4/4/11 WWE Raw Recap

by Stephen Bedsole

* Live from Atlanta, GA

Opening video and pryo,
J.R. and Jerry “The King” Lawler on commentary, they hype John Cena calling out The Rock later tonight.

Triple H comes out to the ring to start the show off, huge ovation for him. He says this is the most tired and beat up he’s ever been. He says when the gong hit and Taker walked down the ramp, he had never been so nervous in his life. He says they both left everything they had in the ring last night in front of 71,000 fans, but for him, it wasn’t good enough. He says Undertaker is willing to destroy himself to keep his streak intact. He says some people are saying Taker won’t be back, he thanks Taker for the fight of his life, and says he doesn’t believe that he won’t be back. Trips looks right at the camera and says “and when you come back, I’ll be waiting” J.R. says he’s never seen a battle so hard fought.

J.R. mentions that Michael Cole may to come out and challenge Lawler to a match later.

Coming out of the commercial they hype Stone Cold showing up later.

Michael Cole comes out, huge heat. Cole says despite biased referee, Stone Cold, and overwhelming odds, he beat Lawler, he says the world was talking about Michael Cole, and how Michael Cole is now 1-0 UNDEFEATED at Wrestlemania, and now that HBK is in the Hall Of Fame, the WWE Universe will refer to Cole as Mr. Wrestlemania. Lawler interrupts Cole and tells him to shut his pie-hole. Lawler says the computer beat him, and in fact, he made Cole tap out. He tells Cole that he will only be known as a worthless jackass. Cole tells Lawler to get over it, he tells Lawler to admit that he is the better athlete and the better man. Cole challenges Lawler to a re-match. Lawler says let’s do it right now! Cole says he wasn’t talking about at Wrestlemania rematch, he was talking about a rematch of his match last Monday against Jack Swagger. Swagger’s music hits and he makes his way to the ring.

Match 1: Lawler vs. Swagger w/ Michael Cole
Swagger gets Lawler in the corner and lands a few blows, Lawler escapes. Swagger again traps Lawler in the corner, and lands a few body blows. Swagger body slams king and goes for a double leg drop but Lawler moves and goes for the cover. 2 count. Both men up, Lawler runs at Swagger and right into a clothesline. Lawler is down in the center of the ring. Swagger misses with the Swagger-bomb. King is landing some punches now, and then lands a drop-kick. Cole got up on the apron, King chases him out and then back into the ring, and starts punching him. Swagger takes advantage and gets the ankle lock locked in. Lawler taps. After the bell rings, Swagger still won’t break the hold. The ref then reverses his decision and DQ’s Swagger.
Winner: Jerry The King Lawler.

Cole is yelling at J.R. Cole goes into the Cole mine and gets a bottle of JR’s BBQ sauce and throws it at J.R. covers him in it, and then runs. J.R. is following him up the ramp.
A tag team match is shown for later. Cody Rhodes and C.M. Punk vs. Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton

Out of commercial Cole is back on commentary showing the replay of him squirting the BBQ sauce on J.R.
Cole is bragging about setting the attendance record at Wrestlemania and winning his match, and how J.R. came out and just took his seat.

Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio vs. Cody Rhodes and C.M. Punk
Orton and Mysterio come out first, Rhodes is still wearing his mask.
Orton and Rhodes start out the match. They tie-up in the corner, Rhodes comes out of it landing some kicks, but Randy Orton quickly turns the tables. Mysterio tagged in. Mysterio lands a big kick, and tries to rip off Cody’s mask. Cody rolls out of the ring.

back from commercial and Randy is back in the ring scoring knee-drops on Cody. Rey tags in and goes for the splash of the ropes, and the cover. 2 count. Cody gets the tag to Punk, seconds later Rhodes is back in. Rey goes for the inside-cradle, Rhodes kicks out. Orton tags back in. Punk distracts Orton and Rhodes distracts the ref, Punk pulls Orton down and tries to slam the injured knee of Orton against the ring post. Randy kicks him away, and gets up Rhodes hits Orton in the back of the leg and immediately goes to work on the leg. Rhodes tags in Punk and Punk goes for the GTS, Orton reverses it but Punk goes back to work on the leg as we go to another commercial.

