My anticipation for this week’s Raw was higher than it has been in sometime. Coming off the back of that fantastic unscripted WORKED shoot promo from CM Punk, I was intrigued as to how the WWE would move the storyline forward. On the topic of the promo (since I didn’t write last week) I thought it was a bold move by WWE as it went against their usual policy of never over-exposing the business but, boy did it pay off. The Internet was a-buzz and no one really knew what to think of it, some people STILL think it was a shoot. Lets not get it twisted, if the WWE is airing video packages of the promo as well as mentioning CM Punk over the week’s programming, then you’re kidding yourself if you think it was a shoot. WWE executives most likely told CM Punk to go out there, stir up some controversy and didn’t give him a script to follow. Therefore, Punk’s promo was a worked – shoot and it was probably the best promo to come out of the company for a few years.
One of the things that made it great was the fact that it was soaked in a realism that you rarely get in this PG era. The results meant that adults can appreciate the storyline as well as younger fans and even Internet fans like myself found it compelling due to the usually ‘taboo’ subjects of creative team members, other wrestling promotions and the insulting of legends that were mentioned during Punk’s tirade. The WWE are on to absolute money with CM Punk IF they can convince him to stick around. Many people were calling it Punk’s ‘Austin 3:16’ moment, and I don’t think they’re far wrong. Punk showed an aggression and temperament that was reminiscent of the Attitude Era. I’m not saying that Punk’s promo brought about a new era in the WWE, I think they’re too caught up with pleasing sponsors and other organisations and too worried about shrinking stock to abandon PG just yet, however I think it was very significant in shifting the landscape at least for a couple of weeks.
This was evidenced by the opening to this week’s Monday Night Raw. The WWE Champion John Cena came out to start the show, however, he didn’t look very happy. His reason? He feels it was the wrong decision to ‘suspend’ CM Punk for speaking his mind. That direction came as quite a shock to me, but it was a fantastic decision I feel. John Cena has become the stale ‘company man’ in that he never really questions authority like he used to in his early days. Its tried and tested throughout the Attitude Era that wrestlers who challenged authority became the biggest draws I.E. Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock. People can easily relate to wrestlers that are aggravated by their boss (as they are themselves) and is part of the reason Austin became the biggest drawing superstar of all time. Cena delivers a solid promo and asks the chairman himself Vince McMahon to join him in the ring later for a face off… more on that later.
Raw was actually in-ring heavy this episode (aside from the start and finish), which was a nice change. However, none of the matches were really anything to write home about. First up was Kelly Kelly & Eve vs The Bella Twins. I didn’t really glean that much from the match apart from the fact they’re all hot and Eve continues to be a waste of space by not being able to execute a standing moonsault properly. I’ve never really understood what happened to ‘twin magic’ as it seemed to disappear after the Bella’s began to be pushed. WWE exploiting the fact that they’re twins in a tag match is a great way to attempt to garner some heel heat for the pair. They should be cheating their way to victory through dirty tactics and entering the ring without tagging… but I suppose psychology is a little too much for them to handle.
It seems as if Santino & Kozlov have faced various members of the Nexus/ Corre for about 5 years at this point. Honestly, WWE should form some serious and legitimate tag teams or just can the titles completely because they have been worthless for too long now. Word is that they’re possibly signing The Kings of Wrestling and maybe the Briscoe Brothers… for the love of god I hope they don’t… because they’ll be separated within a month of debuting.
Zack Ryder came out… said ‘WOO WOO WOO, You Know It’ and… erm… that was it. What the fuck?
4th of July, what does that mean? Well… not a lot to us English folk but I hope American readers had a great day. I can never see England having something like the 4th of July, celebrating the country and ourselves… why the fuck not? We should have something similar for sure. Anyway, 4th of July means that Sgt. Slaughter is at Raw apparently. We get an awful match between Slaughter and Swagger that Swagger wins… thank god. Slaughter wrestling added absolutely nothing and he could have just said the Pledge of Allegiance in a backstage segment.
The audience… oh god the audience. They had to sit through a dark match, a Superstars taping, a live Raw and then a taping of Raw… they must have been half dead and the terrible editing and piped sound in post-production did absolutely nothing. You hear a decent-sized crowd pop, while the crowd is shown on the screen just sitting there and not reacting to anything. This was evident during The Miz FINALLY getting his chance to beat down on Alex Riley, the crowd was absolutely silent and none of them seemed to give a flying fuck.
I’ve mentioned it before in these blogs but how the fuck can WWE support various anti-bullying schemes when the superstars are bullying people on screen? Jerry Lawler continuously reels off joke after joke about Vickie Guerrero’s weight, looks and age. Of course after this we’ll see a video package telling us that WWE doesn’t condone any sort of bullying. It’s just fucking amazing.
Quite a decent match was had between R-Truth, Rey Mysterio and Alberto Del Rio to determine the new number one contender for the WWE title. There was some nice back and forth action but eventually Mysterio hits Truth with the 619, and when he goes for the pin, Del Rio sneaks in and locks his armbar on Rey. Rey taps, and Del Rio is the new #1 Contender for the WWE Title. I think Del Rio has lost a ton of heat since his arrival on Raw and his feud with the Big Show, I fear WWE are going to fast track him to the WWE title just to make him look legitimate again. This can be a terrible mistake as we have seen with Sheamus and recently The Miz… don’t make it again WWE!
I was definitely intrigued by the addition of Mr. McMahon to close the show and that intrigue was rewarded. I thought it was a very nice exchange between McMahon and Cena and again goes back to my point of people loving the challenge of authority. Cena broke out of the cookie cutter mould he has once again become to accuse McMahon of going ‘soft’ and to hang it up if he doesn’t feel like fighting anymore. Cena once again became the ‘company man’ however, it was for a different reason. The champ claims to have signed up to WWE to defend the brand, to represent it and its fan’s freedom of expression… this only exasperated McMahon. There were plenty of ‘ooo’s’ to be heard when Vinnie Mac stated ‘don’t piss me off!’ but the audience was near dead for this segment as well. Its shame because had it been live, I’m sure there would have been some big reactions. As I mentioned before, what makes this storyline so appealing to me is the element of realism. When McMahon stated ‘don’t be Hogan’ and basically told Cena he is replaceable, the sentiments rang true… this is McMahon’s company and he can do exactly as he wants. That’s some great heel work right there. Eventually Cena said Vince has rendered the WWE Title useless, and handed the belt to him. This is not what people would expect the face John Cena to say and do and it gives a nice little twist to his character… maybe that heel turn is coming!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!…. probably not. We can hope though. Vince then goes onto re-instate CM Punk and claims that if Cena loses the match, he’s fired. The end.
WWE have raised the interest levels for Money In The Bank incredibly high. People are still reeling from Punk’s promo, the stakes have been raised for Cena and the storyline has been enhanced with the inclusion of Mr. McMahon. Could we be heading for a McMahon vs Cena feud similar to the Austin one? Perhaps, I’m not sure it would work as well in a PG environment but it could be fun… I guess we’ll wait and see.
Thanks for reading
I’ll be on holiday next week so no blog until after Money In The Bank, which is free in the UK on Sky Sports 1. Nice.
Let me know your thoughts.
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