On Sunday the WWE presented “Money in the Bank,†their most acclaimed and talked-about pay-per-view in years. The ladder matches were great, Randy Orton versus Christian was very good, and even Mark Henry versus Big Show was decent.
But by far the most talked about match on the card and in recent memory is CM Punk versus John Cena. Some have gone as far as to rate it Five Stars (I settled on ****¾ myself), which is a rare rating for today’s WWE.
What CM Punk and John Cena pulled off in their feud was something truly special. Certainly Punk’s promos are the biggest factor in the success of the angle and the match, but you can only be as good as your opponent, and Cena certainly brought a lot to the table. Just the way he made his entrance on Sunday, without doing the stupid little salute, and just walking to the ring with purpose, showed how important this match was to Cena and gave it a different feel right off the bat.
The following night on Raw, the angle was put to bed (for now anyway), as a tournament to crown a new champion was announced and Punk’s name was barely mentioned. Focus shifted to Vince McMahon and his son-in-law Triple H, who announced that Vince had been ousted from power and he would be taking his place.
Now this could merely be a TV angle, but a big part of me thinks this was a symbolic changing of the guards. While no formal announcement of Vince’s retirement has been made, at 65 years old he has to be thinking about retiring at some point, and it is well known that Triple H and Stephanie are taking over.
Now, this could be a great thing for the WWE. Since getting his own office, Triple H has signed both Sin Cara and Kharma. Now, it is unfortunate that Cara has already been slapped with a Wellness Violation and Kharma got pregnant and is off TV, but I think the story is that Triple H has an eye for talent, not that they both haven’t exactly worked out so far.
Also on Sunday, it’s worth noting that John Cena and Randy Orton lost, while CM Punk, Christian, and Daniel Bryan picked up the biggest wins of their career, and The Miz is getting the organic face pops I’ve been saying he could get for months (ask Brad Garoon).
Do all of these things equal a seismic shift in WWE programming and a renaissance of awesome? Either way, whatever they’re doing right now, WWE is on a hot streak that I hope will lead to wrestling being “cool†again. Isn’t that what we all want?
