OO Column: Online Onslaught by Rick Scaia (Pro Wrestling News, Analysis, and Commentary... WWE, WWF, WCW, ECW, The Rock, Brock Lesnar, Triple H, Rob Van Dam, Hulk Hogan, Undertaker, Trish Stratus, Lita, Stacy Keibler, Divas, RAW, SmackDown, WrestleMania

OO RAW RECAP
Making WrestleMania Matter Again!
February 22, 2016

by Rick Scaia
Exclusive to OOWrestling.com

I'll be honest: the new Edge and Christian show on the WWE Network was, well, awesome, and there's a new episode of it airing RIGHT NOW.

I've got "Better Call Saul" waiting for me on DVR, and it will not wait until I get home tomorrow, so I must view it before bed, too.

And I just saw that the Reds are on the cusp of trading Jay Bruce, which I need to read up on, because that was NOT A Thing That Was Happening before I sat down for dinner and wrestling.

In other words, NO PRERAMBLE FOR YOU. I got stuff I need to do besides this recap. But also, I gots to do this recap, because holy shit, that was a crazy-ass RAW. Here's what happened:

Opening Video Package for the Benefit of Those with ADD: OO does not recap recaps.

Opening Theme/Pyro/Etc., and we're live in Detroit, MI, where we are about to find out who wins the C. Montgomery Burns Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence. But first, Cole & the Gang welcome us to the show, and inform us of a major development earlier in the day.... when Dean Ambrose arrived at the arena, Brock Lesnar attacked him in the parking lot, and Ambrose was taken away in an ambulance.

As of the start of RAW, Ambrose remains at the hospital, but Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman are scheduled to appear later on in the night to explain themselves.

SHANE-O-MAC IS BACK!!!!!

And then, we shoot it down to the ring, where Vince McMahon is strutting down to give out the award that is named after his dad, C. Montgomery Burns...... errr, Vincent J. McMahon. Whatever, it's a bullshit made up award that will only serve to jumpstart some stunt casting for WrestleMania.

Vince starts off with a quick bit of history about how his family has promoted pro wrestling for over 100 years, starting with his grandfather, Jess McMahon, in 1914, and then his dad, Vincent J., who wasn't just a successful promoter, but a beloved and warm-hearted person. So whoever wins this award is going to have big shoes to fill....

And that's why the winner of the Vincent J. Award of Whatever Horseshit is Stephanie McMahon.

Annoyed silence and some grumbling boos greet Stephanie, who acts all humble and surprised, and nudges some more vociferous boos out of the crowd by mentioning Triple H and how she wishes he were here, but he's busy training for his big WWE Title defense at WrestleMania. BOOO, Triple H sucks~!

Then, she opens up a notebook, as she has some prepared remarks for us to enjoy.

But before she can begin: HERE COMES THE MONEEEYYYYYYYYY~!

Shane McMahon is back. Sweet.

The announcers sell it as a "major celebration" with the whole McMahon family getting together to honor Stephanie. But we're all adults, here, so let's not pretend like Shane isn't the only McMahon to possess the Babyface Gene and that he's here to use it.

Crowd welcomes him back with various chants ("WELL COME BACK," "HOLE LEE SHIT," and "THIS IS AWE SOME"), and then, once they settle down, Vince tries to welcome Shane back. Shane declines a hug, to a huge pop. Then, Shane declines a simple handshake, too, and it appears that Vince is finally realizing that this might not be the happy family reunion, afterall.

Shane grabs a mic, and says that this is the straw that broke the camel's back. Because the Vincent J. Award is a great idea that could have been used to honor a great person, and Shane knows first hand the whole backstory. And that's why he knows that "great person" is NOT Stephanie. YAY~!

Vince tries to calm Shane down, and asks him to take it backstage, and they can talk it out. Shane says Nope, because he gave Vince a chance a few days ago to take a meeting, and Vince brushed him off. So now, Shane is taking a page out of Vince's playbook, and airing his differences in public, for the enjoyment of the audience.

Shane reveals that he never "cashed out," even if Stephanie and HHH liked to pretend they were the heir apparents. Instead, he cut a deal with Vince to take some time off, sow his corporate oats, all while not giving up his "place in line."

