Raw Fusion: What A Rush
The 28th March 2011 episode of Monday Night Raw starts with CM Punk sitting in the ring. He gets a great reaction from his hometown crowd and he talks about how the people of Chicago are all his people, just like the members of The New Nexus were all his people, but he watched them get taken out by Randy Orton one-by-one.
He says that the glaring difference between Orton and himself is this – whether you are a member of The New Nexus or a member of the town he was born and raised in, Punk really doesn’t care what happens to them, it’s not his problem if they get punted in the head, his problem is Randy Orton.
Punk says that if he wants somebody to fetch him a coffee or watch his back, he only needs to snap his fingers to get any number of mindless little sheep to do whatever he wants. He says that for Orton’s psychological advantage that he had built up for weeks turned out to be a false sense of security.
He says that last week Orton slipped up when he told the WWE Universe that he likes to travel around on his fancy bus, and after showing a video recapping the events of last week involving Orton and Punk in the parking lot, he says that he knows Orton cares about his wife and he says that he takes tremendous satisfaction that his wife now sees a helpless Orton with Punk standing over him when she goes to sleep at night.
Punk says that Orton never should have punted him in the head two years ago, as it cost Punk a championship and Punk has now cost Orton the respect of his family, as they will never look at him the same way again – but Punk is just getting started, he closes this sick and twisted chapter at WrestleMania.
Orton seems to have listened for long enough as he makes his presence known and he limps to the ring, only to be met as he enters the ring by Punk and attacked. Orton gains the upper hand and manages to hit the DDT from the ropes on Punk and seems to coil for an RKO until he stands up and after looking at Punk appearing to change his mind and backing up to get ready for a punt.
Unfortunately for Orton, his leg gives out on the way and he falls, as Punk bails out of the ring before he then realises that Orton is vulnerable and re-enters it. Punk toys with Orton before hitting him with the GTS and leaving.
Going backstage, Christian and Edge talk about how Edge aren’t allowed to touch each other on SmackDown! before WrestleMania, but on Raw they have no such restriction, before they head to the ring for their upcoming tag match.
After a video recapping the events involving Edge, Christian, Alberto Del Rio, and Brodus Clay last week on SmackDown! (click here for our SmackDown! report), Edge and Christian are pitted in a tag team match against Del Rio and Clay in a match which sees Edge get the victory for his team after he hits Clay with a Spear for the 3-count.
Del Rio takes advantage of Edge’s inattention by applying the cross-armbreaker on Christian until Edge notices and exits the ring before chasing him off and then heading towards Christian to check that he’s okay.
Del Rio takes another advantage by coming back out and attacking Edge from behind by applying the cross-armbreaker to Edge this time, seemingly sending a message to Edge that he will do what it takes to fulfil his destiny at WrestleMania by becoming the new World Heavyweight Champion.
After another video hyping Sin Cara, Michael Cole receives an email from the Anonymous Raw General Manager. At first Jerry “The King” Lawler thinks he’ll be able to block Cole from reading it again, but Cole reveals that it has been received on his iPad (which he has in the “Cole Mine” with him), and that after last weeks brutal beat-down at the hands of Cole, the GM wants to be sure that Lawler is ready for WrestleMania, so later on Lawler will go one-on-one with Jack Swagger.
After a video hyping the match between The Undertaker and Triple H at WrestleMania XXVII and the announcers hyping WrestleMania week, Justin Gabriel (accompanied by the rest of The Corre) goes against Santino Marella (accompanied by Tamina and Vladimir Kozlov, with Kane and The Big Show also at ringside).
The match sees Santino get the victory after hitting the Cobra for the 3-count, thanks to Big Show and Kane neutralising The Corre and Kozlov tripping Gabriel behind the referee’s back. Afterwards, Santino celebrates in his usual trumpeting style along with Kozlov and Tamina joining in, even The Big Show joins in, but the real oddity is when Kane does it too.
After the announcement that Keri Hilson will perform “America The Beautiful” at WrestleMania, The Undertaker makes his way to the ring, followed by Triple H shortly after he has entered the ring, but when Triple H is set to do his water-spit on the ring apron, The Undertaker’s gong hits and the lights go out.
After a while they come back on, with Triple H also standing in the ring as he moves to stand face-to-face with The Undertaker. No words are exchanged, but Shawn Michaels’ music hits and he makes his way to the ring too, to a great reaction from the crowd.
