I don't know Eck, i think it's more refreshing for Swagger to say he rather take the "supposed" easy win over Kofi than Vladimir. Past heels and faces would probably say what you said, though one would be arrogant, and the other would be respectful about his opponents. I can see Swagger, given the choice of wrestling Big Show or a midget, he'd take the midget every time as a heel.

Shawn Mic no-sold it like he did during his infamous match vs Hulk Hogan...

I think WWE did it all it could to get as many people interested in WrestleMania with this show. The whole thing was pretty solid. I think the verbal exchanges were better than the actual wrestling matches though. The only decent match was Morrison/Miz. I really hope that the tag team title match is actually on the main card this Sunday and that WWE doesn't bump it down to the pre-show which actually isn't shown to the viewing public. I remember them doing that last year with the tag team title match and it really didn't sit well with me.

I'm really pleased that Kingston finally has a spot at WM, but I think the MITB Ladder Match is way too full of people. It's the biggest one yet. With so many guys in one match, it kind of takes the moment away from some of the guys who have never competed at WM, like Ziggler and Bourne. Hopefully they won't get lost in the crowd. For the past two years I've been so certain that MVP was going to win the MITB match, and seen as he didn't, I've given up on him now. This year, I think I'll go for Christian.

It was pointless having Swagger on commentary duty for the Kingston/Kozlov match, and he didn't sound good at all.

The verbal stuff at the end between Batista and Cena was really good, and I agree that having Batista come out with a troop of security guards was the right thing to do, as this makes him look less like a "cool heel" that the fans would want to actually cheer.

At the moment there doesn't seem to be anything happening for the Divas at WM, so I'm less interested in them than ever, so I naturally fast forwarded through their match on YouTube, but it turns out I didn't miss much anyway.

What was the point of the six-woman tag match, you ask.

Clearly, the WWE views the Divas as little more than eye candy. (Vickie Guerrero obviously is excluded from this equation). Why else have Kelly Kelly and an injured Mickie James standing outside the ring? They were no more involved in the match than four of the six participants in the ring.

Obviously, the Divas are going to be utilized for their visual appearance (again, Vickie doesn't enter into the equation). But there's no excuse in bringing Beth Phoenix over from Smackdown and not having her get in on some of the action.

RESPONSE FROM KE: I buy the eye candy point, but what good is eye candy if you're only going to see it for 60 seconds?

They really take betting on baseball seriously. Pete Rose didn't even get a Bella twin escort.

Why are you so against when fans do certain chants? You hate the "what?" chants (which I admit are annoying and was horribly stupid when it was done to Bret Hart) and the "you can't wrestle" chants (which I don't mind). But the fans pay for the ticket so they can chant what they want!

RESPONSE FROM KE: Of course they can. But like the "what?" chant, yelling "you can't wrestle at Cena" is old. Plus, if anyone really believes that, they know nothing about the business. Not being a great worker and not being able to wrestle are two entirely different things.

Mr. T is such a great heel in Rocky III.

Solid Raw overall, very very solid.

My cousin and I wound up getting a couple tickets literally right next to where the ring announcer sits, not to mention where the bell is and the rest. We got some nice close looks at the belts (not championships) when they were brought over temporarily before being taken to the back and it was a great spot to watch from. It was also within about 20-30 feet of where the 49ers were sitting and they got some free Cena shirts and other things along the way.

With them not taping the rest of the stuff today in another location, last night was the Supershow and we got everything in one night. I won't go into all the details about shows that have yet to broadcast, but they taped two NXT tag team matches before Raw went on air and if you notice the opening promo by Michaels, the ring ropes were still white. The last NXT match finished just before Raw went on air so you may have seen them finishing putting the ring aprons up on the wide intro shot. They changed the ropes before the first actual match on Raw but the quickness during the switches is pretty impressive. They've got that down to a science.

