The Five Key Events from WWE Raw 1000 with Long-Term Effects

The ratings for the 1000th episode of WWE Monday Night Raw were through the roof. The show did a 3.86 rating over the three hours, and averaged 6.04 million viewers. The show averaged a 4.03 rating and 6.31 million viewers over the final two hours. Not only was it up from the average, but it was one of the most watched episodes of Raw in ten years. The show worked in terms of satisfying viewers. There's no denying that. 

The real test will be to see what the ratings are for episodes 1001 and 1002 going up against the Olympics, but you can be sure that WWE officials are absolutely thrilled about the rating from Monday's show.

Let's take a closer look at five of the key events from the show. 

The Apparent Heel Turn of WWE Champion CM Punk

I will be the first to admit that I did not think CM Punk would turn heel on this show. However, that's what happened at the end of Raw. I know there are some people that think it wasn't a full heel turn. I disagree with that opinion. There were three things that Punk did that showed him performing heel acts. 

1) Punk didn't help John Cena from a beatdown at the hands of Big Show. A heroic figure would help a fallen man. Punk is not a friend of Cena, but he respects him and by not helping him he showed cowardice. The announcers also made a point to mention this, which is again a clear sign of heel behavior. 

2) Punk attacked The Rock in a cheap manner. I know some have said that it's not necessarily a heel act because Rock dropped Daniel Bryan earlier, but that was after an annoying heel (Bryan) was running his mouth. Punk's attack was out of nowhere. Rock sold that clothesline like it was the deadliest move in the history of wrestling. Then Punk dropped him with the Go To Sleep. He took Rock out. 

3) After the attack on Rock, Punk's face was expressionless. He grabbed his title, he walked out of the ring and he showed no remorse for what he did. While he was walking out, the announcers were also questioning his actions. If he was a babyface he would have been excited, had an expression on his face and looked at the crowd for a reaction. He didn't do any of those things. Why? He's a heel now.  

Since his actions on Monday night, CM Punk hasn't posted a tweet. I like that a lot. Let's wait until Monday night at 8pmET (or later in the show) to hear what the WWE Champion has to say. Why did Punk do what he did?

He could say a number of things like how even when he was WWE Champion, a guy like John Cena got to wrestle last on PPVs regularly. He could say that a guy like The Rock doesn't deserve a WWE Title shot at the Royal Rumble because he's not around all the time, unlike him. He'll have to rail on the fans for a bit too because I think it might be a challenge to get people to boo him based on his performance in the last year. 

My theory for the heel turn? All he wanted were WWE ice cream bars to come back. And they didn't. Where oh where are his WWE ice cream bars? I'm being sarcastic. Just a little bit. 

If you look at this angle long term, though, I think it's for the best. When CM Punk turned heel in the summer of 2009 it was masterfully done and he went on to be one of the best performers in the company at that time. It can be argued that he's better as a heel performer too, so this may be the best thing for him. Sure, a lot of people wanted Cena to turn heel and that could have led to a big spike in business.

For whatever reason (monetary being the big one), Cena's still a babyface. Punk's the heel. The stage is set for a likely showdown at Summerslam. I'm intrigued. Bring it on. 

The Rock Sets Up a WWE Title Match at the Royal Rumble

I'm mixed about this one. I've always been a huge fan of The Rock. I always will be. However, I find it surprising that they would announce him in a WWE Title match at the Royal Rumble six months from now. Who booked the match? AJ the GM? The Board of Directors? They just had him announce it as if he was the one that did. Title matches are supposed to be earned usually by winning something of significance. 

I understand Rock is the biggest star the company can put in a ring, so it's smart to announce him for events in advance, but he's in a major title match just like that? Perhaps this is something CM Punk can bring up when he does his heel promo on Monday. He can use that as a way to explain why he did what he did to The Rock. 

The other thing is we don't know when we'll see Rock again on WWE TV. He starts filming Fast and the Furious 6 soon. Will he be a part of Summerslam? Doubt it.

They haven't announced anything with him involving Summerslam and as far as I know it's unlikely that he will be a part of Summerslam. It's unlikely because if he was going to be there I'm sure we would have heard something about it by now. 

The big question is, who will Rock face at the Royal Rumble? I think it should be CM Punk. I don't know if he will hold the WWE Title for another six months, though. He can certainly drop it to somebody else and win it back before the Rumble.

Then Rock would walk into WrestleMania as the WWE Champion where he drops the title to…John Cena? That's what I think. The rematch at WrestleMania 29. I don't know it as fact. It's just what I think. We'll see what happens. 

