RAW: HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT

On tonight's episode of WWE Raw, HHH opened the show by making a two huge announcements. First he announced that tonight and for the foreseeable future fans would not only see Raw superstars competing but would also see the stars of Smackdown. This means that the split brands has come to an end.

In my opinion, this has been a longtime coming. The split brands were great when Smackdown had its own pay per views. They could take time and create their own superstars. Like they did with Edge, Eddie Guerrero and John Cena. But now stories have gotten stale and we see the same old matches. Mainly due to the fact that Smackdown just doesn't have any stars.

With this announcement brings many questions. Will there still multiple titles? There shouldn't be. Putting everyone on one roster again should mean one champion.What is going to happen to the mid card stars. For example Christian. A big name star on Smackdown but with everybody fighting for one title he will never get a shot. So it will be very interesting to see how things will proceed.

However this will give time to let story lines to develop further. For a long time now story lines have gone on for four weeks and then have been dropped. Also with everyone on the same roster the tag team division should be strengthen. As the only way for some wrestlers to get television time will be as a tag team.


His second announcement was that Punk vs Nash at Night of the Champions. This is an awful match and it does nothing for Punk. Nash can not hang with the best in the world.


Raw continued the rest of the night with great matches. The first match: Randy Orton vs Dolph Ziggler. This match proved Dolph can hang with the big boys. Even though he was defeated by Orton, he had some great spots and proved he could be a future champion.

After a segment with Cena Christian Mark Henry and Sheamus. Which creates the main event of the night. CM Punk comes out to face The Miz. I love both of the wrestlers. Both of them are great in the ring. Punk a little more polished than Miz. Both fantastic on the microphone. Punk won by disqualification as R-Truth came down to help the Miz.

I like the duo of Truth and the Miz and think they will challenge and be tag team champions one day. But not for long as The Miz will be a world champion again.


Sin Cara defeated Jack Swagger with help from Dolph. Dolph got on the apron in the middle of the match yelling at Swagger. Distracting him. Cara took advantage of the distraction and won with a roll up.

Evan Bourne and Kofi Kingston now known as Air Boom retained their titles against the team of David Otunga and Michael McGillicutty.

Main Event: Cena and Sheamus vs Christian and Mark Henry. The best wrestler of the four was clearly Christian. He can out wrestle them all. Christian just isn't the best wrestler in this match, he is the one of the best wrestler in the business. With that being said the faces defeated the heels in what was a pretty decent match.

The best news happened at the end of the night. HHH is shown in his office with CM Punk and announces that his match with Nash at Night of the Champions is cancelled and Punk will take on HHH.

SummerSlam Predictions

Quality not quantity is the phrase we always hear. The WWE is seems to be trying to deliver that at this year's Summerslam. Summerslam is the second biggest PPV, second only to Wrestlemania, and to date there are only five matches scheduled. Some of the more popular wrestlers are left off the card. Wrestlers like the Miz, Rey Mysterio, Dolph Ziggler, Alex Riley and Alberto Del Rio.

First Match: Daniel Bryan vs Wade Barrett. This match was added late and, to me, is a throw in match. Bryan will win so people can see how good he is. He is the money in the bank winner and i know he said he is waiting until Wrestlemania to cash it in, but maybe with not many matches on the card he will change his mind and go after the winner of Orton vs Christian. Unlikely, but the option is there.

Second match: Diva Championship. Kelly Kelly vs Beth Phoenix. Not real interested in this one. I think Kelly Kelly will win and hang on to her title. There is no real reason to take the title away from her. Beth Phoenix may be the better wrestler of the two, but i see no advantage to having her beat Kelly Kelly.

Third match: Mark Henry vs Sheamus. This will be a brawl. Two heavyweights going at it. This is to complete Sheamus' turn. His turn from heel to face. Sheamus will become a fan favorite by beating the man that nobody wants to wrestle. For weeks Mark Henry has been injuring wrestlers. Wrestlers like Kane and the Big Show. Sheamus will win and give him a push for the title.

Fourth Match: World Heavyweight Championship: Randy Orton vs Christian. There should be no reason why Christian doesn't leave Summerslam with the World Title. Why give him the title if you weren't going to let him keep it. What makes matters worse is that Christian didn't even win the belt in typical fashion. He won the belt by a DQ. This match will prove that Christian belongs and deserves to be champion. Plus, if Sheamus wins like I expect him to it will set up a Sheamus vs Christian feud. This will be a great match between two great athletes.

