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WrestleMania 29 delivered just the results that most of us expected. While some of us were extremely disappointed with the PPV, there were many more who were saddened to a greater extent. WrestleMania, this year, was a near failure as many predicted.
So the post-WrestleMania show, as always, was bound to be a night where wrestlers would celebrate their victory and the unhappy lot would look for their rematches. RAW, this week, was live from IZOD center in New Jersey and the show opened up with John Cena. Before I get into reviewing each segment, I would like to make a special mention to the crowd who managed to make this week’s WrestleMania-aftermath RAW purely sensational.
So, John Cena opened the show with the WWE title around his waist. The crowd, unlike Cena, weren’t too pleased to see him as the WWE champion and started booing him. He was then interrupted by Mark Henry, who challenged Cena for a title match. Cena, as always, didn’t back down and accepted the challenge. Booker T comes out and tells Henry that he will get a title shot only if he manages to defeat Cena tonight at the main event.
Cena looked hopeless in this segment as the crowd seemed to own him every moment. Further chants like ‘sexual chocolate’ were hilarious as they made sure Cena didn’t get a chance to celebrate.
Daniel Bryan vs Big E Langston
A decent match that saw Big E Langston pick up the victory courtesy some interference from AJ Lee and Ziggler. Daniel Bryan had the upper hand until the interference, after which Big E landed his move for the pinfall. Would have loved the match to last longer.
Winner: Big E Langston
Wade Barrett vs The Miz for the Intercontinental Championship
Did any of you watch the WrestleMania pre-show? I didn’t, but still news around told me that The Miz won the title from Barrett, which made me feel kind of dull especially since WrestleMania was wholly disappointing. Anyway, this match was just to remind the fans that the WWE didn’t know what to do with this championship. Just a night after losing the title to Miz, Wade Barrett gets a match for the title at RAW this week and he won it back! Now, my question to WWE Creative is: why would you change a title at WrestleMania only to see the Champion lose it at RAW? The good thing about this match was the match itself. Both these wrestlers put on a good performance and it deserved the amount of match time it received.
Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter vs Alberto Del Rio
When I first heard of this match, I was surprised as to why a match like this was booked in the first place. Del Rio made Swagger tap out and retained his WHC title, which was impressive, and still Swagger gets to face Del Rio along with Zeb Colter on his side. While initially both myself and the crowd seemed obnoxious to this match, the end got us all jumping on our feet. The match ended with Del Rio victorious but with a serious ankle injury. As the doctors were attending his leg, out comes Ziggler to fulfill the long awaited cashing of his MITB. The match started and after nearly tapping out to the cross arm breaker, Ziggler landed the Zig Zag to become the new World Heavyweight Champion and the crowd absolutely went nuts.
Winner: Dolph Ziggler
Undertaker then came in for a promo after his WrestleMania victory. He started, only to be interrupted by The Shield. As they were rounding up Taker inside the ring, out come Kane and Daniel Bryan to save Taker. So Daniel Bryan and the Brothers of Destruction against the Shield at Extreme Rules. Looks interesting.
Santino, Zack Ryder and R-Truth vs 3MB
This was a battle for the best jobbers in the company and 3MB won it by losing the match. A short lived match that made no sense at all.
Winner: Santino, Ryder and Truth
Backstage, Randy and Sheamus spoke to Booker T and Vickie Gurrero respectively and demanded a match against the Big Show. Both seemed ready to take on the giant and make him pay for his act at WrestleMania. While the battle to fight Show continued inside the ring, Booker T announced Sheamus vs Orton and the winner faces Big Show. Speaking of the match, it seemed no one really cared about it. Both the announcers and crowd seemed oblivious to a match in the ring and the crowd were busy making random chants. Some of the funniest were RVD, JBL, We are Awesome.
Big Show then made his way to the ring as the crowd started chanting Thank You Big Show and One More Chair to make things even better. Big Show then beats the hell out of Orton in particular. Boring match but awesome entertainment thanks to the crowd.
Winner: The Crowd
Fandango vs Kofi Kingston
After Jericho put over Fandango at WrestleMania, the dancer was out for a match against Kingston. During the match, the crowd got even crazier and started humming Fandango’s entrance music. The match ended abruptly as Jericho gave Fandango the beating of his lifetime. One thing that impressed me hugely was, after a code breaker, Fandango somehow had the presence of mind to correct his name after the announcer mispronounced it. Cool segment as Jericho seems to have managed to put Fandango over as a face.
The Funkadactyls vs Rhodes Scholars and Bella Twins
This was a match that was removed from the WrestleMania card and added for the post-WrestleMania RAW. Nothing much to say about the match as the Funkadactyls won after a double slam.
Winner: The Funkadactyls
John Cena vs Mark Henry
Time for some main event and the match totally failed to impress. John Cena picked up the victory after Henry was counted out. He then comes in and hits the World’s Strongest Slam as Ryback makes his way into the ring. The crowd was totally into this match as they booed Cena out of the stage. There was a huge pop for Ryback as he pushed Henry out of the stage and then the biggest moment of the night came as Ryback landed the meat hook clothesline on Cena and the crowd goes berserk.
Huge segment this as it indicates a Ryback heel turn and a feud between these two. Judging from the reaction of the crowd, it looked like Ryback was the face and Cena the heel.
On the whole, an excellent WrestleMania-aftermath RAW that was way better than WrestleMania. It compensated for the poor show that WrestleMania was the previous night.
