talent back in the 80s but his time on top got cut short by an arm injury.  This injury (while not as slow healing as Orton’s) was caused when he was facing Hogan in a feud so hot that he was making $20,000 a week selling out arenas.  That’s INSANE money for today and back then it’s hard to comprehend.  He’s quite good and I can accept him as a member of the Hall of Fame, but at the end of the day, it’s hard to overcome this.

WCW in 1995 was weird.

I’ll go ahead and vote yes but it’s not a for sure vote.

Nikolai Volkoff

This is one of the easiest no votes on the whole list.  At the end of the day, Volkoff is famous for losing to Hulk Hogan probably more times than anyone else in history.  There’s no reason for him to be a member of the Hall of Fame other than nostalgia.  Yeah he won some tag titles, but most of them are from a so long forgotten era that there’s no reason to care about them at all.  Volkoff was a fun character who was pretty amusing at times, but on the other hand…the guy just wasn’t that good.  This is a no and it’s not even worth thinking about.

Iron Sheik

This one however is worth thinking about.  Sheik was the WWF Champion, but it’s one of the textbook examples of a transitional reign.  He didn’t even hold the title for a month before dropping it back to Hogan, which makes Sheik a footnote rather than a top name.  I don’t think there’s enough there for him to go into the Hall of Fame, although his interviews after retiring are some of the funniest tirades you’ll ever hear.  As for a Hall of Fame induction though, I’d go no although I can see why he’s in and I don’t completely disagree with him being inducted.

This is one of the classes where they got some of the required named enshrined.  You have to have Hogan, period.  Piper being in is a very solid choice as well and the rest certainly aren’t terrible, Volkoff excluded.  They also stopped inducting so many people, but that would become a problem again in a few years.  This is a very solid class though, especially on top.

So apparently, Rock vs. Cena II is happening at Wrestlemania 29.  Naturally the general consensus is that this is a horrible idea and Punk HAS TO save it.  Let’s get this over with.1. John Cena vs. The Rock I was the biggest drawing match of all time.  It makes good business sense to try it again.

2. John Cena vs. The Rock has happened ONE TIME.  The way people are talking, you would think it was Sheamus vs. Ziggler or something that happens once a week.  It’s their second match ever, not their 19th.

3. The first match was pretty good to great.  My guess is the rematch will also produce an excellent match.

4. Punk has been defeated.  From a storytelling perspective, it makes little sense to include him.

5. Triple threats suck anyway.

I finally added some stuff to the links page.  That’s the first time in probably a year or son.  Also I changed the On This Day page a bit by adding what the shows were instead of just the dates.  I’m not sure why I didn’t do that in the first place.

KB

Impact
Date: February 17, 2011
Location: Impact Zone, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Mike Tenay, Tazz
Episode Title: The Boy Is Back In Town

It’s the first show after Against All Odds and we have a new TNA World Heavyweight Champion in the form of Jeff Hardy who still isn’t clear of jail time after his drug charges. Other than him though it was a very bad night for Immortal as only Jeff Hardy and Jeff Jarrett won on Sunday. It should be interesting to see where we go from here. Let’s get to it.

We open with clips from after Against All Odds with Jarrett saying Kurt will deliver his princess to him on March 3^rd. Jeff Hardy says he made ladder matches famous and still is at 33 years old. RVD vs. Jeff Hardy for the world title tonight. I’m not saying a word.

Here’s Immortal to open the show. Eric brings out Jeff Hardy for the celebration. He talks about how Immortal is still dominant despite Fourtune leaving. As he’s talking we see Flair arriving. Matt Hardy vs. Styles tonight. Eric talks about how Jeff Hardy was supposed to get some time off but he got a call from the network who wants ratings. Therefore tonight Jeff Hardy has to defend the title against RVD tonight. Bischoff is going to try to avoid it but right now that’s the plan.

Eric now shifts over to Flair who he’s not sure about. It gives Eric a weird feeling that he doesn’t like so Flair has until next week. Cue Flair’s music and here he is. He says that only one person gave him an ultimatum. That person was his 3^rd ex wife. Everyone in this ring grew up on Ric Flair and he even got together with Hogan after 25 years.

Did you forget he’s a wrestling god? When he was in Europe people didn’t call him Ric. They just called him God. Cue a God chant of course. Flair says that he’ll see them later and we really get no resolution here. Flair definitely came off like a face here.

The Jarretts are getting massages and talk about the wedding vows on March 3^rd. They talk about tuxedos and imply sex later. That’s the only way to put it really.

