Monday Night Raw & Then Some- Two Weeks Away From Wrestlemania.

It's only two weeks until Wrestlemania, and Monday Night Raw is getting better than ever.

Triple H came out to open the show, speaking briefly about his upcoming match with the Undertaker, he put it perfectly when he said it would be the defining moment in both of their distinguished careers. This match has got to be the single most exciting bout ever, the Undertaker could either lose his undefeated streak or continue with the greatest legacy in sports entertainment. During Triple H's in-ring promo, Ted DiBiase Jr. comes out and blabs about how he has become an afterthought. One, no one honestly cares what he has to say, and two, there is no real explanation as to why he is challenging him. I personally think that since Legacy broke up, DiBiase has become a sort of joke within the company. I haven't seen him really do anything of any substance for a while. He of course gets beaten to a pulp by Hunter and then that's the end of that segment.

The first match of the broadcast is Evan Bourne versus Sheamus, who I can't stand, as I have stated in numerous posts. It was a pretty quick match with a somewhat predictable outcome, seeing as Bourne beat Sheamus last time and Sheamus has just won the United States title belt. Daniel Bryan comes out and invokes his rematch clause and challenges the human block of cream cheese at Wrestlemania XXVII. Hopefully the WWE officials give these two time to shine, it will be a refreshing addition to an already amazing card. The matches were pretty solid, Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel retained their tag titles against Santino Marella and Vladamir Kozlov, Eve retained her title against Maryse, and the inter gender-handicapped-tag team match was inspired. As much as I don't like Vickie Gurerro, it is a good build for the Wrestlemania confrontation. Not much wrestling time on the broadcast but it was quality.

My big issue with this week was, once again, Michael Cole. I do realize that they want us all to not stop talking about him, generating even more buzz for the most annoying person every to be handed a microphone. He should NOT be interrupting a match to flap his lips. I'm not a huge fan of women's wrestling right now but they deserve the same adulation and respect that the men get while competing in the ring. I would also like to personally congratulate Eve Torres for slapping Cole, as so many members of the WWE universe have wanted to do for the past several weeks. Once again, he is attempting (and very poorly) to humiliate Jerry Lawler. I don't know who signed off on this monstrosity but he once again goes for Jerry's deceased parents. It might be bringing in the ratings but it crosses the boundaries of good taste, there's a fine line in building hype for a match and just taking it a step too far. It doesn't take a genius to see what side of that line this falls on. Once again, Jerry gets attacked by both Swagger and Cole. Like no one saw that coming, the fans can't wait for him to get his comeuppance in two weeks at Wrestlemania.

Can I also ask what the hell was with his portrayal of Jim Ross? Not even chuckle worthy, just plain stupid.

We once again saw another promo video for Sin Cara. He looks like a worthy adversary and I, for one, am glad that the WWE is starting to bring in some high flyer's. It will be interesting to see what brand he will be on once he makes his official debut with the company. Speaking of video promos, the one hyping the Taker/Triple H bout was extremely well done. It was very interesting to see the career highlights of both individuals and to hear what their fellow colleagues/adversaries/friends had to say about each person and how they think the match is going to go. Something tells me that everyone in the arena and at home is going to be glued to the television for this one.

Another build featured on the broadcast this week was John Cena and the Miz (with the Rock thrown into the middle of course!). John announces that next week, on the final show before the big event, that he will come face to face with Dwayne Johnson. It will be interesting to see how the two interact while in the same ring, as opposed to exchanging extremely funny barbs back and forth. He also talks about the Miz, concerning his abilities and creativity by coming out dressed as the Rock and delivering an attack. The Miz also gets to cut his own promo in the ring, debuting the 'new' championship belt. Simply the same design with the 'W' flipped upside down. This had to be the stupidest thing I have ever seen in my entire wrestling watching life. What a bozo. What I did enjoy was when John Cena revealed that he was actually in the arena and would be paying a visit to both the Miz and Alex Riley in the ring. I was fooled because I thought he was still at home with a concussion, as it was reported that he had to undergo IMPACT testing, as per the WWE Health and Wellness Policy. Cena did take a jab at Rocky by saying that he wasn't via satellite, that he was here. That has bugged me since the Rock came back, he should have been making live appearances on a consistent basis. It was worth it to see the Miz cower while letting his protege take the beating. Will this have an effect on their match at Wrestlemania XXVII?

