Raw Notebook: April 14th, 2014

Back to reality that another Wrestlemania has come and gone. Add in the fact the WWE wanted to do a tribute to the Ultimate Warrior and your New Word Champion is on his honeymoon it was a lot to deal with. It led to a show that tried but pretty much failed for the most part.

The one thing they didn’t fail at was the tribute to the Warrior that I felt that was not as over the top as I feared it could be. A nice tribute off the top of the show and a nice tribute by the Uso’s both wearing half of Warrior face paint in their match. Some video packages sprinkled through the show and a bit of some tacky promotion for “Warrior Week” on the WWE Network. I was a little uncomfortable personally with the use of the Warrior's speech from last week. I understand using it but I think for a lot of folks it had to be a little disturbing.

The other takeaways from the show included the most unique exchanges between two wrestlers in a long time. I thought the build to Bray Wyatt and John Cena was one of the best heading into Wrestlemania. The match itself did not get the live reaction that you would have thought. I still felt the match was good however despite that. Clearly this feud was set to continue and we got confirmation of that tonight.

Bray Wyatt would call out John Cena to the ring claiming to want to have fun. This came after proclaiming that John Cena was still lying to us all. Cena would come out and cut the most awful promo with terrible photo shopped props on the big screen. John Cena is not funny and when he tries to be funny it leads to some of the worst he has ever cut in his life. When he was the heel and cool rapper gimmick his humour was somewhat tolerable but in his current role it is just jokes that are made to make kids pop and I don’t even think the kids do. But Bray Wyatt to his credit called John out for his terrible comedy routine and this all would lead to the announcement of Steel Cage match between the two at Extreme Rules.

Daniel Bryan was not around so this show would focus around The Shield. Triple H said to Orton and Batista that they needed to focus on The Shield and take care of that problem. Orton and Batista failed to agree and later in the night would get swarm attacked by the Shield during a match with Usos. Triple H and Steph greeted the two backstage and basically Triple H said simply I told you so. Later in the night it would be announced against mystery opponents in the main event.  It turned into some sort of 11 on 3 farce of a match that would lead to Evolution reformed minus Ric Flair down to the ring to beat down The Shield. The Crowd reaction was for the most part muted and unimpressed by the return of Evolution. Reaction online seemed much more positive than the live audience.

Stephanie also did her best impression of dad and laid into Kane. The end result of this Corporate Kane is dead and masked Kane is coming back and looking to take out the New World Champion Daniel Bryan. This apparently is the first program for Daniel Bryan which if this is case is pretty damn brutal start for the Daniel Bryan title reign.

This Raw was a major step backwards and not something that gets fans all that encouraged for the post mania stretch .Will see if the return of Bryan can save this whole thing returning next week.

Oh I  forgot one major thing the WWE’s latest attempt to make you think the Intercontinental Title means something with #1 contenders tournament with 8 participants.  It produced the match of the night with Ziggler against Barrett with Barrett getting the win. Other winners were Cesaro over Mark Henry, Sheamus over  Swagger and RVD over Del Rio.  I don’t think this tournament along will get over the I-C belt or the Champion Big-E (Langston) so I would think winner of this will become the champion. If they want to really get that person over they should challenge Dean Ambrose and unify the U.S and I-C Title.

Other things that happened of little note….Paige had a match with Alicia Fox and we had more promos for both Bo Dallas and Adam Rose. I love men in bunny suits losing at hungry hippos. It is awesome…this edition of Raw was not.

The Debut Of "The 10 Count"

Topic: 10 Things that will happen before Wrestlemania 31:

#10- Zack Ryder will be fired: His last resort will fail and he will no longer be part of the WWE. This roster is getting full of competition with so many stars on the rise. Zack Ryder had brief self made run that never really was suppose to happen without that he likely would have been fired long before now.

#9- Sami Zayn will be on the Main Roster: Why it hasn’t happened already is a good question but there is no way he remains in NXT for another year. It will not happen, this guy is just too talented and Triple H already sees it with having him in a match with Csearo as the first match to launch NXT on the network.