Ooooooohhhhh, eeeeenteresting. Stephanie just laughs it off, and says that's all a lie, nothing happens in WWE without her knowing about it. But Vince's silence speaks volumes. Steph starts to get worried, and changes her tone.

She gets up in Shane's grill, and says he walked out on the family, he's a coward, and she and HHH have been successfully running WWE without him ever since, so he can just get lost, he's got nothing.

Shane cooly retorts that "Yeah, you've been running the company. Right into the ground." YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! It may not be entirely true, but the lengths WWE goes to in order to NOT give their audience a satisfying experience are confounding, and it's fun to have Shane speak for us as he declares the last few 8 years since he's been gone lacking.

Steph starts fuming, and asks Vince if this could possibly be true, is Shane still somehow involved in the company... Shane even chummily encourages Vince to answer the question. Instead, Vince says maybe he should have a little talk with Shane, and Stephanie should leave. He'll deliver her trophy for the Legacy Award later.

Steph doesn't go immediately, but after a couple urgings, she does (Shane even holds the ropes open for her).

That leaves Shane and Vince, alone in the ring. Vince just flat out asks, "The hell, man?" What is Shane's play, here? Why now?

Shane points to the trophy and says when he heard about this award, he realized just how important "legacy" is. From Jess to Vince Sr. to Vince, and now to the 4th Generation, with a 5th Generation sitting at home. Steph has given Vince 3 grand-daughters, but Shane has three sons, and he uses that wheedle Vince a bit. But ultimately, it's not about which side of the family takes over, it's about there being a legacy TO take over.

And over time, Shane kept watching WWE, and kept getting more and more worried that there wouldn't be a legacy for his sons, that WWE might not exist for the 5th generation or beyond. Mistakes were being made, and stock prices, ratings, everything were taking a hit. At first, he felt helpless to do anything about it.... but then, he made it, on his own, building a company from scratch (Shane basically brought pay-per-view and on-demand to China), and he started to feel more and more empowered. He had good ideas, he wasn't beholden to anybody else, he could make a difference for WWE.

So now is the time to cash in his chip, the lay claim to his "spot in line" and to try HIS hand at making sure there is a WWE legacy for the generations that follow.

Vince is bemused by this impassioned speech, and wants to know What's the bottom line, then? What's the exact deal that Shane wants to cut?

Shane says it's easy. He wants 100% control over Monday Night RAW. YAY~!

But Vince scoffs. If Shane is in control of RAW, he's basically in charge of all of WWE. Everything flows from RAW.

Shane says, sure, maybe so, but that's what he wants. And he implies that there's something in that deal he made with Vince that gives him at least SOME stake in things.

Vince stammers and stutters, not wanting to give in, but eventually, he seems to come to a realization. Shane's got SOMEthing on him (we don't know what), but Vince won't make it easy.

Vince says that Shane can have RAW, but only if he wrestles one last match. Time and opponent of Vince's choice. If Shane wins, he gets RAW; if Shane loses, he gives up all stake in the family business and goes away forever. Crowd immediately lets Shane know that they think YESYESyES he should accept. Shane milks it, and says What the hell, he'll do it.

Vince breaks out into a grin, because he's already decided the time, place, and opponent. At WrestleMania, Shane McMahon will face the Undertaker, inside Hell in a Cell.

HO. LEE. SHIT. Shane. Taker. Cell. Even with all the starts and stops and rebooking we've endured on the road to the most chaotic WM line-up in a long time, exactly ZERO people saw that coming.

Crowd goes nuts for the announcement. Vince leaves, looking mighty happy with himself, while Shane sticks around and tries to put on a happy face. Crazy opening segment, and while I tried to keep it concise, I don't think you'll be surprised if I tell you it clocked in at 31 minutes.... 31 minutes, without a second wasted, really.

I don't know what order they'll put the matches in at WM32, but all of a sudden, it's gonna be a different McMahon in the REAL main event, and it won't be the one who's an in-law...

