Tuesday, July 19, 2011

CM Punk and the 6 Highlights of WWE Monday Night Raw

Fresh off the tails of arguably the best pay-per-view of the year for the WWE, the fallout from Money In the Bank was evident throughout the night on Raw.

The first highlight of the night started once the show came on air, with Vince McMahon refusing to say CM Punk's name and carrying the storyline on his own without John Cena or Punk in the ring to help him.

McMahon announced later in his segment, the beginning of a night-long tournament to determine the new WWE Champion.

With so much hype and buildup after a pay-per-view and a decent start to the night, it's sad that it took until the start of the second hour of airtime for a captivating match.

After bearing through a lackluster and botch-filled three bouts that resulted in Kofi Kingston, Miz and R-Truth victories, the Rey Mysterio and Dolph Ziggler finally gave us what we were waiting for since the broadcast kicked off: some quality wrestling.

The match was not by any means an instant classic, but it was certainly the most intriguing of the first-round matches on the card, and thankfully Mysterio and Ziggler made sure it didn't disappoint the Green Bay, Wisconsin audience.

The two former SmackDown superstars showed off some of their classic moves, such as Mysterio's kick the face after a sunset flip and Ziggler's failed attempt at a sleeper hold on the San Diego native.

Oh, and just in case you went to grab something to eat after the Mysterio/Ziggler match, there was a Divas match while you were gone.

Not to be topped by Mysterio and Ziggler, Miz and Kingston went out and had themselves quite the match despite little experience facing each other—at least on-air. Miz sold his injury to the fullest, and Kingston had the momentum through the whole match, only to have Miz steal the victory.

After another great outing by Mysterio in his second match of the night, the finals between Miz and the Raw's masked man was set to take place—until it was postponed until next week by Mr. McMahon.

The much promoted Cena/McMahon confrontation took place in the finals of the tournament in what turned out to be an interesting segment between the two. Cena confronted his boss and even dropped a TNA reference during the discussion, and then Triple H arrived.

I'm not one that usually enjoys a non-wrestling match ending to a WWE program, but the twist added by Triple H's arrival and the subsequent storyline takeover of the company by Helmsley and end of the Vince McMahon reign.

Only the following weeks will tell what happens with CM Punk, the WWE Championship, Triple H and Vince McMahon, but it's one that has certainly grabbed the attention of the wrestling world.

Jaime King Lokelani McMichael Freida Pinto Eva Longoria Susan Ward

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