We’re back and Matt Hardy and AJ Styles are in a fight in the back. Immortal runs in as does Fourtune and it’s a big brawl.

We get some clips of Kurt from Sunday looking very sad after losing. Now we talk about the ladder match. Hey, did you know both Jeffs won on Sunday? I didn’t know if the three clip packages and talking about it in 20 minutes made that clear enough.

Sarita/Rosita run into Hernandez in the back and he walks to the ring with them after some Spanish chatting.

Douglas Williams vs. Hernandez

Hernandez jumps him in the aisle and beats the living heck out of him while the girls cheer him on. Hernandez throws him in the ring and chokes him with what looks like a shirt. Velvet runs down and beats up Sarita a bit but Rosita takes care of her. Angelina comes out to even things up and they brawl. Wasn’t there a match going on? Back in the ring an absolutely SICK Border Toss ends this. Williams landed right on the back of his head and if he didn’t seriously hurt his neck I’ll be surprised. Match ran 2:00 even and a large amount of that was the fight between the girls.

Eric is on the phone with someone from the network and is trying to get Jeff Hardy out of the title defense tonight. This goes over about as well as Eugene in a feature match at Summerslam did and we take a break.

Back with Pope in the ring with a stuffed pig on a table. It looks like a party of some kind. He says that he’s a hot Pope and the pig is a sloppy Joe. Pope wants to talk about Jesus and just like he fed thousands with fish and bread, he’s going to feed everyone here with that pig. Ronald Regan and Michael Jackson believe in him apparently, as does Jesus who texted him and believes in Pope too. That last bit was funny.

Pope wants to know who is first but it’ll cost $10 a pop. Cue Joe’s music and he’s mad. Okato is behind Pope and when pope tries to run Okato kicks him in the chest. Joe drills Pope in the corner and it’s a Muscle Buster through the pig. Pope gets the apple shoved in his mouth.

Back and Robbie E and Cookie say they’re going to win the title again. In the back Kazarian is kissing Traci Brooks (real life wife) and it’s time for a match.

X-Division Title: Kazarian vs. Robbie E

Not sure if this is a title match or not. Before the match Kaz runs down Cookie and says she’s ugly with the makeup. She gets ticked off and leaves. Yes this is a title match apparently. Robbie is all aggressive to start and Kaz is in trouble. Beautiful People vs. Sarita/Rosita tonight. Kaz gets a springboard elbow and a leg lariat to take over. And then Cookie comes out with a big purse to hit Kaz in the head with for the DQ at 1:57. No rating of course but Robbie showed some nice aggression here. Traci bounces down and it’s a mini cat fight.

Flair goes in to talk to Fourtune and seems to be accepted by them. He has presents for them and of course they get Iced. AJ can wait until after his big match though. They chant chug and down the drinks. Storm drinks AJ’s just because he can.

AJ vs. Matt Hardy next.

Matt Hardy vs. AJ Styles

See? I told you it was next. AJ sprints to the ring in the athletic pants of doom and goes off on Matt. He busts out a huge tope con hilo to half kill Matt. Ah good he got rid of the warm-up pants and has regular tights under them. Back in the ring and Matt gets a Side Effect for two. Matt grabs a Cravate and here’s Flair to play cheerleader.

AJ gets up and seems to rub Matt’s face to take him to the mat. Styles Clash is blocked and they speed it up a bit with Matt tripping over AJ. Nice dropkick puts Matt down and AJ goes up. And then Flair shoves him off the top, naturally joining Immortal again as it was about as obvious as you could get. Twist of Hate ends it at 3:25.

Rating: C. Match was just long enough to grade but was nothing special at all. As soon as Flair was there the swerve was completely obvious. Somehow this is by far the best match of the night and it barely ran 200 seconds. That might be good though as Matt isn’t someone that can go long distance for the most part.

Flair and Matt beat down AJ until Fourtune runs them off.

Anderson is ticked and wants Bischoff.

The Jarretts are in a hot tub. Can’t complain much with Karen in there.

Anderson wants Bischoff and here comes the silver fox. He’s ticked that RVD is getting the title shot tonight. Despite losing clean on Sunday, Anderson thinks he’s been robbed. The network decided that RVD got the shot tonight. Anderson wants to know since when did the network have anything to do with anything around here. Put him in the ring and that’s ratings. Bischoff says that Anderson needs to PG himself down a bit.

Anderson says he’ll take the word out of his vocabulary and Bischoff talks more. Eric will put him in the main event as the guest referee. Jeff won clean on Sunday and Eric says that Anderson can get a shot if he plays it fair tonight. Mic Check leaves Bischoff laying. Anderson is supposed to be TNA’s Austin and it’s just not there. Points for trying though I guess.

