Raw 08/04/13

John Cena opens the show sporting a new "the champ is here" shirt. He starts off by having a little banter with this exuberant crowd and then talks about his epic encounter with The Rock at Wrestlemania 29. If I am not mistaken, I think I heard a few boo's when The Rock's name was mentioned which was great! Mark Henry then interrupted Cena after Cena said he will defend the WWE Championship on Raw that night. Bit of a confrontation between the two until WWE Hall of Famer Booker T came down and told Cena that he could not make WWE Championship matches. He then went on to say that if Henry could beat Cena tonight, he would get the opportunity to fight Cena for the belt since The Rock is injured and won't be cleared to fight for some time (bearing in mind he has Hercules to film to). After Wrestlemania we all wondered who would be Cena's next challenge for the belt and so far it seems its Henry.

The Undertaker talking about his 21-0 streak was announced for later on in the show.

The next match would let us see the debut of Big E Langston on Raw in his first singles match. He would be going against Daniel Bryan. This was a very quick match with Langston finishing off Bryan with the Big Ending.

Next up was The Miz (c) vs Wade Barrett for the Intercontinental Championship. This was just a repeat of the Wrestlemania pre-show but boy was it a lot better, the crowd was very vocal, showing that they really wanted Barrett to win back his championship. Luckily for them Barrett did win after using his Bull-hammer finisher.

Jack Swagger and Zeb Colter vs Alberto del Rio was next. To put it simply, this match sucked. Zeb played no role throughout and all Swaggers job was to soften up the leg of del Rio. Swagger lost the match after del Rio used his cross-arm breaker. Now. We all were hoping and praying Ziggler would cash in his Money-In-The-Bank briefcase at Wrestlemania but sadly this didn't happen. But luckily for us, on the post-Wrestlemania show we finally got to see him cash in! This was probably the greatest pop ever when he cashed in, it was CRAZY! And as per the usual workings of the briefcase, Ziggler won to be crowned the new World Heavyweight Champion! The crowd went crazy, absolutely nuts, it was epic! There were points after the cash in that most would of thought Ziggler wasn't going to win, which was great.

Next came The Undertaker segment. Undertaker was standing in the ring saying how he dedicated his Wrestlemania match to Paul Bearer when suddenly THE SHIELDS MUSIC HITS!!! OMFG THE SHIELD!!! They make their way down and surround the ring, when, OMG, OMFG!!!! Kane's pyro hits and him and Daniel Bryan make their way down to the ring to even up the numbers, this is absolutely crazy!!! Words cannot describe the feelings I felt during this segment, it was unbelievable.

There was a filler match which I can't remember who was involved or what happened, I was just too excited from what happened before.

Next was a part of the episode that has to be watched. Sheamus and Randy Orton were arguing all Raw for who is gonna face Big Show tonight after he screwed them over at Wrestlemania so Booker T and Vickie Guerrero said they should face enough other to decide who will go against Show later on in the night. Overall the match was too long and sucked, but its the crowd that was the reason this match had to be watched. They were chanted everything under the sun, things that had absolutely nothing to do with the match. They went from chanting "ole" to "RVD" to "JBL" to "Jerry Lawler" to "Michael Cole" within a span of 3 minutes. Big Show saved the match when he came down to the crowd chanting "thank you Big Show". He WMDed both Orton and Sheamus.

We got to see the cancelled Wrestlemania match tonight, but it sucked, so the end.

Finally was the main event, John Cena vs Mark Henry for a shot at the WWE Championship. The match was short and Cena won through a countout. What happened afterwards was interesting. Ryback came down after Henry attacked Cena to save Cena. Ryback then helped Cena up on to meat-hook clothesline Cena. Here is a picture to sum up everything that happened just then: http://i.imgur.com/6FvHaIT.gif.

Overall this was a grade A++ show, best Raw in a very, very, very long time!

Wrestlemania 29 *RESULTS*

The Miz vs Wade Barrett (c) for the Intercontinental Championship (Pre-show)

The Miz beat Wade Barrett using a figure-4 leglock. Was a match that was good in spots but too short to have a lasting impact on your memory.

The Shield vs Randy Orton, Sheamus and The Big Show

The Shield beat the magnificent trio after it looked like The Big Show couldn't give a toss about what happened to his team mates. It seemed that Orton and Sheamus didn't trust tagging Big Show in which seemed to of really pissed him off. After the match Show WMDed his team mates. Was a good match which  had a few good spots such a rolling senton by Sheamus on Dean Ambrose and then Seth Rollins on top of the already floored Ambrose. This was a match that I thoroughly enjoyed, though I would of liked a Orton or Sheamus heel turn, not Show.

Mark Henry vs Ryback

This was on of the matches I was looking forward to since it was announced. I will probably get flamed for this but I am a big Ryback fan! It was slow and rest heavy but was still an okay match to watch. The finish was completely not as everyone had predicted. Henry won the match after he fell on top of Ryback after Ryback had got Henry up for the ShellShock finisher. After the match Ryback successfully executed the ShellShock finisher. He may of not won the match but he did get his Wrestlemania moment!

Team Hell No (c) vs Dolph Ziggler and Big E Langston with AJ Lee for the Tag Team Championship

This match let us witness the debut of Big E Langston on the grandest stage of them all. This match was a solid match that was very enjoyable to watch though it was nothing we had not seen before. Team Hell No retained their championship which was bound to happen but the reaction that Bryan got after the match was unreal! All eighty thousand plus people were chanting Bryan's trademark "Yes! Yes! Yes!" in unison.

