1Wrestling.com- The Good, The Bad, The In-The-Middle: WWE Monday Night RAW 08.18.08

A lot went down this Sunday at SummerSlam. CM Punk managed to retain the World Heavyweight Championship against John Bradshaw Layfield, new Intercontinental and Women’s Champions were crowned after Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix defeated Kofi Kingston and Mickie James in an inter-gender tag team match, the epic battle between John Cena and Batista ended with The Animal having his hand raised in victory and an encounter between Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho left Michaels’ wife battered in the middle of the ring. The fallout of all this, including the announcement of the brand’s main event at Unforgiven, was handled this past Monday on RAW.

THE GOOD

• Jericho/Michaels feud being given some incredible build: It’s pretty unbelievable that with all that went on at SummerSlam, including CM Punk retaining the World Heavyweight Championship and Cena vs. Batista for the first time ever, the vendetta between Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels was highlight enough to lead off RAW.

Jericho came to the ring on Monday’s opening segment to address what happened the night before at SummerSlam. At SummerSlam, Shawn Michaels came down to the ring in what appeared to be a retirement announcement. With his wife, Rebecca, by his side, “The Heartbreak Kid” was finally going to listen to doctors and hang up the wrestling gear. Jericho didn’t want Michaels to go out like that, though. He wanted to Michaels to let it be known that the reason Michaels was leaving was because Jericho forced him into retirement. Michaels retorted by saying Jericho would never be Shawn Michaels. It was then that Rebecca pulled for Michaels to walk away. As he did, Jericho unloaded with a punch that missed a ducking HBK and landed right on the face of his wife.

On RAW, Jericho put the blame for this on Michaels. Jericho refused to take responsibility for what happened to Rebecca and chalked it up to Michaels just once again needing to “placate” his ego under the bright lights of SummerSlam.

Later in the evening, we were shown footage from SummerSlam of Michaels walking out with Rebecca and alluding to a future encounter with Jericho once he was done comforting his wife and kids.

The feud between these two competitors has been all talk since Jericho injured the eye of HBK at The Great American Bash. They haven’t squared off in a match between than PPV and now. Yet, it is still stealing the show. With a new, more professional, Jericho looking to end the career of a showman he used to try and emulate, there has been some great heat that should lead to one final enthralling encounter, probably at Unforgiven. The hype is there and will continue to be developed toward a match these two are more than capable of living up to.

• Great action in women’s tag team match: We’re typically used to seeing women’s matches these days be used as either filler or to advance the build for a later encounter. It was a nice change of pace on RAW to actually see a women’s match given the proper time to develop into something truly entertaining and become a showcase of what the WWE Divas really have to offer in the ring.

Coming off her loss in the inter-gender title match at SummerSlam, Mickie James teamed up with Kelly Kelly to take on the duo of Jillian Hall and Katie Lea Burchill. All four women entertained in the six-seven minutes provided to them on RAW, which is actually decent time for a women’s match. There was some pretty high-octane action with a good mix of maneuvers. The match concluded with a DDT by James on Katie Lea followed by a three-count.

Perhaps my only gripe is that Kelly still looks a little green. But I have to give her credit for improving and producing much better than in her match against Beth Phoenix last week. She once again proved she still has the potential to become an asset inside the ring for the WWE.

As for the rest of the women, Jillian goes back to being irrelevant while James gets a nice win under her belt after a loss at the PPV and Katie Lea perhaps gets back into the hunt after suffering defeat at the hands of James.

• Ball rolling on encounter between Cryme Tyme and Cody Rhodes/Ted DiBiase: The WWE appears ready to get things going in a much anticipated feud between the World Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase and seemingly the only other worthwhile tag team on the RAW roster in Cryme Tyme. Prior to a handicap match between the champions and John Cena, Cryme Tyme made their way down to the ring and stole the belts.

I’m sure this will continue next week with Rhodes and DiBiase blaming Cryme Tyme’s pre-match antics in costing them their match against Cena.

THE BAD

• Championship Scramble set for Unforgiven: RAW general manager Mike Adamle made his way out to the stage in the middle of RAW to announce the brand’s main event for the upcoming Pay-Per-View just three weeks away, Unforgiven. This main event was a creation by Shane and Stephanie McMahon and was something quite unique.

