WWE Raw: CM Punk Is WWE Champion, Will He Be Next Tuesday?

That seems to be the million-dollar question.

As we all saw last night, Dolph Ziggler earned himself a WWE Championship match against CM Punk next Monday night. Not only is a "force" coming to WWE on January 2nd, 2012, the company is putting on a major match for fans all over the world.

With that being said, will CM Punk successfully defend his title in six days and enter next Tuesday still WWE Champion?

There are a few points to look at here:

1. Ratings have not been kind as of late, as I wrote about last week multiple times. Some may not put much stock into the TV numbers, but you have to. Just ignoring them is not the way to go. Either stick your head in a hole or accept the facts. Punk as WWE Champion has not increased anything but his own T-shirt sales.

2. Dolph Ziggler got a short World title reign last year. Some fans may forget that, but he is a former Heavyweight champion in WWE. While his "defeat" over Edge was not clean, the title reign was absolutely official and in the record books. Perhaps WWE wants him to get a quick WWE title run, starting next week?

3. The Royal Rumble has very little story right now. One of the biggest PPV events is next month, and there is no big build started yet. Who will feud with Punk for the title? Will he even be champ? Are there other plans in place for the January show? There should be a much clearer picture next week.

4. Finally, where does Brodus Clay and/or "1-2-12" play into this? Johnny Ace has made it apparent that Clay is going to be at Raw next week. Yes, we have heard it before, but you never know if he will take out Punk as the boss' hired gun or what. Also, who are the vignettes for? Does it have anything to do with Punk or Ziggler?

Either way, WWE has a huge show set up next Monday night. There will be a lot of fans watching with intrigue, and Punk leaving with the WWE title is not a guarantee right now. That may be shocking to some, but this new "revolution" is off to a rocky start.

Daniel Bryan, Zack Ryder and CM Punk won the main event of Raw last week. This Monday, Ryder was in the middle of the first hour flirting with Eve. Bryan was on for 15 seconds and Punk lost to Ziggler in a match that did not even get the final segment of the night. Nothing is certain in WWE heading into 2012...

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