After Raw finished they taped a couple Superstars matches and the first one (between a couple of the "smaller" wrestlers) was VERY good. They gave it a lot of time for the match to build. The second one was solid as well and I liked the clean finish from the wrestler who won (compared to what could have been done).

Following that we got the Smackdown taping and if I remember right there were three matches, maybe four. I lost count by the end of the night with everything they did but the first was a MITB-related match that I really enjoyed and after that with Vickie Guerrero...well, you'll see and probably laugh. Morrison and R-Truth cut a promo that went on for a long time.

Overall I think Raw comes off as the better show live because you get the full effect of everything that's going on. The Smackdown taping is shorter because they're not showing all the backstage stuff that gets added for the Friday broadcast, so it felt a little tougher to get into the flow of things and let anticipation build. From the NXT matches that started around 5:30 to the last Smackdown match that ended around 9:45, we did get a good four hours of wrestling and that's tough to complain about.

I enjoyed the way they furthered the angles on Raw and Batista has definitely taken it up a notch with his promos. Some of it is easy to draw heat from but he's doing it well.

I haven't watched the broadcast yet but the way the cameras were set up had the wrestlers coming to the ring from the right on TV compared to the left, so Triple-H's entrance ended up facing away from the cameras. Wonder if he's just used to the cameras being on that side.

Definitely expected Pete Rose to take a tombstone but I agree that the way they did the payoff with Kane (and I loved the "I wouldn't bet on it" line) seemed to fit if Rose isn't able to take a bump.

It was nice to see Bret Hart (my cousin's a big fan and I only saw him live once or twice when I was younger) and he cut a good promo. I expected Vince to get over on him with an attack of some kind to put the heat back on Vince before Sunday but the subtle hint he dropped on the ramp might have even worked better. It definitely plants questions.

Without knowing all of what Smackdown will be showing on Friday it's hard to say just how the show will look, but Jericho cut a nice promo and they led well into the upcoming match with Edge. There were a couple promos I expected to see that didn't happen and wrestlers that weren't in action for Smackdown itself, so I wonder if we'll see something backstage instead. They might have had them take it easy with the last few days heading into WrestleMania with the taping basically a week before the event.

Either way, we had a good time.

Pete Rose the baseball player- one of the greatest.
Pete Rose since his playing days- a real dud. He brought down an otherwise entertaining show.
I wonder how many wrestling fans tuned away like I did from the Cena-Batista name-calling segment to enjoy the Jeff Hardy/RVD vs Beer Money match. I thought that was one of the few head-on matchups that TNA won hands-down.
I think if WWE is smart, the Orton babyface push will be short-lived, just long enough to make another heel turn effective. Orton, like Batista, really shines as a heel.
Dusty Rhodes possessed arguably the best mic skills in wrestling. Ironic that Cody Rhodes shows none of his father's mannerisms yet has also turned into one of the best on the mic using a completely different style. The guy has really become one of the top workers in the business.

Triple H was the face-in-peril for much of his match...yet if you read some of the internet stuff he NEVER puts himself in a situation that makes him look bad.

Kev, I just got done watching Raw since I TVO'd it and watched Impact Live. I always buy Wrestlemania not matter what. In my opinion Raw was nothing special but Impact BLEW IT AWAY.

I am looking forward to mania only for the Undertaker and HBK match which should be awesome. I am not interested and feel that it is a waste to see Vince "the Senior Citizen" vs Brett "the Half Cripple" match; but I guess all the marks out there will enjoy it. I find it ironic and hypocritical that this match taking place is ok with people when all the marks including yourself complain about having to see Hall, Flair, Hogan and Nash in the ring.

RESPONSE FROM KE: Bret has come in for a match that people have wanted to see for 12 years and is on the biggest show of the year. That's a lot different that being a contracted talent with prominent spots on the show.

With the lack of airtime lately on the RAW Guest Hosts, why not just pick someone from the audience? Kind of like the McMahon Money giveaway? For a show lasting 125 minutes, the guset host have been shown for 15 minutes? What a WASTE of Money!

