3/31 WWE Raw Results

(pics from WWE.com)

~This episode of Raw is the first after Wrestlemania 24. I'm curious to see where WWE is going to go with some of the things set up from Wrestlemania, like Randy Orton retaining the WWE title, Ric Flair retiring and what's gonna happen to Big Show and Umaga after losing their matches to Floyd Mayweather and Batista, respectively.


-The show starts out with John Cena's music playing, but Cena doesn't come out. Then Triple H's music plays but after a while, you get the sense that he isn't coming out either. Finally, the music of the WWE Champion, Randy Orton, who survived a triple threat match against both HHH and Cena at WM24, plays and he comes out. Orton asks the crowd if they were "expecting someone else" [nice!]. He pretty much says he's the greatest champion ever and that everyone is witnessing the "Age of Orton".


-Then JBL, who defeated Finlay in a Belfast Brawl at Wrestlemania, comes down to the ring. JBL says that Orton's whole title reign has been built on luck. He goes on to say that Orton could never beat him, declares himself the new #1 contender to the WWE title and leaves the ring.


-Then Matt Hardy, who made his return at Wrestlemania during the Money in the Bank ladder match, comes into the ring from the crowd and attacks Orton. Hardy was put on the "injured list" a few months back after being attacked by Orton.

-Matt Hardy runs into Raw General Manager, William Regal, backstage and demands a match with Randy Orton. Regal says he'll think about it.


-CRYME TYME~! returns to Raw and pick up a win over Lance Cade & Trevor Murdoch


-Shawn Michaels, who ended Ric Flair's career at Wrestlemania, comes down to the ring and complains about "pulling the trigger" and being the one responsible for putting an end to the career of the Nature Boy.

-It's announced that Matt Hardy will face Randy Orton in a non-title match.

-Shawn Michaels is backstage and he runs into Batista, who saw Ric Flair as a mentor to him. Batista gives Michaels the evil eye.


-Brian Kendrick & Paul London (Huh? More on this near the end of my post) beat WWE World Tag Team Champions, Hardcore Holly & Cody Rhodes in a non-title match.


-WWE Intercontinental Champion, Chris Jericho, defeats CM Punk, who won the Money in the Bank Ladder match at Wrestlemania meaning he can get a WWE, World Heavyweight or ECW World Title Shot whenever he wants within the next year (although we all know no one would bother to waste that kind of opportunity on the ECW title). Boooooo, good match though.


-Big Show, fresh off getting knocked out by Floyd Mayweather at Wrestlemania, comes down to the ring. He starts talking but then The Great Khali comes down to the ring. It seems like they're about to fight but Khali punks out and leaves the ring.

-Santino Marella gets a slap from his ex-girlfriend, Maria, after making some sexist comments about the WWE's female wrestlers.


-WWE Champion, Randy Orton, beats Matt Hardy in a non-title match.


-Santino Marella gets beat down by all the female wrestlers in the WWE and as a result, ends up losing an inter-gender match to Maria.




-Ric Flair comes out and officially retires from professional wrestling. He then receives one of the greatest send-offs I, personally, have ever seen, to close out the show.


I think the "Age of Orton" is a cool name.

CRYME TYME CAME BACK!!! They were fired a while back and I was pretty bummed out about it because they were a really entertaining team plus the WWE tag team division is pretty non-existant. Maybe this means WWE is going to renew their focus on tag team wrestling, I doubt it but you never know.

Highlights of Ric Flair's career were shown throughout the night, which I thought were cool to watch.

WHAT?!? Didn't Brian Kendrick walk out on Paul London a few weeks back? Am I just supposed to forget that and pretend like it didn't happen? Well, I guess I'm just gonna have to because, thankfully, WWE seems to really want to re-establish their tag teams, once again I don't think anything will come of this but who knows. Kendrick and London are a good team though.

Hardcore Holly put down a huge whuppin' on Paul London in their match. London seems to be getting a lot of that lately.

It was a little disappointing to see CM Punk lose to Chris Jericho. Not because it's Chris Jericho, but because as "Mr. Money in th Bank", it shows that WWE wants to make Punk their next big star and I feel a lost puts all that on the wrong foot. However, you can't win them all and WWE has up to a year to build Punk into a legit WWE or World Heavyweight Title contender whenever he cashes in the "Money in the Bank".

A Big Show/Khali feud? Spare me now. The crowd dumped all over this segment but the "Show is gonna kill you" chants toward Khali were funny.

I'm not sure if I'm going to be all into a possible Randy Orton/JBL feud either.

Santino Marella was comedic gold again. However, I personally don't agree with his comments on the WWE Divas because they're not all terrible in the ring. Unfortunately, Santino's "views" are echoed by a lot of WWE fans.

That beatdown he got later was...interesting.

I think Matt Hardy and Randy Orton had, what I thought was, the match of the night. But, I hope Hardy will now go back to Smackdown and go back to feuding with WWE United States Champion, MVP, which was what he was doing before he got injured. By the way, I really dug the finish to that match.

I hope Flair meant it when he said he is never going to wrestle again, it would be a shame for him to tarnish such a great farewell by coming back two, three or eight more times. That entire moment was just...wow...my words just can't do it justice.


part 1



part 2