Fifth Match: WWE Championship: CM Punk vs John Cena. If this was a match straight up and was determined by who the best wrestler was, CM Punk would win hands down. However, there are many things to consider. For instance, HHH has named himself special guest referee. There has been talk of HHH vs CM Punk. That would be awesome to see. Both are doing great on the mic, by insulting each other. It has been rumored that they could lock up as soon as Survivor Series. I would rather see the match at Wrestlemania. On the other hand, Cena is the WWE's cash cow and a guy that brings in the money that he does gets the belt.

Another thing to consider is the health of John Cena. The WWE is going to want him 100% healthy for him match at Wrestlemania vs the Rock. They could have him lose the match to CM Punk. Have him get injured, take a couple months off and come back at royal rumble in January ready to go.

This match should end in one of two ways. First, Punk should win clean over Cena. Better wrestler, better on the mic as this past month and a half have shown. His popularity is up and the WWE should ride him while he is hot. Plus, Mysterio is set to face the champion in his hometown of San Diego the Raw following Summerslam.

The second ending, should be that HHH screws Punk, allowing Cena to win. Then, Alberto Del Rio should come and cash in his case and beat Cena. This sets up a Del Rio vs Mysterio, heel vs face. Also, sets up the HHH vs Punk. As Punk would want revenge on HHH for costing him the title.

Should be a good show as the WWE always puts on a good show for its fans. Can't wait for tomorrow.

WWE RAW 8/1/11

Like everyone else in the world, I was interested in seeing what was going to happen with the WWE Title situation. WWE did not did disappoint with their opening segment. CM Punk and HHH were tremendous on the microphone. The crowd was excited and ate the whole segment up. It was comical and at certain times truthful. What was even better is that this is the start of setting up a match between the two of them. A rumor is going around that at Survivor Series a match will be set up between the two. However, I say wait until Wrestlemania. CM Punk vs HHH on the grandest stage of them all will be amazing and would be a better match than John Cena vs Rock. As Punk and HHH are better wrestlers than Rock and Cena.

Beth Phoenix wins a divas battle royal to become number one contender.

A comical backstage segment with R-Truth and the Miz. Miz opens up with his catch phrase, which has become the new 'WHAT', Really. Really. Really. They talk about conspiracies, which R-Truth brings up a good point. If WWE was trying to do everything they could to bring back CM Punk, why were the wrestlers competing in a tournament to crown a new WWE Champion.

Miz and R-Truth team up to take on Rey Mysterio and John Morrison. A fast pace and action packed match. The Miz and R-Truth win the match. After the match, Miz hits the Skull Crushing Fianle on Morrison. Then R-Truth hits him with a bottle of water. From the past few weeks, it appears that the Miz will fight Mysterio at SummerSlam as I don't see what else either of them can do because the title picture is so screwed up that you can't have a number one contender because you don't have a champion. While R-Truth will fight John Morrison.

A short promo is shown with HHH about his announcement tonight with the two champions situation.

Dolph and Vicki come out. They really need to get rid of Vicki, as she is holding Dolph back. She is just plain annoying. Alex Riley comes out and the Miz has taught him well. Quickly becoming one of my favorite up and comers. Hope WWE doesn't push him too quickly as they have done with others. This segment was good. Gave Riley some respect and made Dolph get heat from the fans. These two could have a great match at SummerSlam for the United States Title.

Next is a tag team match that nobody really cares about as the WWE doesn't have a tag team division. Otunga and McGillicutty vs Santino Marella and Zach Ryder. Horrible match. Kept no interest. Listening to Cole, Lawler and Ross argue like children was almost enough to make me switch the channel. Winners: Otunga and McGillicutty.

They show a replay of what happened earlier with Punk and HHH and I can't get over how good that segment was. Punk does a short interview in the back about what his thoughts are about the title situation. Then we cut to the ring as Alberto Del Rio, Mr. Money In The Bank, comes out to face Evan Bourne.

The matches haven't been great tonight. Only the tag team match between Miz and R-Truth vs Mysterio and Morrison was good.

Seriously the WWE has to do something with their announce team. Listen to these three bicker is actually making them lose ratings. Del Rio beats Bourne easily. This was a match to keep people interested in Del Rio and remind people how good he is. Del Rio attacks Bourne after the match. Kofi comes and makes the save, setting up a match for them at SummerSlam.

They show a poll on who the WWE Champion should be and I don't see how the fans can say that John Cena should be WWE Champion. We can live without Cena holding the title and taking all the glory allow someone else to have the spotlight.

HHH comes out and is about to make his decision. John Laurinaitis interrupts HHH. He tells HHH to strip Cena, of course they are not. But this brings Cena to the ring. They talk a bit, he threatens to hit Laurinaitis and he leaves. HHH announces that he is not going to strip Cena. Bringing out CM Punk, who should be the true champion. HHH says he isn't stripping Punk either. At SummerSlam they will fight winner is the true champion. The only decision HHH could make. Punk and Cena take turns at raising the belt in the air and the crowd reacts to each of them as Raw goes off the air.

