WWE RAW Coverage: My Name is Gerald

Paul Heyman and WWE Champion CM Punk took over RAW this week. Or at least they tried to.

It made for an interesting show, but one that will be remembered for the match work and not so much the promo, despite the fact that the mic work was solid too.

Set on vindicating Punk after what was clearly a poor job by a young referee last week, the “Voice of the Voiceless” was pissed.

Enter AJ Lee, who all of a sudden was thrust in the middle of an emotional beat down that had Heyman insinuate he’d like to have his way with the young RAW general manager.

Eww.

Lee earned her stripes in the segment after, appearing emotional, but stern. Say what you will about her, she was perfect there.

At the end of the show Punk and Cena proved again why they are easily the best workers in the company, cutting great promo and building a clear-cut scene of good guy vs. bad guy. Well kind of.

Make no mistake, Punk is a heel now. Cena ended up getting the best of Punk, using a lead pipe. Yeah, like that makes sense. At any rate, these angle is all about what they do in the ring.

On another note, with Ryback’s win over The Miz and his appearance at the end of the show, what does the future hold for him?

The rest of the show too was great, but a nice-sized chunk of the action in the ring was stellar. The opening match between Dolph Ziggler and Kofi Kingston was pay per view quality. While most of the other matches were short, they had clean pinfalls and made sense, advancing teams and characters moving forward to the next pay per view.

The Daniel Bryan/Kane segments continue to be money in the bank; pun intended of course. This is a wrestling column, haha. It’s just a shame they don’t have anyone to work with right now. Well, that was until Damien Sandow and Cody Rhodes hit the scene, virtually out of nowhere to challenge for the title.

The Mick Foley/CM Punk shoot was interesting as well. A former Heyman guy vs. a current Heyman guy. Foley may be out of shape, but he can still talk. The two of them were emotional- in a moment that was one of the best exhibitions on the microphone this year.

If that wasn’t enough, getting the opportunity to see and hear Jerry Lawler in such good spirits following his heart attack two weeks ago was special. Amid all the fun, it was a bittersweet moment for a member of the show that is sorely missed.

Matches:

Dolph Ziggler w/ Vikki Guerrero vs. Kofi Kingston w/R-Truth: A more than solid opener. Truth and Guerrero were ejected as soon as the match began. Kingston hit a few nice spots early on, setting the high-flying pace. Ziggler changed the tone with a nice exploder suplex and a neckbreaker, but Kingston was hard to put down. After a botched series of counters and a few near-falls, including one on Kingston’s SOS, Ziggler won via the Zig-Zag.

The Primetime Players vs. Zack Ryder and Santino Marella: PTP are solid competitors, but without Abraham Washington, they’ve lost their “soul.” This match was an energetic contest despite its short length, but was a bore. Titus O’Neil won with the Sky High on Marella.

Intercontinental Champion The Miz vs. Ryback: The Miz worked well with the monster, selling for him and using ring psychology to lengthen the match. He also hit some signature offense on Ryback including his kicks and DDT. However, shockingly, Ryback won with the Shellshock.

Wade Barrett vs. Tyson Kidd: A quick match that saw Barrett hit a Blackhole Slam and his massive Elbow on Kidd for the win.

Alberto Del Rio, Ricardo Rodriguez and David Otunga vs. Rey Mysterio, Sin Cara and Sheamus: Back and forth encounter between heels and faces. There was nothing special here- although Rodriguez was surprisingly agile, in a tuxedo. Del Rio continues to surprise with his stellar legwork as well. Mysterio was in the match most of the time for the faces until Sheamus got the hot tag. Once The Great White got in the ring, he cleaned house, giving Mysterio an opportunity to hit the 619 on Rodriguez, while Cara finished him off with a Senton Bomb. Sheamus nailed Otunga with the Brogue Kick after the match.

Layla and Alicia Fox vs. Divas Champion Eve Torrez and Beth Phoenix: Torrez got the win, but the real action was after the match when Kaitlyn accused Phoenix of attacking her at Night of Champions. Ironically, Torrez then gave phoenix her neckbreaker. If you’re confused, it’s okay, the world is.

Brodus Clay vs. Tensei: This looked to be a fun match until the Big Show came in and took out both monsters with a pair of WMDs.