Monday Night Raw: Next Week Will Be Great

Nothing in the world feels better than walking in your door at the end of a long travel weekend. Every once and awhile things go sideways when you’re traveling. This was one of those weekends. It was great to go to the wedding & hang with some of my favorite people. The three hour drive into the woods, not so much. The 5 hour flight there and the 5 hours back, even worse. Then Travelocity screwing up the tickets so that my wife had to be on a separate flight that got delayed at her connection, horrible. Realizing my wife had the ticket for our car to get out of parking, icing on the cake. Luckily I got to watch Monday Night Raw when it all was said and done.

Last night was leaps and bounds better from the absolute abomination that the WWE presented last week. There was tons of great moments during the show, and you can tell the WWE is prepping for next week’s 1000^th episode to be as big as Wrestlemania. Now don’t get me wrong, this show was far from perfect. It had its bumps, but it was a good show to lead into the big three hour mega show next week, which is exactly what show 999 should be.

The start of the show with Big Show & CM Punk was fun, but nothing ground breaking. It was a good example to indie promoters on how to build a main event on a show. They traded remarks and popped the crowd. Then Show reminds Punk that only one man matters in the WWE, and it isn’t either of them. The tease of Cena coming down to pick the bones after Show knocks Punk’s teeth out was enough to add interest to the main event, especially with their bout being non-title & the feeling that the WWE would put the belt on Superman going into show 1000. Only one flaw in that logic, and I’ll touch on that later.

The tag team division seems to be booked by the WWE interns. It changes from week to week. The Prime Time Players are the #1 contenders, but haven’t won a match since No Way Out. They are a good team. I like their in-ring abilities and they have good chemistry. Yet, they haven’t been presented to the audience as a team to be feared. They lost on PPV the night before to Epico & Primo, who haven’t had a serious match on RAW in months. Then there is AW.

AW is a horrible manager. He can barely talk and they give him a live mic during the matches. Maybe it is because I used to do a similar gimmick as a sports agent who wears all black & talks about owning his own promotions business, but he is not pulling this off. Having him talk over the PA system during the match is distracting & he says nothing of value. He also insults his team while Kofi & Truth are getting their shine. I would rework his character ASAP & take the mic away from him. Also get the PTPs a few wins over some lower tier tag teams to build them up to the audience. If they do a title switch anytime soon, it won’t matter one bit.

Albert Del Rio continues to be a guy that is really catching fire. He and Ryder had a good match to keep building his character. He is ruthless as a heel. Even when Ryder was getting in shots, it never lasted long enough to become anything of note. This was a great way to build a character without destroying Ryder in the process. ADR is becoming primed to be the guy to take the title off Sheamus. It makes a lot of sense. The final push will be with Rey Mysterio.

The WWE production team jumped the gun on Mysterio coming back by cutting to the far camera too early, but who cares. When Rey popped out to save Ryder, the night finally kicked into high gear & the build for RAW 1000 was on. Even in small doses Mysterio is fun to watch. I have a feeling this will be his last run with the company. Starting off with Del Rio will benefit both men before ADR goes for the title, and Mysterio moves into his role as upper card fan favorite.

It was nice to see Rikishi. My wife jokes that my butt is a Rikishi butt. It’s called bumpers butt honey, Mick Foley has one too. Heath Slater is getting close to the big pay off with his legends world tour. The video seems to be showing where his character will go after this, as a delusional heel that distorts the facts. I like it. Who doesn’t hate the guy who thinks he is better than he is? Having Rikishi dance with his sons at the end was great, and I wouldn’t mind seeing him come back to manage his boys. Then again, I bet the contract situation and his money demands are the reason his big butt hasn’t been in the WWE in years.

Now Daniel Bryan is a baby face, it only took a week to happen. This whole Bryan & AJ storyline is a perfect example of a hotshot angle. Why not draw this out? Why not have Bryan try to prove himself to AJ? Why not take a few weeks, or god forbid months, to build to the payoff? Instead he proposes, she accepts, and we have a wedding next week. You want to know why the crowd reacted the way they did, because they didn’t have time to learn to care.

AJ and Bryan could be the next Macho & Liz, but not if you’re trying to do months of storylines in a week. I’m already putting dibs on Miz screwing things up next week. Did you see the look between him & AJ during the match? Yeah, 50/50 says he and Bryan at Summerslam with AJ involved somehow.