Not a bad Raw. Looking forward to seeing Cean vs Punk again at SummerSlam. Although, I believe that the WWE will allow Cena to beat Punk and give him the title. Because they are already talking about Punk vs HHH at Survivor Series as i noted above.

RECAP

I would like to apologize for not posting in a while. Been very busy doing other things and just have not had the opportunity. But lets recap what has gone on while I have been away.

CM Punk has had one of the most memorable months in wrestling history. People cannot stop talking about him nor should they. I have always liked CM Punk. Not only is he one of the best in the squared circle but his skills on the microphone are second to none. For those of you that don't know Punk announced he was leaving the WWE after the Money In The Bank pay per view. After he beat John Cena for the WWE Title. In the weeks that followed he would make more announcements saying how he was the best wrestler in the world (he is). And how the WWE is being run by, lets just say, people who shouldn't be running it.

Punk backed up everything he said. He beat Cena for the title and left. Now if anyone believed that Punk was not under contract at the time needs their head examined. There was no way Vince McMahon would let his WWE Title leave his company and go somewhere else. This was all a story line and has been played perfectly. Just go back and watch Punk's promos starting with the one on June 27.

Punk makes some great points. Why is Dewayne "The Rock" Johnson in the main event at Wrestlemania. Punk and other wrestlers work their a** off day in and day out in that ring and deserve to be in the main event. Where has The Rock been since last years Wrestlemania? Certainly not in a WWE ring.


Punk and Cena have a great match at the pay per view. Really one of Cena's best in a long time. It is a memorable match and if anybody has not seen it needs to go and download it right now.


The only thing going on on SmackDown is the feud between Christian and Randy Orton. Christian has been trying to get the belt back ever since losing it two days after he won it. After many opportunities and bad referee calls he had not succeeded until Money In The Bank pay per view where Orton got himself disqualified and lost the title.

Those are the only two stories, really worth talking about quite frankly it is all about PUNK.

Now onto last nights RAW. They opened the show by crowning a new champion after Rey Mysterio beat the Miz. A decent match but nothing special. In fact nothing on this night was special because everybody was waiting to see if CM Punk would show up.

As the new man in charge, HHH came out did a little speech brought Jim Ross back to the announce team and made a title match for later that night. Mysterio vs Cena. Are you kidding me? Why dose Cena get the shot at a phony title? He lost his last match and in order to have a rematch for the title the real champ has to be there and he has 30 days to defend his championship. Again all part of a bigger storyline but the WWE treats their fans as idiots who don't know anything about wrestling.

Of course Cena wins and god forbid he doesn't have a title to put around his waist for more than a couple months. At the end of the night, was the moment that everyone was waiting for. CM Punk's music blared and he walked to the ring with the real WWE title. Cena held up his title saying he was the real champ a few fans cheered. Punk hold the real title up saying he is the real champion and the crowd goes nuts.

After Raw goes off the air, Punk grabs a mic and says two words. Two words everyone wanted to hear. "I'm Back!" Two words in my mind that he didn't have to say because he never left.

Orton stealing the spotlight?

Everything that i keep reading seems to have people being mad at Randy Orton for stealing the spotlight from Christian. Are you serious? People where have you been and what have you been watching?


There should be nobody complaining about Orton finally getting some attention. He has always been the best wrestler on Monday Night Raw and has always been overshadowed by someone else.


When he was a member of Evolution, HHH was the main man getting all the attention. Then SummerSlam 2004 came and Orton gained his first Heavyweight title by beating Chris Benoit. How did he get celebrated by being dumped on his head and kicked out of Evolution and losing the title.



Then for years he went on his own only to get overlooked by John Cena. Orton has the best character on TV and is a great worker. He has the right to be noticed and a right to have his time in the spotlight.


Is he stealing the spotlight from Christian? Let's think about it. Yeah it sucks that Christian lost the belt after two days. But we have talked more about Christian in the past couple weeks than we have in his thirteen year career. Fans have rally around Christian and want him to win the title back. If anything Orton has brought Christian to the forefront and increased Christian's spotlight. Stop blaming Orton.


These two are going to have a great feud on Smackdown. Sit back and enjoy the show.

Christian: What is in his future?

With all the uproar and debate about Christian and the World Title this week, now seemed like the perfect time to weigh in.


First, people must know how big of a Christian fan I am. I was extremely excited to see him win the World Title, which in my opinion was long over due, at Extreme Rules. I was also shocked on how many Christian fans out there and agreed with me that Christian has all the makings of a great champion.