Michaels apologises for interrupting, but says that there was no way he was going to miss this, and says that on Sunday, WrestleMania XXVII will play host to the biggest match of their careers – on one side, The Undertaker (The Phenom, The Deadman, The Outlaw, The Greatest Streak of all time), and on the other side, Triple H (The Game, The Cerebral Assassin, The King of Kings, the 13-time World Champion, and his best friend).
He guarantees that after the no-holds barred match on Sunday, neither of them will be the same again, but with that said, he wants to know what makes Triple H think that he can do what he himself couldn’t.
Triple H says that if he wants to know the truth, the truth is that at some point Michaels got soft, and though he is the Showstopper and Mr. WrestleMania, he realised he didn’t have to win every time to stay like that.
Unlike Triple H, who says that he has to win, and that sixteen years ago when he started in the WWE, he saw one guy in the locker room who was clearly the glue that held the locker room together, who he also so wrestle with broken ribs, broken bones, torn ligaments, half-crushed face, and that it wasn’t because he was told to but because that’s who he was, and Triple H learned that he should pattern himself after that guy as he represented everything the WWE was and should be, and that man was The Undertaker.
Triple H says that he learned to respect him more and more each day, and there is only one guy who he respects as much as him, and that is Shawn Michaels. He says that five or six years ago, he ans Michaels made a pact with each other that if they ever got to the point that they could not perform to the standard that they had set for themselves, they would look at the other in the eye and say “it’s time”, and that if they didn’t accept it, would put them down for them.
Triple H says that he came back for one reason, to look him in the eyes with respect and tell The Undertaker it is time. He says that it may not be a popular decision, and a lot of people including The Undertaker may not see that, but he can, and though The Undertaker will always be The Phenom and The Deadman and he will always respect him, in six days he will no longer be undefeated at WrestleMania.
Triple H says that whether he wanted to or not, he himself is the one – as in 18-1, and at WrestleMania XXVII, The Undertaker and his streak will with respect and deservedly Rest In Peace. The Undertaker says that if he ever got to the time that he felt somebody should put him down, he’d want that person to be Triple H, as that’s the respect he has for him – but it isn’t that time, and he knows that Triple H is going to kill himself trying, but in the end the streak will still be alive and so will The Undertaker, and if he doesn’t want to take his word for it, he should ask Shawn Michaels.
The Undertaker says that Michaels walks around every day as the man who gave him the best two WrestleMania matches of his career and got “that” close, but he still didn’t get it done, and that now when he looks in the eyes of Michaels, he doesn’t see confidence or arrogance, but a man who he humbled, and who will soon go into the Hall Of Fame full of regrets and whose career he ended.
The Undertaker shoves the microphone and Michaels, who then attempts to hit Sweet Chin Music on The Undertaker but is easily blocked, but when told by Triple H to tell The Undertaker why he will end the streak at WrestleMania, he stays silent and leaves, followed shortly after by The Undertaker after he tips his hat to Triple H.
Next up, Jerry “The King” Lawler (sporting some new music) takes on Jack Swagger (accompanied by Michael Cole) in a match which sees Lawler being disqualified when he hits Swagger with a steel chair. After a moment he decides to go after Cole with it and tries to get at him, but is unfortunately thwarted and lead away by security as Cole taunts him, but not before Cole throws a drink at his face.
After a video recapping the Intergender tag team match from last week’s Raw, Vickie makes her way to the ring by impersonating John Morrison’s entrance, before she says that she hopes Snooki is watching as what she did to Morrison as well as what LayCool are going to do to her, Snooki is going to find herself in a very familiar position – passed out and unconscious.
Now, it’s time for a tag team match pitting Dolph Ziggler and Sheamus against John Morrison and Daniel Bryan, which sees Sheamus get the win for his team when he hits Bryan with Pale Justice (formerly referred to as the High-Cross).
After a video recapping the events earlier in the night involving Punk and Orton, Orton is interviewed backstage and asked if he will make it to WrestleMania, and Orton says that we may not know this about him, but he has serious anger management issues and he has ruined the careers of men that he barely knew, just because he could.
He says that should be kept in mind when he says that he has never despised a human as much as CM Punk, so the question should not be whether he can make it to WrestleMania, but rather whether Punk will make it out.
After the last inductees of the 2011 WWE Hall Of Fame are announced to be The Road Warriors (Animal and Hawk) and Paul Ellering, Josh Mathews tries to ask Trish Stratus and Snooki (who are supposedly appearing live from New Jersey) how Snooki’s training is going, to which he gets the response that Trish has been training her hard and she is ready for WrestleMania.
