John Cena and Alberto Del Rio seemed to have gotten their feud a bit confused from week to week. Last week at the end of Raw, Cena cut an intense, hate filled promo against Del Rio, but given their lack of interaction, it made no sense. This week, with CM Punk involved in the title picture, we got the logically follow through from Summerslam with two men who felt like they deserved the title both wanting to face the third – the champion. At the end of that, the man who won, Cena, is viciously assaulted by Del Rio. The hate that Cena showed last week would be justified now. WWE has really got to get this sort of thing under control. A linear narrative shouldn’t be this complicated to put in proper order.
John Cena remains the center of the WWE Universe, whether he has the title or not, with all other talent bouncing off of him. Whether it’s Punk, Miz, or Del Rio, each get their chance to shine when against Cena who really does dominate the title scene. He is, in essence, today’s Hulk Hogan, which casts CM Punk as Randy Savage. The problem here will arise when they are facing a common foe. Punk’s status as cool and an “it†guy are because he’s such a different face than Cena. Having him ally with Cena, like Orton before him, does nothing but take the anti-hero sheen off.
Now, they clearly haven’t gone the Punk and Cena as allies route yet, but they seem to be building towards a healthy respect, notably Cena saying Punk is the only guy in the company who can hang with him. That could be a throwaway line, but with the re-focus on the tag division and the decision to try and make Del Rio a top guy, it might not be. Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne won the tag titles on Raw and got to make it seem like a big deal with a champagne celebration. Shortly after that, Miz and R-Truth allied, jumped Santino and announced they were now a force – Most Must-See Truth if you will. Now, these two teams haven’t collided yet, but it seems inevitable, and when they do, Miz, who they put in every commercial and was a top guy at Wrestlemania, will not be losing to a fun mid-card team.
All of this then begs the question of what to do with the top tier tag team. It seems an awful lot like a JeriShow situation where the top heel team is so far above the faces, it’s inevitable that top faces take note. Of course when that happened with JeriShow, it wasn’t treated like a top feud, merely something atop Raw. That, unfortunately, would do the same damage as a feud, as the current D-X would be Cena and Punk who, once more with feeling, absolutely cannot ally without killing Punk’s credibility.
Of course, right now, CM Punk is embroiled in a very 1990s feud indeed with Kevin Nash with Triple H caught in the middle. I understand they’re going to build to Punk demanding Nash be signed so that Punk can face him, make the fans desperate to see Punk really tear into Nash, but what exactly about Nash’s career suggests any of this will unfold the way it should? Triple H, outside of the ring itself, will usually do right for business, but I have a bad feeling his idea of right for business is going to be him taking out Punk leading to a “big money†return match where he again kills Punk. I’m hoping it isn’t so and trying to stay positive, but Punk has gotten the verbal upper hand every time and sooner or later, unless they really want him to be the next Austin, that’s going to come back to him. Luckily, since his merchandise keeps selling out, he really might be the next Austin and force their hand into keeping him special and happy. That being said, there is no one in the roster I would less prefer Punk involved with than Triple H and Kevin Nash.
Alberto Del Rio, meanwhile, is being built as half-dangerous. This is being done poorly. He’s currently wrestling the best in-ring talent on the mid-card and winning cleanly. He is also beating on and trying to injure top guys outside of matches. Note how counter this runs to what got Mark Henry over. Henry beat on, beat and injured top guys in and after matches. That was special and got him over. Del Rio is supposed to beat the guys he’s facing right now, so him doing so isn’t special. The match quality could make it special, but Wheeler is right with his JBLatino comparison. Del Rio’s got a better moveset and more agility, but his psychology and storytelling are very basic – straight out of JBL’s playbook. While that’s a strong plus for a character, if he’s going to be what WWE want from him, he needs to develop into more between the ropes.
Finally, we have the two guys most desperately in need of a turn in WWE, Jack Swagger and John Morrison. Swagger isn’t very good in the ring and is a perfectly acceptable mid-carder, but he was actually quite over being Jerry Lawler’s lackey and could have been more. Yet again, however, after another chance to step up, he hasn’t. It’s perfectly acceptable to give up on him now, but he might have potential as a face. He’s big and fast, with a flashy moveset. He has his ironic “cheer me now crowd†poses and spots he uses as a heel that the crowd really could get behind if he were a face. Unfortunately, he isn’t. His courting Vickie Guerrero will set up a three-way with Alex Riley and Dolph Ziggler, but if it turns anyone face, it’s Ziggler. Either way, that’s a disaster for Swagger. If Ziggler remains heel, he completely overshadows Swagger, as he’s better in just about every way. If Ziggler turns face, he has to crush Swagger to get over in that role, leaving Swagger as a less over, less effective shadow of a guy who moves on.
John Morrison is just lost. His match quality is mediocre and he’s never figured out how to be a brawler in any capacity. As such, his matches are mostly mediocre unless they’re exhibition style and even then he’s not shown a real aptitude for pulling guys up to his level as a face. Actually, even as a face, his best matches are against other faces. Know what that means? He’s a heel. I know the moves are flashy and pop the crowd. I know the crowd ate up his near-falls with Del Rio. I also know they sat on their hands all match and he’s getting fewer and fewer pops for his entrance. As a heel, he was able to go all out with his persona and have great matches. His cheating drew major heat because the crowd saw someone good enough to win cleanly as a face instead choose the easy way out. As a face, he’s not good enough to win cleanly and he doesn’t cheat. He’s got no notable promo skills and can’t get over using babyface sympathy since he isn’t good enough at selling or showing fire. As a heel, absolutely everything here is covered – he can sell enough to feed a comeback, just be cocky and obnoxious rather than need promos, and has to sell fire by seeming scared not show it himself.
Raw was, overall, a very good show and absolutely what should have happened last week. Storylines actually were kicked off here with a strong initial reasoning, while closing off the feuds and angles from Summerslam. Cena vs. Punk was actually better than their Summerslam encounter and Punk’s consistent reinventing his moveset, even if he’s borrowing from Randy Savage and KENTA, is something more wrestlers should do, as it keeps the flow from becoming too predictable. The only other guy I really recall doing that is Punk’s only real outspoken detractor – Jerry Lawler. Raw gets a pass since I’m at least curious to see where they go, and Punk continues to carry the show.
