Monday Night Raw Coverage: Saving the Best for Last Again

After an amazing ending to last week’s episode, last night’s Monday Night RAW was essentially filler until the very end. Even then, it failed to live up to last week’s stellar promo to end the show.

While everyone watching wanted to see John Cena and Vince McMahon discuss the CM Punk situation, especially after Cena’s mediocre promo in the beginning, it was too obvious that Punk was going to get reinstated.

Once Vinnie Mac hit the ring, he was short and to the point. He believed Punk was suspended rightfully and isn’t deserving of anything else in the company. Cena then came to the ring and played good guy once again, before he gave McMahon an ultimatum:

Give Punk a title shot or he was done with the company.

To see Cena so passionate was interesting and adds a level of emotion to this angle. The fact that McMahon said he doesn’t know if Cena can beat Punk also helped this angle and showed McMahon in a light that may put older fans at ease- angry.

In the end however, Cena got his way and not only was Punk reinstated, but their title match at Money in the Bank is back on.

[What does that mean for Alberto Del Rio, the new number one contender?]

However, Cena’s WWE career is on the line. If he loses against Punk, McMahon promised to fire him on the spot.

Lets hope the WWE doesn’t ruin this angle. At this point, they’ve hurt the excellent momentum they had after last week.

First of all, why would Cena advocate for Punk’s reinstatement? Even though Cena is a babyface, no one is that good and by being so squeaky clean, Cena takes heat off Punk, which is not fair to him. Simply put, Cena doesn’t have that type of promo in him and if the WWE were smart, they would allow the fan base to split their support for these two, which will make this match incredibly important to them.

At the same time, the developments on last night’s RAW could open the door for Punk to win the title and make Cena look like a fool, which would make millions of fans happy. The bottom line is the WWE has to play this smart. This has the potential of being a great angle, but is only a few bad promos away from being just good enough to keep your attention.

Matches:

Kelly Kelly and Eve Torrez vs. The Bella Twins: A decent match between four divas that continue to get better in the ring every time they step in. However, the match was somewhat flat and it didn’t help that Kelly Kelly stole Miss Tessmacher’s version of the stink face to set up the win.

Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov vs. Mike McGillicutty and David Otunga: A match that was simply filler, with routine moves thrown in succession before McGillicutty hit his swinging neckbreaker variation on Marella for the win. After the match, Zack Ryder, of all people, hit the entrance ramp, uttered his catch phrase and left. Could Ryder and Curt Hawkins be the next tag team to take on the New Nexus?

Sgt. Slaughter vs. Jack Swagger: Slaughter got jobbed out in less than minute after Swagger hit a splash. After the match, Swagger latched on the ankle lock, but Evan Bourne hit the ring and saved the day, thus allowing Slaughter to deliver the pledge of allegiance. It was a cute moment, but an unnecessary one.

Rey Mysterio vs. Alberto Del Rio vs. R-Truth: Best match of the night. Loads of offense from every participant, which made this match for the #1 contender spot at Money in the Bank actually mean something. While all three delivered finishers of one form or another, Del Rio hit Mysterio with the cross-arm breaker for the win.

Alex Riley vs. The Miz:
The fans love when The Miz takes a beating and Riley looks good doing it. This match was quick, but pushed a good pace. WWE’s version of TNA’s Kurt Angle/Jeff Jarrett feud, this angle is a long-term one.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14262 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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