Raw emanated from London, England. Jim Ross and Jerry “the King” Lawler began the commentary, with Michael Cole seated off to the side in his protective cube. Cole remarked that seeing JR and the King seated next to each other seemed more like 1999 than 2011.

Match Summary:

John Morrison def. R-Truth by pinfall.
Dolph Ziggler def. Evan Bourne by pinfall
Sin Cara and John Cena def. The Miz and Alex Riley by pinfall
Eve def. Nikki Bella by pinfall
Sheamus def. Santino Morella by pinfall
Randy Orton def. CM Punk by pinfall

Highlights:

Modified main event for Extreme Rules: WWE Title Match: Triple Threat Steel Cage Match: The Miz v. John Cena v. John Morrison.

R-Truth was “out-strategized” by John Morrison and lost his title shot at Extreme Rules.

R-Truth turned heel, administered a post-match uncomfortable-to-watch beat-down on John Morrison, and allowed his character to really develop.

Next week is the WWE Annual Draft.

Michael Cole was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II and then physically forced Jim Ross kiss his foot.

The show began when R-Truth’s music began, and R-Truth came to the ring for the opening promo. R-Truth got the name of the city right, and it is possibly fortunate that he was not required to state the name of the country. The crowd punctuated Truth’s predictions about his Extreme Rules title match with chants of “WHAT.” Truth vowed to be the “most fighting champion in the history of champions” after he wins the WWE Title. Mixed reaction from the crowd. John Morrison’s music began, and Morrison faced his friend Truth. Morrison congratulated Truth but claimed that he had some help from Lady Luck. Morrison claimed that Truth was out of shape and then showed footage of Truth gassed between opponents during the gauntlet match and drinking from a much-needed bottle of water. Truth said that he still went through three opponents, and the commentators seemed to concur. Morrison countered that Truth is in good shape…for someone who
smokes. Was this a hint at a heel turn for Morrison, with Morrison becoming the heel who criticizes everyone else’s fitness and appearance?? Truth responded that Morrison knows that he’s trying to quit smoking, and he sees what Morrison is trying to do here…trying to goad him into putting his title shot on the line in a match with Morrison. Morrison cut Truth off and accepted the challenge. Truth said he was not ready to fight. He was there to celebrate. Truth asked the crowd, which cheered at the prospect of the two of them fighting. Morrison said to get a referee, as the match was going to happen right then.

R-Truth v. John Morrison.

After one or two moves, Truth went out to ring-side to get a bottle of water from a fan. The crowd booed. After a commercial break, action continued as the two traded headlocks and traded clotheslines. The work-rate allowed Cole to dig into JR for not properly resetting the match after commercial. Cole and the King then traded insults. All three were in agreement, though, that R-Truth had been swindled by Morrison. After a series of non-dramatic near-falls, Morrison hit the Starship Pain for a non-dramatic pinfall. Winner by pinfall: John Morrison.

After the match, Morrison went over to Truth, who was lying in the corner, and extended his hand to him. Truth was too disheartened to respond. Morrison then went to a different corner and climbed to the second rope to acknowledge the crowd. As Truth was halfway out of the ring, he looked over at Morrison, climbed back into the ring, and walked with purpose over to Morrison. He pulled Morrison off the second turnbuckle, and Morrison hit his back and his head on the mat as he landed. The crowd booed Truth. As Morrison struggled to get up, Truth ran at him and kneed him in the head, knocking him to the floor. Truth then went down to the floor, ran at Morrison, and connected with his knee against Morrison’s head and the ring barricade. Seemingly overcome with guilt, Truth held Morrison’s head and admonished him, “You did this, John. You did this.” He helped Morrison up…and then knocked him down. He grabbed a water bottle from the
announce table, took a swig, and then hit Morrison in the head with it. Part of the crowd began to chant “Water!” Or maybe it was another word that I could not clearly identify. Then, the whole crowd began chanting “R-Truth Sucks,” which historically has been good for the careers of superstars. After lifting up Morrison and admonishing him once more, R-Truth executed what looked like a finishing move. In the move, Truth looks like HE was the one who was Rock-Bottomed or Book-ended, but all of the damage was done to Morrison. As boos rained down upon him, Truth found a pack of smokes, lit one, took a few satisfied drags, blew smoke in the face of an unconscious Morrison, and then flicked cigarette ashes at him. Great heel turn for R-Truth, whose character went through at least two changes during this entire exchange. The more he beat on Morrison, the less guilty he seemed to feel and the more he seemed to enjoy it.

