Rasslin is CHA CHA LA..LA,LA,LA,LA,LA

[Ultra Peanut]

RAW. IS. FANDANGO!
#AJALL

[keg in kc]

I've thought about it a little now, and they spent way too much time building what everybody knew was going to happen. I love Punk on the mic, but they didn't need 25 minutes to build the conflict between him and HHH. The end segment came off flat. And everybody's known what they were going to do since the minute Punk re-appeared last week. They didn't need to spend 2 hours building to such an obvious conclusion. So in the end it was anticlimactic.

Basically I don't think they did anything wrong, they just did it the wrong way, and in doing so turned a hot angle into a dull, predictable one, at least for a night. Still no idea what's going to happen at SS....

I think there's a problem too in that the non-internet/-hardcore crowd doesn't buy into Punk as a babyface yet. Cena is still their guy, which ultimately makes him seem like a much bigger star (which he is...) when they do the back-and-forth cheering thing.

Anyway, I don't think it killed the angle, which is good, but it did kind of drag it to a half.

I'm not sure if Cena is teasing heel or not. There are times I think he is, but that's probably just be my natural dislike of him...

I would love at SummerSlam for Punk to win clean but it isn't going to happen. They're all 50/50 booking now, and Cena has to get his win back on the bigger show. Maybe with HHH interference. That's where I see it going. And then Alberto cashes in, kicking off a short-term feud between the two of them.

If they were to do this right, they'd slow it down and have HHH/Punk be a mania payoff, but I have a hard time seeing them doing something that long-term.

[Jerm]

Punk doing the old Hunter Hearst Helmsley bow to HHH was friggin win...hilarious.

God I hope they turn Cena heel...seeing as Punk is basically Austin the sequel I want to see Cena become the new corporate Rock character to foil Punk.

Make him HHH's company man lackey that's straight laced, by the book, and tows the company line. Book Cena as this jaded, borderline delusional "face of the WWE" that needs to "save" the WWE from Punk's rebelling and chaotic attitude.

Hell give HHH and Cena a stable...it'd be a good excuse to bring in Colt and the Kings to aid Punk lol.

[Ultra Peanut]

I was let down by the unbelievably predictable ending, but at least it was cute and cheesy and nobody got buried except Johnny Funkhouser (why was he out there tonight? Everyone hated him and he meant nothing.). It's being handled in kind of a really dumb, painfully rushed way, but I still have no idea what they're going to do next so I'm still on board. My hopes for the ultimate result of this being Monster (smug)Face Punk and Embittered Heel Cena seem to be fading, sadly.

Basically what keg said.

Funny how a 20-minute promo to start the show can be awesome when CM Punk is the one doing it, though. The first hour of Raw was the best hour of that show I've seen in a long time.

[chiefscafan]

I loved that cm punk called out hunter for past crap he's done. Hoping they don't blow this we will see.

[Reaper16]

"Pipebomb!" *drops mic* *exits ring*

[Ultra Peanut]

He got the last word on Hunter! That's more valuable than a PPV victory over him. I marked out so hard.

Loved Beth dropping the mic (onto Kelly Kelly*) in the next segment, too.

*CM Punk and Kelly Kelly? Is this ECW on Sci-Fi? [that show owned, it's the thing I'm most nostalgic about during my 2006-2009ish run of following wrestling. ELIJAH BURKE Y'ALL]

[chiefscafan]

Also loved him stoping hunter from leaving by saying I do love Motörhead but I have more to say. That was awesome!! I just hope they don't feed punk to cena or hunter.

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by Ultra Peanut

He got the last word on Hunter! That's more valuable than a PPV victory over him. I marked out so hard.

Loved Beth dropping the mic (onto Kelly Kelly*) in the next segment, too.

*CM Punk and Kelly Kelly? Is this ECW on Sci-Fi? [that show owned, it's the thing I'm most nostalgic about during my 2006-2009ish run of following wrestling. ELIJAH BURKE Y'ALL]

I miss Elijah Burke too. I'm gonna' go watch that Punk vs Burke, best 2 out of 3 falls match now.

I hope Beth starts subtly incorporating Punk-isms into her repertoire. They're an uncommonly cute real-life couple and it'd be cool to see that spill over onto TV.

[keg in kc]

I just hope that all of this is an avenue for HHH to make Punk a bigger star, and I'm not entirely convinced yet that it is. As good as Punk was last night, the whole time I'm watching I'm thinking "this is way too much about HHH and not enough about Cena/Punk".