How fitting was it that Shawn no-sold that video package on his career as if to say, "Either way, I'm NOT retiring".

As much as I've loved the Taker/Shawn buildup, I can't help but notice that there really has been little emphasis on the 'career' aspect. Sure the announcers talked about it this past Monday, but remember when Flair's career was presumed to be coming to an end? I swore if I heard that 'Leave the Memories Alone' career tribute song one more time I'd swallow a bullet.

They should just say what they really mean and call it Shawn's spring Schedule vs. The Streak.

I'm actually starting to think that Swagger is becoming a babyface. The MITB tag match set for Smackdown has the teams of Kane, Drew Mcintytre, Dolph Ziggler, Matt Hardy, and Shelton Benjamin vs. Christian, Evan Bourne, MVP, Kofi Kingston, and Jack Swagger. While there are babyfaces on both teams it seems like Swagger is on the clear cut babyface team. Maybe I'm looking into this to much but maybe that explains why he was not as cocky as usual on the mic.

"WWE is doing as good a job as possible in convincing fans that Michaels has a legitimate chance to win Sunday. …"

Cheers for the spoiler, Kev

With Mania coming up this weekend my interest in WWE tv has been pretty low. The PPV matches are laid out which means there will be no big surprises and guys will be pointing at the WrestleMania banner over and over again. Since I’m a big Pete Rose fan I made a point to check out RAW after I was done watching Impact. For the first time since the guest host era began, I was disappointed that the guest host didn’t get more air time. My guess is that they wanted to hammer on the PPV bouts which is perfectly understandable. The “earthquake” joke was tasteless, I wonder if that was on Pete or on the writers? I have to agree about Big Shows mic work, I don’t recall ever hearing him sound so fluent and confident. R-Truth needs a little more practice, his commentary was painful. If he picks that up then the sky is the limit. The Batista-Cena Mania match should be good, their feud has been intriguing and I want to see how it turns out. That’s a big change from last year’s Orton-HHH feud.

I'm so thankful their is no diva's match on the Mania card this yr.

Hey Kev, since it has been 12 years (& not everyone has seen the match)..don't you think it would make sense if the WWE showed the match in its entirety Shawn Michaels vs Bret Hart in Montreal ? Besides being a classic match will remind people what went down...Behind the Mat had good coverage of that post match as well(though I know Vince detested that movie)

McMahon's ace in the hole: Hornswoggle.

I agree for the most part on this week's Raw. It was so strong in fact that I only switched over to TNA once and when I saw Hogan and Abyss coming down the ring, I immediately switched the channel back and never looked back.

This will be the first Wrestlemania that I will watch live since XX, thanks to a co-worker of mine who is buying the ppv.

Eck: I was going to read your review w/out watching raw and was going to buy Wrestlemania... I decided against reading your review until after I watch the Raw replay on saturday night on Universal Tv. Those first couple of paragraphs changed my mind on reading, so I look forward to seeing the show on saturday and reading your review and Wrestlemania picks on sunday... Also as I am not going to read this til sunday, do you see any chance of HBK beating Taker... I realize Taker has the streak, but as an HBK mark like you, I cant help but have the same feeling I had last yr that HBK will beat Taker

There's always a few linesevery Raw in which you and I think the same. As soon as Batista said those lines I too thought of Clubber in Rocky III. I'm certain he just watched the film. I did see that it was on Sunday night on Showtime. The reason I think he just watched it is because he forced the "paper champion" line. Rock was the champ when Clubber said that to him in the stairwell before their first fight. Dave is the champ, not Cena.

Prior to WM 25 I did not like Cena nor Batista. Cena gradually won me over this past year. And I never in a million years would have thought I would have interest in Dave's character but he has been a great heel. It's a shame he wasted so many years as a face. His mic skills are night and day when he has that mean streak. Those two, in my book, have jumped to another level and have won my respect as a fan.