back from commercial, and Orton and Punk are still in the ring, Orton is trying to make a tag but Punk has him by the leg, he finally makes the Hot tag to Rey, who immediately takes control, landing a moon-sault off the ropes, Rey goes for the 619 on Punk but Rhodes kicks Rey right in the head on the way through. Rhodes now the legal man and is going to work on Rey in the corner. Rhodes drags Rey to his corner and Punk tags in. Punk goes for a cover but gets a 2 count. Punk goes for a power-bomb on Mysterio but Rey reverses, both men make the hot tag, Orton comes in and clotheslines Rhodes, and then gets the DDT through the ropes. The Viper is pounding the mat, but Punk distracts Orton. Orton goes for the cover, but Punk breaks up the attempt. Rey runs in and takes out Punk. Rey hits the 619 on Rhodes, RIGHT INTO AN RKO. Orton scores the 3 count.
Winners: Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton

Backstage we see Stone Cold walking, and he runs into Triple H. He says to Hunter: “I don’t know if it’ll happen again, but if it does, I’ll be there” They shake hands and part ways.

Another promo for Sin Cara coming out of commercial.

Stone Cold’s music hits, HUGE POP. Austin invites the tough-enough contenders out to the ring. Austin hyping up the show. He’s having them all introduce themselves. Most of them are getting booed. Crowd chanting: “Stun Them All!”
Miz crashes the party, and Cole goes nuts. Huge Miz is Awesome chant. Miz says when he was on tough-enough everyone was telling him to go home, but after last night, no one can ever tell him where to go again. Miz says he had a concussion that would’ve ended most men’s careers, but not only did he finish the match, but he went on to retain his title. Miz says he is the new face of the WWE. He tells all of the tough-enough contestants to look close, and take it all in, because this is the closest they will get to a WWE title. Stone Cold is staring down the Miz. Miz asks him if he wants to hold the title. Miz asks him if he thinks he has one more run, and says “I bet you think you’re tough enough”. (One more match chant) Miz says let’s clear the ring and find out if he can have one more match. Stone Cold tells everyone to clear the ring! Miz with the cheap shot and Alex Reilly continues beating Austin in the corner, Austin quickly out of that and stomping a mud-hole in Alex. Austin beats the crap out of Reilly, and then stuns him for good measure.
Austin’s beer man is tossing him beers, and he’s passing them out to the tough-enough contestants. They share a beer toast. Austin approaches the Cole-Mine and pours beer all over him.
As we’re going to break they again hype Cena calling out the Rock.

After another break Ricardo Rodriguez is out to introduce Alberto Del Rio. Who comes out without a car, probably because Edge and Christian destroyed it last night.

Match 3: Alberto Del Rio vs. Evan Bourne

Alberto Del Rio wastes no time, right after the bell he is all over Bourne, Bourne gets a couple kicks in, then its back to Del Rio dominating. Del Rio goes for a pin, Bourne quickly kicks out. Bourne finally getting some offense, lands a big knee, and goes for a cover, only a two count. Bourne went for the air-bourne and is knocked off the turn buckle and Del Rio quickly applies the arm-breaker, Evan taps out.

Winner by submission: Alberto Del Rio

After the match Del Rio is shown with a bloody lip.

They showed a video package of all the fan events from Wrestlemania week coming out of break.

Vickie is out with Dolph, Vickie says Snooki beat LayCool, not Dolph. Dolph congratulates John Morrison on his win, but then says he couldn’t have done it without the most valuable member of his team (Snooki). So he challenges Morrison to a match, and heads toward the ring.

Morrison is on his way to the ring. It’s going to be a mixed tag match.

