The payoff to the cryptic 2-21-11 videos that WWE has been airing for three weeks took place on Raw Monday night, and if you were expecting Sting to descend from the ceiling, you were just setting yourself up for disappointment.
As expected, The Undertaker returned to WWE television. The “surprise” was that after The Undertaker made his way to the ring, Triple H’s music played, and “The Game” and “The Dead Man” had a stare-down in the ring.
A match between the two veteran superstars was made for WrestleMania XXVII without a word being said by either man. By effectively using their facial expressions, body language and gestures, no words were needed for them to get their points across. I thought it was a cool way to set up the match and make it feel special.
As expected, The Undertaker returned to WWE television. The “surprise” was that after The Undertaker made his way to the ring, Triple H’s music played, and “The Game” and “The Dead Man” had a stare-down in the ring.
A match between the two veteran superstars was made for WrestleMania XXVII without a word being said by either man. By effectively using their facial expressions, body language and gestures, no words were needed for them to get their points across. I thought it was a cool way to set up the match and make it feel special.
It’s true that the matchup isn’t anything we haven’t seen before – in fact, Undertaker and Triple H wrestled each other at WrestleMania X-7 in 2001 – but we certainly haven’t seen it in some time, and to some younger fans, it’s probably new to them.
Undertaker-Triple H definitely has more of a WrestleMania feel to it than Undertaker-Wade Barrett and Triple H-Sheamus, two matches that reportedly were strongly considered for the event. And while Undertaker-Sting is a dream match of sorts, the fact is that from an in-ring standpoint, Undertaker-Triple H figures to be a better match.
It will be interesting to see if Shawn Michaels is involved in the match in some capacity, perhaps as the special guest referee.
Other thoughts on Monday’s show:
Here’s what the top matches are looking like for WrestleMania: WWE champion The Miz vs. John Cena; world heavyweight champion Edge vs. Alberto Del Rio; The Undertaker vs. Triple H; Randy Orton vs. CM Punk; and Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole. ...
How great was it to see Cena slip back into his “Doctor of Thuganomics” persona to cut a scathing rap promo on The Rock? I was surprised WWE allowed him to use some of the suggestive lines – especially that early in the show – but anyone who thought Cena was going to come back with a PG response to Rock’s promo last week was proved wrong. The crowd was eating it up, too. ...
The verbal exchange between Lawler and Cole was excellent, and Cole throwing a cup of water into Lawler’s face and running away was a nice touch. As for Cole referencing Lawler’s recently deceased mother, I thought it went right up to the line but didn’t cross it. ...
The 2-21-11 countdown clock was effective in making the reveal seem like a big deal, and it also made viewers think twice about switching channels at the top of the second hour. ...
Undertaker got a nice ovation, but the crowd was a lot louder for Triple H. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that people were expecting The Undertaker but were surprised to see Triple H. ...
Having adversaries team up and win the tag titles is certainly not a new concept in WWE, but in the case of Cena and The Miz facing WWE tag team champions Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater, at least WWE put a slightly different spin on it. Cena and Miz won the title but then lost the belts back in an immediate rematch. It was pretty amazing to see the fans actually cheering for The Miz during the match, which made it that much more effective when he double-crossed Cena and cost them the title. ...
Punk cut a good promo –so what else is new? – and Orton was super-over with the crowd. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the next five weeks play out with these two in the buildup for their match at WrestleMania. ...
I’m sure it was disappointing for some fans to see John Morrison lose relatively easily to Punk just one night after his impressive performance at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, but it did make sense. For one thing, Punk really needs to be on a roll heading into WrestleMania. And while both Punk and Morrison were selling injuries from the Chamber match, Morrison was clearly the more injured of the two, so he has an out for losing. ...
Del Rio got a lot of heat for his attack on Kofi Kingston. Ricardo Rodriguez making the save out of nowhere when Kingston had the advantage on Del Rio was tremendous. ...
The Miz cut a solid promo in which he took shots at The Rock and Cena. It’s going to be a challenge for Miz not to be overshadowed by the two larger-than-life characters, but I think he’s up to it. ...
The Divas match that saw the Bellas defeat Eve Torres and Gail Kim wasn’t bad. ...
Wow, Sheamus’ star has really fallen. This time last year, he had just lost the WWE title at the Elimination Chamber and was involved in a WrestleMania program with Triple H. On Raw Monday, he jobbed to Mark Henry. ...
Hacksaw Jim Duggan was announced as the second inductee of this year’s WWE Hall of Fame class. I wasn’t the biggest Duggan fan, but he definitely was a big star in the ’80s and early ’90s. Ted DiBiase will induct him. Man, I was hoping Duggan’s old driving buddy The Iron Sheik would do it.
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