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THE LUCHA DRAGONS & NEVILLE vs. THE NEW DAY (6-man Tag Team Match)

During ring entrances, an inset/pre-taped promo by the New Day is shown, in which they trashtalk the League of Nations and introduce Booty-O's Cereal, so yeah, I think we got ourselves some babyfaces on our hands.

Then the match starts, Kalisto gets in 30 seconds of flashy offense, and the New Day call time out to bail out of the ring. Yep: 31 minute opening segments come with a price....

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Back, and the good guys are in control, and a series of frequent tags finally ends up with Neville in the ring, where he falls prey to an illegal triple team. Neville is your face in peril.

About 2 minutes of standard heel beatdown fare, and guess what? More....

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Back, and New Day continue to dominate Neville, with Big E hitting a big criss cross splash, requiring the Lucha Dragons to come in to break the fall.

The beatdown continues until Neville counters a corner charge by backdropping Woods out over the top rope, to the floor. Tag to Sin Cara, corresponding move to Kofi. Sin Cara is en feugo, building up to a near fall after a lionsault. Big E has to dive in to break it up, and things break down into utter chaos.

Neville takes out Big E with a 450 splash from the apron to the floor. Kalisto takes out Woods with his own 450 on the floor. But in the ring, the two legal men finish up, with Kofi grabbing at Sin Cara's mask, creating enough of a distraction so that he can hit Trouble in Paradise.

Your Winners: the New Day, via pinfall, in about 12 minutes. Not too shabby, but the 6 minutes of ads can't entirely be written off... it was basically two complete throw-away segments, and then they came back for a nice 3 minute End Game.

Backstage: Joey Jo Jo Shabadoo Jr. catches up with Roman Reigns, and asks if he's got any information about Dean Ambrose. Reigns says he just knows that Ambrose is still under going tests, and he's not exactly happy with Brock Lesnar at this point.

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RUMORS OF DEAN AMBROSE'S DEMISE HAVE BEEN GREATLY EXAGERRATED

And speak of the devil, here's Brock Lesnar, joined by Paul Heyman. Heyman declares that this is our Main Event of the Evening, because any segment in which his client appears is automatically the main event, because his client is Brock Lesnar, the biggest draw in this entire industry.

Heyman then tells us about how, last night, his client had Roman Reigns locked in the Kimura, a submission hold that has caused countless men, including the Undertaker, to tap out. The match was over, Brock Lesnar was going to win, and go on to WrestleMania to win the WWE Title.

And that's when Dean Ambrose had to go and grab a chair break the hold by attacking Brock Lesnar. And then Dean Ambrose went and got pinned by Roman Reigns, and now, as a result, Brock Lesnar is not going on to the main event of WrestleMania.

Therefore, as soon as Dean Ambrose got to the building, Brock Lesnar made sure that Dean Ambrose will not be going to WrestleMania at all. Heyman throws it to a replay of Lesnar's attack, in which Lesnar throws Ambrose through a windshield, and leaves the scene in an ambulance.

Heyman says it's stupid that HHH and Roman Reigns think they are the main event of WrestleMania so long as Brock Lesnar lives and breathes. Heyman says his client may not be fighting for the WWE Title at WM, but he WILL be wrestling, and he challenges any man in the locker room to step up and become Brock's next victim.

But instead of the locker room, we cut to the parking garage, where an ambulance arrives. And it doesn't stop.... instead, it drives all the way into the arena, and yep: Dean Ambrose is driving.

Ambrose gets out, and starts stumbling towards the ring (neck brace and all). He falls a few times, but he's not gonna be stopped. Lesnar finally decides to meet him part-way, and gets out of the ring. But when Ambrose collapses at Lesnar's feet, Lesnar just steps over him, not willing to soil his hands. Heyman drops his mic, and the two walk off.

Ambrose takes that mic, and shouts, "Hey, Brock, kiss my ass, you son of a bitch." That gets Lesnar's attention. Ambrose goes on to declare that he's indestructable, and that's why he wants to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania in a no holds barred Street Fight.