Not gonna be happy if (when) this ends with a pedigree.

[58kcfan89]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

I think there's a problem too in that the non-internet/-hardcore crowd doesn't buy into Punk as a babyface yet. Cena is still their guy, which ultimately makes him seem like a much bigger star (which he is...) when they do the back-and-forth cheering thing.

Eh, it's still "new" to the kiddies that it's OK to cheer someone other than Cena or Orton. Punk's not going to get over as a face with everyone right away, it'll probably take awhile and another big PPV win (like a Mania main event) for a majority of the "casual" fans to get on board IMO.

Originally Posted by keg in kc

I would love at SummerSlam for Punk to win clean but it isn't going to happen. They're all 50/50 booking now, and Cena has to get his win back on the bigger show. Maybe with HHH interference. That's where I see it going. And then Alberto cashes in, kicking off a short-term feud between the two of them.

If they were to do this right, they'd slow it down and have HHH/Punk be a mania payoff, but I have a hard time seeing them doing something that long-term.

I can live with Punk losing to Cena, as long as it's not a clean loss. HHH interference, Cena cheating (in my dreams, right?...), or another way to create some controversy & continue the story and keep Punk in the spotlight would be fine.

That said, Cena doesn't need the title and if Punk beat him, it'd give him some more credibility as the champ.

Originally Posted by Reaper16

"Pipebomb!" *drops mic* *exits ring*

I marked. That was so cool.

Originally Posted by chiefscafan

Also loved him stoping hunter from leaving by saying I do love Motörhead but I have more to say. That was awesome!! I just hope they don't feed punk to cena or hunter.

Like I said, I'm OK with Punk losing to Cena as long as it's not clean and there's some way to continue this story. I have no problem if ADR cashes in/tries to cash in and gets his little title run while they go to Mexico, but in the long-term, he needs to be involved in a storyline that makes people care about him. It seems like they're trying to get him involved in a feud with Kofi, which would be a good thing to help develop his character.

As for feeding Punk to HHH, he seems to be a strictly non-wrestler right now, and if he wrestles in the future, it should only be to put someone over. And if they end up making Punk the focus of these shows just to feed him to Cena (who doesn't need it), I'm gunna be so ****ing mad.


I guess I'll just take Punk's advice and sit back, shut up and enjoy it. He's telling stories!

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by 58kcfan89

Eh, it's still "new" to the kiddies that it's OK to cheer someone other than Cena or Orton. Punk's not going to get over as a face with everyone right away, it'll probably take awhile and another big PPV win (like a Mania main event) for a majority of the "casual" fans to get on board IMO.

Eh, Punk can be a firm babyface if just feuds with a bonafide heel. Look at how quickly the crowd got behind Alex Riley, for example. A-Ry gets hella face pops. Punk would be cheered en masse in a feud w/ Del Rio, for instance.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by 58kcfan89

Eh, it's still "new" to the kiddies that it's OK to cheer someone other than Cena or Orton. Punk's not going to get over as a face with everyone right away, it'll probably take awhile and another big PPV win (like a Mania main event) for a majority of the "casual" fans to get on board IMO.

Oh, I get that, I was just suggesting that they might want to limit situations like that where Punk will come off as less a star than Cena. If the goal is to get him over massively, then don't have dueling chants basically anywhere but Chicago at this point. Give him another win somewhere, establish him (Punk winning matches without help, or even being competitive is a relatively new thing...) and then start the side-by-side comparison thing.

Wins would solve a lot. Let him beat Cena again. It's not like it can conceivably hurt Cena in any way, shape or form. The munchkins aren't going to stop buying fruity shirts if he's 0-2 on recent PPVs.

That's probably the best we can hope for. I don't think there's any way they turn him straight-up heel, although the idea of him working as a corporate champion could be something good if they did it right (although him mouthing off to Johnny Ace kills that idea...).

Anyway, the title's going on Del Rio, and then Cena's back to feuding with Rock (which I still say he doesn't need a belt to do...). That doesn't leave a whole lot of Punk to do. I mean, personally, I'm not all that interested in Del Rio/Punk (or Del Rio and anybody at this point), and there really isn't much on the roster after that. Hence HHH.

Something just occurred to me. Mysterio should be incensed about the whole title thing. Having to do two title matches in a night? Bullshit! I hate Mysterio and I think that's crap. So what kind of pussy must he be, in story, to not say a word about that while these other two guys are figuring out who the champion is. I mean, Ray should have jumped into the right at the end and said "that guy won and left, that guy lost and then beat me on my second match of the night, so I say I deserve a shot, too, Hunter? "

No, I'm not saying I want a 3-way. It just seems odd.