There are a few other points that I would like to discuss as well, mostly TNA related. What the hell is up with Jeff Hardy? I don't watch TNA at all, I do not enjoy the type of product that they produce but I do try to keep tabs on it as often as I can. I heard what happened in his last match with Sting, and can honestly say that I would be disgusted as a fan. This is not the first incident of this type with Hardy at an event, as he was almost stripped of the title at a TNA pay-per-view awhile back. All they offered fans for this debacle was 6 months of free access to their on-demand service, is Dixie Carter serious? There are clearly problems within the company as no one has yet to formally address the issues that Hardy is having, all he has gotten so far was being pulled from some upcoming events. There is clearly something wrong with him, that company, and their drug testing policy. There has been nothing that I have ever read about any health or wellness policy that TNA has, while WWE's policy and practices are available online, in full detail for anyone to view. I would like to try and find a copy of TNA's and actually review it to see how it measures up. This man is becoming such a huge liability for this company that he is going to just bring them down with him. Dixie Carter needs to smarten up, if it was my wrestling promotion, Hardy would be fired immediately. I honestly don't think that his popularity and ability to draw viewers is worth having him show up clearly unable to perform (as mentioned, this has happened on more than one occasion and i not an isolated incident.). They aren't only cheating the fans, they're cheating themselves out of having any sort of chance to be a decent wrestling promotion.

And finally, Chris Jericho made his debut on ABC's 'Dancing With the Stars' last night. I thought he did a great job on his cha cha with partner Cheryl Burke and look forward to seeing him dance as long as he's on the show. So wrestling fans, call/text/vote online to keep Chris and Cheryl on the show! All information for the show, registering to vote online, and those competing on the show can be found here.

Elmination Chamber and Monday Night Raw.

The Elimination Chamber and the much-anticipated 2-21-2011 mystery has come and gone. I'm a little late with my review of this one but better late than never. We'll start with the Elimination Chamber.

The opener of this pay-per-view was Alberto Del Rio vs. Kofi Kingston. I thought this was a pretty solid match and a great kick-off to the show. While not a huge Del Rio fan, I found that both competitors to be entertaining and Kofi is always amazing in the ring. Alberto Del Rio won, seems fitting due tot he fact that he will be headlining Wrestlemania this year. People are paying attention to him more and more, each victory is helping his push. It's good to see a Smackdown guy getting some attention.

As for the two chamber matches, I personally found the Smackdown match far more entertaining than the Raw one. Not to say that they both weren't good, but the Smackdown one had a certain element of unpredictability that the Raw one didn't.

For the Smackdown team, the Big Show was the suprise entrant. I find it great that he is getting opportunities like this because he has always been one of my favorite wrestlers, truly there to entertain everyone in attendance. He defiently was not there to win but to inflict pain on his competitiors, which he did. Kane seemed to fit the angry giant role as well, just out for destruction and to hurt. Drew McIntyre was like a caged animal, putting both Wade Barrett (who was on his first ever chamber match) and Rey Mysterio through a pod. The second best part of the match was when Edge and Mysterio were going back and forth at the end of the match, it was amazing to see the guys do that after taking a brutal beating inside of that massive structure. The absolute best of the match was when Christian made a surprise appearance and attacked Del Rio, I literally lost my freakin' mind. Christian is so entertaining and charismatic, he made it known that he is back and out for revenge. Along with many other fans, I am looking forward to seeing him back in the ring. As for the Raw brand match, I think it was fairly obvious that John Cena was going to win. Besides Cena winning and getting the title shot at Wrestlemania XXVII, the highlight of the match was John Morrison going all Spider Man on everyone and climbing the cage.

The biggest upset of the night was when Jerry Lawler lost to the Miz. I was cheering for Jerry the entire match and I was just speechless when he lost. Literally ran out of words, and for Michael Cole to do what he did during the match was EXTREMELY unprofessional. I don't care if it was an angle or not. Someone needs to send Vince McMahon a memo and get him removed from television.

This gross display continued onto Monday Night Raw and further disgusted me. Michael Cole took it a step too far when he brought Lawler's recently deceased mother into their little fued. My Dad and I were watching in complete shock. How could that even get through to tv? It was disgusting, despicable, and downright wrong. I sincerely hope that someone got disciplined for that one. Something like that should have never happened, on a television broadcast or otherwise.

Probably one of the biggest events in the history of the WWE happened on Monday night, both the Undertaker and Triple H returned and they cut one of the most amazing promos I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing, without uttering a single word. They cemented their match for Wrestlemania XXVII (rumored to be a Career vs. Streak match with Shawn Michaels as a guest referee) and brought back the type of excitement that has been somewhat lacking. The Undertaker was revealed as the person behind the 2-21-2011 promos (many - including myself - were hoping for Sting to come out) and made his slow walk down the ring and then BAM! Triple H's music starts and out he comes to stand toe to toe with the Phenom. I was anticipating the Undertaker returning for sure but when I heard Hunter's music I lost it. My Dad and I were freaking out and pounding on the table, the interaction between the two was simply awe-inspiring. If this was the only match at the entire pay-per-view, I would gladly pay whatever the cost just to watch it. It will be the top wrestling moment of the year, decade, pay-per-view, pretty much everything. You just don't get any better than an Undertaker match at Wrestlemania.