Lesnar immediately stalks to the ring, and hoists Ambrose up for the easiest F-5 ever, because Ambrose was pre-destroyed. Then, as Brock breaks into the Lesnar Shuffle, complete with a shit eating grin, Heyman retrieves the mic and informs Ambrose's carcass that Brock Lesnar accepts the challenge.

And just like that, we're an hour and 20 minutes into the show, and we've got two WM32 matches that should be pretty awesome. And neither of them is that shitburger of a WWE Title Match.

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THE USOS vs. THE ASCENSION

Before the match starts, the Dudleys come out onto the stage to address the Usos. Bubba repeats their talking point about not being a nostalgia act, and not being defined by a piece of furniture. They will be defined by their accomplishments, and that's why they had to teach the Usos a lesson. Devon tags it with a taunt about how the Usos dad should have stopped marching around in a thong, and taught his boys some respect....

And sensing it wasn't gonna get any better than that, the Ascension attack from behind to jumpstart the match. And the Usos end it.

Your Winners: the Usos, via pinfall, in 90 seconds flat. Nothing to see here. The Dudleys briefly tease heading to the ring for a brawl, but then they do as is required by heels, and chickenshit their way back up the ramp.

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THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE Js

Chris Jericho is on his way to the ring. And while he's dressed to wrestle, he grabs a mic, and tells us a little story about this guy named AJ Styles, who wrestled all over the world, making a name for himself, but who had never stepped foot in a WWE ring.

And yet, Styles insisted on calling himself "phenomenal," and that pissed Jericho off, so Jericho took it upon himself to take Styles to school. And so they had three matches, each better than the last, with the final result being a match last night that Jericho openly admits was "phenomenal" and which ended with Styles getting the big win.

Jericho says he shook AJ's hand last night, but there are just a few more things he'd like to say about Styles, and he'd like to say them to his face. So he asks Styles to come on down to the ring.

Styles does, and Jericho seems genuinely sincere as he apologizes for the stuff he said about not liking AJ and trying to get into his head. But at the end of the day, he did it to get Styles to take his game to the next level, and sure enough, that's exactly what AJ did, and he got the biggest win of his career last night, and now, Jericho is sold: AJ is phenomenal, and the sky's the limit for him.

Y2J extends the hand of friendship, Styles accepts, and the two make nice-nice.

Only to have the Social Outcasts interrupt, and call BS on the kissy kissy. Jericho's just trying to suck up to the new guy who kicked his ass, and Styles is too big a sissy to stand up to the old fart who's trying to steal one last piece of the sotlight. Slater tags the rant by saying that "Y2AJ" are both terrible and they deserve each other, and they should get lost, because a REAL team is now in the ring.

Jericho responds with a challenge. He says he and AJ never intended to be a team, but if the Social Outcasts want to press the issue, they'll be a team tonight. So how about it, Junior? The Outcasts seem to accept, and that match will be coming up next.

By which we mean, after these....

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CHRIS JERICHO & AJ STYLES vs. HEATH SLATER & CURTIS AXEL (w/ Adam Rose and Bo Dallas)

We join this do-over from the 2/11 Smackdown, already in progress.

Very brief heel beatdown, with AJ taking the brunt of it. Tag to Jericho, and he gets the full fire-up into the Walls of Jericho. Slater tries to break it out, but Styles clears him out, and then adds a suicide dive onto Rose and Dallas to ensure Jericho won't be interrupted.

Your Winners: Chris Jericho and AJ Styles, via submission, in about 3 minutes of televised action. That was, well, remarkable for how not-remarkable it was. Zero signs of a heel turn, just flawless teamwork between Y2J and AJ. Very suspicious!

Backstage: Stephanie is bitching up a storm, and HHH is listening like the attentive husband he is. But his attention has its limits, and he finally shushes Steph, and says she should call down, because Shane has always been the failure of the family, and once he fails again at WrestleMania, all will be back to normal.

Now, in the meantime, even if they can't re-do the opening segment, they can make sure the show ENDS on the right note. HHH and Steph share an evil smile, and HHH asks if he should go tell Roman, or if Steph wants to. Steph calls dibs on..... whatever it is they're going to force Roman to do.

