Ziggler thanks fans, what happened after and during Raw, injured star returning, Hall update, another crazy Angle story, Rock update, Cena hurt, Interviews with Riley/Show, reaction to Ziggler's win and Raw's crazy crowd, Mania injury updates, ECW name undergoes surgery, and Questions on dealing with vulnerable audiences, Dixie watching WWE, the Hall of Fame, Shane O'Mac, and the USWA

Dolph Ziggler thanked the Raw crowd for their support with his MITB cash-in. I'm glad that they appreciate his work, even if they seemed to go out of their way to try to show their "smarkness". I'm still taking a "wait and see" approach on his title win.

After Raw, John Cena thanked the crowd for "making Dolph Ziggler's night", said that they were great and supported them doing another "we are awesome" chant after Fandango's music was played. The "know it all", trying to be cool/ironic fan might just be the worst kind of wrestling fan because they ruin the suspension of disbelief. Wrestling's going in a crazy direction by trying to appeal to some of these people. I like the support for Ziggler, wanting some new faces in the mix besides Cena, and all that but they're shooting themselves in the foot by purposefully giving the "wrong" reaction. Here's footage of the crowd.

Speaking of the Raw crowd, they booed when it was announced that Rock wouldn't be there. I don't blame them. He was advertised.

Chris Sabin will return to the ring this month. He hasn't been in the ring for almost 10 months. I'm curious to see where he'll fit in when he comes back and what level he can perform at.

Everything else from yesterday is after the break.

After the confrontation with The Shield, The Undertaker, Kane, and Daniel Bryan did the spot where they raised their fists and a thunder sound plays. Pretty cool. It'll be interesting to see if Taker's sticking around for a while.

Sheamus commented on the bizarre Raw crowd: Tweet 1 I've said about all there is to say about the crowd here.

Scott Hall has successfully undergone hip replacement surgery thanks to his Kickstarter campaign. I hope he stays on the right path.

Kurt Angle took some shots at Edge on Twitter for his neck surgery. Angle seems like a REALLY competitive guy who has to flout his machismo when something about him or where he works is challenged. Some would speculate that he has a secret inferiority complex.

It's now being reported that The Rock also suffered a hernia at WM29. He was examined quietly in Miami and didn't inform WWE of the situation until almost 3 p.m. on Monday. I'm going to play devil's advocate and say that he was holding out hope that he'd be able to be a part of the show. WWE was in a really tough bind there. His in-ring future is now in doubt. It's great for WWE to have him around, so they've got to be hoping that he can come back some day. I wouldn't mind seeing him again in the right environment.

Because every top guy has to be either a part-timer or hurt, John Cena has revealed that he worked Mania with food poisoning and a broken thumb. According to Cagematch, Cena's wrestled over 1600 matches in his career (to Rock's 800+). It's amazing that he's still going. Time to really get behind some new blood. Yes, Ryback and Ziggler got to look big at Raw, but both lost clean the night before in important matches so they're getting kind of a late start.

Alex Riley was interviewed. Still employed! There's some kind of rumor that he disappeared from TV because he didn't show John Cena "the proper respect" backstage. Because WWE is high school and you have to suck up to the seniors to be cool, even if you have the potential to have a solid GPA if teachers gave a damn about you.

Big Show talked ahead of the Smackdown taping. Note that when they promoted who would be on Smackdown, they didn't mention Alberto Del Rio, Jack Swagger, and Dolph Ziggler (who were all in the World Title picture at Mania and the day after). The whole "belt" thing is SRS BSNSS to WWE. I see why they want it to be a big deal, but they're being a little ridiculous. The interviewer made good points about WWE's midcard champions losing a lot and being kicked off the main Mania show. Big Show joins John Cena in people putting over Bo "Rotundo" (Dallas), even though his push is a head-scratcher for a lot of people. Show also made good points about the whole veteran vs. newcomer thing. I won't go too deeply into the high school vs. college thing, but he has some good points there, too. I about DIED laughing at his comments about dating his daughter. The bathroom story, not so much. Glad he put Cena and the dark match over so much.

Dolph Ziggler's title win was praised by the WWE locker room. He's a wrestler's wrestler and a hard worker.

Shockingly, Vince McMahon was actually ok with the "Bizarro World" crowd reaction. I'd be blowing a gasket that they were trying to screw up the show.

Raw's audience was 4.61 million, up significantly from the previous week. I hope those extra viewers were ok with the "smarks" trying to ruin things. WWE did some good things with some of their stars, so maybe some people will stick around.

Triple H suffered second-degree burns from the dry ice on him at WrestleMania. Ouch. His arm was also pretty banged up.

WWE has rebranded its live events "WWE Live", with this logo. The new name takes effect

The Rock is not expected to undergo surgery, since that would cause a postponement in filming his next movie. MAN. That's pretty serious dedication.

C.M. Punk was having trouble walking at the Raw taping after his brutal spot at Mania. Doctors are going to take a look at him. WWE wisely held off on him cutting a promo because of the disrespectful fans sabotaging the show. 

Brock Lesnar was said to have been "knocked loopy" at Mania, but I'm assuming he's ok now. He's another name who it will be interesting to see where he goes from here.

I hope everyone who was hurt at Mania time gets well soon. Talk about the walking wounded.

One person who thankfully wasn't hurt then was The Undertaker. That said, he's not expected to get back in the ring in the near future. That's weird, since he's advertised for a dark match at the upcoming Smackdown taping in the UK. WWE's confusing to follow.

Lou D'Angeli, better known as Sign Guy Dudley and Lou E. Dangerously, has undergone knee replacement surgery. Not really much to say there. I hope it takes well.

For my take on yesterday's (returning) PWInsider.com questions:
1. Tell her that it's as real she makes it. Then Pedigree her for not respecting THIS BUSINESS. People really get hurt in wrestling. Seriously, though, what makes a 5-year-old suspect that WWE isn't real? Something's wrong there.

2. If she doesn't, she probably has someone who does. You never know when some of the people on that roster will become free agents.

3. WWE doesn't get to make the call on what makes it on PPV (unless they were to put it on the Mania broadcast). They also don't make the call on how long the HoF show is. But yeah, ultimately it sells DVDs and Blu-Rays and the like.

4. Another thing that's said to be a factor is that he wanted to have a bigger role in WWE. With Vince not stepping down as chairman and HHH and Stephanie being groomed to replace him, Shane was kind of left out. It's nice to know that the family's still on good terms.

5. WWE rarely mentions wrestling promotions that they don't own or have some kind of business relationship with. I don't really blame them, honestly. Why give free publicity to the competition?

More wrestling tomorrow and a Blue Echo podcast later in the day.