Two things. 1) Disappointed they had Cena win the title again, to predictable and Rey needs a longer title run and 2) WHY did they change CM Punk's music. Killswitch was tooo perfect for his character especially now.
So, interesting Raw tonight. Jim Ross back to what appears full time, Zack Ryder had his first match and won, albeit against Michael Cole and holy shit, CM Punk comes down at the end to square off with Cena after TWO title matches took place. Overall it was a good Raw, and a great continuation of this "new direction" I've been getting a sense of. Punk seems to have developed his persona some more, what with a new theme, titan-tron and attire. The crowd looked confused at first and Punk probably didn't get the pop he should have due to the theme change. Overall a good show and I'm interested to see what happens next. EDIT// Yeah, I kinda agree putting the belt on Cena seemed rushed, but I guess they want to push this belt v belt storyline which will ultimately lead to a unification match at Summerslam no doubt. As for the theme change, I marked out a little just for the simple fact it's one of Punk's Ring of Honour themes, haha. He had more to do with that change than anyone I imagine. I know his previous theme had a little more impact, but this theme suits his character too, plus he used it in ROH which makes it awesome by default.
Cult of Personality fits Punk's character post-MITB. And it's connected to Steve Austin (HOF music), and it's what they used to call Paul Heyman ("I'm a Heyman guy", said Punk). Killswitch was a good fit before Punk ascended to become WWE's personal savior. Eat your heart out, Chris Jericho. I don't like that they brought Punk back so soon, but I don't really mind it. They NEED to keep him from wrestling at SummerSlam. It's really easy. Have Rey claim his rematch clause at SummerSlam. Punk is back, and is technically still the rightful champion, even though they essentially vacated the title after MITB. Cena/Rey II at SummerSlam, Punk's watching at ringside, or in a skybox with Colt Cabana or something, who cares. The point is, Punk needs to stay out of the ring with Cena until Survivor Series. That's where this needs to end. The Rock will be there. It's in WWE's mecca, Madison Square Garden. Both Cena & Punk have talked copious amounts of shit about the Rock. It writes itself. Two outcomes to this match, of which I think the most interesting (and sensible) would be the Rock to cost Cena the WWE title (AGAIN) and Punk retains, goes on to WrestleMania as the champion. Rock/Cena is even more blood fueled and will be off the charts at 'Mania. Not fantasy booking for Cena/Rock, because that's the one program with the most obvious outcome: Cena goes over. In this scenario, not only does Cena not have to go over, he shouldn't. Let Punk get some mileage out of this entire angle, and you'll have a certified superstar on your hands that the alternative crowd can get behind. Of course, all of this said, they very well could book Cena/Punk II for SummerSlam, and it'll be all over after that. But where is the fun in being negative about a storyline that's been booked TO PERFECTION for the last 5 or 6 weeks? I have a hard time believing they just changed plans when this angle is about to get crazy, and decided to end it early or something. It's a company wide storyline, obviously. This Cena/Punk shit caused a major shakeup in who runs the WWE. I don't think Cena is just going to win clean and Punk goes on a hiatus and just comes back and goes back to the undercard.
So here's where I go wrestling nerd and say the theme that Punk came out to, In Living Colour's "Cult of Personality," wasn't a new theme from him, but rather, an old one... It was one of his themes from Ring Of Honor Wrestling. If he keeps the "Cult of Personality" theme full time is still yet to be seen, but that was a pretty cool treat for people who followed Punk in ROH. and I do agree, the Killswitch song kicks ass!
Funny to note that he only used it when he was defending the ROH title, after he had signed with WWE. This entire storyline is taking major cues from other promotions, it's weird.
I think we need a Cena heel turn. I was hoping he would clothesline the shit out of Rey when he was helping him up. That would have totally changed my perspective on it.
I think they're clearly building to a Cena turn at WrestleMania next year. Punk "leaving", and the fans still take his side over Cena's. Same deal with the Rock. It might be the Summer of Punk, but hopefully it's the year that broke Cena's will and turned him into a bad guy. Atleast to those who want him as a heel. It's easy to juggle, it's basically the Bret Hart USA/Canada heel/face turn, but with a demographic instead of geographical differences. He can still pander to his kiddie fans, and the women will always love him, but he can rip on the males in attendance and get a good heel response. So, basically, nothing would change. It looks like they're sitting up Punk to fill the top babyface spot, though. He's getting as much attention in certain media outlets as Cena does when he does a movie or something, and all Punk did was "shoot" on an episode of RAW and be himself. I, too, thought Cena would clothesline Rey, but I still think Rey is going to claim a rematch for SummerSlam, and Punk will not be far away, watching the match very closely. Punk/Cena II at SummerSlam wouldn't be that bad, but it kind of leaves Survivor Series without a main event, unless THEN you do Rey/Cena, which wouldn't make a lot of sense.
I think Cena is better as a heel. See #thuglife #thuganomics. I loved his white rapper bad ass bad, bad man gig. At the time, I thought it was fresh. He definately knows what to say to piss people off. I was reading that there was talk about the Miz being a babyface. I don't see it happening anytime soon. He stole Jericho's character and whenever the third coming is, I expect Jericho to be babyface and can see him feuding with the Miz first.