Forgot one thing about Batista's promo:

I loved this part:

"You all mean nothing to me. I'm here to win titles, here to make money. When I look at you I don't see fans. I don't even see people.

I see money, money, money, money. Dollar signs, dollar signs, dollar signs, dollar signs. With some of you, a lot of dollar signs because I see a lot of fat people in the audience and I know you paid for two seats. Thank you very much!"

Cheap heat, but it had me ROLLING. Also loved him cracking on Cena's catch phrases.

Kev I got a question: Do you know if the Undertaker ever submitted in a match before? Disregard the so called submissions against CM Punk, he obviously didn't there. But if he really never did then imagine how crazy it would be for HBK to both end the streak and do it with a submission hold. That type of scenario might work...or Triple H coming in to spoil the party and start a feud going between him and Shawn= it's still a possibility in my eyes.

I've got a little problem with the Kane-Michaels match myself. It was supposed to be a no DQ match, but Michaels applied several submission's that were broken when kane grabbed the rope. Unless there has been some undisclosed rule change, then grabbing the rope shouldn't have broken the holds. That's just poor match planning. If that had happened once then fair enough, but it happened three times by my count, as well as cole and lawler making references to this 'new' dimension to michaels' game. Someone really should have picked up on that beforehand.

As for Swagger, from his answers i reckon he'd be much better as a babyface. His responses were far too polite and gentle (which i suspect may be his natural response).

Finally, I'm really impressed with Big Show's improvement on the mic. He seems a lot more confident and far better at improvising. I guess hanging around with Jericho and the Miz (2 of the most charismatic superstars around today) has really paid off.

Overall though, a really good show.

Kev, will you be doing the live updates of each match this year for Wrestlemania? I'm in Australia and working while Wrestlemania is on .. I'll really appreciated it last year. Cheers

RESPONSE FROM KE: Not sure about that.

I'm torn as to who will win, UT or HBK.
I can't see HBK losing two in a row yet I can see HBK losing so he can go on another 4 month vacation in order to rest up. I just can't see how this match will go.

"Who would have ever thought that Batista’s promo skills – not Cena’s – would carry a segment involving the two of them?"

_________________________________

I would have. When Big Dave speaks, he at least sounds realistic. Cena, by contrast, seems to have developed his promo style by watching The Muppet Show, Loony Toons, and that clown from Garfield and Friends. Forty-nine times out of fifty, he is awful on the mic.

Do you think Pete Rose will come back this sunday to get his revenge on Kane? Maybe cost him MITB. It's been 10 years since the last time he showed up at Wrestlemania..why not one more time?

Eye candy for only 60 seconds? The point is that you get but a taste of it and are left wanting more.

Now the folks at the arena got a little more eye candy than those watching on TV but not nearly enough. It's all part of the one ring circus.

Regarding the 'you cant wrestle' chants what gives you the right to say that these people don't know about wrestling. I always read your blog as I find it very interesting, and think you 'hit the nail on the head' with most things, but on more than one occasion, your comments strike me as someone who is a bias towards certain wrestlers and if someone says something against that wrestler you seem to become deeply annoyed by it. Some of your comments could be viewed as someone who 'doesn't know about wrestling', but I don't pull you up as everyone is entitled to their own opinion . I would like a reply as I would like to know your thoughts on this.

Randy

RESPONSE FROM KE: I can say that they don't know anything about wrestling because it is obvious that if they did they would know that Cena can wrestle. How many good to very good matches does this guy have to have (against a wide variety of opponents) before some people get it? Cena may not be the greatest technical wrestler of all time, but he knows how to work.

If those fans want to chant "you can't wrestle" at The Great Khali or Kozlov or Brian Knobs or Lacey Von Erich, that's understandable, but they make themselves look stupid by doing it with Cena. If they don't like his act, chant "Cena sucks" or boo him, but don't ignore what's obvious to anyone who understands the art of wrestling.

As to what gives me the right to say they don't understand the business -- 36 years of watching wrestling, being a student of the business and learning from those inside the business.