Velvet is talking to Winter and Velvet wants Winter to stay out of ringside tonight. Velvet turns her back and Winter picks up some scissors until Angelina comes in. Winter says Velvet could never feel for Angelina like Winter does. Velvet leaves and Winter says all will be revealed.

AJ is ticked about Flair and says this is about AJ vs. Flair.

Angelina Love/Velvet Sky vs. Rosita/Sarita

The brawl starts in the aisle as you would expect. Velvet vs. Sarita starts us off officially. Off to Rosita as the fans are rather quiet. Tandem elbow drop from the Beautiful People gets no cover as Sarita breaks it up. World’s Strongest Slam from Angelina to Rosita and it’s off to Sarita again. Backbreaker gets two for Angelina and Velvet comes in again.

The cousins are tagging in a lot. Rosita doesn’t seem to want to stay in and keeps bringing Sarita in, which ticks her off. Everything breaks down with Angelina and Rosita on the floor. Velvet tries a DDT but Rosita trips her up and holds the feet down for the pin at 3:52. Can we please break 4 minutes? Please?

Rating: D. Weak match here with a predictable ending. There was no way the Beautiful People were going to be able to win here and everyone knew it. This went nowhere for the most part and was just to continue the losing streak by Velvet. Somehow this is the longest match of the night. That’s a little absurd.

Velvet says she wants to end this with Sarita. Sarita says Velvet is a loser then remembers she’s supposed to have an accent. Sarita wants Velvet’s career on the line and Velvet says bring it on.

The Jarretts are going to dinner. More sex is implied.

Kurt is mad and is going to their dinner party.

Madison is talking to Tara and says she’s knocked out the entire locker room so she’s bored. There’s an open challenge next week.

Next week there’s a pose down between Terry and Steiner.

We recap RVD’s world title win and him having to vacate the title due to the attack by Abyss. Also we see about Hardy betraying him and being responsible for the attack on RVD. Hardy says he’s going to hurt Van Dam.

The Jarretts are complaining about the food and toast Kurt having to be humiliated on March 3^rd. Karen complains about the wine and Jarrett goes off on the chef. And here’s Kurt who just somehow got in the restaurant. He wants to know where the tip is. This was uh….odd.

RVD says tonight he gets his shot and preparation meets opportunity. The title is just a bonus.

Since we need to make sure no match gets anything resembling a decent amount of time tonight we talk about the Dudley street fight at the PPV but Spike won’t let them show the footage. D-Von won’t give comments but Ray comes out to the table. Ray goes all bully on them and Tazz has something to say about it. Ray says that if he wants to smack Tenay (this old man) then he will. Tazz says no you won’t because you crossed the line Sunday. Isn’t that the point of the company. Ray slaps Tenay’s headset off and leaves.

TNA World Title: Rob Van Dam vs. Jeff Hardy

Anderson is the guest referee. He does his usual intro but calls Green Bay Title Tow USA to mess the fans up a bit. Taz says that Jeff’s entrance is inspired by Lady Gaga. Oh dear he’s coming out of an egg. I give up. RVD, the guy that is so angry, starts with a collar and elbow tie up. He gets the one footed dropkick to Hardy who is crotched on the top. Flair vs. AJ is announced for next week.

All RVD to start. To the floor and RVD drapes him over the barricade so he can hit the spinning leg kick to the back as we take a break. Back with Van Dam hitting something on Hardy that we couldn’t see since when we came back the camera was on the monitor above the ring and then cut away. Either way it gets two for the challenger. Split Legged Moonsault out of the corner eats knees though.

Hardy gets a low dropkick to send RVD’s ribs into the post. Sitout Gordbuster gets two for Jeff. Whisper in the Wind misses and Van Dam gets a standing moonsault for no cover. Van Dam gets shoved to the floor and Jeff takes over again. Swanton gets two. Five Star gets two as Jeff gets his foot on the ropes. Van Dam tries to get a rollup but accidentally runs Jeff into the corner where Anderson is standing. A low blow by Hardy when Anderson can’t see it sets up the Twist of Hate to end it at 12:20.

Rating: C+. The match was fine and thankfully it got some time unlike the rest of the matches tonight, but this should have been at Victory Road instead of on Impact. Anderson added very little here but I guess it’s supposed to set up the continuance of their feud and make him look more like Austin. Either way, not bad here but nothing I’ll remember in a few days.

Anderson hits the Mic Check on Hardy post match and Van Dam complains about the low blow. Here’s a Mic Check for Van Dam as well to end the show.

