HBk is going to put up a hell of a fight but Undertaker will win the match.

RAW NOTES!

A ton of recapping and "12 rounds" trailers. Same stuff we've seen a lot of over the past 4 weeks. To be honest, some of this stuff is getting a little old, but there were some stand out moments.

So, nearly everyone on RAW either got jobber entrances or had their normal entrance motions abbreviated. Even HHH and Undertaker.

RAW began with another Flair/Jericho segment (and yes, even Ric Flair got a jobber entrance). Jericho got the best heat he's had in awhile when he beat Flair down mercilessly. It was nearly great. The only thing holding it back was knowing that it was the lead in for the Jericho v Legend Mania snorefest.

Crazy face paint Jeff Hardy beat the horribly underused Dolph Zigler. It's guys like Zigler that make me almost miss the cruiserweight title. Problem is, the WWE always treated that title and 90% of all cruiser weights like shit anyway. Jeff hit the 'twist of fate' twice. Zigler took it like a swinging neck breaker both times which was a little odd. After the match, Jeff managed to spit out an awful 10 second promo.

Remember when I bitched about the previous 6-man tag with the money in the bank competitors? Well, there was a second one.... and Finley was on the heel team for whatever reason. Anyway, it was much better this time. Christian got the pin on Shelton Benjamin.

Randy Ortan cut a promo to remind us that both he and HHH are douchebags.

Edge and the Big Show had a decent much. Before it, Cena spoke to us via video promo. He did his "man of the people/wrestling mark" thing. Eh. The match ended as a draw after Chavo Guerrero entered the ring and.... did nothing? He took a spear for his efforts and Edge got knocked-the-fuck-out.

Rey Rey beat William Regal in a quick one. Regal has always been a tough one to grade because his style is so aggressive and stiff. Never pretty or fluid stuff.... What am I saying, I love me some Regal. JBL did commentary for the match. Guess what, he knows he has a match at Mania! nice to hear someone besides a commentator say it.

Taker had his blessfully short intro and cut a solid promo. Michaels countered via video promo that started out ho-hum and ended amazing. "Undefeated streak.... REST IN PEACE." Nice

Santino jobbed to Mickie James? He sure did, and it was great. Completely guilty pleasure but surprising well done. Far fewer blown spots then the average diva match.

The King challenged Jericho for a little one on one action next week? It happened. Curious....

Trips had a nearly spit-spray free entrance. He even tossed his trusty water bottle way before reaching the ring. He got beat down in what turned out to be a unofficial match. Something happened during this match that has rarely happened since this feud began.... I honestly enjoyed it. It wasn't just because Trips got cuffed to the ropes and beaten on. It wasn't just cause Stephanie came down to the ring and took a nasty DDT off the middle rope for her efforts. It wasn't just cause Ortan planted a kiss on a lights-out Stephanie. It wasn't just cause Trips took a Sledge to the face. It wasn't just cause there were chants of "RKO" along with scattered applause and various fans encouraging Ortan to do more. It all came together into one powerful ball. I dug it.

End.

Yea, I heard that HHH/Orton promo was one of the best in years (that's what my friend told me).

Why did I stop watching during the Santino match?!

Tyson Kid vs. Evan Bourne.

I just watched the ECW match on my DVR, and we may have a pretty entertainig fued starting up!!

A little add on to my RAW NOTES! post:

I have direct tv and usually don't watch Raw or most anything live. I noticed when I watched Raw and then skimmed over it a second time for my little recap that Flair blatantly tells Jericho something in the midst of the beat down. Turns out he something along the lines of "throw me in the stairs." Of course, Jericho obliged. Gotta love it.

Orton/HHH feud is pretty good. I really hope we could have some huge main eventers have like Austin/Rock type of feud.

orton vs trips at mania should be a no dq match.

TNA notes:

so the show was pretty good through the first hour and 50 minutes.

let me say, I skip a lot of TNA promos. Not all of them, but there are some people I just can't listen to.

Cornette came out and announced that there will be duel main events at lockdown. Foley vs sting (Eh) and a 4 vs 4 elimination style match. Impact's main event will be a 20 man battle royal where 2 men will start out in the ring with someone coming in every 2 minutes. The remaining two wrestlers will be team captains at lockdown. angle talked smack, jarrett talked smack, punches were thrown. Been there, done that.

suicide beat kiyoshi in an x-division title match. If you've seen an x-division match before, you've seen this one. Tons of innovation but everyone works too quick.
side note: like 100 people in the impact arena had suicide shirts. this guy can't be that popular, can he? He's just a mask that pulls all the same stunts as everyone else. They must have been free handouts. Suicide's finisher is awful, btw.

the beautiful people cut what was likely an awful promo. skipped most of it.

beer money and team 3-D gave a sit down style interview. can't stand beer money. skipped it.
side note: man, team 3-D have gotten fat. They were always big guys but it's a little out of control.

Beautiful people vs Kong and Saeed. It was good, well paced. The storytelling didn't make sense, whatever. Love Kong. TBP won.

Sting/Foley Promo. Both guys can work the mic. It's just not a match I want to see.
Side note: Drinking game. Take a shot whenever you hear Foley say "stinger" or Sting say "Mick" during this promo. You will get fucked up.
Side note 2: Foley says "people aren't talking about that other show in april, they're talking about lockdown." That was mildly (5%) true until Raw tore it up on monday.
Side note 3: My roommate (somewhat) randomly asked if I wanted to go in on Mania this year. Gonna do it if I can manage to get a third person in.

Main event:
The good:
*It got 45 minutes and no commercial breaks during the last 15.
*A lot of young talent. Used well for the most part. Pretty decent story telling through out.
*The mafia (angel, steiner, booker) actually came across as not being useless.
*Matt Morgan lasted 1:30.

The bad:
*The first half of the match was used to show off young talent, the back half was used to put over the mafia (especially angle). That wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that they buried guys like eric young and hernandez in the process. Eric young was showcased in the main event 2 weeks ago. He was left off of Impact last week (if I remember correctly) and this week he was given 1:30 in the main event. And Hernandez? They want to build him towards a title shot. Another guy, 1:15.
*The finish was bogus. So Jarrett gets knocked out of the match by Angle before reaching the ring. However, when the timer counts down, Jarrett walks to the ring and it appears that he is given a "2nd chance." At this point, the timer stops running. No more participants. Jarrett eliminates Steiner, so that means (surprise, surprise), Jarrett and Angle are the winners. But the match keeps going and Angle pins Jarrett.... I guess, but it doesn't really matter. But then after the pin, Samoa Joe comes to the ring. Turns out, he's the real 20th competitor but he came down like 3 minutes after the timer was up! He literally co-won the match before entering the ring. How is he allowed to do that? So Joe fights Angle and guess what? He no-sells the angle slam. I mean completely no-sells it. Just stands right up. The same move that finished off a fresh Hernandez. Bullshit! So he pins Angle but, like I said, it doesn't really matter cause he was going to be co-winner no matter what.

Angle cuts an angry promo for no reason.

Joe cuts a promo where he says "I'm not interested in being a captain.... my only purpose for being here is to torture...." So, guess what, it doesn't matter that he co-won the main event since Jarrett is most likely going to be the captain at lockdown anyway.

Awful, Awful, Awful.

I can't believe Sting vs Foley is actually going to happen, and it's for the world title :-/

Anyone who watched impact have an opinion on the main event (or at least my rendition of it)?