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Backstage: Roman Reigns is walking down a hallway when Stephanie pops in and reveals that Reigns has a match tonight.... and it's against Sheamus. She then goes on a spiel about how Sheamus sort of got lost in the shuffle after holding the WWE Title last year, and now he and his entire League of Nation will be looking to make an impact, and if they just so happen to go into business for themselves, and injure Roman so badly that he has to forfeit his WM title shot, well, so be it.

Awwwww, Steph, you giant tease....

Elsewhere Backstage: Goldust once again extends an offer of partnership to R-Truth, and has a cake to indicate he's totally serious. Truth responds by politely declining, and then shoving said cake into Goldust's face, because comedy?

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BIG SHOW/KANE/RYBACK vs. THE WYATT FAMILY (w/ Braun Strowman) (6-Man Tag Match)

Essentially, a rematch from last night's baffling match, in which the Wyatts' last remaining credibility was pissed away. Just with Bray wrestling, and Strowman sitting out. If this exists for any other reason than to do the exact opposite of last night, there is something seriously wrong.

No real flow or psychology. The babyfaces get off to a strong start, but the crowd merely chants "BORE RING" and "GOLD BERG" (at Ryback, in honor of his recent new gear)... when Rowan gets sent out over the top rope, the heels convene, and we break for...

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Back, and Harper has Ryback in a chinlock. More heel hijinx, as the Wyatts make frequent tags, and the fans switch over to a "GILL BERG" chant. Heh.

Separation is attained when Rowan goes for a superplex, but Ryback fights him off and hits a missile dropkick, instead. Tag to Big Show, and the corresponding move to Bray... but it instantly breaks down into a Pier Sixer.

And then, into a Pier Sevener, as Strowman takes out Big Show behind the ref's back. Bray capitalizes with a few shots, and then tags in Harper. A little back and forth, and Harper cinches in a sleeper. Show drops back to break the hold. Tepid tag to Kane, who isolates takes out Harper and fights off the other Wyatts, while the crowd remains dead silent.

Then, as Kane set a chokeslam on Harper, Ryback just randomly drops off the apron and walks out. Kane completes the chokeslam, but apparently, Bray had blind tagged himself into the match just before. Wyatt attacks Kane from behind and hits the Sister Abigail. Somehow, the announcers decide that Ryback caused the loss. Maybe he was supposed to, but if so, a cue was missed, cuz that was just an awkward mess.

Your Winners: the Wyatts, via pinfall, in 15 minutes. Inexplicably twice as long as it had any right to be, and instead of putting the Wyatts over huge, they did the sloppy random bit with Ryback. D'oh. From the Smark Catnip that was that opening segment to daring fans to flip away because of a seemingly never-ending turd like this one.

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Backstage: Ryback is asked about his walk-out, and he says it's nothing personal, but he was standing out there, and reealized he already won this match the night before. Him, by himself. He had nothing left to prove, and in fact, he's done with tag teams, entirely. It's time to grab the brass ring, and he's gonna do it on his own. Hokay.

SASHA BANKS vs. NAOMI (w/ Tamina)

One of these women will be fighting for the women's title at WM32. The other won't. You do the math. Interference from Tamina briefly created the slightest tinge of drama, but then Becky Lynch came out, and that was that.

Your Winner: Sasha Banks, via submission, in 6 minutes or so. I can state, with authority, that this is a thing that happened.

After the Match: Charlotte (w/ Ric) comes out on the stage and reveals that Becky and Sasha are gonna have to fight to determine the next #1 Contender. There can be only one. Charlotte uses a few cheap tricks to drive a wedge between the two, but for now, Becky and Sasha seem to be handling this like adults.

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Backstage: Vince has delivered Stephanie's trophy to her, but she's bending his ear, wanting to know why Vince would do this... what does Shane have over Vince to put the entire family business at risk? Vince assures her that after WM, Shane will hold NOTHING over him, and that's the whole point. The miniscule risk that Shane can somehow beat Undertaker in a Cell match, versus the reward that Shane is wiped from history, entirely. Steph seems satisfied.

