Hulk Hogan’s WrestleMania XXX Announcement, John Cena & The Wyatt Family
This week’s RAW kicks off with Justin Roberts immediately introducing Hulk Hogan. The WrestleMania XXX host’s music hits and “The Hulkster” makes his way out to the ring. The sold out crowd in Memphis, Tennessee erupts for the nine-time main eventer of WrestleMania.
The music stops and the “Hogan, Hogan” chants break out from the passionate Memphis crowd. “Let me tell you something, Memph-o Hulkamaniacs,” says Hogan. He talks about reliving some of his greatest WrestleMania matches on the WWE Network, including ones against Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage and Andre The Giant. He talks about the moment that he slammed Andre at WrestleMania III. Hogan says while doing watching all of those great moments, he came up with a historic idea.
Hogan says in celebrating 30 years of WrestleMania, and in honoring one of the greatest Superstars of all-time, we’re going to have an over-the-top, 30-man, “Andre The Giant Memorial” battle royal. He says the winner will receive the coveted Andre The Giant Memorial trophy. With that said, we take a look at the titan tron. We see the Andre The Giant trophy that Hogan just referenced.
“So in closing Memph-o-nites, I got one question for ya. Whatcha gonna do…” Before Hogan can leave, John Cena’s theme music hits. The leader of the Ce-Nation comes out clapping and looks fired up. The Memphis fans give Cena his typical mixed-bag reaction. Cena references a sign in the crowd that says “Hogan Still Rules.” He says he wanted to come out and tell Hogan to his face that he definitely does still rule. He puts over Hogan for being the guy who started WrestleMania and says it’s good to have him back home. He puts over the Andre The Giant Memorial that Hogan just announced and then speaks about his memories watching Hogan-Andre at WrestleMania III. Cena says he is the first to enter his name for the Andre The Giant Memorial battle royal.
The Wyatt Family cut-in happens and the Memphis fans explode. We see the latern, followed by, “Memphis, we’re here.” The Wyatt Family music hits and the fans pop again. All three members of The Wyatt Family make their way to the ring. Bray says he’s always been fascinated with pride. He says it’s his favorite sin. He mocks Hogan for claiming to be immortal, the vitamins and prayers rap Hogan used to give, and then mocks Cena’s “hustle, loyalty and respect” phrase. He calls both Cena and Hogan liars. He says he’s going to kill Cena’s legacy. He says when Cena looks at Wyatt square in the eyes, he’ll see a god. The crowd, who was with Wyatt up until that point, boo’d him for calling himself a god.
Cena asks if Bray listens to himself spewing all that crap. He mocks Wyatt and sings a few verses from Margaritaville. The Memphis fans are slowly getting with Cena as he continues to run down Wyatt on the mic. Cena tells Hulk that he might not be able to make that battle royal. He officially challenges Wyatt to a match at WrestleMania XXX.
Wyatt tells Cena that it’s always fun and games with Cena, until it’s him caught in the spider’s web. He drops the mic and all three members of The Wyatt Family slowly start approaching the ring. Cena takes his shirt off, Hogan takes his sunglasses off. Both guys stand their ground as The Wyatt Family gets closer. On that note, we head to a commercial.
John Cena vs. Erick Rowan
When we return from commercial, Cena and Erick Rowan are duking it out in the ring. We see Hogan at ringside, sticking around to show his support for Cena. The Cena-Rowan match that WWE announced earlier today for tonight’s show is in progress now. The dueling “let’s go Cena” and “Cena sucks” chants start up as Rowan starts to gain the upper-hand in the match. Rowan continues to dominate Cena until Cena starts fighting back with kicks and punches. Rowan cuts his offensive comeback short, and hits him with a fall-away slam for a near fall..
We see Hogan looking on at ringside, followed by a close-up shot of Bray shouting instructions to Rowan. Rowan slaps Cena in a bear hug. Rowan rag-dolls Cena, shaking him around in the bear hug the same way Chyna used to do to Marlena during the Attitude Era. Rowan slams Cena out of the bear hug. He scoops him back up and powerslams him right back down. Rowan goes to scoop Cena up again for another slam, but Cena reverses it into a school boy. 1-2-3. Cena wins out of nowhere.
Winner: John Cena
After The Match
Cena’s music hits and Hulk Hogan comes into the ring to celebrate with him. Bray orders Rowan and Luke Harper to go back to the ring. They approach the apron, but Hogan and Cena don’t back down, resulting in Rowan and Harper backing down. Bray shakes his head and smiles as all three members of The Wyatt Family walk away. Hogan’s music hits again and he and Cena hug. Hogan does the ear-pose to the crowd and does some posing. Cena plays to the crowd with Hogan, with an ear-to-ear grin on his face the entire time. Cena and Hogan both do the muscle poses together.
Some Matches & Action Scheduled For Tonight
We shoot to the announce table where Michael Cole, JBL and the hometown boy, Jerry “The King” Lawler quickly plug the WWE Network. After that, they reveal Sheamus vs. Christian for a match later tonight. The fans will get to vote for the stipulation for their match, with the options being a Falls Count Anywhere match, a 2-out-of-3 Falls match and a Memphis Street Fight.
After that, the commentary team runs down some more of the action scheduled for tonight. A tag-team match featuring Batista and Randy Orton against Big Show and Daniel Bryan is announced. They promote that The Undertaker will be on RAW later tonight as well. Finally, we see a shot of The Authority backstage making their way to the ring. After that, we head to a commercial break.
The Authority Address Daniel Bryan
When we return from commercial, we see highlights of everything that went down between Triple H and Daniel Bryan from the end of last week’s RAW. After that, we shoot back live to the arena where Triple H’s music hits. Both he and Stephanie McMahon make their way out to the top of the stage. Stephanie talks about what happened last week with Bryan and HHH. The fans boo Stephanie, but not nearly as bad as they did last week in Chicago. Stephanie mockingly apologizes to Bryan. They talk about Daniel Bryan’s value. She says he has a certain niche following. She says they won’t fire Bryan as long as he returns the favor and publicly apologizes to them. Stephanie says HHH is above Bryan. She smiles and says they hope the fans enjoy the rest of the show. They walk off.
The Usos vs. Ryback & Curtis Axel
After that, we hear, “oh you didn’t know?” Road Dogg and Billy Gunn come out in street clothes. Michael Cole says The New Age Outlaws will be joining them on commentary as new WWE Tag-Team Champions, The Usos, will be in action next. On that note, we head to another commercial break.
When we return, we see Ryback and Curtis Axel in the ring. They will apparently be The Usos opponents tonight. We see a pre-taped interview via split-screen with Ryback. Ryback talks about entering the Andre The Giant Memorial, a match that wasn’t announced until RAW started, yet he announced his participation in the match in an interview taped before the show. Good stuff.
Anyways, The Usos come out doing their usual routine, only this time they have a couple extra points of gold around their waist. Road Dogg is already cracking jokes about The Usos on commentary as the champs make their way to the ring. We see highlights of The Usos winning the tag-team titles last week on RAW. Road Dogg says they were under the weather last week and that’s why they lost the belts.
The bell rings and Uso starts things off with Ryback. Uso chops Ryback repeatedly and then arm-drags him down to the mat. Ryback quickly tags out. Curtis Axel comes in and Uso goes straight to work on him. The finish in this one comes moments later, with The Usos doing their knew finishing sequence, including one Uso diving over the top and onto the floor, making the tag to his brother in the process, and then that Uso coming off the top with a big splash for the pin.
Winners: The Usos
