The Road To WrestleMania 32 – The Undertaker’s WrestleMania Career Is On The Line
We’re still on that road to WrestleMania. Raw sucked, but now the Undertaker’s WrestleMania career is on the line.
(Big D and I are also doing a corresponding podcast which drops Wednesday night. You can listen to last week’s.)
The Big News!
The big news is getting smaller and smaller as we get to WrestleMania. We still have no idea whatsoever what the Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mick Foley, or Shawn Michaels are going to do. And you’d think that giving those guys something they could hype the show with, even in their social media networks, would only be a positive. But alas.
I guess the big news is that Vince McMahon put the Undertaker’s WrestleMania career on the line in the match with Shane McMahon. But again, it hasn’t been explained why the Undertaker accepted the match. McMahon also called him his bitch, agreeing with what Shane said last week. This all leads to the Undertaker wanting to lose to spite Vince, but I have no earthly idea why he’d even agree to be part of it.
Let’s say that he and Shane are in cahoots. So he’s going to kill Shane, let him win, then retire all as part of a swerve against Vince? Wouldn’t that make Vince the babyface? That can’t be the story, so I really don’t know what is going on. The Undertaker just allowed himself to be used by a pawn because he knows what’s best for the company? I guess that’s plausible.
Lastly, what if Undertaker loses, yet Shane is in control. Does the stipulation stick if Vince is out of control?
At least they had some very nice video packages of Shane McMahon working out. Stone Cold Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, and Edge talked about the match. It also featured Renzo Gracie and Phil Nurse, who gave interviews for it.
Kevin Owens spent the entire Raw trying to setup his WrestleMania match. Stephanie McMahon treated him like a geek and they set up a 7-way ladder match featuring of all people, Zack Ryder, Sin Cara, Stardust, and the Miz in addition to Dolph Ziggler, Sami Zayn and Owens. Ryder can’t even make Raw TV and yet, here he is, in one of the main WrestleMania matches. What a time to be alive.
What else important happened?
Terry Funk showed up in a skit with Dean Ambrose that was very entertaining. My favorite part was when Funk told Ambrose that if he had a son, he’d want him to be just like Ambrose. He then went on to say that if he had a daughter and then stopped talking. Since he was giving Dean all the accolades, the expected line would’ve been something like, “If I had a daughter, I’d want her to date you.” But since Funk does have two daughters, he stopped the line and left Dean hanging. WWE’s version on YouTube cuts out this part probably because they thought Funk messed up on the promo. I don’t think they got the joke.
He gifted Ambrose his chainsaw as an ode to his old character Chainsaw Charlie. So Dean’s going to be the Texas Chainsaw Massacre at WrestleMania.
Dean was in the main event against Braun Strowman while Paul Heyman was on commentary. If you thought they were going to have Ambrose pin Strowman clean to put a scare into Lesnar, you were wrong. He had to use a chair on him and was DQd. I’m sure Brock was shaking in his boots.
If they’re still trying to make Roman Reigns a babyface, they’re continuing to do a terrible job of it. Stephanie McMahon came out to start the show and mentioned that Triple H wasn’t there because he had work to do, rather than because Reigns beat him to hell. Even though she’s a heel, Reigns shouldn’t take the opportunity that Triple H is gone to confront her. It’s kind of cowardice.
Later in the show, Triple H pulled up to pick up Stephanie so they could leave. Maybe he was there all along and was hiding. As they tried to leave, Reigns showed up unprovoked and attacked him before Triple H was able to get out of his clutch and leave. Reigns has to be turning heel.
Chris Jericho and AJ Styles continued their feud, but it was booked entirely backward. Styles faced Owens again and for the second time in a row (Smackdown), Styles was pinned after Jericho came down to rile him up. Personally, I thought they should’ve had Owens in the Calf Crusher and Jericho interfere and attack Owens, disqualifying Styles in the process. There would’ve been tons more heat from it and it wouldn’t have made AJ look like a mid-carder again.
AJ had the opportunity to get Jericho back, coming down to ringside for Jericho’s match with Fandango. It was a nice touch for Jericho to remind people that he faced Fandango at WrestleMania. But he didn’t get one over on Jericho. Instead, Jericho still won. So AJ looked like a dweeb twice in a row and three times if you count Smackdown.
And the rest…
Big E beat Rusev. Both entire teams are in the poster for the match so I’m going to assume it’s a 3 on 4 handicap match and that the titles aren’t on the line. But nothing has been stated specifically, unless I missed it.
The Big Show came out and talked about winning the Andre The Giant battle royal again. He admitted that he’s not usually good in battle royals. Well, he won last year’s and the Rock admitted Big Show should’ve won the 2000 Royal Rumble. So I’m not so sure that’s the case. The Social Outcasts came out to take out Show, but Kane came out to help him clean house. Big Show hugged Kane and then Kane chokeslammed him.
They may be adding Goldust and R-Truth to the tag match with the Dudleys and the Usos, but that’s also not clear yet.
They only have one week left.
