Punk/Cena, R-Truth and Monday Night WWE RAW's Main Hits and Misses

The go-home addition of WWE’s Monday Night RAW prior to a big pay-per-view is normally chock full action. With SummerSlam on the horizon, yesterday’s RAW was certainly no different. There were plenty of matches and attempts to tie up loose ends with regards to feuds heading into Sunday, but many questions still remain.

While there are still plenty of unknowns in terms of the SummerSlam card, we do know that CM Punk and John Cena will be facing off in order to determine an undisputed WWE Champion. We also found out that WWE’s Chief Operating Officer Triple H will be the special guest referee.

In addition to that, Kelly Kelly will be defending the Divas Championship against “The Glamazon” Beth Phoenix. Beyond that, things are quite jumbled from RAW’s point of view. In all likelihood, there will be more matches announced during the week, but many seeds were planted for angles that will probably play out well beyond SummerSlam.

Here are the main hits and misses from last night’s episode of Monday Night Raw.

Hit: The Miz’s Segment/Match

If nothing else, the WWE has done a pretty good job of keeping The Miz relevant since he lost the WWE Championship to John Cena a few months ago, although the way he was booked to look extremely weak in his feud with Alex Riley was a bit puzzling, The Miz has regularly gotten prime spots and plenty of mic time on RAW.

That may not seem like much, but at the very least, Miz seems to have established himself as one of the faces of RAW. This ensures that he won’t go by the wayside after winning his first title like Jack Swagger seems to have. Despite the fact that Miz is continuing to be pushed, his current gimmick is that of a disgruntled employee who believes that the CM Punk/Cena feud has pushed him aside.

This is the same Miz that the WWE Universe saw leading up to his Money in the Bank win last year. While there isn’t much room for him in the title picture at the moment, he is fully capable of carrying on some good upper mid-card feuds in the meantime. Miz was scheduled to have a match with Rey Mysterio on RAW, but he attacked him on the ramp. This is presumably a way for the creative team to temporarily write off Mysterio while he nurses a knee injury.

Miz cut a solid, intense promo in the ring and demanded he be declared the winner by forfeit. Instead, he was forced into a match with Kofi Kingston. Their bout was a fast-paced one, as most of Kofi’s matches are. Miz had no trouble keeping up with him, however, showing just how much he has improved in the ring over the past couple years. Miz ultimately came out on top, but it remains to be seen how he’ll be used at SummerSlam.

Miss: The Dolph Ziggler/Vickie Guerrero “Breakup” Angle

The United States Champion Dolph Ziggler and Vickie Guerrero have been together in either a romantic or business relationship for over a year. There have been plenty of hints over the past few weeks that their partnership could be in jeopardy of ending, though. “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, Kofi Kingston and Alex Riley have all ridiculed Ziggler for being with Guerrero and told him to drop her.

It seems as though most wrestling fans are in favor of the dissolution of Ziggler and Guerrero’s relationship, but I feel like it would be a big mistake. There is no doubt that Ziggler has plenty of potential and can eventually become a star in the WWE. He is fantastic in the ring, he has a good look and gimmick and he is improving on the mic.

Despite all that, he really doesn’t get a great reaction from the crowd on his own accord. That is where Vickie comes in. There isn’t one figure in wrestling today who can whip a crowd into a frenzy better than Vickie when she exclaims “Excuse me!” Many people find it to be annoying, and it is, but that’s the point. The purpose of Vickie is to get heat on Ziggler and she is extremely good at it.

Last night, during a match against Alex Riley, Guerrero interfered and slapped Riley, which allowed him to win by disqualification. This prompted Ziggler to verbally accost Vickie, and she subsequently left him in the ring. As a heel, it makes little sense for Ziggler to be so incensed by a DQ loss. It isn’t as if he lost the title, so I struggle to fathom why he was so up in arms. Regardless, it looks like Vickie will soon be on the outs if she isn’t already.

Hit: CM Punk vs. Alberto Del Rio

While I really don’t think there was any reason to feed Alberto Del Rio to CM Punk last night, there is no denying that they put on a very entertaining match. In fact, if Punk beats John Cena at SummerSlam (or even if he doesn’t), he and Del Rio could probably have a really solid program together. On a night where there were a few decent matches, this definitely stood out as the best one.

Prior to the match, both Punk and Del Rio cut promos backstage trashing each other. This makes me think that the WWE may very well be setting something up between the two of them down the line. The match itself had plenty of good psychology and focused largely on Del Rio working over Punk’s arm in an attempt to wear him down for his Cross Armbreaker finisher.

The notion of isolating and working on a particular body part is something that I really enjoy in wrestling. It’s something that isn’t used as much anymore, but it was very prevalent throughout the 1980s and the early ‘90s. With that in mind, Del Rio and Punk succeeded in putting on a match with a decidedly “old school” feel.