[keg in kc]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Eh, Punk can be a firm babyface if just feuds with a bonafide heel. Look at how quickly the crowd got behind Alex Riley, for example. A-Ry gets hella face pops. Punk would be cheered en masse in a feud w/ Del Rio, for instance.

It blows my mind that people cheer for that guy. I sometimes wonder how much of that was originally piped cheers.

I thought my TV was going to implode from the sheer blandness of it all when he came out to interrupt Dolph.

[Ultra Peanut]

So on a rewatch of the ending, when Punk goes up to the turnbuckle to play to the crowd for the first time there's a guy in the background wearing a size ~3X CM Punk shirt. He's not even reacting to Punk doing the dueling-pops thing with the WWE's biggest star of the past 10 years, he's just writing something on his phone (I hope it was an a post on an internet forum). Oh, smarks.

And I so don't get the Riley thing. Is it just because the Miz made him or is it even more inexplicable?

[58kcfan89]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Eh, Punk can be a firm babyface if just feuds with a bonafide heel. Look at how quickly the crowd got behind Alex Riley, for example. A-Ry gets hella face pops. Punk would be cheered en masse in a feud w/ Del Rio, for instance.

Riley also got to work with The Miz for a year or so before turning on him. Those sudden turns on guys who are really over tend to get a quick reaction IMO. The challenge for Riley is to get the crowd to keep cheering him.

Originally Posted by keg in kc

Anyway, the title's going on Del Rio, and then Cena's back to feuding with Rock (which I still say he doesn't need a belt to do...). That doesn't leave a whole lot of Punk to do. I mean, personally, I'm not all that interested in Del Rio/Punk (or Del Rio and anybody at this point), and there really isn't much on the roster after that. Hence HHH.

Something just occurred to me. Mysterio should be incensed about the whole title thing. Having to do two title matches in a night? Bullshit! I hate Mysterio and I think that's crap. So what kind of pussy must he be, in story, to not say a word about that while these other two guys are figuring out who the champion is. I mean, Ray should have jumped into the right at the end and said "that guy won and left, that guy lost and then beat me on my second match of the night, so I say I deserve a shot, too, Hunter? "

No, I'm not saying I want a 3-way. It just seems odd.

WWE's whole "ADR needs the title because we're going to Mexico" thing needs to stop. He's not over, has cut the same promo for the entire year, and hasn't had a meaningful feud since Edge earlier this year...

Sorry, just not a big Del Rio fan yet.

As for Rey, I hate the way they book him. He can put on some great matches, but I despise this "biggest little man" gimmick where he gets destroyed for 15 minutes by a guy twice his size before hitting a 619 and getting the pin. It's like SuperCena, only I can buy SuperCena because he's gigantic... And his character is a total puss who still can't cut a good promo. They probably should have kept him on SD and let him help put on some good matches and occasionally be in a title match over there.

Originally Posted by keg in kc

It blows my mind that people cheer for that guy. I sometimes wonder how much of that was originally piped cheers.

I thought my TV was going to implode from the sheer blandness of it all when he came out to interrupt Dolph.

I felt the same way until the promo last night. For whatever reason, I didn't hate it. Maybe it was the fact that he actually interacted with the guy/gal in the ring than spout random crap at them, but I felt like I could see him improving last night. Maybe I was too tired or need to re-watch it, but for the first time, I could actually see some of that potential that's been pushed so much recently.

Or maybe I'm just crazy....

Originally Posted by Ultra Peanut

So on a rewatch of the ending, when Punk goes up to the turnbuckle to play to the crowd for the first time there's a guy in the background wearing a size ~3X CM Punk shirt. He's not even reacting to Punk doing the dueling-pops thing with the WWE's biggest star of the past 10 years, he's just writing something on his phone (I hope it was an a post on an internet forum). Oh, smarks.

I think this kinda thing is what Punk was referencing when he said he "wants to make this shit fun again," getting the crowd more involved each night. And I can't totally blame the guy for not reacting, it's not like it was a great segment.

I also read on another forum from someone who was there said that Punk got an enormous pop at the beginning of the show and when Cena got a big pop later, the Punk marks eventually just "gave up" and knew they couldn't out-scream all the Little Jimmys. Just a theory.