With most of the Raw roster still stranded in Northern Ireland, WWE brought in Smackdown talent for Monday night's episode of Raw, including a surprise appearance by The Undertaker. Triple H, who was not on the European tour, also was featured prominently.
Triple H's presence – he opened Raw with a lengthy talking segment and also wrestled in the six-man tag team main event – and The Undertaker's first match since facing Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XXVI three weeks ago were key components of WWE's attempt to make the best of an unfortunate situation.
The show wasn't bad all things considering, but it certainly didn't have the feel of a go-home show for a pay-per-view (Extreme Rules is this Sunday). That was due in large part to the presence of some actors from the upcoming movie "MacGruber." As of late, WWE has kept its guests hosts out of the way for the most part, but that wasn't the case on Monday. There was a little too much "MacGruber" for my liking.
When it was mentioned on last week's show that members of the "MacGruber" cast were going to be on the show, I had no idea what "MacGruber" was, so I didn't know what to expect. To be fair, I thought the guy who played MacGruber delivered his lines like a pro Monday, and he and his female sidekick were somewhat amusing.
However, some of their stuff missed the mark, such as MacGruber wetting his pants because he was afraid of facing Vladimir Kozlov. Plus, it was just too corny having movie characters – not the actors who play the roles, but the actual characters – interacting with WWE talent.
And speaking of corny, that bit with R-Truth getting blown up (no, he didn't get winded in a match, he was literally blown up, as in an explosion) was Ed Wood-level bad. The joke was that all that was left were his boots, but you could actually see R-Truth running off the stage during the explosion.
Other thoughts on Monday's show:
It was a good idea to bring in The Undertaker for this show, but I wish the creative team could have come up with something for him to do other than score a clean victory over world heavyweight champion Jack Swagger. The match was decent and Swagger held his own, but I can't for the life of me figure out what WWE hopes to accomplish by having Swagger do one job after another right after winning the title. Monday's loss negates whatever ground Swagger had gained with his victory over Edge and Chris Jericho in a triple threat match last Friday on Smackdown.
Why not have this match end in a disqualification or count-out, preferably in a manner that plays into the no-holds barred aspect of Swagger's match against Randy Orton at Extreme Rules? For example, have Swagger attack The Undertaker's bad knee with a chair, with the announcers playing up the fact that such actions will be legal Sunday. At this point, Orton is going to look pretty bad if he doesn't win the title from such a weak champion as Swagger. …
Triple H's opening monologue was funnier than anything involving MacGruber. He had me laughing out loud a few times, especially during his verbal exchange with CM Punk. When I saw former WWE ring announcer Lillian Garcia sitting at ringside (she filled in for Justin Roberts), I knew Triple H was going to take a shot at her, and he didn't disappoint. He said that Garcia "came back just to horse around." It's apparently an inside joke in the WWE locker room that Garcia has a horse face. …
I liked the angle with Rey Mysterio shaving off a bit of Punk's hair at the end of the opening segment. Punk's reaction and facial expressions were great. I cracked up when he was shown backstage later with a towel wrapped around his head like a woman who just got out of the shower. …
The six-man tag match that saw Triple H, Mysterio and Edge defeat Jericho, Punk and Luke Gallows was decent. …
I was surprised that Drew McIntyre defeated Matt Hardy without hitting his finisher. McIntyre simply yanked Hardy off the ropes and scored the win in a short match. …
Was I having a nightmare or did I actually see The Great Khali in a MacGruber wig wrestling against Kozlov? By the way, wasn't Khali supposed to be taking a break and spending time with his family in India? …
Khali was playing a character named Khaluber, MacGruber's half-brother. Garcia announced him as "Khalubra." Same old Lillian. …
When Kozlov and MacGruber were having their "match," you could hear a pin drop. There wasn't much reaction when actor Ryan Phillipe hit the ring either.