Overall Rating: D. Yeah this was pretty bad. The main problem here is simple: until the main event which started at 10:47, we had (rounded up to) 11:30 of wrestling. I’m sorry but that’s unacceptable for me in nearly two hours of wrestling. They gave us a decent main event which should have been a PPV main event but instead we got it with about two hours of buildup. If nothing else make THIS the main event March 3^rd but that’s Hogan and the Jarretts’ night I guess.

Overall the show was too light on wrestling and all of the talking they did amounted to nothing. Flair returned and was with Fourtune for about an hour before joining Immortal again. That and the Jarretts were the main focus of the show tonight. All in all it’s a big preview for March 3^rd which seems to be the new norm for TNA: have supershows instead of the PPVs as the main thing. That’s fine, but it makes the TV shows pretty boring on the way there. Bad show this week after TNA had been on a hot streak lately.

Results

Hernandez b. Douglas Williams – Border Toss

Kazarian b. Robbie E via DQ when Cookie hit Kazarian with a purse

Matt Hardy b. AJ Styles – Twist of Hate

Rosita/Sarita b. Angelina Love/Velvet Sky – Rosita pinned Velvet when Sarita held Rosita’s legs

Jeff Hardy b. Rob Van Dam – Twist of Hate

Remember to follow me on Twitter @kbreviews\

Elimination Chamber 2013
Date: February 17, 2013
Location: New Orleans Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana
Commentators: John Bradshaw Layfield, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole

This is the final PPV before we hit Wrestlemania 29. The main events tonight are the Rock defending the Raw World Title against CM Punk, Alberto Del Rio defending the Smackdown World Title against Big Show and an Elimination Chamber match for the #1 contendership to the Smackdown World Title. The card is pretty stacked on top which hopefully will make for a fun show. Let’s get to it.

Pre Show: Brodus Clay/Tensai vs. Rhodes Scholars

Sandow and Rhodes talk about how this is the reunion tour that the fans have demanded on social media. Tensai has his own hat now and dances down to the ring. It’s Sandow vs. Brodus to start things off but Damien is quickly sent to the floor. A double tag brings in Cody to face Tensai and after a splash staggers Rhodes, he comes back with a punch to the large head of Tensai.

Sandow cheats a bit, allowing Cody to hit the Disaster Kick for two. Damien comes in legally now and pounds away for a bit before bringing Cody back in for a front facelock. Tensai fights out and hits an uppercut but Rhodes gets a tag out anyway. Tensai shrugs off the Wind-Up Elbow and brings in Clay off the hot tag. Brodus runs over Cody in the corner and loads up his suplex but Sandow dropkicks him in the back for the save. The big guys crush Sandow with standing body attacks, followed by a double headbutt and double splash to Cody for the pin at 4:06.

Rating: C. This was exactly what it was expected to be: a fun opener that allowed both teams to fire up the crowd a bit. I have no idea what the point was in splitting up the Scholars to have them reunite like two weeks later, but I’m not a professional at stuff like this. Brodus and Tensai will probably enter the tag title picture soon, once HELL NO breaks up.

The opening video is about how this is the final chance at getting to Wrestlemania, but to go the men have to pay a price. We also talk about the six man tag with Shield vs. Cena/Ryback/Sheamus. Oh and the title matches are thrown in as well.

Smackdown World Title: Big Show vs. Alberto Del Rio

Alberto is defending, having beaten Show for the title on Smackdown earlier this year in a last man standing match. Del Rio won a rematch with the same gimmick at the Royal Rumble, but Big Show says Del Rio can’t pin him. Alberto broke Big Show’s bus because that’s what kind of a hero he is. Big Show takes the champion into the corner to start and hits a pair of the skin curling chops, only to have Alberto come back with a kick to the ribs.

The Big Bald tries to get a boot up in the corner but Alberto hits a kind of jawbreaker onto the leg to slow Big Show down. The superkick to the jaw gets two but Big Show easily throws Alberto away. Big Show spears Del Rio in half but only gets two out of it. A big clothesline puts Del Rio down and a kick to the throat does the same. The fans get behind Alberto but not enough to make him avoid the Vader Bomb for two.

Out of nowhere Alberto grabs the cross armbreaker but Big Show’s limbs are too long, allowing him to get his foot on the rope to escape. Big Show gets back up and grabs a bearhug to slow things down again. He lets it go quickly though as instead of squeezing the champion, he has to kick Ricardo’s bucket to the floor. Big Show tries a powerbomb but Del Rio counters with a rana to send Show to the floor. A suicide dive takes Big Show out and both guys are down on the floor.