At Unforgiven, CM Punk will defend the World Heavyweight Championship against four of RAW’s top superstars in a Championship Scramble. In this match, a 20-minute time limit will be posted. Similar to Iron Man Matches, pins and submissions will take place through the bout and it’s not one fall to the finish. However, each time a pin or submission occurs, the victor of that fall will be the World Heavyweight Champion. The title is expected to change hands often in the match, but whoever is in possession of the belt when the 20 minutes is over will be deemed the new (or still) World Heavyweight Champion.

Challenging Punk in this match will be JBL, Kane, Batista and John Cena – all four are former heavyweight champions.

For as unique and intriguing as the match sounds, I definitely have my gripes with this match.

For starters, this five-man encounter seemed to be what the WWE was setting up for SummerSlam before booking Cena vs. Batista in their own separate one-on-one match. The main event picture on RAW just a few weeks before SummerSlam was very cluttered and it seemed as if all four of these individuals had basically earned their way into a title match on Sunday. It didn’t happen, but it also makes this match a month late.

It also furthers the overshadowing of CM Punk and has me convinced he will no longer be champion once Unforgiven is all said and done. With four top quality athletes looking to take the belt away from him, the WWE will either put the belt on a wrestler they’re more comfortable using in the top spot or actually give Punk a huge win that could very well elevate his status as the brand’s champion if continued to be used properly. I don’t feel the WWE has the latter in them, though.

• CM Punk takes another loss: A reason I don’t see the WWE giving CM Punk a big win against four top notch competitors at Unforgiven is because they have yet to convince us they’re willing to take Punk to that level. He has been increasingly overshadowed by everybody else on RAW and can’t seem to string together wins that establishes him as “the man” on RAW. And despite grabbing a big win against JBL to retain the title at SummerSlam, he was booked into a losing effort against Chris Jericho in front of his hometown fans in Chicago.

On a good note, the match was excellent and saw Punk unload from the wide array of moves in his arsenal. But the WWE effectively squashed any momentum he might have earned coming out of his match against JBL on Sunday by having him take the loss to Jericho. The end result coming as a result of distraction by Lance Cade from the outside might be the WWE’s way of trying to ease the blow. But it does nothing to lessen the message being sent – the WWE isn’t going to push Punk as an elite caliber Champion. JBL appears to still be right. Punk is just a transition champ.

If what happened to him on RAW, and in the week’s previous to SummerSlam, continues, his title reign should be all said and done by Unforgiven.

THE IN-THE-MIDDLE

• Cena and Batista each take a win on RAW without burying opponents: Despite being taken off the path of one-on-one matches by the WWE, which is actually better saved for bigger PPVs, John Cena and Batista still have some heat between them stemming from their match at SummerSlam. Even though another singles contest between the two is likely a ways away, they still managed to build themselves on RAW off the momentum earned just one night earlier.

In the first match of the night, Batista faced Paul Burchill while John Cena participated in a handicap match against the World Tag Team Champions Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase. I really like how in each match, Batista and Cena stepped away victorious without making their opponents look completely ridiculous. Burchill was dominated in the closing moments of his match against the Animal, but he still showed some ring saavy by going at Batista’s weak knee and managed to get some good shots in. Against Cena, the tag champs suffered the loss. But, like Burchill, they weren’t buried in the process.

• Kane becoming more demonic again: The WWE’s planned feud between Kane and Rey Mysterio doesn’t seem all that enticing. But they’re getting the Kane character back where it needs to be for a feud of this nature. And on RAW, he cut a promo that made him more demonic and handled a run in by Batista in pretty dominant fashion.

Despite the fact that I’m still against the Mysterio/Kane feud because it seems like we’ve been down this road before, the WWE looks to be making the necessary strides in building Kane up into “monster” status.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Coming off SummerSlam, I think the WWE put on a pretty nice RAW. Some good in-ring action took place and feuds got some necessarily build. I’m not a huge fan of Punk’s further overshadowing and the Championship Scramble announced for Unforgiven. But I at least liked most of what I saw this past Monday.

 

From 1wrestling.com