Well, if there’s going to be a blame placed on when the money angle for WrestleMania XXVI went off the track (if it does go off the track), many people are going to point to the day that Bret Hart’s leg was smashed into by a car in the parking lot. There have been other silly angles involving cars and accidents that didn’t necessarily derail plans such as when Hulk Hogan and his nWo cronies nearly killed The Rock with vehicular manslaughter. Because McMahon and Hart are so good at doing what they’re doing, I don’t think this ruins the angle. Much like Rock/Hogan, even the dumbest writing won’t hurt the angle because they can talk so well and build it back up. So count me as part of the group of folks who didn’t truly think that it was the end of the greatness of the Hart/McMahon angle. It was bad, but not throwing money down the toilet bad. At least I don’t think.

But I want to first back up to Smackdown before I get back to Raw. Smackdown is such a good show stuck on such a bad night for wrestling and though it misfired somewhat in the middle, it had two good wrestling matches bookend a really tremendous segment with Batista. Even though Batista isn’t the greatest babyface, he’ll always get cheered like crazy and it stems from WrestleMania 21 and his turn against HHH. They did such a great job with that back five years ago that even today, the fans treat him like gold no matter what he’s doing. But in his current heel role, I think he’s doing better work than he’s ever done.

He came out for a segment in which he was going to let folks know why he decided to allow Punk to win their match and go into the chamber. He came out, got booed and didn’t say a word. He left, came back in the ring, picked up the mic, dropped it, didn’t say a word, and left. The heat was tremendous. No one had to write a word for him to say and he got over better than anyone in TNA or WWE today. It was excellent. Fast forward to Raw and he and Cena had a great back and forth with him being despicable Dave and Cena doing the kind of mic work that we all know he can do, but usually doesn’t get the chance to. I didn’t think anything was going to touch Vince/Bret or HBK/Undertaker, but this is coming pretty close.

Smackdown opened with Rey Mysterio against CM Punk in a match that was booked perfectly and even though Punk lost, he lost nothing. In fact, because the match was so good, they both got over because of it. The finish was fantastic and if these guys are really going to work together at Mania, this was a great start. It ended with Chris Jericho beating The Undertaker, and yes, I was surprised to see Jericho go over. Edge got his spear on the Undertaker to tease a possible match there, even though it’s definitely not going there. But it’s a good way to keep Jericho strong in case he does end up winning the Elimination Chamber this weekend.

Most everything else was just so-so in between and I’m not looking forward to seeing Kane and Drew McIntyre wrestle again.

Back to Raw, I thought it was interesting in how they kept both Randy Orton and Sheamus over at the same time. Even though I fully expect HHH to work with Sheamus at WrestleMania (and he ate the big kick of death at the end of the show and then the Razor’s Edge), I like the Orton/Sheamus dynamic, especially if Orton is going to turn face. But I think they’re married to the Legacy angle.

Because Shawn Michaels and Vince McMahon were kept off TV for storyline reasons, it did feel a little weaker in star power and it’s almost like a chapter was missing in the Shawn Michaels storyline. I desperately wanted to see him at least tease something for the Chamber, but I guess they want to keep it a complete surprise. They did tease an ankle injury for John Morrison to give them an out for the Chamber if they want to go there.

And something that I thought about, but didn’t mention in last week’s column – if you were Teddy Long and Shawn Michaels came to you and said, “Trade for me, I want to come to your show,” don’t you do whatever it takes to get Michaels on your brand? After the fact, it seemed odd that Teddy wouldn’t even think about it at all. I know, I know, it’s fake, but in a real life sports situation, no GM would just flat out say no to such a big star.

There’s not really anything to say about the Jerry Springer segment as to me, it didn’t hurt the build of anything and was simply just an idea to let Springer do something that he does very well. Was it stupid? Yes. Was it necessary? No. But to those who say it’s the low point of their WWE TV watching career, I can name at least three things that were stupider and more worthless off the top of my head. 1. May Young gives birth to a hand. 2. Mark Henry feels up a transvestite. 3. D-Lo makes Terri lose her fake child in a fake pregnancy. That took me all of three seconds to think about.

Cena and HHH was exactly what it always is. Neither guy really showing dominance and a simple and solid wrestling match. I had absolutely no issue with Sheamus coming out and causing a DQ because he was the one left standing. If HHH had been the one standing in the end among two white dead bodies, then yes, it would’ve been idiotic. But to me, these shows are way more about advancing angles than about clean finishes and great wrestling. If HHH had pinned Cena and Sheamus came out and laid them both out, Cena would’ve lost going into a feud with Batista which has the promise to be third from the top. If Cena beat HHH and Sheamus laid out both of them, it makes HHH look weak going into his feud with Sheamus. So I have nothing wrong with the finish at all.

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