Monday, July 18, 2011

LIVE Raw thoughts

11:14 - So when Triple H first came out I was intrigued. I was even interested in where they were going to take things with Vince being challenged by the board. But then it all sorta fell apart. And suddenly the whole allure of the Punk/Cena/McMahon thing fell apart. I don't have any problem with them integrating Triple H into the story, since Punk took plenty of shots at him as well (and he has a history with Cena. You could even tell people that Cena's rise up the ladder led to Triple H's semi-retirement). But a very compelling story that had people taking crashed and burned once it turned into Triple H and Vince McMahon standing alone in the ring, with shaky voices and tears, talking about how much they love each other. I mean, really, after all the progress they've made this month.....how could they possibly think people wanted to see THAT?

11:12 - Thankfully that red hot CM Punk angle turned into a Triple H/Vince McMahon love fest.

11:05 - Triple H.....now that's unexpected. Let's see how this plays out....

10:59 - I defend Cena. A lot. And I defend wrestlers for wearing their attire in situations that don't always make sense, but I think Cena needs to learn that there are certain instances where he shouldn't be all geared out. He can wear the shirt. Maybe even the hat. But knee pads? Wrist bands? He'd look more natural without them.

10:55 - Honestly, Vince, that jacket looks absolutely ridiculous. So do you think they really planned on delaying the match or do you think they legitimately ran out of time. However, why is Rey upset? He just wrestled a match. Instead of immediately facing a fresher opponent, he gets a week to rest up.

10:48 - So within approximately 20 minutes they have to have the finals AND resolve the Cena matter. It's going to be tight.

10:45 - Random observation - Trish Stratus went into her final match (a title match) knowing that she would retire afterwards. She technically left as the champion, same as CM Punk. In kayfabe terms, why was it honorable for Trish and despicable for Punk?

10:38 - Wait, why do they have to win by pinfall or submission? When was that established?

10:27 - I expected Kofi to advance after that passionate backstage speech (which no other participant had received at the time), but Miz is a good choice as well. He's been a good sport since his feud with Cena ended. I do expect Rey to advance, though.

10:21 - Here's hoping Rey takes the Macho Man/CM Punk route and wears a different outfit each match of the tournament. Because it looks like Kofi ain't doing it.

10:14 - I love AJ. Also, do you think anybody remembers that Rosa was Beth's sidekick back in the day?

10:04 - Twitter is back in action and Rey Mysterio advances. The right guys won each match. Who goes to the finals? I'm thinking, perhaps, Kofi and Rey. It's a fresh match two two guys who haven't held that particular title, that the fans could really get behind. Wouldn't be surprised to see one of the heels advance, though.

Considering his backstage interview, I'm thinking Kofi is a safe bet.

9:51 - Kofi advances, and now it's Rey's turn in a kick ass Kiss-inspired mask. By the way, what was with Dolph's exclusion from last night's ladder match?

9:43 - Great seeing Ricardo Rodriguez back. I was actually wondering when he'd return last night. From a kayfabe perspective, wouldn't it make more sense for Alberto to throw tonight's match and then just challenge the winner of the tournament?

9:34 - What the hell is going on with Twitter?

9:30 - Again, the right person went over. Glad to see R Truth advance to the next round. To keep an even heel/face ratio, smart money is on Kofi and especially Mysterio. Although, now that I think about it....wouldn't it have been mutually beneficial (and very heelish) to just have ADR exchange the Money in the Bank briefcase for the WWE Championship?

9:17 - Glad to see Miz advance to the next round. He's done an effective and successful job putting over Alex Riley the past few months. He deserved to get the win.

9:07 - So, what did you think of the opening of Raw? McMahon -- wearing, what was that? A pink sports jacket? -- announced an 8 man tournament to name a new WWE Champion. On the one hand, it was a slightly underwhelming way to kick off the show following the electricity of last night. But in fairness, it's the natural progression of the storyline. They want us to below CM Punk legitimately left the company with the WWE Championship. If that actually happened, this would probably be the solution -- name a new champion ASAP. Let's see how it plays out.

1 comment:

Kyle Litke said...

Yeah, not a big fan of Raw tonight. However, on the bright side, I don't feel like they did anything to kill the Punk angle. They may not have continued the momentum they had, but they didn't, for example, have Punk show up to brag and then get cashed in on to essentially end the angle, or anything like that. Punk spent all of Raw tweeting pictures of the title belt from the Cubs game, exactly what he should have done. I kind of think they should continue doing that for a bit, to be honest. Just keep making sure the crowd chants CM Punk by "wink wink" referencing him, off air if you don't want to make it obvious that you're encouraging it. Sounds like they did that today, right before the show they told the crowd they weren't allowed to chant CM Punk or something like that, which of course, is a sure fire way to make sure they will.

Not sure how long they're willing to keep him off TV (it might be he's taking a break, if you'll notice, even in his most real sounding interviews, Punk never said he was leaving for good. The GQ interview, he practically said he wanted to take a couple months off and that's it). One suggestion I heard to tie these together would be to have Vince attach himself to Punk and try to regain power by using the "Real World Champion" to do it. Not saying I'd go that route, but it was a suggestion I heard. Or it could just be shifting HHH into an on air authority role, which allows them to get out of the Cena firing, gives them an authority figure people care about (Not that they didn't care about Vince, but he was so rarely around, and the anonymous GM gets a lot of go away heat), and could give them a way to get Punk back in storylines (not that he had anything nice to say about HHH, but they could claim HHH came up with a way to get him back that Vince couldn't do).

We'll see. Wasn't what I hoped for out of Raw, but it also didn't piss me off and make me think they screwed up the angle.