Monday Night Raw took an interesting turn coming off the amazing momentum of Money in the Bank. I am not certain though how much what they did on Monday will affect television ratings or buyrates.
After Vince McMahon went out of his way (along with new television character John Laurinaitis) to let everyone know that CM Punk would never be mentioned again, Vince announced that there would be a one-night tournament to determine the new WWE champion. He also said that Cena’s actions would have consequences.
As for the tournament itself, there were some decent matches, but it just didn’t feel terribly important. We all saw CM Punk win the title on Sunday in one of the bigger title changes in history, so to have a tournament to determine the WWE champion seemed pretty pointless. In it, we saw The Miz (nursing a knee injury) defeat Alex Riley with the skull-crushing finale, R-Truth roll up Jack Swagger, Rey Mysterio defeat Dolph Ziggler, and Kofi Kingston defeat obvious frontrunner Alberto Del Rio.
In the semifinals, Miz gutted past Kingston and Mysterio defeated Del Rio. But when Miz vs. Mysterio for the WWE title was about to begin, Vince McMahon came to the ring and postponed it to next week.
He called out John Cena and seemed like he was going to fire him. Cena said how much he loves WWE, praised Punk for a great match and said if McMahon fired him, he would keep wrestling and made a veiled reference to Impact Wrestling.
Then, Triple H came out and tried to get Vince to leave the ring. He told him the Board of Directors gave him a vote of no confidence and also decided that he would run WWE instead of Vince and that Vince had been relieved of his duties, and that his family agrees.
While the momentum of Money in the Bank was halted on this show, having no Punk, no belt, and until the end of the show, no Cena made it feel a lot different. I don’t know if they were going out of their way to make it feel like every other show, but they did.
This angle has many possibilities. CM Punk is probably going to wrestle this new WWE champion at some point. There will be heat with Punk and Triple H, whom he called a doofus. Triple H and McMahon were both emotional during the segment, which leads me to wonder how much of is legitimate especially considering that Triple H has been groomed for a while to take over the company. Perhaps this angle with Punk and pushing different people than he usually does is Vince’s way of saying that he knows he is a little out of touch, but wants to change, and Triple H represents that change.
Will this show achieve a ratings success? I doubt it. I think there was initial curiosity about Punk, but without him and the belt there, it was just a very ordinary Raw until the last segment.
While I do believe that WWE missed a great opportunity to capitalize a tremendously great pay-per-view, I also realize that we are very early in this story. It could still get better.a
After Vince McMahon went out of his way (along with new television character John Laurinaitis) to let everyone know that CM Punk would never be mentioned again, Vince announced that there would be a one-night tournament to determine the new WWE champion. He also said that Cena’s actions would have consequences.
As for the tournament itself, there were some decent matches, but it just didn’t feel terribly important. We all saw CM Punk win the title on Sunday in one of the bigger title changes in history, so to have a tournament to determine the WWE champion seemed pretty pointless. In it, we saw The Miz (nursing a knee injury) defeat Alex Riley with the skull-crushing finale, R-Truth roll up Jack Swagger, Rey Mysterio defeat Dolph Ziggler, and Kofi Kingston defeat obvious frontrunner Alberto Del Rio.
In the semifinals, Miz gutted past Kingston and Mysterio defeated Del Rio. But when Miz vs. Mysterio for the WWE title was about to begin, Vince McMahon came to the ring and postponed it to next week.
He called out John Cena and seemed like he was going to fire him. Cena said how much he loves WWE, praised Punk for a great match and said if McMahon fired him, he would keep wrestling and made a veiled reference to Impact Wrestling.
Then, Triple H came out and tried to get Vince to leave the ring. He told him the Board of Directors gave him a vote of no confidence and also decided that he would run WWE instead of Vince and that Vince had been relieved of his duties, and that his family agrees.
This angle has many possibilities. CM Punk is probably going to wrestle this new WWE champion at some point. There will be heat with Punk and Triple H, whom he called a doofus. Triple H and McMahon were both emotional during the segment, which leads me to wonder how much of is legitimate especially considering that Triple H has been groomed for a while to take over the company. Perhaps this angle with Punk and pushing different people than he usually does is Vince’s way of saying that he knows he is a little out of touch, but wants to change, and Triple H represents that change.
Will this show achieve a ratings success? I doubt it. I think there was initial curiosity about Punk, but without him and the belt there, it was just a very ordinary Raw until the last segment.
While I do believe that WWE missed a great opportunity to capitalize a tremendously great pay-per-view, I also realize that we are very early in this story. It could still get better.a