However, I agree that Randy Orton is the biggest star on Smackdown. Orton moved from the biggest show to a secondary show without complaint. Obviously, making that move without complaint, he needs to have the title. Orton is a great wrestler and he deserves to have the title. Having him with the title makes the locker room respect him more. He will be a voice of the that locker room and somebody that younger wrestlers can look up too. I am not saying that Christian can't be that guy either. Christian has put in his dues and is a great wrestler in his own right. I just believe that Vince is still angry with Christian for leaving the WWE and going to TNA.


While I agree with Orton having the title, I totally disagree in the way Vince only let Christian have a two day reign as champion. It is a spit in the face to Christian and all his fans. Why did he have to lose the title two days after his epic win at the pay per view. Would it have been so hard to let him have the title for a month and lose it to Orton at the next pay per view. You still get the same message across in a more respectful way to Christian.


As crazy as this sounds, I think this will be great for Christian. Turn him heel and let him feud with Orton. On the smackdown roster they really don't have a top heel. Sheamus and Wade Barrett are heels but aren't good enough to be the top dog. Plus the wrestling world has already seen the Sheamus vs Orton and Barrett vs Orton. that would be old. The whole idea of the draft was to shake things up and give us matches we never seen before.


Christian has been a heel before, and have done a good job as a heel, and has the talent with the microphone and the wrestling ability to pull it off. If you think about it all great champions have got their careers started as heels. Orton was a great heel and won titles before coming face. John Cena career started him rapping to the ring and winning titles before coming with the hustle, loyalty, respect character. Before winning 11 world titles Edge had to become the rated r superstar. The list goes on and on from Kurt Angle to Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart. Turning heel and having everybody hate you gets a career going and Christian can and I believe will do the same.


I know the WWE Universe was mad and at first I was mad too, but there is always more to the story. I believe this is just part of a bigger storyline for Christian. Just have patience.

AFTERMATH OF THE DRAFT

• 
  Coming into last night's RAW, I really wasn't looking forward to the draft. I think the draft has lost it's impact through the years. (I have a solution to this. Which I will hit later in the article.) I figured no big names will be moving this year. Most of the names are already on RAW and there is no point moving a big star on a big show to a smaller show.
  
  
• Boy was I wrong. Starting with the first pick, John Cena moved from RAW to SMACKDOWN. Cena the biggest superstar in the company on the move. What a surprise. But think about should any of us have been surprised. I am sure we all have seen the ending of RAW or have read about what happened. If you haven't Cena got drafted back to RAW. We should have known that something was going to happen. It just isn't a smart business move to move your biggest star from the biggest show.
  
  
• Probably the biggest surprise that happened last night was that Randy Orton got drafted and stayed on Smackdown. I think something backstage is going on with Randy Orton and the creative team. Ever since losing the title his career has been going down hill. He has one of the best feuds going on with CM Punk and at Wrestlemania they cut his match short and now he is moving to a smaller show.
  
  
• Other superstars to change shows were: Rey Mysterio, the Big Show, Alberto Del Rio, Mark Henry, Sin Cara, Daniel Bryan, Ted Dibiase, Drew Mcintyre, Kofi Kingston and Jack Swagger. For a full list go to wwe.com.
  
  
• The interesting thing about all the moves to me is Alberto Del Rio going to RAW. To me this means that Christian will win the ladder match at extreme rules. For two reasons. One he deserves to be champion and two in the other title match all three superstars are on RAW so each show has to have a title. I think that Del Rio will lose that match and go on to start a feud with John Cena. It is something new. We have seen pretty much everything we are going to see out of Cena and Miz. Give them each a new person to work with.
  
  
• I see Cena winning the title in the cage match and Miz going on to feud with John Morrison. Miz will blame Morrison for costing him the title and the feud will just carry on from there. While some of the other names, I don't see them competing for any titles right now, it gives them a fresh start on a new show.
  


• In my opinion nobody needed a switch more than Dibiase and Mcintyre. These two were champions at one point and now have trouble getting tv time. Hopefully the switch will help.
  
  
• Now to my solution to get the draft more meaningful. It's quite simple. The WWE has to go back to when SMACKDOWN and RAW were there own separate shows and had their own separate pay per views. That was when SMACKDOWN was at its best. They developed the wrestlers into superstars. SMACKDOWN was were Cena and Edge got their first taste of stardom. Go back to that system and have the two shows meet at the big pay per views. They can meet at Wrestlemania, Summerslam, Bragging Rights.
  
  
• In the end I like the draft it shakes things up and only time will tell how the wrestlers who got drafted will do in their new roles and on their new show.