Show dives in to break the count at nine but gets caught with a top rope seated senton for two. Back up and Big Show hits a fast chokeslam for another near fall but he can’t follow up. The challenger loads up the WMD (is it called that anymore?) but Del Rio wisely bails to the floor. Show throws him back in but Del Rio counters another choke attempt with a DDT. That gets two for the champion as does the running enziguri in the corner. The fans are way into these kickouts.

There’s the cross armbreaker again in the middle of the ring but Big Show stands up and hits a kind of powerbomb to break the hold. For you old school fans, think Davey Boy Smith vs. Shawn Michaels from 1992. The WMD is loaded up again but Big Show knocks out Ricardo with it instead. He picks up the bucket and Del Rio hits the running enziguri into the bucket (after slipping the first time) to drive it into Show’s head. Another enziguri sets up the cross armbreaker for the submission to retain the title at 13:05.

Rating: B-. How in the world can this be Big Show vs. Alberto Del Rio? These two SUCKED just a year ago but now they’re having awesome matches against anyone they face. Del Rio is in a total zone right now and I’m hoping he can make magic with guys like Henry or Swagger at Wrestlemania. Big Show can go back to the upper midcard to be slayed by a hero, which is fine all around.

No Ziggler cash-in.

US Title: Antonio Cesaro vs. The Miz

Cesaro, the champion, beat Miz at the Rumble but they’re having another match because they just want to keep fighting I guess. Two of Rock’s co-stars are in the audience here. Miz has a bad shoulder because of an attack from Antonio on Monday. Cesaro quickly sends him to the apron but gets caught in a sunset flip for two. Off to a wristlock by the champion but Miz reverses with another rollup for two. A shoulder breaker puts Miz down and the champion is in full control.

After a quick arm lock by Cesaro, Miz comes back with some knees to the ribs for two. Cesaro cranks on the arm some more to regain control and hooks a short arm scissors to keep Miz on the mat. The bad arm is draped across the bottom rope for two and it’s off to another arm lock on the challenger. They get back to their feet and a big boot staggers Cesaro for a bit. The running clothesline in the corner sets up the top rope axhandle, but Cesaro counters into a Fujiwara Armbar.

Miz rolls out of the hold and backdrops Cesaro out to the floor to buy himself some time. A cross body off the apron is caught by Antonio but Miz escapes and sends the champion’s bare knee into the steps. Back in and Miz channels his inner Nature Boy by working on the knee. A low DDT gets two on Cesaro and it’s back to the knee. The Figure Four is countered but Cesaro claims a low blow…and that’s a DQ at 8:22. That was a really unclear ending, but I’m guessing we get another match at Wrestlemania now. The replay shows that Cesaro caused the low blow himself.

Rating: C. Decent match with a lame ending here. At the end of the day, there’s no reason for this match to happen, but it’s pretty obvious that we’re getting the big win for Miz at Wrestlemania, despite the face turn floundering. Cesaro continues to look strong here though which is the right idea. This was one of Miz’s better matches in a good while.

Post match Miz kicks Cesaro low again.

HELL NO argues over whether or not Kane is in a bad mood. Kane says he’s focused because tonight is a big deal for him. Bryan offers a partnership tonight and they hug it out, but Kane doesn’t agree to watch Bryan’s back.

The Chamber is lowered.

Video on how the Chamber works. There are six men in the match with two men starting. The other four are in pods around the ring. Every five minutes, another man is entered into the match. People are eliminated by pin or submission and the last man surviving wins.

Jack Swagger vs. Kane vs. Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton vs. Mark Henry vs. Chris Jericho

Swagger has new music and Zeb Coulter with him. Jack says that when he talks, he showers us with truth. The mustache with Coulter attached talks about the Louisiana Purchase and how disappointed Thomas Jefferson would be with what has become of the once great nation. He doesn’t like illegal immigrants asking for handouts, so the two of them will make things right. Tonight marks the beginning of a Jack Swagger America. The starters are going to be Jericho and Bryan.

Jericho snaps off some armdrags and hooks a headlock on the mat. Bryan counters into a NO Lock attempt but Jericho rolls out into an attempt at the Walls. Bryan rolls out of that to send Jericho into the corner before hitting some NO kicks. Daniel moonsaults out of the corner but gets sent to the cage on the outside. They fight to try to slam each other onto the Chamber floor but Bryan tries the NO Lock again. Jericho counters into a slingshot into the cage as they head back inside.