Punk was obviously able to overcome Del Rio’s strategy, as he caught him with a roundhouse kick to the head and a GTS to pick up the victory. It was extremely apparent that Punk was going to win the bout, as he couldn’t possibly be buried heading into SummerSlam, but the match was solid nonetheless. This certainly gives me hope of post-SummerSlam feud between Punk and Del Rio.

Miss: R-Truth’s Promo/Match Against John Morrison

It seems like many wrestling fans are enamored with R-Truth’s comedic/psychotic heel persona. While I agree that he can be pretty entertaining, and I feel like absolutely anything is better than his previous stupid rapping/dancing gimmick, I think he is starting to become severely overrated. He is decent, but not great in the ring, and his promos, while funny at times, tend to be unintelligible as well.

His promo last night was absolutely stupid. I tried to find a better way to say it, but if I’m being blunt, that is the only word I can come up with to accurately describe such a train wreck. When he confused acrophobia (the fear of heights) with arachnophobia (the fear of spiders) in a previous promo, it was quite funny. At this point, it’s extremely played out, though.

He rambled on about how some questions can’t be answered, like why God created spiders. Then he said something about how he was going to squash the spider that is John Morrison. It truly made no sense, but I digress. The ensuing match between Truth and Morrison wasn’t a particularly bad one, but I’m struggling to figure out why they wrestled last night rather than at SummerSlam.

Of course, it’s still possible that they’ll wrestle at SummerSlam, but then why give away a pay-per-view match on RAW? Also, the ending of the match was abrupt and underwhelming. After Truth dropped Morrison on his neck, he dominated and suddenly hit him with his finisher to pick up the win. It made Morrison look pretty weak as well, so it will be interesting to see if the creative team allows him to get revenge at SummerSlam.

Hit: The CM Punk/John Cena Contract Signing

As a rule, WWE contract signings are normally pretty lame. For one, I highly doubt the contracts are even real, and also, essentially every contract signings ends in a big melee. Well, the CM Punk/John Cena contract signing did follow the formula of ending in a fight, but it was actually quite entertaining overall. The best part of the whole thing was probably Punk acknowledging how dumb contract signings normally are.

Because of that, he wanted to make sure that the fans were entertained by this particular signing. He showed a clip of The Rock’s promo on Cena, which The Rock posted on Facebook last month. The promo as a whole was excellent, but the WWE didn’t exactly choose to show the best parts. That probably has something to do with not wanting Cena to look bad heading into SummerSlam.

Punk and Cena proceeded to exchange verbal barbs, with Punk coming out on top due to Cena’s overacting. Punk eventually got under Cena’s skin, prompting Cena to suggest they engage in fisticuffs. Both men got up, threw down their titles and flipped the table over. Triple H and John Laurinaitis attempted to break up the scuffle, but they predictably didn’t succeed.

Punk proceeded to kick Laurinaitis in the head as he continues to play role of Triple H’s stooge quite well. If nothing else, it’s pretty entertaining to see him get knocked silly week after week. Cena then tried to hit Punk, but Triple H got in the way, absorbing most of the blow. Punk then suggested that Triple H and Cena were in cahoots before the show ended. The signing segment may not have been as good as some of Punk’s other work over the past month, but when compared to other contract signings, it was excellent.

Miss: Lack of Match Announcements

It is my feeling that one of the WWE’s biggest weaknesses is the lack of sufficient build-up heading into pay-per-views. Seeing as SummerSlam is one of the company’s “Big Four” events, I fully expected a much better-developed card. What we’re left with at this point, though, are just four officially announced matches. Hopefully, some matches are added on SmackDown, and there will probably be some others added during the week, but that isn’t the right way to go about setting up an event.

I give the WWE credit for furthering the CM Punk/John Cena feud so well, but I feel like the writers may have been so obsessed with that particular angle that they neglected they undercard. As it currently stands, The Miz, Alberto Del Rio, Kofi Kingston, Dolph Ziggler, R-Truth, John Morrison, Alex Riley and Rey Mysterio (although he may be unable to compete) are all without matches.

That means that the entire upper mid-card has nothing prepared. Obviously, some of this could be averted by pitting Ziggler against Riley and Morrison against Truth, but what about the other guys? Will the writers honestly throw together a random triple threat between Miz, Del Rio and Kingston? I hope not, but I really don’t see any other way to get those guys involved in the card.

Either Miz or Del Rio could run in on the Punk/Cena match, but it seems like a waste to leave one or two of the company’s top heels off the card. The fact of the matter is that the diehard fans will still order the pay-per-view based on either the fact that it’s SummerSlam or because of the Punk/Cena match, but the card is really lacking at this point. Unless the WWE plans on allowing Cee Lo Green to put on a two-hour concert, they had better get to work on putting together a respectable card.