Hall of Fame, Class of 2016: the Godfather joins Sting as the second inductee of 2016. Also, we know that JBL and Ron Simmons will be doing the Godfather's induction, which means JBL won't be inducted, his own self, this year. Huh.

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ROMAN REIGNS vs. SHEAMUS (w/ Alberto del Rio, Rusev, and Wade Barrett)

As prophesied by Steph, the entire LoN is here to stack the deck against Reigns. But it's only 10:50pm (eastern), so they'll have to stick to an illusion of non-interference before the inevitable.

Out of the gate, Reigns gets booed as he takes the fight to Sheamus. For his part, Sheamus keeps snuffing out those rallies by attacking the left arm (the one that Lesnar locked in the Kimura, last night).

One of Reigns' rallies ends with Sheamus getting dumped out of the ring. Reigns follows, and tosses him back into the ring. But when Reigns follows, Sheamus distracts the ref so ADR can yank Reigns off the apron, and Rusev can kick him in the head.

With Reigns crumpled on the floor, and with the LoN professing innocence, we break for our final...

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Back, and both men are down, with the ref applying a double count.

Oh, and the League of Nations is gone. Apparently, the ref didn't believe the protestations of innocence, and decided to eject Rusev/ADR/Barrett.

Reigns is first to his feet, and wins an exchange, ending with a Superman Punch and a chorus of boos. Sheamus wisely rolls out of the ring, but he's not safe out there, either: Reigns follows and spears him on the floor.

Reigns rolls back into the ring, but Sheamus is at risk of being counted-out....

That risk evaporates when Motorhead hits. And it's not the "King of Kings." It's "The Game," and HHH is wearing the jeans and leather jacket.

Your Winner: None, because we're just throwing this thing out.

After the Match: HHH stalks to the ring, and trades punches with Reigns. It initially breaks in favor of Reigns, but then HHH grabs the ring bell and Steamboats Reigns right in the throat.

Reigns is gasping for breath as HHH just kicks the shit out of him, all while receiving near unanimous cheers. When Reigns comes up bleeding profusely from the nose, the crowd gets even louder, and declares "THIS IS AWE SOME." Did I say "profusely?" PROFUSELY~!

Refs swarm, and get booed for breaking it up. After they wipe away the worst of the blood, HHH has a punchline for us: he Pedigrees Reigns on the steel ring steps. Try as Cole might to cast HHH as the bad guy, the crowd treats him as a conquering hero as he stands over Reigns as the show fades to black.

And so ends the show... I can't think of any criteria where it's a show that doesn't get marks for being a complete success, in the big picture.

WrestleMania 32 went from having zero matches that felt WM-worthy, to having THREE.

Shane/Taker, out of left field, is the exact sort of crazy-ass special attraction that WM needs one of, and you throw in the whole extra "meta" vibe of Shane as OUR surrogate, realizing the company's problems, and wanting to fix them by taking over RAW? Smarknip, people, smarknip. I love it.

[Not to get TOO far ahead of myself, it's pretty obvious there's no reason for Taker to fight Vince's battle for him, so all Vince has to do is declare that if Taker loses, he's fired. BOOM, even more fuel for the fire! And the "out" is that Taker fights the good fight, but via any number of tricks, he loses, but since Shane is the new boss, Shane can unfire him the next night.]

Lesnar/Ambrose, no holds barred? Not just a pairing of two guys who are mega-over, but with a stip that almost ensures high drama and high quality. With rules, no way Ambrose hangs with Lesnar. No rules? Ambrose has a puncher's chance so long as Brock has a scrotum.

And then, that pesky WWE Title Match, which I've spent 4 weeks shitting upon, because I just assumed that 95% of the WM32 audience would shit upon it in Texas, with Goldberg vs. Lesnar caliber results.... I felt pretty confident in that prediction, because the only real plausible way to avoid it would be if there were, somehow, enough fans willing to find it in their hearts to cheer for HHH, so that it wasn't just a giant onslaught of negativity.

Well, guess what? At least for one night, there were MORE than enough fans willing to find it in their hearts to cheer for HHH, and as a result, that was one red-hot and intense closing segment. Fans cared. Just not in the way WWE wanted them to.