Chris Jericho vs Fandango

This match didn't come off as great as many had hoped, especially Vince McMahon. The crowd wasn't really behind the match very much and the finish was partially botched on behalf of Fandango and if it wasn't for Jericho's experience and ability to improvise then the match would of ended very very poorly. Fandango didn't position himself correctly within the ring which meant when he tried to counter Jericho's lionsault with two high knees, Jericho completely missed. Luckily Jericho faked a knee injury which helped Fandango get the win.

Alberto del Rio (c) with Ricardo Rodriguez vs Jack Swagger with Zeb Colter for the World Heavyweight Championship

In my opinion this was a good match between two great amateur wrestlers, but it just did not come off very well. Del Rio retained the belt through submission but there isn't much else to say.

The Undertaker vs CM Punk with Paul Heyman

This had to be the greatest match of the night which the mostly dull crowd was fully behind. It didn't match up the Triple H vs The Undertaker from Wrestlemania 28 but it was pretty close. Undertaker won after landing a tombstone piledriver to CM Punk. 

Triple H with Shawn Michaels vs Brock Lesnar with Paul Heyman

A very physical match which was mainly foucsed on showing off the animal like mentality of Lesnar. Lesnar dominated most of the match. HBK didn't play as large of a role within the match as was first thought and to be honest there was no need for him to be at ringside. As predicted Triple H won. Great...

John Cena vs The Rock (c) for the WWE Championship

The match that had split the WWE Universe. Everyone knew what the outcome would of been due to the part-time nature of one of the competitors. This match was on par if not better then last years match when it came to the wrestling, but outcome wise, it was not as good as its former counterpart. The Rock looked in better ring shape then what was seen from his other matches since his return, but there were still many rest spots. Cena didn't seem to even break a sweat during the match and in my opinion was carrying Rocky the whole match. Cena inevitably won in the end to a chorus of boo's but I was very very happy!

Overall Wrestlemania 29 was a good event though most of the matches had a very predictable outcome. All I have to say is I can't wait to see the fallout on Raw Tonight!

BREAKING NEWS

Paul Bearer passes away http://wwe.com/inside/paul-bearer-passes-26096670 via @WWE on Android http://bit.ly/QlC9m3

It was announced earlier today that William Moody more famously known as Paul Bearer, The Undertaker and Kane's manager has passed away.

Such sad news and he will not be forgotten, R.I.P.

Wrestlemania 29 *SPOILERS*

As of today there are a few matches which are confirmed for Wrestlemania 29 and some matches which, based on what has happened on Raw the past few weeks, are rumoured to happen.

They are as follows:

CONFIRMED
John Cena vs Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson for the WWE Championship

Triple H vs Brock Lesnar

CM Punk vs The Undertaker

Jack Swagger vs Alberto Del Rio for the World Heavyweight Championship

RUMOURED
Mark Henry vs Ryback based on their stare down after Ryback finished his match with Antonio Cesaro and Henry was making his way to the ring for his match against Zack Ryder

Randy Orton, Sheamus and The Big Show vs The Shield based on what happened after Raw went off the air. The Shield came down and attacked The Big Show. Prior to this weeks Raw, Sheamus and Orton out smarted The Shield. Hence a 3 on 3 tag-team match.

Cena vs CM Punk *Contains spoilers*

Last night on Monday Night Raw John Cena and CM Punk went one-on-one to become the number one contender for the WWE Championship and have the chance to main event Wrestlemania 29 vs The Rock.

As per usual Cena and Punk put on one of the greatest matches in recent Raw history. Every time these two step into the ring together they always perform so well. Tonight was no different. There were AA's, GTS's, Anaconda Vices, STF's, even a sit-out piledriver (which is a banned move in the WWE so not too sure why it was used, but awesome nonetheless) by Punk and a Hurricanrana by Cena (unbelievable I know). Naturally, it was to no one's surprise that Cena won but there were spots in the match where you would of thought it would of went either way.

In summary this was probably the last time we will see Cena vs Punk for some time now but this was an awesome match that will live long in our memory just like every other Cena vs Punk match we have ever seen.

Brock Lesnar Injury!

Brock Lesnar was legitimately injured at this weeks Raw. He required 18 staples to close the gash on his head. We could tell that it would require a large amount of staples due to the amount of blood that poured out.

He is now walking around saying that he is perfectly fine.

New Hall Of Fame Inductee Announced!

Donald Trump has been announced to be the next celebrity inductee into the WWE Hall Of Fame Class of 2013!

Read what his Facebook page had to say: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10152591752880725

Elimination Chamber **SPOILER**

Ryback, Sheamus and John Cena vs The Shield at the Elimination Chamber PPV has been set up.

This match was set up after we witnessed the final segment of Raw when The Shield had just triple power bombed Brad Maddox and John Cena's music hit. This led to Sheamus, Ryback and Cena making a Shield like entrance through the crowd and cornering The Shield in the ring. The Shield then tried to escape up the ramp but the members of the Raw locker room, who had been attacked by The Shield before, blocked their way and made them run back into the ring. Sheamus, Cena and Ryback then put the beat down on The Shield of which then The Shield ran away through the crowd thus closing Raw with the 3 top babyfaces standing tall in the ring!

Is He ready?

Rumour has it that The Undertaker will not be ready for Wrestlemania 29. After over 20 years of wrestling his body must be on the edge of retirement and rushing himself for a Wrestlemania match is not a very good idea for anyone.

So as of right now the rumoured match with CM Punk or Brock Lesnar doesn't seem very likely.