Wrestling Wrap Up: RAW Was Better Than WrestleMania

JBL: "They'll never chant for Michael Cole, I guarantee you that!"

What a madhouse 48 hours it's been. Going into last night's RAW I figured my headline would be something incendiary like "Rock No-Shows RAW" or "Rock Walks Out," but little did I know that my story would simply be RAW itself.

Having grown up in New York, I had high hopes for this crowd, which was a mix of NJ, NY and wrestling fans who traveled far and wide to come to WrestleMania, but I didn't think they'd outright steal the show.  Last year's post-Mania RAW crowd was also great, but the crowd at last year's Mania itself was great too.  This year, the WrestleMania crowd was either dead or dampened by the size of the stadium, so the contrast between RAW and 'Mania was freakin' amazing.

Also, last year's 'Mania was great and this year's was somewhat tedious.  No, it wasn't terrible, it just played it too safe.  There were no big, unexpected moments.  I found merit in Triple H vs. Brock and Rock vs. Cena, and they even had a few good spots in them, but they just didn't connect.  No one's overtly rooting for Triple H anymore and the Cena/Rock match, while ending the story, ended it in a boring manner, with way too many finishers and reversals of finishers.  But I'll leave most of the WrestleMania s*** out of this Wrap Up.  I already did a WrestleMania live-blog/results page here!

Taker vs. Punk was awesome though.  Not enough to save the whole show unfortunately. I think the equation states that you need at least two great bouts to make a good Mania.  Last year we got three, so we went into this year a bit spoiled.  At least the "Panicked Patrick" meme made it's way onto the broadcast...

Yes, kids. Feel safe in knowing that the latest internet photoshop craze was represented at MetLife Stadium. Hold that in your heart and let it warm you.

Anyhow, there was no Smackdown last week and I didn't get a chance to watch TNA (not saying I won't, I just haven't yet), so this Wrap Up'll be short and sugary.  Usually, I don't even plan on doing a Wrap Up coming out of 'Mania but the IZOD RAW must be documented.  Someone needs to put a recording of it in one of those time capsules that kids bury with the hopes that some future generation (i.e. alien overlords) will dig it up and get a kick out of the past.  Just put that in with some turkey jerky and a bottle of cabernet and Flarzak and Blipnor will be sittin' pretty.

So, first thing's f***in' last...

As it turns out, he was here, in fact, to show the world.

Holy hell.  What a great moment.  The right time with the right crowd. We were all clamoring for it to happen at 'Mania, but that's just because we wanted something to happen.  And if you believe the Examiner story about The Rock, then Rock was supposed to win the Main Event and Ziggler was going to cash in on him.  That's a little hard to gulp down, I think.  I'm willing to buy that the WWE might have been willing to ignore the rule about Ziggler only being able to cash in on the WHC, but there's no way I thought Rock would win and then Ziggler would get to be the star of the entire WrestleMania.  That sounds like someone's diary.

But yes, it happened last night.  In a much better environment, if you ask me.  Ziggler cashed in on an injured Del Rio and won the belt.  And not only did the moment put a title on a guy we all appreciate and enjoy, but it effectively obliterated Zeb and Swagger's whole "that Mexican stole your job" angle.  Which is tremendous because, given what he said at 'Mania, Zeb's about two promos away from telling us the holocaust is a lie.

And while I definitely want to know more about Ziggler's lasagna-cooking prowess, I bet Big E.'s glad this happened since it took all the attention away from his unintentional tit-thwap on AJ from earlier that night.

And not only did Ziggler win gold, but Wade Barrett, who didn't even get his entrance shown on RAW, won back the Intercontinental Title that he lost to The Miz during Mania's pre-show.  Was this always the plan, or did they switch the finish based on last night's pro-Barrett crowd?  Seems odd, and yet it makes me happy so I shant question it.  And not that Barrett needed to suck up to the crowd sine they were chanting for him from the get go, but I'm sure his Cactus Jack made them swoon...

As you can probably easily tell, this is going to be a shorter, more picture-riddled Wrap Up than usual.  It's a structure born out of both laziness and the fact that I want to show you a lot of cool things. It's like when my son takes his Skylanders to school.  Except gifs don't break and make him throw a tantrum in the mud.

More from the RAW crowd in Jersey, plus Fandango 3:16, on page 2...

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