by 2011 The Rock and John Cena announce a match one year in the making to follow WrestleMania XXVII
Fresh off of their second straight lackluster WrestleMania, the WWE needed to make waves and get everyone talking in a positive direction again. The needed an earth-shattering major storyline, one that had time to grow and get everyone excited and talking about wrestling again. They got it on this night as The Rock officially announced his return to the ring would take place exactly one year later when he accepted John Cena’s challenge to a WrestleMania match.
This move on this night proved to be genius because the next 364 days became cannot miss as the hype machine of the WWE got fully behind the match. This moment, on this night, will go down as one of the most famous moments in the history of, “The RAW after WrestleMania” lore. But this is how the show ended, let’s begin by taking a look at how it started.
The night began with HHH coming to the ring to talk about how he practically maimed The Undertaker the night before. Despite taking the loss, he proclaimed to be the actual winner of the match considering the Dead Man was laying in a hospital bed somewhere, while he was standing tall and practically unscathed from their battle the night prior. He managed to make it through the entire promo without one interruption.
While the fans were desperate for an actual match after starting the show with so much talk, they’d have to wait a little longer as Michael Cole showed up in a bright orange singlet and head gear. Flapping his gums after defeating The King Jerry Lawler the night before. This led to Jack Swaggar coming down to challenge and defeat Jerry The King Lawler in a rematch of the prior week with his ankle lock.
The problem for Swaggar and Cole was that he left the ankle lock on Lawler on too long, and the ref reversed the initial decision. Just when it seemed that the segment couldn’t get any goofier, it did, as Michael Cole doused Jim Ross with squirt bottle BBQ sauce. Just another bizarre segment for a feud that everyone wanted to see end.
The RAW after WrestleMania is always good for tag matches featuring opponents from the night before facing each other again while teaming up with a fellow heel or babyface. This night was no exception as Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio teamed up to take on CM Punk and Dashing Cody Rhodes. A 619 into an RKO out the team of Rhodes and Punk away after a nice little battle between the four.
How about a really cool promo for Sin Cara? Ah yes, the Mexican Luchador with more hype than the Easter Bunny who went on to do absolutely nothing and become a giant bust! Well, atleast the video’s they continued to show were kind of cool as they showed another one.
Stone Cold Steve Austin came out next to introduce the cast of the brand new Tough Enough. This was not done by accident however, as the first episode of the season was slated to start promptly after the episode of Raw went off the air. Out of the 14 contestants the only one to go on to do anything at all was Ariane Andrew who ironically was the very first one eliminated from the show later that same night.
The Miz mercifully ended the segment by running down each contestant before Stone Cold Steve Austin stunned The Miz’s lackey Alex Riley. The show itself, would never see a second season as it was absolute garbage.
Alberto Del Rio, still angry about losing his World Championship match the previous evening, took out his anger with a quick win over Evan Bourne. The win came with a bit of assistance from his lackey, Brodus Clay. Del Rio was a Smackdown Superstar, so his appearance on Raw was a bit out of character but a win is a win.
A United States Title Mach between Sheamus and Daniel Bryan was scheduled for WrestleMania 27 but after a few minutes, it turned into a 20 man battle royal instead for reasons unexplained. Thus, they scheduled the Bryan vs Sheamus United States Title match for this night instead. In a sign of what would come exactly a year later, it was Sheamus taking out Bryan with a brogue kick.