Evan Bourne v. Dolph Ziggler.

Vicki Guerrero came out to a huge pop and announced the new and improved Dolph Ziggler, who came to the ring with dark hair that was clean-cut. The new Ziggler looked eerily similar to Ted DiBiase, to a degree that was distracting me from watching the action of the match. For the entirety of the short match, Bourne tried to high-fly, and Ziggler tried to keep him grounded. The match ended when Bourne missed an Air-Bourne and stumbled backwards into a Zig Zag. Winner by pinfall: Dolph Ziggler. In the ring, the new Ziggler seemed just like the old one. The only difference seemed to be the ever-present pissed-off look on his face before and after the match.

A promo at the bottom of the screen highlighted upcoming WWE visits to Cardiff, Wales; Salzburg, Austria; Ankara, Turkey; Bucharest, Romania; and Doha, Qatar.

Michael Cole teased being knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

Raw Rewind showed Sin Cara highlights…with some great special effects that made his moves look really cool. With each move in the promo, the camera slowed down when Sin Cara was at the apex of the trajectory of his aerial moves, and then sped up as Sin Cara dropped down to his opponent. Sin Cara’s finish against Primo Colon looked particularly good.

Next, there was a look back at Edge’s retirement in the form of musical montage of his speech, still-shots, and action highlights from his career…set to “When You’re Young” by Three Doors Down.

There was a promotion for the WWE annual draft, next week on WWE Raw.

The Miz and Alex Riley came to the ring wearing matching baseball t-shirts that read “Awesome” across the chest. The way the t-shirts were cut at the bottom made it seem almost as if they were wearing only the t-shirts because the t-shirt covered most of their wrestling trunks. The Miz was angry at the change in his opponent for Extreme Rules, and The Miz also announced that the triple-threat title match was going to be a Steel Cage match. The Miz announced that he would remain seated in the ring until the Raw GM made things right. Riley brought in a chair, and the Miz took a seat as the show went to commercial. The Miz apparently filibustered for the entire commercial break. As he was about to finish, Sin Cars’s music sounded; Sin Cara pointed; and then Sin Cara made his way to the ring. It looked like Sin Cara correctly executed the trampoline jump from the floor over the top rope into the ring. John Cena then immediately entered after
Sin Cara. The Raw GM sent an e-mail to Michael Cole’s i-pad and declared a tag-team match.

Sin Cara and John Cena v. The Miz and Alex Riley

Cena dominated early, and then the Miz took the momentum from Cena for a spell. After tagging-in Riley, Riley went to cover Cena for a quick two-count. Cena then gained advantage over Riley and tagged Sin Cara. Sin Cara executed an inventive move against both Riley and The Miz. Holding Riley’s hand, he went to the corner and climbed to the top rope (similar to the Undertaker‘s “Old School“). Sin Cara jumped off, landing a spinning head scissor on The Miz that sent The Miz flying across the ring. He never let go of Riley’s hand, sending Riley flying, as well. The Miz and Riley settled down and gained control over Sin Car, cutting the ring in half through the use of effective tags. Cena and Riley were tagged-in at the same time. Vintage Cena. Shoulder block. Five-knuckle shuffle. Attitude Adjustment. Cena tagged Sin Cara, who entered by performing a springboard moonsault that barely connected with Riley. Riley sold the move,
however, and the faces earned the pinfall. Winners: Sin Cara and John Cena by pinfall.

There was a teaser for Randy Orton v. CM Punk for later that night.

Another vignette for Awesome Kong aired. The vignette was similar to that of last week. However, the doll in this week’s vignette had black hair and seemed to be Asian.

Eve v. Nikki Bella

As the twins headed down to the ring, Brie taunted Eve that she may be drafted to Smackdown and never get a rematch at the Diva’s Championship. The match started with a short series of decent moves. The match seemed to get drowned out by the silence of the crowd, as there was hardly any crowd reaction to this match. Brie was at ringside and got involved when Nikki distracted the referee. Brie tried to hurt Eve’s leg by slamming it into the ring apron, but this move looked botched. Eve uneventfully rolled-up Nikki for the pinfall. Winner: Eve by pinfall.

