The first 15 minutes of RAW last night belonged to CM Punk.
Simply put, the guy was on fire.
If making fun of Kevin Nash’s knees and his ability to draw a crowd wasn’t enough, Punk continued to verbally attack Triple H and his family. The end result was a match booked between Nash and Punk at Night of Champions.
However, by the end of the show, the match was cancelled and Punk was instead booked for a match with Triple H at the PPV.
Thankfully that was the case as few were looking forward to the actual match between these two [Nash is way past his prime and hasn’t been in the ring in almost a year] because they would have wasted Punk’s momentum in spite of the entertaining promos.
The more important news was that Smackdown superstars are now able to come on the show. With a special edition of Smackdown to air tonight and RAW superstars invited to the show, will this be the official end of the brand split?
Aside from that, the in-ring action was solid and this week’s RAW was just as engaging. However, it doesn’t solve the problem that Punk is being wasted in an angle with an over the hill Nash and a John Cena, Alberto Del Rio main event at Night of Champions is far from blockbuster.
Matches:
World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton vs. United States Heavyweight Champion Dolph Ziggler w/ Vikki Guerrero: Surprisingly, Ziggler was on the offensive for most of the match. However, with two commercial breaks during the contest, it was awfully hard to get into the action. Nevertheless, it was a great opening match, with some near-falls and a boatload of offense including a variety of suplexes and high impact strikes. After a nice back and forth pace, Orton mounted a comeback and earned the win with an RKO after Ziggler popped off the canvas from a modified front drop.
CM Punk vs. The Miz: These two matchup well against one another and delivered the goods. Both going through their usual assortment of moves, this was another solid match until R-Truth joined the party to cause the disqualification. With no reason to fight, this match served no real purpose, other than to pit two big names against another, making it a waste of storytelling time. Luckily, to save the segment completely, Nash came to the ring and powerbombed Punk, continuing to fuel that storyline.
Sin Cara vs. Jack Swagger: A filler match that was an athletic contest with a few high-risk maneuvers. Would have made more sense as the opener, but with outside interference between with Vikki Guerrero and Ziggler, there was some drama to the encounter. That interference also led the way to a Cara win, after he hit a slingshot Senton, followed by a lionsault.
WWE Tag Champions Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston vs. David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty: A quick match that saw some aerial maneuvers by Bourne and Kingston and little else. Kingston secured the victory with the Trouble in Paradise on McGillicutty. Afterwards, the former champs got in the face of Jerry Lawler.
WWE Divas Champion Kelly Kelly w/ Eve Torrez vs. Brie Bella w/ Nikki Bella: A two minute match that saw Nikki and Brie switch places and hit the X-Factor for the win.
John Cena and Sheamus vs. Mark Henry and Christian: Cena won the match with the Attitude Adjustment on Christian. Aside from some high spots from Sheamus on Henry, this was a pretty standard match. Nothing special.
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