3/28 Hermanstyne's WWE Raw and Smackdown in Chicago: My first WWE event in Chicago since 2009, The Rock and HBK returns, The Road Warriors are finally in the Hall of Fame, Smackdown (spoilers)


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WWE Live Events


3/28 Hermanstyne's WWE Raw and Smackdown in Chicago: My first WWE event in Chicago since 2009, The Rock and HBK returns, The Road Warriors are finally in the Hall of Fame, Smackdown (spoilers)
Mar 29, 2011 - 03:14 AM


By Marv Hermanstyne

Today, was a crazy day because it wasn’t until 4:00pm (CT) that I made a decision to go to this event. I am already going to Wrestlemania 27 on Thursday, so I decided to be greedy and dish out some extra cash to attend this show. I arrived right before Raw started live because of traffic and I didn’t care for the NXT and Superstars tapings.

But anyway, Raw started with the hometown guy, C.M. Punk sitting in the middle of the ring and he cut an effective promo about what he did to Randy Orton last week. The Chicago crowd of course was red-hot for this show and this segment really help Punk get some heat going into his match against Orton at WM 27. Orton did look clunky by selling the leg injury, but something needed to be done since Orton basically destroyed the Nexus over the past month. Edge and Christian reunited in the back and they would face Alberto Del Rio and Brodus Clay in the opening match for Raw.

1. Edge and Christian defeated Alberto Del Rio and Brodus Clay. Above average match to start the show. I know a lot of people including the current staff hates that Clay is jobbing every show, but he has to pay his dues. I didn’t like his character at first because was in NXT and the only guy I care about is Wade Barrett. There is some money in Brodus Clay, but he will need to be rebuilt if he keeps doing jobs. Yes, it sounds contradictory on my part but the big men in WWE are fossils and they need more big guys like him to become a legitimate force.

The six-person tag match at WM 27 was hyped and they talked about Snooki and Trish Stratus hanging out at a bar in New Jersey. This did NOT come out well live because people were sitting on their hands. The GM Chime kicked in and of course we got bickering between The King and Michael Cole. Cole got a ton of heat from the hometown crowd but it wasn’t the biggest heat of the night. Cole read the email from his “I-Pad” and the GM said that The King and Jack Swagger has to face each other. Afterwards, we got a excellent video package between Taker and Triple H. This had the crowd hooked and hot.

2. Santino Marella defeated Justin Gabriel. This match was a clunker because the crowd was hot for Santino but it was clearly a throwaway match. Gabriel should not be jobbing to the likes of Santino to be perfectly honest. And what made the segment worse was that The Corre has to face Kane, Big Show, Santino and Kozlov...why in the hell are in this match and Kofi Kingston is not in this match? I expect the Corre to get this win because it would make logical sense and we don’t need another faction getting buried (i.e The New Nexus). Wow, Wade Barrett won the IC title? How come this wasn’t made to be important?

The show got good when Taker and Hunter made their entrances. Taker’s pyro is usually the hottest...I know because I usually have floor seats but I had to settle to lower level because of the last minute decision. Hunter came out to a slightly bigger pop and suddenly...HBK music hits. Everyone thought is was a gag and HBK got a standing ovation from the Chicago Crowd. After further review that was a kick ass segment that kept the crowd hot and hungry.

3. Jack Swagger and Jerry Lawler ended in a DQ. The crowd died down during this quick match, but popped when Lawler beat the crap out of Swagger with the chair. Cole taunting King in the Cole Mine was classic...it had me laughing. Keri Hilson is scheduled to sing at WM 27...Keri got ZERO HEAT from the crowd. I know its Atlanta, but she’s not a favorite artist of mine.

Vickie Guerrero doing John Morrison’s entrance was freaking hilarious...she has really dropped some weight and she is getting her legs back. No drinking was done at this event, it was clearly observation. But when it came to her introducing Dolph, I couldn’t hear NOTHING because her heat was deafening. Kudos to the Chicago crowd for the extended heat session.