I'm not saying WWE should push HHH as a face, or anything crazy, but as long as Hunter has SOME good will with the fan base, that means the WM32 title match WON'T be some total atrocity with the fans walking out, or whatever other hyperbole I've spewed in the last 24 hours.... instead, it'll be an upside-down, but MANAGEABLE, scenario, not much different from a lot of John Cena matches.

Of course, there are still plenty of ways to spin this into the heel turn that OO has spent a year advocating for Reigns, but you don't have to do it to "save" the WM32 title match.... in fact, it might be best to save it for AFTER Mania, where Reigns finally gets his "moment" by winning the title to a chorus of boos. That'll make a man snap, right?

But I digress. That's a discussion for another day. For tonight, WWE delivered two of their best jaw-dropping/surprising bookends in a while.... Shane was the best, but HHH splattering Reign's nose all over his face was a huge value-add. In the middle, the Lesnar/Ambrose segment was very strong, and both the AJ/Jericho and women's segment were perfectly acceptable bits that serviced overarchign stories.

Sure, pretty much everything else was so short to be worthless, a larger than standard amount of filler (because hey, WWE shocked the world with Shane, so let's replay it 6 times!!!), and that seemingly never-ending six-man tag that took the air out of the building.... but all that gets swept under the rug on a night that completely changed the trajectory of anticipation we've got for WrestleMania.

Perfection would have required at least SOME attempt at a real show-stealing WRESTLING match, but I see no reason not to hand out a final grade of A-minus. Good times.

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Bonding Exercises

RAW RECAP: The New Guy Blows It

PPV RECAP: WWE Night of Champions 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: 18 Seconds? NO! NO! NO!

RAW RECAP: The Show Must Go On

SMACKDOWN RECAP: The Boot Gets the Boot

RAW RECAP: Heyman Lands an Expansion Franchise

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Losing is the new Winning

RAW RECAP: Say My Name

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Deja Vu All Over Again

RAW RECAP: Dignity Before Gold?

PPV RECAP: SummerSlam 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Backfired!

RAW RECAP: Bigger IS Better

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Hitting with Two Strikes

RAW RECAP: Heel, or Tweener?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Destiny Do-Over

RAW RECAP: CM Punk is Not a Fan of Dwayne

SMACKDOWN RECAP: The Returnening

RAW RECAP: Countdown to 1000

PPV RECAP: WWE Money in the Bank 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Friday Night ZackDown

RAW RECAP: Closure's a Bitch

SMACKDOWN RECAP: In-BRO-pendence Day

RAW RECAP: Crazy Gets What Crazy Wants

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Five Surprising MitB Deposits

RAW RECAP: Weeeellll, It's a Big MitB

SMACKDOWN RECAP: #striketwo

RAW RECAP: Johnny B. Gone

PPV RECAP: WWE No Way Out 2012

RAW RECAP: Crazy Go Nuts

SMACKDOWN RECAP: You're Welcome

RAW RECAP: Be a Star, My Ass

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Needs More Kane?

RAW RECAP: You Can't See Him

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Lady Power

RAW RECAP: Big Johnny Still in Charge

PPV RECAP: WWE Over the Limit 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: One Gullible Fella

RAW RECAP: Anvil, or Red Herring?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Everybody Hates Berto

RAW RECAP: Look Who's Back

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Care to go Best of Five?

RAW RECAP: An Ace Up His Sleeve

PPV RECAP: WWE Extreme Rules 2012

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Sh-Sh-Sheamus and the nOObs

RAW RECAP: Edge, the Motivational Speaker?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: AJ is Angry, Jilted

RAW RECAP: Maybe Cena DOES Suck?

SMACKDOWN RECAP: No! No! No!

RAW RECAP: Brock's a Jerk

SMACKDOWN RECAP: Back with a Bang

RAW RECAP: Yes! Yes! Yes!

PPV RECAP: WWE WrestleMania 28

E-MAIL RICK SCAIA
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Rick Scaia is a wrestling fan from Dayton, OH. He's been doing this since 1995, but enjoyed it best when the suckers from SportsLine were actually PAYING him to be a fan.