The Knighting of Sir Michael Cole

Michael Cole interrupted the in-ring celebration of Eve by grabbing the microphone and announcing that he was about the be knighted by Queen Elizabeth. The crowd loudly booed. After a commercial, Cole stood in the center of the ring and announced Jack Swagger. They exchanged hugs, and Swagger adorned Cole with a King’s robe. Swagger unfurled a scroll and began reading, and Swagger did a laughably good job reading the pronouncement that Cole will no longer be known as Mr. Wrestlemania but as Sir Michael Cole. Swagger then announced Queen Elizabeth, and the British National Anthem sounded. Either the real Queen Elizabeth or a fake Queen Elizabeth appeared at the entrance and proceeded down the ramp and entered the ring. We Americans are sometimes lucky to recognize our own political leaders; so it is impossible for us to determine with certainty if this was the real thing or not. The kiss at the end would tend to have me believe that it was not
the real Queen. Perhaps we shall never know. As the Queen made her entrance flanked by two bodyguards, some fans sang the anthem patriotically; others rolled their eyes as they sensed what was about to happen; and still others could be seen commenting to each other that the queen looked pretty real.

The WWE Universe in London was rude to their monarch, as they treated her pretty much the way they treated R-Truth during his promo and after his heel turn. As she began the process of knighting Cole, the crowd punctuated her comments with chants of “WHAT” and even seemed to be chanting “WATER” at one point. She then knighted Cole by touching both shoulders with the traditional sword. Cole then did the hilariously unthinkable: he grabbed the Queen’s head and kissed the Queen on the lips. After she left the ring, Cole demanded that Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross come into the ring and kiss his feet. Cole’s bare foot looked quite nasty. Lawler entered the ring and was taken out by Swagger. On the floor, Swagger then clotheslined Lawler over the barricade. Luckily, Lawler did not have to kiss anyone’s foot, as I do not believe that Lawler still has access to Isaac Yankem DDS, who has been busy doing other things for the past fifteen-plus
years. So JR was in the ring alone with Cole. JR removed his jacket and was moving towards Cole, when Swagger hit him from behind. Cole demanded that Swagger force JR to kiss his foot. Swagger put JR in the ankle lock and put his face in Cole’s foot, with Cole taunting JR for the duration. Cole then faced the crowd and demanded that they call him Sir Michael Cole. Every time he chanted his name, the crowd finished by chanting “SUCKS!”

Sheamus v. Santino Morella

Sheamus wanted revenge on Morella for embarrassing him one year ago in England at a pretend tea-party. This was a squash match, and the highlight of the match was Cole and Josh Matthews laughing at the vision of JR on the plane back to the U.S. Cole laughed about how uncomfortable JR would be in a leg cast seating in the middle of a row on the plane. Matthews could not help but laughing at the vision of JR’s mouth all swollen and inflamed after having had contact with whatever was growing on Cole’s foot. The match ended with an authoritative brogue kick. Winner: Sheamus by pinfall.

CM Punk v. Randy Orton, with New Nexus banned from ringside.

This Wrestlemania XXVIII Rematch began with some great back-and-forth action. The crowd was clearly into the match. On four separate occasions throughout the match, the crowd alternated chants of “CM PUNK” and “RANDY ORTON.” Early on, Punk avoided an RKO and then gained the advantage after the commercial break. Punk controlled the middle of the match with body slams, a chin lock, a suplex, and a running clothesline from the ring apron down to the floor. After Punk applied a submission hold, Orton broke the hold by biting Punk’s fingers. The finger-biting seemed to have taken Punk out of his game mentally, as he became increasingly frustrated with failing to put Orton away. As the match moved towards its conclusion and the two superstars began countering finishing holds, the crowd alternated chants of R-K-O and G-T-S. Orton executed an impact superplex from the top rope. Orton attempted the Orton-styled DDT, but Punk countered. Punk
went for the GTS, but Orton countered. Orton went for the RKO, but Punk countered with a kick to the face and scored a near-fall. A very frustrated Punk then went for the GTS, but Orton countered by rolling up Punk for the sudden pinfall. Winner: Randy Orton by pinfall.

After the match concluded, the New Nexus came to the ring. Otunga and McGillicutty administered a beat-down on Orton, and Mason Ryan demanded that they give Orton to him. Ryan then executed a Rock Bottom / Book End but sat through the landing. Ryan then backed up into the corner as if he wanted to punt Orton. As he was about to launch forward, Punk stopped him, stating that he liked the idea but that Punk wants to be the one to execute the punt. Ryan pushed Punk out of the way. Punk reiterated that he wanted to be the one. Punk then launched forward towards Orton. Enough time had elapsed, however, for Orton to come to his senses; so he met a charging Punk head-on and delivered the RKO. Orton then escaped up the ramp as New Nexus looked towards him from the ring. Punk was beside himself in anger as the credits began to roll.

Source: wrestlingtruth.com