Back in and a belly to back suplex gets two for Chris. Jack Swagger is in third and he goes right after Jericho. Bryan gets rammed into the cage wall a few times and Swagger follows up with a splash to crush Goat Face again. Swagger drives his knee into Bryan’s head to mash it against the Chamber floor but Jericho makes a save. Jack sends the Canadian into the cage a few times but Bryan comes back with a running knee to Swagger’s head to put him down again.

The swan dive from Bryan misses Jericho and Kane is in fourth. Kane and Bryan team up on Jericho and Swagger but Bryan turns on Kane with a rollup for two. Bryan wants to hug it out but instead Kane hits him in the face. The NO kicks have Kane in some trouble but the NO Lock is countered into a side slam for two. Kane goes up top but Bryan breaks up the clothesline. Jericho comes back in and plays Animal to Kane’s Hawk in a Doomsday Device on Bryan. That gets two for Swagger but he can’t suplex Kane a second later.

Randy Orton comes in fifth. He cleans house and hits a slingshot suplex on Bryan followed by the Elevated DDT on Kane onto the Chamber. In a cool visual, Orton superplexes Swagger just before Jericho superplexes Bryan to put all five guys down. Henry is desperate to get in and there goes the clock, giving us all six guys in the Chamber at once. House is cleaned again and a World’s Strongest Slam eliminates Bryan to get us down to five.

Henry easily tosses Orton through the glass of a pod in a painful looking visual. Back inside it’s Henry vs. Kane and the masked man staggers Henry with a big boot. The top rope clothesline is countered into another World’s Strongest Slam to eliminate Kane and get us down to four. Henry loads up Jericho but Chris escapes and sends Henry into the pod wall. Swagger helps Jericho out and they hit a double suplex onto the Chamber floor. Jericho and Swagger head back in and a cross body off the top gets two for Chris.

The gutwrench powerbomb is blocked by Jericho but he can’t hook the Walls. A bulldog looks to set up the Lionsault but Henry catches Jericho by the throat and throws him into the Chamber wall. Mark launches Jericho onto Swagger and both blonde haired guys are down. Henry misses a Vader Bomb onto both guys and it’s a Codebreaker and RKO to eliminate the World’s Strongest Man.

We’re down to Orton, Swagger and Jericho but all three guys are down. Henry is applauded as he leaves but goes back inside to hit World’s Strongest Slams on all three guys. The fans are digging Henry here and I can’t say I blame them. Booker and Teddy come out to try to stop Henry and they finally get him out of the Chamber. Swagger covers Orton for two and has early control of the three way fight.

Orton and Jericho team up to throw Swagger shoulder and head first into the post/pod. The slugout is on now instead of eliminating Swagger though which could come back to haunt them. Jericho goes up but jumps into a dropkick for two. Swagger is back in now and walks into a powerslam, as does Jericho. Chris breaks up the Elevated DDT on Swagger with a dropkick for two. The Codebreaker to Swagger is countered into a belly to belly suplex for two more.

The running Vader Bomb (popular move tonight) doesn’t connect with Orton but Swagger avoids the boot to the face and hooks the Patriot Act. Jericho hits an enzugiri on Swagger to break up the hold (why?) and there are the Walls on Jack. Orton breaks up the hold (again, why?) and gets two on Jericho before hitting a double Elevated DDT. Randy loads up the RKO but Jericho blocks it, only to miss the Lionsault and walk into the RKO for the elimination. Swagger immediately rolls up Orton for the final pin at 31:25 to go to Wrestlemania.

Rating: B. This was solid stuff and while it was somewhat obvious that Swagger was winning when they got down to three, the match never got dull or uninteresting as they had a very solid triple threat segment at the end. I’m not wild on Swagger winning and getting a shot at the title, but at least they’ve tweaked his character a bit to make him somewhat more interesting. Good Chamber match.

Wrestlemania tickets are still available.

We recap Shield vs. Cena/Sheamus/Ryback. The Shield is here to fight for justice, but they’ve mainly attacked Ryback. Sheamus and Cena were attacked as well, so tonight the three superheroes join up to fight the seekers of justice.

Shield vs. John Cena/Sheamus/Ryback

Shield is Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns in case you’re reading this in 15 years. This was rumored to be inside the Chamber but it’s just a regular six man tag. The fight starts as Shield comes through the crowd and it’s a big brawl at ringside. They head into the ring and the bell hasn’t rung yet. The good guys hit triple vertical suplexes on the Shield and the bell finally rings with Sheamus vs. Ambrose to start things off.