Brock Lesnar Finally Accepts Triple H's Summerslam Challenge

I thought this segment was okay, but not great. I think it should have been more about Brock Lesnar than it was.

Instead, Paul Heyman walked out, said no to Triple H's challenge and then he insulted Triple H's family. That led to Stephanie McMahon walking out. It was nice to see her again. She looked fantastic. However, I thought that was the right time when Lesnar's music should have hit and then he should have been the one to accept the challenge instead of Heyman saying it.

I'm fine with Heyman talking because he's an elite talker while Lesnar's below average, but in this instance it would have been better to hear Lesnar say that the match was on. 

What has me excited about the road to Summerslam is that the build for this match should be very good. Lesnar's expected to be on Raw every week leading up to the event on August 19th, so that will help the interest in the match.

It will also be nice to see Paul Heyman on the show every week. Will they book Lesnar in a match on Raw? I think they should. To have him destroy a couple of opponents on the road to Summerslam would be good in terms of building him up as a monster. 

I have no idea who is going over at Summerslam. I understood Cena over Lesnar because Cena's full time while Lesnar went away for a few months. The thing is, Hunter is part-time just like Lesnar is, so who needs the win more?

I would have Lesnar win at Summerslam. I hope that's what happens. 

Daniel Bryan's New Feud Is With…Charlie Sheen?

I'm not a big fan of Charlie Sheen. I think a man in his mid-40s that acts like an idiot to get attention is exactly that…an idiot who wants attention. I've seen some of his movies over the years with Major League being my favorite of them all. I didn't watch that Two and a Half Men show he was on, nor did I care when he got fired from it because he went on a drug-induced rampage.

I haven't seen his new show Anger Management either. What I do know, though, is that he's a mainstream star. Some people like him out there. Or maybe they loathe him and they watch to see him fail. I'm not sure what it is, but he's a "heat magnet" as we like to say in wrestling. 

This past Monday on Raw, they started up an angle where Charlie Sheen (via Skype) was making fun of Daniel Bryan. Bryan responded to it in an interview. The announcers talked about how WWE would be in Los Angeles for Summerslam. Can you connect the dots?

I don't think a match is likely. However, they could certainly do a scenario where Bryan is in a match against a babyface opponent (Kane perhaps?) and Sheen is sitting in the front row at Summerslam. Sheen could get involved by slapping Bryan or throwing him into a ring post or something to that effect. 

It could be similar to Mickey Rourke at WrestleMania 25 when he was sitting at ringside and then after the match he knocked Chris Jericho out. I think it's smart to involve a celebrity of Sheen's status in an event like Summerslam. It will get them some mainstream press. Nothing wrong with that. I don't like Sheen that much personally, but it would be foolish to deny the reach he has. 

The New General Manager of Raw Is AJ

I would guess that less than 5% of the WWE audience would have thought that the new GM of Raw would be the diminutive AJ Lee.

The assumption by most people, including myself, was that the new GM would be a former wrestler (like Mick Foley), a non-wrestler (like Vickie Guerrero) or an older wrestler (like William Regal) who fans would know from years of service in WWE. Instead, we got the crazy chick known as AJ who said no to Daniel Bryan during their wedding because she was offered the job as GM of Raw.

Why couldn't she get married and still be the GM? We may never know that one. 

Now, with AJ in the GM role, the possibilities for weird storylines are endless. They can use her "crazy chick" persona to make ridiculous stipulations to matches and create funny segments where much larger men are sucking up to her because they want to get ahead at their job. 

Since there's a woman in charge now, perhaps this will mean the women will actually be on the show, have longer matches and be given interesting storyline? That's probably a crazy thought on my part. My bad. 

My assumption is she'll be booked as a babyface GM. The fans will like her decisions. It will hopefully be entertaining. I'm going into the "AJ as GM" era with an open mind. It certainly can't be worse than when they revealed that Hornswoggle was the Anonymous Raw GM. Can it? 

Looking Ahead 

The 1,001st episode Raw airs live on Monday night at 8pmET for three hours once again. I don't expect interest to be as high as last week, nor do I expect the same number of viewers, but it will be interesting to see how things shape in this "new era" of WWE. CM Punk is a heel, AJ is the GM, Lesnar will likely be there once again and do you remember that Randy Orton guy? He'll be there too. 

The road to Summerslam could be very interesting. For the sake of the company and for us, the viewers, let's hope it is.   

John Canton is a Featured Columnist at Bleacher Report. You can read more of his work at his website TJRWrestling.com and follow him on Twitter @johnreport too.