WWE Road to Wrestlemania 29 - John Cena Beats CM Punk To Face The Rock

World Heavyweight Championship: Alberto del Rio (c) v Jack Swagger

Monday Night Raw saw a confrontation between the men who will fight it out in New Jersey for the World Heavyweight Championship. It gave Zeb Coulter, Swagger's new mouthpiece, the chance to say to Del Rio's face the same border line xenophobia they've used as their gimmick since returning to the WWE. It is the same xenophobia that drew conservative media personality Glenn Beck to call WWE 'stupid wrestling people' last week, for having Swagger and Coulter pose as Tea Party patriots. Beck claimed they were damaging the 'good' name of US Conservatives. This led to a strange promo from Swagger and Coulter in the week where they came out of character to tell him they were just playing pretend. Then on Monday Night WWE sent Michael Cole to Beck's offices to try and get an interview, after the Republican had turned down an offer to appear on Raw. WWE is clearly loving the opportunity for some media coverage, but how this in any way helps their wrestling product, which is hugely in flux at present, is anyone's guess. Back to Swagger and Del Rio though. Both men have minimal promo skills at best, so it was left to Coulter to do all the hard yards, before Del Rio jumped into to act outraged by his claim that all immigrants are criminals. On offering Swagger a fight right there and then, the grappler of course turned him down and said he would see him at Wrestlemania. The crowd reaction throughout this scene resembled at best passing interest, which was always going to be a problem when WWE pushed together two men with zero heat and zero charisma. They should be able to put on a good match, and the route they are taking the feud is at least something new, but WWE has their work cut out to get people invested in this. On Smackdown, Swagger and Coulter were interviewed by Jim Ross, a long time supporter of Swagger. This predictably ended in Swagger threatening Ross, and Del Rio to come out to make the save, leading to another stare-down. The issue of Swagger's recent arrest for DUI and possession still remains. His appearance on Raw and the fact he later beat The Miz shows WWE is clearly sweeping this one under the carpet, at least for now. My bet would be they will punish Swagger post-Wrestlemania, once his storyline is done, otherwise they are ridiculing their own policies and precedents. The other reason I cannot see Swagger winning is because at its conclusion, if Swagger comes out on top, they are essentially telling their precious PG audience that the racist, or whatever you will call him, comes out on top against the good guy. And that does not exactly fit with their Be A Star anti-bullying campaign. The other name loitering around the title picture still is Mr Money in the Bank Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler seems to be going through the same cycle as last year. In 2012 he faced CM Punk at the Royal Rumble for the WWE Title, put on a great performance and was heralded as the next big thing. He then backtracked, was put into a undercard storyline, featuring on John Laurinaitis' team at Wrestlemania, and was pretty much kept quiet on the big night. This year after a great showing at Survivor Series and a win over John Cena, he has been now left with no storyline and a bitter losing streak, being pinned on Monday by Ryback, despite the help of AJ and Big E Langston. He didn't even appear on Smackdown. It is becoming painfully clear that WWE still does not trust Dolph to take the next step in the most important weeks of their year, and instead give him the spotlight through the winter months, before the serious stuff starts. If Dolph does cash in his briefcase at Wrestlemania, how is anyone supposed to take him seriously as a Champion? People will just assume that Sheamus, Del Rio, Ryback, Cena or any other superstar who has picked up a win over Dolph recently, could easily challenge him and take his title. If Dolph takes the belt at Wrestlemania, he would be left in the ridiculous position of having to build himself up and show his worth despite already having the belt, a move that has backfired massively in the past with the likes of Swagger himself. Prediction: Del Rio to take the win at Wrestlemania, Swagger to disappear shortly after from the title picture, and Ziggler to have another quiet night.