Match 4: John Morrison and Trish Stratus vs. Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero

Dolph and Morrison start us out, Ziggler takes down Morrison and starts landing punches. Morrison quickly gets the upper hand and Dolph retreats to his corner and tags in a seemingly unwilling Vickie. Trish is in, and Vickie tries to copy Snooki’s flip, and fails hilariously. Trish goes for the roll-up for a 2 count. Trish now landing some chops. Vickie finally takes down Trish and and goes for a cover, 2 count. Trish makes the tag, Morrison and Ziggler back in. Ziggler hits a huge back body drop. Trish breaks up the cover attempt. Morrison lands a huge kick and sets up for and hits Starship Pain. Quick cover and 3 count.

Winners by pinfall: John Morrison and Trish Stratus

U.S. Title Match: Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan

Cole calls Bryan the poster-child for go-away.com.
Bell rings and we’re off. Sheamus throws Bryan across the ring and immediately goes for a cover, quick 2 count. Sheamus in control lands a huge knee to the head of Bryan who was in between the 2nd and 3rd ropes. Sheamus hits the side-slam back-breaker, goes for the cover and gets only a 2 count. Bryan finally getting to his feet and lands a couple big kicks to the chest of Sheamus. Then hits a few clotheslines, and a running kick. Bryan goes for the cover and gets 2. Sheamus powers out of a submission attempt by Bryan and hits the brough-kick. Covers Bryan and gets the 3 count to retain his title.
After the match Sheamus goes to attack Bryan, and Sin Cara’s music hits! He points at Sheamus and runs right to the ring making a flying entrance, he hits a flying cross body off the top rope to outside of the ring, he was probably 15 feet in the air. Sin Cara back to the top of the ramp, as we’re heading to break we’re told John Cena’s segment is next.

John Cena’s music hits and he gets mostly boos. Which he seems to enjoy.
Cena says a lot of people are upset about “a certain someone’s” actions last night at ‘mania. He says he didn’t think that the certain someone would decide the main event at Wrestlemania, but if he hadn’t interfered the final moment of Wrestlemania would’ve been a draw, so he’s not mad, he’s going to congratulate the Miz. He says there’s something to be said for walking into Wrestlemania as champion, and leaving as champion. Now back to The Rock. Cena says its obvious that Rock doesn’t like him or respect him. He says Rock was supposed to be the host, but quickly became involved in his business, and that means that they have business to settle, right now.
Cena is waiting for The Rock. After a long pause The Rock’s music hits and he heads right for the ring.

Rock grabs a mic, but before he says anything, there is a very LOUD “FRUITY PEBBLES” chant. The Rock asks Cena what he thinks was gonna happen. He says if you poke a shark in the eye you get swallowed whole. The Rock says Cena is wrong about respect, he says he respects Cena, he says he knows Cena lives and breathes WWE. He says Cena has become one of the greatest of all time because of his drive, but it doesn’t change the fact that The Rock just doesn’t like him.
The Rock says him and Cena are complete opposites, but the truth is they are very similar, no matter what they do, they want to do it the best, better than anyone….period. The Rock says he shops and department stores, and Cena shops at Baby Gap, Cena interupts and says yeah, fashion advice from the tooth fairy. But enough talk, Cena says The Rock should listen to the people, the people want a match, and the people don’t just want any match, they want a match where generations collide, Cena says they want Cena vs. The Rock, Cena asks The Rock if he wants to talk about it, or if he wants to bring it…..
The Rock says Cena has no idea what he just asked for, The Rock says he will bring it, but it will be the biggest match of all time, on the biggest stage, Wrestlemania 28. The People’s Wrestlemania! The Rock offers his hand to shake on it…Cena does. They have stare each other down

The Corre comes out and surrounds the ring to ruin the historic moment, they’re going to work on The Rock and Cena….The Rock starts battling back, so does Cena. Cena hits the 5 knuckle shuffle on Slater, The Rock hits the spine-buster on Barrett, then adds the People’s Elbow for good measure. Cena hits the Attitude Adjustment on Slater. The Rock hits the Rock Bottom on Barrett, it looks like they’re trying to out-do each other. The Rock and Cena shake hands one more time.