#8- U.S and I.C Titles will be Unified: Both these titles mean so little combining them and keeping the I-C Title will allow a chance to rehabilitate these dead championships. It is the only way to save them you need to kill one to make it happen. The U.S title is an old WCW belt and will be the one the bites the bullet.

#7- John Cena will NOT hold The WWE World Championship: First reason is he really doesn’t need it at this point. The second might be that do we really want to see John Cena replace Ric Flair as the mas with the most times as champion in wrestling history? Triple H’s idol is Ric Flair or at least one of them. If the Game himself didn’t break 16 times safe bet he is in no hurry to see Cena do this. In addition with all the new stars you could see battle for the belt that need it really makes no sense for Cena to have it.

#6- Paul Heyman will turn on Cesaro: We all know Paul Heyman guys never last other than one guy and that is Brock Lesnar the one in 21-1. So at some point expect Paul to turn his back on Cesaro leading to a Lesnar vs. Cesaro match at one of the major PPV’s (Sorry Special Events...WWE is killing term Pay-Per-View)  this year. It makes perfect sense and would be a great match to show off Cesaro’s freakish strength.

#5 Roman Reigns will be Mr. Money In the Bank: Everyone says he is the next big star and it is hard to debate he has all the tools to be. Getting the briefcase would be a great way to break him off into singles and maybe will be the ultimate reason for The Shield to finally break apart. It makes sense and so does the idea of Roman Reigns being a World Champion sometime within the next 18 months.

#4 Adam Cole will be signed by the WWE: If there is one guy out on the independent scene that I am going to bet on making it to the WWE it is this guy. I could see other guys like Kevin Steen, Mike Bennett also being in the WWE system. The safest bet is Adam Cole as he has a style of wrestling that already looks like a WWE wrestler to some extent. His run with the ROH title has been tremendous and like many other former ROH Champions he will make his way to the WWE this year.

#3 WWE Commentary Will Change For Raw and Smackdown: They are working to hard at developing broadcasters to not shake things up on commentary on Raw and Smackdown. It may not be change for the better depending on who they decide to run with but the King, Cole and JBL show is getting old fast. J.R is not walking back through that door it would seem so WWE needs another answer.

#2 Batista will not finish his WWE Contract: His return has been horrible and he will have options to do movies and other things so I don’t think he makes it to Wrestlemania 31. He really doesn’t need to be bothered with WWE and his in ring skills are not at level they were 4 years ago. Bye Bye Batista we never wanted you back to begin with.

#1 Rey Mysterio Will Be Done with WWE:  When you can't even get your baby face pop that you have had for decades and your body is breaking down it is time to go. Rey’s contract is set to expire in the summer and I do not think the WWE will offer him another one. Well, at Least not as an in ring competitor. As mentioned this roster is getting pretty full and Rey will be one of the first to realize the youth movement is underway in the WWE.

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IWC Podcast: Wrestlemania Preview w/ Special Guest Jimmy Korderas

Wrestlemania 30 is just days away and we have a special guest on the program long time WWF/E Official Jimmy Korderas and currently part of Aftermath on Sportsnet 360. I speak with Jimmy about the roles of refs in wrestling, preview Wrestlemania 30, some exciting news for Aftermath viewers and a cool Randy Savage story. That and a whole lot more as we discuss the future of wrestling and where the WWE is heading. Chris Walder is also on the show my regular co-host as we make our Wrestlemania picks and talk some news from the week leading into Wrestlemania.


Thanks to Jimmy for joining us and here is a link to the article he wrote on Undertaker's Streak. For all the stuff on WWE at Sportsnet you can check it out here. Also if you have not a got a copy of Jimmy's Book: The Three Count: My Life in Stripes as a WWE Referee here is link to order it on Amazon.ca. Thanks so much to Jimmy for taking the time out to talk some wrestling with us it was much appreciated.

For folks that might have just found us please give us a like on Facebook to keep up to date with all the is going on in the Condo on The Moon. All that being said enjoy Wrestlemania and all the great events and content that is provides for wrestling fans.