Last nights show was very good but I can't shake the feeling that CM Punk was brought back too soon. Either way, glad to see Punk back! Also, I was glad to see J.R return and to see Zack Ryder show his face on TV.
I thought the Long Island Iced Z segment could have been better. They should have given him a more worthy opponent, granted any time Cole gets his, is usually fun to watch. That being said, a lot of the mainstream audience had no idea what to make of it... You missed the return of Morrison, Shockwave, but it was easy to miss. Morrison is flashy but forgettable a lot of the time. He really needs to find a personality. Even though Punk coming back was felt "too soon," I think it was perfect because I feel the WWE has noticed people tuning in to watch Punk. Keeping him off air would make for good story, yes, but would also see a slip in ratings. I found myself at the end of the "finals" that kicked off Raw hoping for a Punk or Nexus invasion. When that didn't happen, I found myself thinking what I thought I would never feel about Mysterio being a sham as Champion. When the second Championship match ended I caught myself saying out loud "this is dumb." To talk about that last match, it was that painful to watch. It was one of the botchiest main events I've seen in a long time. I was thinking "This doesn't seem like a title match with all of these missed spots." I still didn't see Mysterio or Cena as Champion. I think if Punk didn't come back at the end of the show, I probably would not be looking forward to watching Raw as much next week with the same old Cena song and dance story... Ultimately, though, Punk's return brought confusion and a blatant "Fuck you" to management by refusing to be swept under the rug. He also called out Cena's bluff about him being a voice of the voiceless and abandonning "these people." Every week that goes by, I find myself an even bigger Punk fan than before. And then there is this: [youtube]2TdWbBhxzpY&[/youtube]
Cena needs to be heel. If people want to boo him, let them boo him. It makes sense to do it and hope this story ultimately leads to that. I also feel that Punk being on the show seemed rushed, I'd have liked to wait it out one more week and it seemed they packed A LOT into Raw last night, but maybe that's a good thing. I'm not going to judge too harshly because this is still the best thing in wrestling for years.
I'm losing my faith in wrestling fans. not you guys, but on other boards I post on, they're all claiming it's been rushed and it's just Cena's summer angle. Punk is getting HUGE face reactions, there is no turning back now.
It's way to big to be just a summer thing. Those people need to realize that. Considering Cena isn't even the center of the story should tell them that. I was truly hoping for a Cena turn last night. Imagine if he HAD clothesline Rey. Cena could have been a bully and tormented the roster for at least until Survivor Series. Rey would get his rematch and Summerslam like Casey suggested but Cena prevails claiming to be the real champion. They would keep CM Punk out of the ring until then and the people would be BEGGING to see him take down Cena. He comes back and BOOM CM Punk becomes bigger then he already is and Cena can become a great heel and opposing force to Punk.
I really don't knwo why everyone thinks this means Punk/Cena II is on for SummerSlam. They're going to do good business with SummerSlam regardless, they need to hold off on this match until Survivor Series atleast, when you have added anticipation, more than likely Rock involvement, and a red hot New York MSG crowd. I mean, come on, this shit writes itself. SummerSlam should be the rematch for Rey Rey, a nice long match, with Punk just watching. You can't really have him screw over Rey, since Punk is essentially the anti-babyface like Austin was at this point, despite all of the history between Rey and Punk. Anyway, though... watch me be wrong and SummerSlam really is the rematch between Punk and Cena. But, I really, really hope it's not. Punk was on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, in a videotaped skit with Cousin Sal and his kid who is a HUGE John Cena fan. It's awesome, I'm too lazy to go and find it for you guys, but Sal's kid basically guesses what ends up happening that night (Kimmel was taped before RAW, video was probably taped sometime last week). It was weird, but really awesome. A+ Anyway, my point about other boards and their wrestling fans is this: they think because it's not popping huge numbers on RAW, and the MITB PPV won't get a big number (I'm more than willing to bet it'll be the best number they get this year for a non Big 3 PPV, which they should consider a success), and it's all very frustrating. And some people writing off the importance of social media, relative to this angle and getting over wrestling as being cool and hip again. Without Twitter and YouTube, this would all be happening on WWE.com, which has a self-contained fanbase that no one outside of that fanbase will ever see. because, if you're not a wrestling fan, why would you go to WWE.com? but Punk's promo 2 weeks before MITB, the match, the ending to the match, his ComicCon appearance, all his pictures and tweets, they're all being sent around and forwarded to family and friends and old wrestling fans. It's working. If they keep this up, Punk could be the next Austin, and with a better image to boot. He might be the rebel badass, but his lifestyle is admirable (yeah, I said it). EDIT: Then again, I just realized Survivor Series is about 4 months away, so I don't really expect them to drag it out until then. I wish they would, but they're going to run out of ideas for this before then probably, and from what I've heard, Punk's actual contract expires in September. So.
Meltzer is saying preliminary reports say MITB did double what Capitol Punishment did in the US (200,000+ buys), so that's why Punk was brought back so early.