Hey Kev, I just came across this article from a website stating Michaels' plans post-WM. I don't know where they got this rumor. But either way, I'm fine with whatever HBK wants to do after WM26.

Can you share your thoughts? Do you know if this site is a reliable source?

http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/article/major-exclusive-hbks-post-wrestlemania-plans-revealed-98831

RESPONSE FROM KE: I did a phone interview with Michaels last week. A story on him and a Q&A will be published later this week. He spoke with me about the possibility of retiring, so you'll get it straight from his mouth.

Thanks for answering my previous post Kevin. NOT :(

RESPONSE FROM KE: I don't recall Undertalker ever submitting, but I'm not 100 percent certain that he hasn't.

'As to what gives me the right to say they don't understand the business -- 36 years of watching wrestling, being a student of the business and learning from those inside the business'.

The above comments tells me everything I need to know. Thank you.

Randy

Love the blog. Batista has improved a lot...I never really liked his face character as it sometimes got bland (besides his classic feud with 'Taker). That is not completely his fault, as sometimes his booking on SmackDown was rather boring. But now he has a hot storyline to work with and is taking advantage of it. And completely agree on Cena - not the greatest wrestler, obviously, but the guy has had some tremendous matches in his career and the fans who chant that sound foolish and clueless. I think they are more frustrated with his goodie two shoe character and want him to turn heel, as the Internet smarks loved him back when he was rude and rapping. I'm looking forward to Batista-Cena a ton, they've really built this match up perfectly.

Curious to see how the Hart-McMahon match plays out, not expecting much except a nice story to be told. Can't wait for the show.

this was a good show - but it was standard compared to the attitude era etc. its not just wwe, but its the whole world society. everything is so commercial and watered down. RAW is 50% commercial breaks - 50 product.
ill make the example with the Divas. they never do anything! the kim and mcCool action was ppv quality i thought - but uner 1 minute? really?

i guess there is a flipside - hopefully the wwe is useing that extra wealth to give back to the world, and pay their superstars/divas releiving them of injury & stress... i guess thats good

I hadn't thought about Christian winning MITB, but I have to say as a long time observer- I'd be VERY interested in a an angle involving Christian cashing in MITB and beating Edge thus begining a program culminating at SummerSlam...

"I've got a little problem with the Kane-Michaels match myself. It was supposed to be a no DQ match, but Michaels applied several submission's that were broken when kane grabbed the rope. Unless there has been some undisclosed rule change, then grabbing the rope shouldn't have broken the holds. That's just poor match planning. If that had happened once then fair enough, but it happened three times by my count, as well as cole and lawler making references to this 'new' dimension to michaels' game. Someone really should have picked up on that beforehand. "

I've actually noticed this in many No-DQ matches. I think the participants (including the ref) just take the stip for granted. I do recall watching a match with the stip and when the ref called for a rope break, the one doing the hold just yelled at the ref "what are you gonna do? disqualify me?" and it just worked so well.

BTW, Eck, I recall a few weeks back that you had an idea about how the ShawnTaker match will turn out but didn't wanna talk about it until we were closer to Wrestlemania. Well, it's only a few days away. Wanna let us in on this?

Bret has come in for a match that people have wanted to see for 12 years and is on the biggest show of the year.

And which has already been booked and sold as a major part of the PPV card.

Now, ask yourself again why he might be able to get away with cracking on Shane's departure.

I'm a huge TNA fan. I stopped watching WWE before Eddie Guerrero's stupid heel turn that was then preceded by his untimely and sad death. But in the recent few weeks I have started and dear I say lost all faith in TNA. Hulk Hogan is taking it to the dogs. Meanwhile WWE are pulling out all the stops for WrestleMania. As much as I hate to say it reading your review RAW sounds better than this weeks iMPACT! But having said that pre-Hogan and Russo as Head Writer when I switched over mid-way through the past decade I felt TNA had a better product. The main events featured proper heavyweights whilst they had the X-Division provide the excitement. The heavyweight matches were well thought methodical matches, not earth shatteringly great but great psychology. They had legends/ old guys who could actually wrestle like Sting, JJ, Angle. But in 2008 they began the downward curve. It was only invigorated by Sting's return and run as champion. But Russo then dropped that like a hot potato because he didn't know where to take it. Now with Hogan running the Ship it's the Hogan show and if WWE keeps this up Dixie Carter may want to consider getting rid of Hogan!

