Raw Gets Punked: WWE Finally Pushes New Stars
Forgive me for not getting to this sooner, but there’s been a lot of behind the website technicalities that I’ve been dealing with lately (mainly google wrongfully listing the site as dangerous - they saw sense and the warning is gone).
Holy mother of title changes. Monday on Raw WWE actually went ahead and gave CM Punk the World Heavyweight title. There was no screw job, they didn’t fob him off and make him win the ECW title, they didn’t have him win it and then job it out later in the night, he actually beat JBL! For weeks websites and message boards have been groaning at how Punk’s just a jobber with a money in the bank, which he’ll cash in and lose. But the tide has turned and what could have ultimately buried the young star and cemented him as a lower card talent was changed and has molded him in to a superstar. This alone made Monday’s Raw one of the best episodes in years, but everything else they did was also fresh and compelling - of the likes we haven’t seen since the early 2000’s.
First and foremost they barely even mentioned the Vince McMahon injury. They focussed the event on young stars and put the Vinnie Mac show on the back burner. Who’d have thought Vince McMahon would be an afterthought?
Next instead of having him kiss somebody’s ass, pull something out of a replica of his own ass or generally humiliating him in front of his home crowd WWE gave good old Jim Ross some actual respectful airtime. I can’t remember that ever happening before. It’s as if WWE got their rule book of how they usually do things and decided to do the exact opposite to see what would happen. Ratings is what happened!
This then led to Edge coming out, getting JR escorted from the ring and then cutting a classic heel promo that only he can seem to do just lately. He laid in to Raw and said unless it’s a draft show “you’ll never see me on Raw again.” Good because Batista is about to send you packing. Batista literally destroyed Edge and then in a logical segment CM Punk came out, cashed in the briefcase and beat Edge to win the title - OMG! It seems the Money In The Bank really is the new King Of The Ring in that it creates new stars and future champions.
After a women’s match another fresh entity on Raw, in Rey Mysterio came out and had a very entertaining segment with Santino Marella. It was funny, it felt different and kept the show running at the high point that it started with. Santino is the funniest character in WWE right now and WWE do not have a history of good comedy, other than maybe Austin playing banjo with Kurt Angle, or Chris Jericho wanting to fight Chris Benoit as a blushing bride. (Youtube them).
Next came the point that had all of us non believers thinking WWE were about to pull the rug from under us and strip CM Punk of the title on the same night. JBL challenged him, although as we now know that was not the case. Thank god.
Next it just gets better. John Cena then endorsed CM Punk, although mentioning Sally Jessey Raphael (some talk show host from 10 years ago) and the Brooklyn Brawler brought it down a peg or two.
Perhaps a slightly confusing thing followed, although in the long run it turned out pretty good. JBL came out and basically said because Vince McMahon is gone he can do what he wants, getting a security team to throw Cena out of the building. I say it turned out good because at the end of the show Cena returned with Cryme Tyme and took them all out, pushing yet more young fresh stars and possibly giving Cena back that “street” credibility.
Then we got a squash match. An actually meaningful squash match where new champs Rhodes and DiBiase beat some jobbers to put themselves over. They even gave them a promo after the match, my god! “When you’re this talented you don’t pay dues.” We even got a Youtube reference. Real pop culture for once. Now we need references to PS3’s and Ipods, not ancient talk show hosts.
Following this we got yet another good segment with Jamie Noble and Kane, resulting in a Chokeslam on the announce table. Now I’m never an advocate for wrestlers killing themselves but this little glimmer of the more violent WWE that we used to love added that little extra something to an already entertaining show.
Although it wasn’t a clean victory Kofi Kingston beat Chris Jericho again! Another example of fresh stars being built.
CM Punk beats JBL.
What a show. It was fresh, there were new stars, there was classic and logical booking and if it’s a sign of anything to come then WWE might just bring back those lost rantings. The draft that we all thought would be pointless has really started the company from fresh.
What was the main backstage difference that single handedly resulted in a great show. Triple H anyone?
