WWE Raw came to New York on Monday night, as all eyes turn to WrestleMania 32 on Sunday. And what an explosive Raw it was.
WWE Raw opened with The Undertaker’s familiar bongs, and The Deadman told the crowd that Mania was his house, and Shane McMahon’s blood would be on Vince McMahon’s hands. Taker was about to give the fans the ‘Rest in Peace’ line, before Shane’s music hit, and the nicely tanned 47-year-old hit back.
There’s a few jibes about The Undertaker’s legacy dying at Mania when Brock Lesnar beat him two years ago, and then The Phenom reminded Shane O’Mac that he’d always be Vince’s bitch.
Unsurprisingly this sparked a brawl, which began with Shane throwing a few punches and then getting dumped out of the ring. Taker went to Last Ride Shane through the announce table, but Shane hopped out and clocked Taker with the TV monitor.
With the Deadman out for the count and prone on the announce table, Shane did what Shane does. Heading up to the top rope, Shane took flight, and nailed The Undertaker with a huge elbow drop.
And the excitement didn’t end there.
As Shane hobbled up the ramp towards the back, Taker sat up! He had the same bedraggled look that your Dad gets when you wake him up after a night on the sauce, and he stared Shane out of it before giving him the throat slash gesture.
Bring on Hell in a Cell on Sunday!
Unfortunately the rest of Raw didn’t quite live up to the early excitement.
We got two doses of The Authority – because one a week clearly isn’t enough. In the first one Triple H talked about how huge Mania is, how important the WWE World Heavyweight Title is, and how The Game is obsessed with being champ. Stephanie McMahon also gets on the mic and somehow manages to offend The New Day (What?!) before Roman Reigns appears and heads to the ring. Triple H gives him a couple of slaps and kicks and bails out of the ring leaving Roman Reigns standing there looking a bit daft.
An hour later and we get the same segment, but this time there is a slightly longer brawl. A load of lads from the locker room pile out to join in and the high bit is Roman Reins leaping over the top rope and taking out half of the roster. In comparison to Shane O’Mac’s antics, it’s all a bit ‘meh’.
Elsewhere during Raw, The New Day introduced ‘Booty-O’s’ as the official WrestleMania sponsors and Kofi Kingston followed it up by beating the League of Nations’ Alberto Del Rio.
New Day Rocks. New Day Rocks. New Day Rocks. And so forth.
Charlotte defeated Becky Lynch with the assist from Ric Flair, there was a six-man tag match with the Intercontinental Championship contenders involved which was eventually won by Sami Zayn, Sin Cara and Dolph Ziggler, while The Lunatic Fringe, Dean Ambrose, interrupted a promo by his WrestleMania opponent Brock Lesnar. Ambrose came to ringside with a wagon and fills it with various items of offense he plans to use on Lesnar on Sunday including: a crowbar, a metal pipe, a baseball bat, a barbed wire bat, a fire hydrant and a chainsaw (WTF?)
Never change WWE. Never change.