Very good RAW this week. I thought the HBK-Taker build up was right on the money. Although I'm not sure why the ref was breaking holds when Kane got to the ropes. I can't wait for this match.

Kev, I'm also looking forward to your HBK interview.

Batista- Cena actually has me interested mainly because of Batista's change in character. Cena can wrestle by the way. Watch the Cena-HBK WM match or the Raw the night after where they went at it for almost an hour for proof.

I thought it would have been cool to let Pete Rose make the decision that Stu was going into the WWE Hall of Fame because he knows what it's like to be screwed out of baseballs Hall of Fame.

I'm still not crazy about Orton or HHH's matches but the RAW handicap match was booked very well.

I won't be disappointed there isn't a divas match. The only diva I'd want to see wrestle is Mickie anyway. Just because there is no match dosent mean we won't see any "eyecandy". I'm sure there will be back- stage segments and some ring time for the girls to be seen, just not on the card.

Re: Undertaker submitting I seem to remember him tapping out to Angle during the Invasion angle in 2001. That's why the IWC was p----- off that Michael Cole kept on saying that Undertaker had never tapped during his World title match against Angle at No Way Out 2006.

The whole Cena can't wrestle stuff is just silly now because he has consistent with his match quality these days. The only ones that sucked was Big Show and JBL (heck even Michaels struggled to get a passable match out of him so you can't blame Cena!).

Great show but was majorly dissapointed with how R-Truth and Swagger came off so poor on commentary. Big Show came up with some wicked lines ('see those belts. that's the closest you'll ever get'). It also makes you realise how much the Miz has improved and maybe he was the charisma of Miz & Morrison (anyone else remember the hilarious commentating between them and Cryme Tyme during a pointless Diva's match?).

Kevin, have you heard anything about Golberg trying to come back to WWE? Maybe doing a run in at Mania?

RESPONSE FROM KE: Haven't heard that.

Batista has really come into his own in his current heel role. Too bad he's on the wrong side of 40 and may retire within the next few years.

No mention of the Uke?? C'mon, Kev ...

Raw did a good job of promoting the HBK/Undertaker match and Cena/Batista match.

However, I still can't get excited about the McMahon/Hart match.

Maybe it's because I know that it's going to be a fiasco?

Maybe it's because I know that it doesn't mean as much as some fans think it will (some are going as far as to say that this is actual payback for Hart as if the match was real or something)?

i love your blogs Kev and I visit this site at least once a day. Can anyone tell me what the deal is with the number of times that the cross symbol turns up on wrestler's outfits? John Morrison's shades, Ray Mysterio's mask and Michelle McCool's outfit was covered in them oh and I think Batista had one on his belt buckle. That's just off the top of my head. Is it a religious thing or what? Anyone have an opinion ? What about it Kev?

RESPONSE FROM KE: With Michaels, McCool and Mysterio the crosses have religious significance. Morrison, I'm not sure.

Thanks for the info Kev. It would be really great at Mania if ............... Bourne won MITB, Ziggler and / or Swagger became faces, Cena turns heel, HHH totally destroys Sheamus, McIntyre gets humiliated and Hart does a number( for real )on McMahon. Oh well I can dream. Seriously I hope there will be at least one surprise otherwise as great as these matches have been booked I am afraid that the winners are a bit obvious. Anyway, Kev just one last thought. Is there any chance of your column being syndicated over here in a UK newspaper? Maybe UK fans can get up an Internet petition on Facebook or some such!