THE GOOD:
– CM Punk did not show up and do the job.
– Rey vs Miz for (fake) WWE Title is postponed for next week
– Vince inadvertently says WWF… Quick! Call the Pandas!!
– HHH is apparently the new boss (guess nobody at the board got the memo about Sin Cara)
THE BAD:
– A one-night tournament? Seriously… and on top of that, it was weak
– Zack Ryder isn’t in the tournament
– Divas Match = Piss Break
– John Cena is not fired
– Vince is relieved or something…
– No more awesome CM Punk promos…
– The show ended with two grown men crying…
Wow, that hot angle fizzled, didn’t it?
Despite the many tweets from CM Punk letting the world know that he was going to watch the Cubs win tonigh, people were hoping that he MIGHT show up on RAW. Instead, what we got was a show that was deflated and… really paled in comparison to the past couple weeks worth of television. Honestly, I was damn near BORED TO TEARS. That wasn’t the case last week… and I’d like to think that wouldn’t have been the case at the PPV, given the praise it has gotten due to the “right people” winning.
It’s just too bad that they couldn’t follow up that great feud with something that could keep viewer’s interest… look, I’m sort of glad they’re going with this tournament thing instead of having CM Punk do the job and ruin this thing… and some of the wrestling was alright (hey, it’s mostly wrestling… for once)… but I look at the brackets and I’m like, “Who gives a shit?”
You’ve got Dolph Ziggler, former World Champion for all of five minutes.
You’ve got Rey Mysterio, former two-time World Heavyweight Champion… and both times, he was made to look like one of the most ineffectual and weakest champions that ever existed.
You’ve got the Miz, former WWE Champion who spent most of his reign feuding with the 60+ year old Jerry Lawler and playing second-fiddle to a Rock-Cena confrontation at Mania 27.
You’ve got Jack Swagger, former World Heavyweight Champion… but most likely remembered for playing second fiddle to Michael Fucking Cole.
You’ve got R-Truth, insane former rapper obssessed with lil’ Jimmy… does anyone remember when he was NWA World Heavyweight Champion less than a decade ago? Didn’t think so.
You’ve got Alberto Del Rio, the current Money In The Bank winner… no way he’s going to win this tournament. He’ll probably cash in on the winner. Not to mention every time he tried to achieve destiny, he tends to drop the ball.
You’ve got Kofi Kingston, former IC and US champion… probably deserves the top spot if only for a short time… but probably not going to get it anytime soon…
And then there’s Alex Riley… a guy who’s most likely NOT to be champion.
You want to know the last tournament I saw that I was even remotely interested in? Survivor Series 1998, the Deadly Games tournament. There were a couple favorites, sure, but there were just as many potential winners as there were challengers. Here? There’s probably two or three guys who might get a shot… and then it’s all irrelevant because there’s a guy with a free title shot cash in. So what?
I think, in retrospect, the reason I wasn’t thrilled with the tournament and just uninterested is because it was simply out of the blue. The timing, I find, was awkward. The Deadly Games tournament was announced ahead of time… it was on PPV, but there was a build-up to that tournament. Even the Wrestlemania IV WWF Title Tourney had a nice grace period and build-up before the PPV… Here? It’s just out of the blue and it feels really tossed together. Hey, I’m glad there’s a bit of wrestling… and on second viewing, some of the matches are alright, but at the same time… this is following one of the best PPVs in recent memory and for RAW to turn out the way it did… well, it was lacking.
(Another reason I could care less about this tournament – wait for it – is because the “WWE Championship” under contention here is not the real deal. It’s just going to be a matter of time before either CM Punk comes back or somebody swipes the title from him… that’s assuming he’s still champion, but judging from the pictures he took at the Cubs game, we can safely say that he took care of Piston Honda just fine.)
And the fact that we’re avoiding the Cena firing (for the best, since it didn’t work out the last time he was ‘fired’) and instead dumping Vince because he wants to fire Cena…yeah, because the Kiss My Ass club and hitting on employees half his age are “sane business decisions.”
For fuck’s sake, this is like really bad fanfiction written by a 3-year-old Cena fan.
Overall, they had a chance to follow up this hot angle with something big… and they BOMBED. The show was alright, but as a follow up to what was essentially a money feud, it was a lot less than it needed to be.
P.S. HHH taking over as kayfabe boss? Not a big deal… only time I would consider it a big deal is if it were real. Thus far, no indication has been made that this is the case… and no, Syxx-Pac’s word does not count.
P.P.S. CM Punk’s Twitter was/is more entertaining than this show… sorry to say.
dtm666 