Marking Out: Bang! Bang! And the Evolution of Jericho, Clay, and Punk

It's that time again, this week's edition of Marking Out is here and this was a fantastic week to watch wrestling. Watching Mick Foley come out and cut a promo is welcome enough, as they are always entertaining. Add to the fact that Foley wants to take part in this year's Royal Rumble, I'm really getting excited for this year's event.

Then you have John Laurainitis increasing his heel status by first not allowing Foley to participate in the Rumble and then at the end of the show confirming that he intended to screw Punk out of his WWE Title as a special referee. This was after CM Punk ran him down in a promo about how Laurainitis failed as a wrestler and never had the “it” factor. Laurainitis would then level Mick Foley with the microphone ending this episode of Raw. The slow burn that the feud between Punk and Laurainitis has held is being really well done in the same way that the Austin/McMahon feud had started, so I expect much more to come from this angle.

Another aspect that has been further developed was the new gimmick of Chris Jericho, who had his first televised match since coming back to the WWE. As part of a team with Daniel Bryan and CM Punk, he took part in a match against Mark Henry, Dolph Ziggler and David Otunga. I was excited to see Jericho wrestling again, but I had a feeling that it wasn't on the up and up. As soon as he was tagged in by Punk, he again mugged for the crowd before tapping Daniel Bryan on the chest for the tag, walking out of the ring and up the ramp, making it a 3 on 2 match.

Then, watching as Punk tried to fend off Ziggler and Otunga as Mick Foley came to his aid, I almost cheered as I heard the signature car crash before his music boomed in the arena. Watching him do his signature Cactus Jack “Bang! Bang!” and hitting the Double-Arm DDT before pulling out Mr. Socko and locking Otunga in the Mandible Claw, the only thing that would have made it perfect was if he had done Dude Love's knee shake.

And then in the mid-card we have the continuing evolution of the Funkasaurus, Brodus Clay, who, upon closer inspection, definitely looks like he has been tanned for a darker complexion.

Watching him against JTG was hilarious enough, but then watching the booty shake at the start of the match followed by the gyrations as JTG went for a take-down amuses me more with each passing week. It seems to be working for the crowd as well since they were cheering him throughout the short match as he was asking “Should I get him?” or mugging for the crowd.

So the WWE is on a roll leading into one of the crown jewel PPVs of the year, and it's going to be exciting to see how these storylines play out and how these characters will grow in front of our eyes.