Sheamus is in full control and wisely rips off Ambrose’s jacket to hit the ten forearms to the chest. Rollins is decked as well but a staredown with Reigns lets Ambrose get in a cheap shot. Off to Reigns legally now for some power strikes to the chest. Rollins and Ambrose hit some fast dropkicks for two until Seth hooks a rear naked choke to slow things down a bit. Back to Ambrose but he spends too much time shouting, allowing Sheamus to hit a fast Brogue Kick to put both guys down.

The hot tag brings in Cena to face the legal Reigns and there’s a Shuffle for Roman. There’s the STF but Ambrose makes the save. Rollins dives onto Cena to keep him down and get two for Reigns. A hard whip into the corner puts Cena down again and it’s off to Rollins. Seth talks a lot of trash which allows Cena to come back, only to be taken down by a jumping kick to the face for two.

Back to Dean as the focus is on Cena’s hand and arm. Shield hits some nice triple team stuff culminating in a big clothesline from Reigns for two. Sheamus and Roman get in a shouting match but Reigns is able to stop Cena’s comeback attempt with a Samoan drop for two. Off to a chinlock followed by a punch to Cena’s chest for two. Ambrose gets two off a neckbreaker followed by a figure four choke to keep Cena in trouble. John fights up but gets caught by a DDT for two almost immediately.

The fans really want to see Ryback now and they might get the chance as Cena backdrops Ambrose to the floor. The double tag brings in Rollins to face Ryback as the place lights up. Ryback throws Ambrose into Rollins in the corner but Reigns breaks up the Meat Hook. Everything breaks down as Sheamus goes to the floor with Roman.

A HUGE spear puts Sheamus through the barricade but Reigns is down too. Rollins dives at Ryback but is caught in midair, only to be saved by Dean. Reigns comes back in for the TripleBomb but Cena makes the save. There’s an AA to Ambrose as Ryback loads up the Shell Shock on Rollins, but Reigns spears Ryback down to give Rollins the pin at 14:51.

Rating: B-. Well that’s one way to go. I’m not sure where they go with Ryback now though as he keeps losing every time he fights Shield. They’ve basically crippled his momentum at this point since Ryback hasn’t won a match of note since….October? I have no idea what they’re going to do with Shield next but you can’t say they’re not putting them over like free beer in a frat house.

Ryback storms out.

Don’t try this at home.

Here are Ziggler and company with something to say. Ziggler congratulates Swagger on making it to Wrestlemania, but that doesn’t guarantee him the world title. The MITB case guarantees you the title apparently. You should call the cops because Ziggler has stolen more shows than this year’s Hall of Fame class combined. Cue Booker T who says Ziggler is wrong. He knows someone that can do everything Ziggler can do and more, so it’s time for a match.

Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston

Ziggler immediately takes it to the mat but Kofi pops up with a dropkick. Kofi misses a charge and goes shoulder first into the post though and Ziggy takes over. Kofi pops back up and does his double leapfrog, only to jump into the sleeper. The hold is broken and Kofi dives onto Big E. Langston on the floor. An AJ distraction backfires and Trouble in Paradise lays out Ziggler. It only gets two though as Langston makes the save, so Kofi dives on him again. Back inside and a cross body gets two for Kofi so he goes up top, only to get dropped onto the buckle. The Zig Zag is good for the pin for Dolph at 3:54.

Rating: C. Usual decent match from these two as you would expect. When you fight each other as much as these two do, you become capable of having good matches in your sleep. These two passed that point years ago so even a quick four minute match like this is fine. Kofi continues to do his thing: make people look good.

Post match Langston lays out Kofi with the Big Ending.

We hear about the WWE App for the 475^th time in the last month.

Brodus and the Funkadactyls are playing with the new WWE toys when Tensai comes in to hear a commercial. Tensai wants to know where his figure is. Brodus asks what the tattoos on his face mean but Tensai doesn’t know. It might be a sushi menu though. Dancing ensues.

Divas Title: Tamina Snuka vs. Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn is defending and this match was set up on the WWE App on Monday. The crowd is silent for Kaitlyn’s entrance so we get a quick promo from her about how scary Tamina is. Tamina shoves Katilyn around a bit to start but gets caught in a rollup for two. A backslide gets two more for the champ and Tamina is knocked to the floor. The other Divas are watching in the back. Kaitlyn goes to the apron, only to be rammed into the buckle and knocked out to the floor. Back in and a Samoan drop puts Kaitlyn down but the Superfly Splash misses. Kaitlyn spears her down to retain at 3:15.

Rating: D+. Did we really need this? No? I didn’t think so either. When your match is set up on the WWE App, it’s pretty clear that it’s not needed on the card. For about two weeks there were no Divas mentioned anywhere on WWE TV and it was a very nice break. Why did they need to come back again?

