RAW kicks off in the darkness, that is, The Undertaker comes to the ring and promises this WrestleMania will not be his last. Until Shane McMahon interrupts with a different opinion. Cutting through the trash talking, the highlight is the brawl which sends the live Brooklyn crowd into a frenzy, culminating with Shane O’ Mac plowing the Undertaker through the announce table with his “vintage” top rope elbowdrop to the floor. While Shane seemed to have the upper hand, the Deadman sat right up, blood dripping down his head.
Talk about a way to kick off RAW. That was insane. It was, as the crowd said, awesome.
The crazy continues as Zack Ryder gets a win over Chris Jericho, thanks to some taunting by AJ Styles. During the pre-show, Y2J threatened to no-show Mania in order to prevent Styles from having his “WrestleMania moment.” Thanks to tonight’s verbal showdown, Jericho promises to make WrestleMania the “worst night of his life.”
Zack Ryder beat Chris Jericho tonight folks. With a beard identical to Eric Young, I think he is on his way to being the next Mr. Money in the Bank.
We get another match, and while it is a quick one, still solid between Charlotte and Becky Lynch We get a highlight from SmackDown where Sasha Banks defeated the Divas Champion, however tonight Lynch could not match her opponent as Charlotte earned the pinfall victory tonight. One thing is for certain, the Divas Championship Triple Threat will be great.
Backstage: Vince McMahon talks to Renee Young about how Shane will fight for his life and his actions tonight have only angered the Undertaker. Shane walks into the interview, and verbally threatens his father. Talk about tension.
A match between Big Show and Kane against the Social Outcasts is thrown out as the whole stable brawls, causing the DQ. Suddenly, Goldust, R-Truth, Jack Swagger, Tyler Breeze, Fandango, The Ascension, DAMIEN SANDOW, Darren Young, Mark Henry, and probably a few I missed hit the ring. Guess we know who will be in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. I am dismayed, for the second year in a row the Battle Royal got bumped to the pre-show.
Triple H and Stephanie hit the ring, Steph on the mic first ordering the live crowd to get on their knees. Uh, that’s a bit inappropriate for a PG audience, don’tcha think? I really dislike it when Stephanie goes cartoon-over-the-top. Thankfully Triple H gets the microphone and cuts an evil, sinister promo about how WrestleMania is the dream of all to be part of it. At least he adds in “not to take away from the rest of the show.” Triple H cuts a good promo. He mentions Roman Reigns, and the crowd boos. Brooklyn.
Stephanie takes the mic back, and does the worst thing possible, pretty much bashes the rest of the WrestleMania card to put over Triple H. Roman Reigns comes out and the crowd takes a royal dump on him. He gets booed and all you can hear are “Roman Sucks” chants. They close the segment fairly quickly. WWE just can’t catch a break. Roman Reigns probably wondering what the hell he is going to do. It’s New Cena folks!
The New Day, as always, cuts a fantastically funny promo, sponsored by Booty-O’s. Kofi Kingston and Alberto del Rio put on a five-star match, ending with Kofi countering the Cross-Armbar into a rollup for the pin. What a great segment, which gets an expected extension with the appearance of Jonathan Coachman to hype SportCenter’s involvement at WrestleMania, and of course, shows off his box of Booty-o’s.
Joan Lunden will be the recipient of the Warrior Award and Snoop Dogg is the celebrity induction into the Hall of Fame.
Backstage: Roman Reigns is goaded into a fight with the Dudley Boyz, and winds up being destroyed by Triple H. I don’t think Reigns has said a single word tonight. Great!
Kalisto makes quick work of Konnor, and then somehow beats up Viktor of The Ascension. Ryback comes out and tries to intimidate Kalisto. Yawn.
In a fantastic promo, where Rabbi Paul Heyman is cynically awesome and Brock Lesnar keeps his mouth shut, Heyman talks about the carnage which is expected on Sunday. Best line is when he uses the word weapon, and then rants about being politically correct. Heyman is a master on the mic, until Dean Ambrose interrupts. He brings an empty wagon to the ring, and fills it up with weapons, capping it off by loading the ring stairs into it. Gotta love Ambrose.
I have a feeling this match is going to be one of the craziest ever.
We have a match between Paige and Emma. Emma wins after some interference by Lana and others. Honestly I am not sure who is on which team. All I know, is at some point, Eva Marie runs down to the ring, and does something face-like and joins Team Total Divas. The crowd instantly rips into her, and this just became all sorts of confusion.
Our final match of the night features Kevin Owens, Stardust, and The Miz against Sin Cara, Dolph Ziggler, and Sami Zayn. This was a really good match, but overshadowed by the crowd at the Barclay Center chanting for everyone else. RVD, CM Punk, JBL, The New Day, Booty-Os, and lord knows who else. The faces win after Zayn clobbers Owens with the Helluva kick.
The final segment features Triple H and Stephanie McMahon again. Brief promo until Reigns comes out and another fight breaks out. The locker room clears out to separate them, and shockingly Reigns does a flight over the top rope, despite the “you still suck” chants by the fans.
I will say, this wasn’t a bad go home show, despite the crowd completely crapping on the last two segments. Honestly, if you ignore any segments involving Roman Reigns and Triple H, then show was pretty good. No Bray Wyatt sighting, but that may happen on SmackDown. Well folks, stay tunes this week as more WrestleMania coverage heads your way!