Danny E (from the IWF) interrupts a few times to try to convince Trish and Snooki to go with him, but is rebuffed and when he doesn’t listen, met with a slap from Snooki, as Trish then comments that Snooki is teaching her a few new things too. After Mathews hypes the WrestleMania match, the focus is back on New Jersey once more as LayCool are in attendance there, resulting quickly into degenerating into a fight between both groups.
Next, The Rock is shown on the other side of the entrance before his music hits and he then makes his way to the ring. The Rock talks about how Chicago is special to him as he competed in his first WrestleMania in that very building, and though he’s never admitted it, he was nervous that night, but he did something which defined the rest of his life – he decided to bring it, and on that night it was the unofficial birth of Team Bring It.
He talks about how Team Bring It is a way of life and you knock down doors, kick down walls, take all the insecurities and stick them straight up the candy asses of people who tell you that you can’t do it, and that when you’re on Team Bring It you go after your dreams.
The Rock says that he recently had a dream of his own where he made his way to the ring and in front of the WWE Universe, called out John Cena (this cause a “Cena sucks” chant to erupt from the crowd for a few moments), that Cena made his way to the ring looking like a homeless Power Ranger, telling The Rock that he can’t see him, and receiving a right hand to the face from The Rock in return.
The Rock says that this is real life and he is never alone, that he is with the millions and millions of fans, and he’s calling Cena out. Cena’s music hits and he makes his way to the ring, before he tells The Rock that this is what he wanted, The Rock finally back in a WWE ring and cooking like he’d never left, and says that this is where The Rock belongs.
Cena asks if The Rock hears the millions chanting his name, and then says that years ago when he opened his mouth about him, he was one of the millions, and that he didn’t know why he had left but wanted him back for moments like this, as the power he has is undeniable, and that if he doesn’t believe him, he should look, listen, and feel the electricity that can only be brought by one man – The Rock.
He says that he wanted to hear what The Rock had to say as everything he had to say had merit (before he is interrupted with a “Cena sucks” chant that he says he’ll get to in a minute), and that he wanted to know what problem The Rock had with him.
Cena says that there were lots of problems, such as the way that he talks, the type of music he listens to, his morals, but the kicker is that his audience is kids – he agrees that it is, but says that he’s damn proud of it and he’s damn proud of what he’s become, so if The Rock has a legitimate gripe about him not working his tail to the bone about furthering the business, then they have something to talk about.
If not Cena says, who in the hell is The Rock to judge him and tell him the way to live his life or say what age the people watching should be, and that if that’s what it takes to be a member of Team Bring It, he can keep the application, as he comes down every week as himself.
He says that there are some people who like it, and as we have heard there are some that don’t, but he won’t try to change their mind as he is in no position to change anyone, and when all this is said and done he will be judged, but it won’t be by The Rock.
The Rock tells Cena that he’s right, there’s only one man who judges him and that is the same man who judges The Rock, but what he should know is that the one who judges them both can’t stop him from whooping Cena’s ass all the way over Chicago.
Cena says that The Rock wanted him to talk to him like a man, so if he wants to fight… he indicates that he’s ready and willing to do so, but The Miz’s music hits and he makes his way to the ring accompanied by Alex Riley.
The Miz asks if this is really the way it’s going to be, upstaged by the “O” brothers – over-hyped, and overrated, and reminds Cena that despite last week, he has owned him and says that Cena will lose at WrestleMania, but at least he will go down swinging as he will come to WrestleMania to fight – unlike The Rock.
He says that he knows a secret as he has done his research, that The Rock is not going to do anything as his movies have grossed over $1.2 billion as he isn’t going to want to risk being embarrassed and beaten up by The Miz.
The Miz says that this is because it’s not a risk, but a guaran-damn-tee that if The Rock even looks at him funny, he will beat The Rock so bad that he will not be able to step into Hollywood or anywhere else, as he is the WWE Champion.
He tells The Rock to run his mouth all he wants because he isn’t going to do anything, because he’s The Miz and he’s awesome. The Rock tells The Miz that he should know by now that it doesn’t matter what he thinks, but he is then attacked by Riley and then double teamed by Riley and The Miz.
The Rock fights back however and sends Riley out of the ring before hitting a DDT on The Miz, followed by the People’s Elbow, before sending him out of the ring too. The Rock turns around to find John Cena, who hits him with the Attitude Adjustment and gives him a “you can’t see me” taunt and exiting up the ramp and celebrating as Raw goes off the air.