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WWE Raw 5/3/2012, held at the TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts, featured huge WWE superstars such as Dwayne ‘The R0ck’ Johnson and Shawn Michaels. The show had plenty of Wrestlemania 28 implications. All those will be discussed in the ranking of the top 10 talking points of WWE Raw 5/3/2012.
1. HBK confronts Triple H
Shawn Michaels started off the show with Triple H, questioning him about his degrading statement on who is the better wrestler. While this segment may have been good to watch, the purpose of it was skewed. The focus of the wrestlemania match should be on the streak rather than the friendship between HBK and HHH. What this segment did is that it shifted the focus away from the Undertaker. With Shawn becoming the special guest referee, my opinion is that the sole intention of this segment was just to get Shawn involved in that match in some form.
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2. New United States Champion crowned
Teddy Long, who took charge as the general manager of Raw this week, granted a United States Championship match for his deputy Santino Marella. John Laurinaitis came out to support Jack Swagger who already had Vickie and Dolph at ringside. Then came Teddy Long with Kofi Kingston and Aksana. With two warring factions at ringside, the drama spilled out of the ring. Santino emerged the winner in an utterly chaotic situation. But his celebrations after the victory were really heartwarming. Let’s hope that this reign as the United States Champion improves his status as a wrestler.
The new United States Champion, Santino Marella
3. Laurinaitis – Long feud continues
The power struggle between Long and Laurinaitis continued on Raw and was one of the reasons behind Santino’s surprise United States Championship victory. It is slowly developing into a major feud and the payoff would be at Wrestlemania when we get a Team Long vs Team Laurinaitis match to decide who gets to control both Raw and Smackdown.
4. Rock’s quirky history lessons
The Rock‘s Boston history lessons clips were awesome. We got to see the Rock at his usual best, electrifying the millions with his amazing sense of humor and quirky catchphrases. Here’s a sample rhyme from him on Cena,
These short promos were unique and effective. The audience were thoroughly entertained and the feud between Rock and Cena was also taken forward. In contrast, John Cena‘s somber segment was seriously well put, but simply boring!
During the first history lesson, The Rock threw some of Cena's merchandise into the sea
5. Tag-team match between CM Punk & Sheamus and Chris Jericho & Daniel Bryan
We got a sneak preview of the Wrestlemania matches via this tag match. A good match with some great action. With the team of Punk and Sheamus dominating for most parts of the match, giving the victory to the duo of Jericho and Bryan was the right way to book it. Jericho stole the victory from Punk through a roll-up.
6. Hoeski for broski
Eve made quick work of Alicia Fox but the real deal for her was when her friend Zack Ryder turned up after missing the last few weeks due to injury. As expected, Zack trashed Eve by putting Broski’s before Hoeski’s. But backstage, Eve managed to get her relationship with Zack back on track by sealing it with a kiss. What next for Zack?
7. Kane vs R-Truth
‘The Big Red Monster’ was in action on Raw and thankfully it was against a established wrestler in R-Truth. As expected, Randy Orton came down and hit the RKO on Kane. All of a sudden, they have paired Kane with Randy Orton for Wrestlemania. My opinion is that it would be better served if they include both these men in a fatal 4 way match for the World Heavyweight Championship.
8. Miz vs Big Show
The Miz’s poor run continues as he got squashed by the Big Show after he was irritated with Cody Rhodes’ provocative talks. Cody-Show match got the precedence which meant that the Miz was utilised as a jobber.
9. Rock-Cena confrontation
The Rock and John Cena in a verbal war
John Cena came out first and called out The Rock. The confrontation between those two men was good if not better than last week. But it lacked fizz. John Cena ended it by turning the accusations towards the Rock. Cena’s celebration at the end was a little overboard. The outcome was that Cena got some much needed support from the fans in his hometown.
10. Reactions from the Boston Crowd
The 17,000 strong crowd at the TD Garden was electric thoughout the show. The Rock, Santino, CM Punk and to some extent John Cena got the biggest pops of the night. The boos were reserved for Eve, Vickie Guerrero and John Laurinaits. The lively crowd got the show going. Their chants of ‘Tooth Fairy’ were comedy gold. As usual John Cena got a mixed reaction from the people of his home state. The Rock ridiculing him in his history lessons, made it even more difficult for Cena to win over the crowd.
To put it in a nutshell, Raw was good and it served the main purpose of enhancing the feuds leading upto Wrestlemania.