Wrestlemania is in 49 days.

We recap The Rock vs. CM Punk. Rock won the title at the Royal Rumble but during the match, the lights went out and Shield attacked the Rock. That was enough to give Punk the pin, but Vince McMahon restarted the match because he thought Punk was behind the attack. Rock came back and won the title with a People’s Elbow to end Punk’s fourteen month long reign. Punk DEMANDED a rematch tonight and recently got Vince to agree to the stipulation of if Rock gets counted out or disqualified, he loses the title.

Raw World Title: The Rock vs. CM Punk

Rock is defending and if he gets counted out or disqualified, he loses the title. Punk stole the physical belt on Raw and has it with him here. We get some big match intros and we’re ready to go. Feeling out process to start with Rock avoiding some kicks from Punk. The fans are split on who to cheer for as Punk shoulder blocks Rock down. Punk does it again and smiles a lot. Heyman shouts that it’s 2-0 now.

The challenger grabs a headlock and there’s the third straight shoulder knockdown by Punk. Rock snaps off some armdrags so Punk bails to the outside. Back in and Punk slaps Rock which ticks the champion off. The referee breaks up the beating in the corner because it was about to cost Rock the title. Punk spits in Rock’s face ala Christian vs. Orton from 2011. Rock takes his head off with a clothesline and sends Punk to the floor for another clothesline.

After a Heyman distraction, Punk takes Rock’s head off with another clothesline back inside for two. We hit the chinlock for a bit before Punk hits some elbow drops for two. Back to the chinlock as Rock is in some trouble. The champion fights up but gets kicked in the head for two. Heyman shouts that Punk is getting closer and there’s a snap suplex for two more. Back to the chinlock for a bit before Rock charges into a boot in the corner.

The springboard clothesline gets a near fall for Punk and it’s off to a cravate. That lasts a few seconds because it’s time for another chinlock. This is a much slower paced match than what they did at the Rumble. Rock fights up and pounds away in the corner but Punk avoids the spit punch and hits a running knee to the chest. The running knee hits to the jaw this time and the Macho Elbow gets two more.

They head to the floor where Punk loads up the announce table but gets rammed into the other table to stop the momentum. Back in and the high kick stops Rock cold for another near fall. We head outside again and Punk hits a Rock Bottom onto the table which doesn’t break. That looked great as Rock bounced off the table with no give. Rock slides back in at nine so Punk pounds away. Punk runs his mouth a bit too much and charges into a Samoan drop to put both guys down.

Back up again and Rock hits a BIG right hand to stagger Punk against the ropes. They slug it out and there’s the jumping clothesline by Rock followed by a DDT to put CM down. The Rock Bottom is countered and Punk elbows Rock down. Punk goes up top but dives into a Rock Bottom for two. The fans are shocked at that one. Punk shoves Rock into the referee right before hitting the GTS but there’s no one to count. Another referee comes out as Rock escapes another GTS.

The spinebuster sets up the People’s Elbow but it only gets two as well. Punk rolls onto the referee’s ankle, sending him to the floor in pain. Another high kick puts Rock down and Punk calls for Heyman to send in the belt. Punk nails Heyman with the title and a second Rock Bottom is enough to send Rock to Wrestlemania at 20:57.

Rating: B. This stated slow but got a lot better once they hit the main event style. The match was probably overbooked but that’s Rock’s bread and butter as an Attitude Era main eventer. I don’t think people were expecting Punk to win the title here and the stipulation wasn’t needed, but at least the match was entertaining. That’s all you can ask for when you have a match with a pretty obvious ending.

Rock poses to end the show.

Overall Rating: B+. This was a really solid show with nothing outside of the women being less than quite good. There are a TON of options still on the table for Wrestlemania which is a very exciting feeling. Things tomorrow night should shed some more light on what we’re going to get, but we’re definitely on the Road to Wrestlemania which means things should be getting very exciting very fast. Good show tonight too.

Results

Alberto Del Rio b. Big Show – Cross Armbreaker

Antonio Cesaro b. The Miz via DQ when Miz hit Cesaro low

Jack Swagger b. Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, Mark Henry, Kane and Daniel Bryan last eliminating Orton – Rollup

Shield b. John Cena/Ryback/Sheamus – Ambrose pinned Ryback after a spear from Reigns

Dolph Ziggler b. Kofi Kingston – Zig Zag

Kaitlyn b. Tamina Snuka – Spear

The Rock b. CM Punk – Rock Bottom

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