Go-Home Raw, Which Match Will Steal the Show?, Taker/HHH/Sting

-Last night, WWE had the go-home Monday Night Raw, the last show before Wrestlemania. This was the absolute last chance to add juice to any storylines since the company will not broadcast a proper Friday Night Smackdown, instead just airing two random pre-taped matches and promotional videos to hype 'Mania.

The show did a great job of hyping the two money matches. They had The Undertaker and Triple H do a segment to hype their match, highlighting 'Taker's undefeated 'Mania streak and building up HHH as a different, meaner competitor than Shawn Michaels, who lost two years in a row to 'Taker at Wrestlemanias 25 and 26. Michaels showed up on Raw to add more drama (he's HHH's real-life good friend and has wrestled 'Taker a lot over the years). The buildup for this match has been mostly filler, but this segment added a little more fuel to the fire.

The other segment that hyped the other money match, John Cena vs. WWE Champ The Miz, was so entertaining. Added to this build-up has been Cena's back-and-forth promo battle with Wrestlemania host The Rock. They finally met face to face, and things got physical. The Miz and The Rock also had words, which also became physical. It ended with Cena hitting the Attitude Adjustment on The Rock.

Both these segments probably added some PPV buys.

-I'm going to call it right here, CM Punk vs. Randy Orton will steal the show. This matchup pits two of the best workers in the business against each other. Punk is a fantastic ring psychologist. Orton is in his prime. I think this has the ingredients to be a big one.


-As I mentioned above, the segment 'Taker and Tripe H did on Raw helped build the match a little bit more, but my excitement for this one isn't exactly sky high.

WWE has failed to acknowledge this, but we've seen this match before. Remember Triple H jobbing cleanly to The Undertaker at 'Mania 17? I do. It was a solid match, and both wrestlers stepped it up on that night. I'm sure WWE will book Sunday's match to the best of their ability, but I'm having trouble getting up for a match that I've seen before, only this time, both wrestlers are older and banged up.

The other element that has killed this one is the 'what could have been' factor. Months ago, it was reported by multiple online sources that WWE was trying to get Sting for Wrestlemania to possibly face The Undertaker. Considering that Sting has never worked for WWE, that would have been a huge match between two legit wrestling legends.

Jim Ross wrote in his blog back in early February, "I still say that there would likely be a large part of the WWE TV audience that only watches WWE that would have to become familiar with the Stinger's body of work. Not that it couldn't be done, it could, but that matter would have to be addressed." While Good Ol' JR wasn't totally off-base, anyone who was a fan when 'Taker was in his prime would probably know who Sting is, and also would remember that he was labeled "The Franchise of WCW." I think WWE dropped the ball on this one. I think if they made Sting a generous offer, made some agreement to give him some sort of access to his archived footage, maybe, while their foot is in the door, get him to agree to do one follow-up match at another Pay-Per-View, I think they would've landed him. In doing so, they would've given fans something truly unique and special.

5 days, kids.