4. Sheamus and Dolph Ziggler defeated John Morrison and Daniel Bryan. This was a fair match for the time that was allotted. I didn’t like the fact that Bryan jobs to the Sheamus when they have to face each other on Sunday. I had a feeling that Bryan would be treated like crap...he needs to move to Smackdown because his tenure on Raw has consisted of choking an announcer, getting fired, getting rehired, having a meaningless US title reign and now just another mid-carder on Raw.

The last members of the HOF Class of 2011 is the The Road Warriors...this is why I was always a fan of tag team wrestling because as a kid, I watched the AWA, WWF and Windy City Wrestling shows. Tag Team wrestling has clearly died presently, but its about time these guys gotten in the HOF. Only me and people over 25 knew who they were while the kids were sitting on their hands. Back to the bar, Trish and Snooki got into an altercation with LayCool and I actually wanted to nod off. Hopefully this match is no longer than ten minutes and WWE can milk off the fact that they have Snooki on their biggest show of the year. And why does Trish Stratus become just another Diva? She is one of the best Divas of all time and she’s involved in this junk? Le sigh...

The final segment of Raw was epic and the crowd still had energy for this. The Rock got the biggest pop of the night...it was electric! The Rock cut his usual promo which had me dying laughing and was just ripping Cena apart and suddenly, Cena comes out and deflates the crowd. I’ll say this again, CHICAGO is very Anti-Cena! It was a lot of Cena Sucks, F--- You Cena, You Can’t Wrestle chants were all over the arena. Cena started to counter The Rock’s words and The Miz came out and made the segment better. Things got physical and The Rock brought the People’s Elbow and a DDT out of this world. Cena pissed the crowd off by hitting an AA to the Rock and 90% of the crowd was booing him...even KIDS. Yes, KIDS. I was confused because I thought this was the official heel turn for Cena, but this could be planting the seeds to one.

Overall, this was a hot show. WM 27 will be a showcase which I will have the pleasure to watch. I have went to the major PPVs except WM, so I will take advantage of this opportunity which I been planning for months. Cena needs to turn heel because they will piss a lot of fans off if the Rock does not get his revenge and Cena wins the title. I will leave my predcitions for a column that I will whip up later this week.

Smackdown Taping:

This wasn’t really a showcase of the week and Chris Shore and Jake Barnett will have a easy week as far as live coverage. It was only two matches taped for TV and the rest of the show will consist of WM 27 Axxxcess event coverage. But for quick results:

1. Kofi Kingston defeated Wade Barrett in a Intercontinetal Championship rematch. Nothing memorable about this match because the crowd was leaving during the match because of the burnout. They had to sit through NXT, Superstars and a Raw that had a long overrun. The Corre interfered and Big Show, Kane, Santino and Kozlov came out for the save.

Jerry Lawler has a short promo about Cole...pretty concise on how he wants to kick Cole’s ass on Sunday

2. Cody Rhodes defeated Chris Masters. This was a short match which Rhodes got the win and Rey tried to take Cody out at the end. This match between Rey and Cody should be a sleeper match going into Mania. Why do I have a feeling this could be the opening match? But I will talk more about this match later this week....subsqunetally, that was the end of the taping.

The Dark Match Main Event was Rey Mysterio, Edge, John Cena and Randy Orton defeating The Miz, Alberto Del Rio, Cody Rhodes and C.M. Punk. Punk got the crowd (that was left) to say Cena Sucks chants. And the match lasted about 6-7 minutes until Alberto Del Rio took finishers from all the babyfaces to close the night.

I will be keeping track of all my activities while I am in Atlanta for WM 27 weekend, so feel free to follow me on: Twitter @ MarvoKnowsBest. If my connections come along, I may check out the ROH shows and keep you notified on what other things to do in ATL if you are coming. Enjoy the week and I’ll chat with ya later this week....

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