Poor Jack Swagger can’t catch a break. He now is the next victim on the Ryback pain train. I am not a fan of the both men getting in the ring, but the match not starting, so it gets tossed out angle. I get that it builds to adding heat to their rematch next week on episode 1000, but maybe have Swagger jump Ryback on the outside before the match instead of having them wrestle a mini-match in the ring. Also why didn’t the ref try to separate them to get the match started? Isn’t that his job? Ryback continues his build. Anyone else thinking he won’t lose until Wrestlemania, when he faces the Undertaker in a streak vs. streak match? Oh guess what a streak DVD is coming out, Shocker! If the WWE gives Ryback the first win over Taker at WM, then he is the next Cena. I would have him with the Royal Rumble, and cash it in for a shot at the Undertaker. Title shots come and go, but ending the streak is once in a lifetime. That’s the way to sell it.

For weeks I have said Dolph Ziggler is the man. Chris Jericho is also the man. Together they are amazing. Without speaking a word Jericho did more to help Ziggler than the WWE creative team has done for the past few months. His facial reaction to Ziggler's comments, and his ability to switch to a good guy on a dime, makes Jericho a valuable asset. Vickie Guerrero is being wasted with these two. They don’t need her to help build this up. You know who does need her? Tensai. They teased it last week, and need to get on that ASAP. Zigs & Vickie need to drift apart so Ziggler can ascend to the main event where he belongs, and Chris Jericho will be the one to get him there.

Speaking of drifting, Brodus Clay is just floating around in WWE limbo. He comes out to dance, he wrestles the same match, and then he dances with the kids. JTG was simply the “Insert Wrestler Here” on this week’s booking sheet. It’s a shame as Clay can really wrestle. I hope they get him a program soon, because as Rikishi will tell you, dancing doesn’t keep you employed forever. Good storylines and feuds do. In fact they could have saved this match for Smackdown or WWE Superstars, and gave the main event the time instead.

When a bunch of different things have the same result you say it is because of a common denominator. It is the only connector between a variety of factors. CM Punk is the WWE common denominator. He just has good matches. He wrestles Kane, and the big red machine looks like a star again. He wrestles Daniel Bryan, and the two have the best matches in the WWE since Bret Hart wrestled Shawn Michaels. Now he wrestles the Big Show, and they blow the roof off. He might be the best all-around wrestler in the WWE since Shawn Michaels was forming DX. He truly is the best in the world.

I wouldn’t mind seeing more Big Show and CM Punk matches. Show is one of the smartest guys in the business, and when given an opponent who can work with his limitations, great things happen. Andre had Hogan, and Show has Punk. The end of the match played into the story for the evening that Show would do the dirty work then Cena would do what all MITB winners do, and cash in for the title.

That works, except that it doesn’t play into the Cena character. As much as people hate Cena, he does stick true to his Superman persona in all facets. Superman would never kick a man while he was down. Superman would never take the easy way out. Superman stands for truth, justice, and the American way. Having Cena come out & let Punk know at RAW 1000 they will lock horns almost a year after Punk took the title off him in Chicago is what Superman would do. It makes sense with the characters involved, and as noted above Punk has good matches with anyone, especially John Cena.

This was a great way to end RAW. These are the two big guns in the WWE right now, and last year they had amazing matches. Add in the return of DX, The Rock, Brock Lesnar, and a rushed wedding to RAW 1000, and you have one hell of a show. I would say next week should be better than this year’s Wrestlemania. If you’re not geeked for three hours next week, then I don’t know what will get you excited.

I also like the very end of the show where Cena lays out the Big Show. This leaves the door open for Show to screw over Cena, extending their feud & helping keep the title on Punk. Punk having the belt looks to be building to a title match between The Rock & Punk that will be a BIG BIG ticket match. How big would Summerslam or Survivor Series be with that match on the card? Plus if Punk beats the Rock, it plants the seeds for Stone Cold Steve Austin to face Punk at Wrestlemania as the man who can do what the Rock couldn’t. Yeah, I’m an optimist. That’s why I truly believe, against my better judgment, that next week will be great … until Superman wins the title, then I’ll pray for Doomsday.