As for Sting, I was highly disappointed to learn today that he did resign with TNA. If he came to WWE, I personally believe that he would be an even bigger star than he was in WCW. I find TNA to be an inferior promotion, trying to hard to be as great as the WWE was during the attitude era. The attitude era is over, the PG era is taking over because, honestly, it is doing much better business. That topic is for another day and another blog posting.

2/21/11: What Does This Mean?

During the last episode of Monday Night Raw, there was a mysterious preview. It was a man walking into a cabin or shed of some sort, but you only ever saw his feet and a small portion of his jacket. At the end of the preview, the date 02/21/2011 was emblazoned across the screen. I'm sure I was not the only one that was confused by this, but what does this mysterious date mean exactly? I first noticed the question posted on the WWE Facebook page that asked what people thought was coming on the Monday Night Raw after the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. Then speculation just exploded, the two names that stuck out the most to me were Sting and Undertaker. Another name that popped up is Triple H, although I think that this is highly unlikely.

I almost immediately started looking into this and came up with some information but no definite answers.

At the first glance, I thought that this promo just REEKS of the Undertaker. During my research, the only inkling that the Dead Man was returning is a post on Wrestle Scoop's website that can be found here. The video has since been taken down and after extensive searching on the site, there is no other evidence that it is 100% the Undertaker. He is still recovering from an injury suffered months ago and it has been under speculation for a while as to when he will return, many are hoping in time for Wrestlemania. Another thing, Taker is a Smackdown brand wrestler, why would he be advertised to return on a Raw program? Unless they are doing some kind of cross promotion build up for a pay-per-view, it really does not make much sense.

Concerning Sting, people are analyzing this promo all the way down to the style of boots worn and the alleged spelling of his moniker in the smoke. If it is Sting, he cannot have signed a new deal with TNA, as I doubt McMahon would even give a second thought to anyone if they were still signed with TNA. I personally think of them as a second-rate promotion, even going so far as to call them a poor man's WCW, and we all know how that one ended. An article that appeared in the New York Daily News, claims that Sting has in fact signed a one year deal with the WWE, and that article (or at least a picture of the article) can be found here. With the recent signings of both Booker T and Kevin Nash to the WWE, one can't help but speculate that Sting is next. He is one of the most popular wrestlers ever and is the only 'great' that has not wrestled for McMahon and his promotion.
All the information that is circulating is pretty much the same as what I had theorized in my own head, and what else I gathered from talking to my Dad, who is a wrestling genius. He also mentioned that McMahon and Sting had some kind of a feud, I tired looking into is but am coming up a bit short in the facts department. Hopefully I can find some more information to share and provide some insight into this mysterious and intriguing story. It might be something as simple as they just don't like each other or it could be something more deep rooted than that.

There are so many questions that could be asked. Could his alleged contract signing mean a possible spot in the WWE Hall of Fame for 2011? How will fans feel about a man who has never had a career in the WWE being inducted along the likes of Bret Hart, Andre the Giant, and Ricky Steamboat (among countless others)? What kind of impact could this have on Wrestlemania XXVII?

Everything is speculation at this point. Who know what will happen on 02/21/2011?

I'll try to keep updating this happening as more (if any) information is made available.

**********UPDATES**********
-Wrestle Scoop has an article stating that Sting is still a free agent and has not signed with anyone

-Sting is still listed on the TNA roster page as of February 5, 2011

-I found an interview with Sting on YouTube and he states why he didn't jump ship to WWE after Vince McMahon's buyout of WCW, that can be found here

-I took a look at the 02/21/2011 video and the Starrcade '97 video with my Dad, just to see if there were in fact any similarities or any clues. The videos have the same exact dark and dreary tone to them. My Dad also noted the pace with which the person in the 02/21/2011 video walks, it is not consistent with the Undertaker. The same thing is said about the jacket and the boots shown in the 02/21/2011 promo. Also, when the numbers turn into smoke at the end, I distinctly made out an 'S', 'T', and 'G' (taking into account that some people said his name was spelt out int he smoke). My Dad also pointed out the striking similarity in the music used and Sting's entrance music. Coincidence? I don't think so.

-Sting has been removed from the TNA roster page

-According to a Wrestle Scoop source, the title for the 02/21/2011 video on WWE's Hulu video page is called 'He's Coming Back', indicating that it is for the Undertaker (that small blurb can be found here)

-The 'Undertaker' tag has reportedly been removed from the 02/21/2011 promo on WWE's website (red herring or adding fuel to the Sting rumors?)