WWE Raw (8/18/2008)

[Black Lushus 0]

I'll defend ... they wanted to further establish that Punk is a vulnerable, yet scrappy, champion.

 

is that what it was when Rey Mysterio was losing non-title matches?

[The Truthiness 0]

I'll defend ... they wanted to further establish that Punk is a vulnerable, yet scrappy, champion.

 

I'll take it.

[bob_barron 0]

That doesn't work though. If he keeps losing, he just looks like a joke.

 

I think Jericho is tied to HBK at Unforgiven, he's not going to be in the main event

[The Truthiness 0]

That doesn't work though. If he keeps losing, he just looks like a joke.

 

I think Jericho is tied to HBK at Unforgiven, he's not going to be in the main event

 

He makes a good point, Myxamatosis.

 

I'm back to thinking it was a bad idea.

 

[cabbageboy 0]

Okay hold up....how exactly is Punk beating Jericho at Unforgiven going to happen when Punk is mired in this "Hardcore title 24/7" style match with 4 other guys and Jericho is bound to be jobbing to Michaels (if Shawn graces us with his presence)? This is the bizarre dilemma Jericho faces in some ways: He should be in the title scene, especially after a non title win. But in the end, we all know he has to job out to HBK, because well, that's how it goes.

 

The thing I found absurd is that they actually bothered to protect hometown boy D-Lo Brown tonight in Chicago and yet jobbed out the obviously more popular world champ Punk. Why not just job out D-Lo and do the Cade run in for a DQ in the main event?

 

WWE just doesn't know how to book a guy as a plucky underdog champ anymore. How hard is it to watch tapes of Bret Hart circa 1992-93?

[Precious Roy 0]

Look, Jericho is being set up as the main heel right now after JBL. He needs to be in the title match, this ending gets him into the title match. Now Punk can beat him clean at Unforgiven for the final pin to retain. It's actually smart booking. Chris becomes an even bigger EFFECTIVE heel, Punk has more to prove than ever before going into the toughest match of his life and he'll come out of it still the champion.

 

So he just lost a non-title match in his hometown. It's the perfect way to keep Jericho burning strong and it keeps Punk with his "gotta keep proving myself" character. They might have been able to do it next week but then who does Punk face? JBL again? Pull a TNA and break out the re-match the very next show?

 

They needed to get Jericho in, they got Jericho in. And if Jericho isn't in, well then yeah it looks like a lousy move. If it all ends with Jericho losing to Cena next week, then yeah, it was a waste of time and can't be seen in any positive light.

 

^ What he said, except...

 

Even if Jericho isn't added to the scramble match (hard to tell right now, they could and maybe should delay the Michaels return for a month) he's still being built up as the #1 heel on the show (JBL is clearly temporary) and absolutely needs to be kept strong for the eventual blowoff with Michaels and given a justification for feeling he deserves a title match.

 

It was a good finish that got over both men. Jericho got a cheap, opportunistic victory over the champion. Punk went toe to toe the entire match and we were left with the feeling that he could have just as easily have won. Jericho is the guy who's been destroying Shawn Michaels at every turn and Punk looked great against him. He looked strong. This match did more for Punk than all of the non-finish matches and segments that ended up with him on the mat at the hands of Kane/Batista/JBL.

 

And Rey was getting squashed and pinned clean in non-title matches by Khali and Mark Henry. How is this anything like that? Even with the Batista/Kane stuff he would end up on the mat, but he would never actually get pinned. Rey would kill for the booking of CM Punk so far.

[Golgo 13 0]

1. It's the assumption that Jericho worms his way into the match.

2. I personally don't think they'll be going back to Jericho/Michaels at Unforgiven.

3. Punk was protected somewhat. I agree with the sentiment, I'm tired of guys jobbing in their hometowns, much less the champion, but it's not like Punk took the pin entirely clean.

[PILLS! PILLS! PILLS! 0]

1. It's the assumption that Jericho worms his way into the match.

2. I personally don't think they'll be going back to Jericho/Michaels at Unforgiven.

3. Punk was protected somewhat. I agree with the sentiment, I'm tired of guys jobbing in their hometowns, much less the champion, but it's not like Punk took the pin entirely clean.

 

Everything this man said.

[mfn 0]

man that sucks. i really want the jericho hbk blow off at unforgven seeing how i'm going to be at the show.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Who cares? At this point I care more about what they do with Jericho than I do Punk... a bad sign for their title, yes, but oh well.

[goldengreek 0]

Was at the show tonight . I had great seats !! I was the asshole waving the Greek flag all night. I DVR'ed Raw and saw just a bit of it and saw myself and friends on the TV most of the show. Kind of a dissapointment tonight with the obvious one being Punk Jobbing in his hometown return as the champ. That stunned and silenced the crowd. There was a dark match after Raw went off the air and Punk defended the title over JBL. He then spent a good 5-10 minutes talking on the mic and later hi - fiving and talking to alot of fans. They cheated us of the opening pyro cause of the Jericho segment.

 

Other than Punk the loudest pop was for 3 players from the Cubs that were shown. That followed a loud "Cubs suck " chant by the White Sox fans which induced a "lets go cubbies "chant"

Gotta admit that unfortunately the sox fans were louder ( cub fan here ).

 

Dank matches : - just walked in on some fat Oriental dude going over someone else . Didnt catch the names, but the Oriental got a huge pop -- he looked like a oriental version of Terry Gordy. Then Regal beat up a local jobber.

 

I really did "get" the matches tonight: Batista - Burchill ? Cena in a handicapp match with Priceless?? Jamie Noble - JBL ?? WTF ??

[bob_barron 0]

Who cares? At this point I care more about what they do with Jericho than I do Punk... a bad sign for their title, yes, but oh well.

 

They jobbed the champion in his hometown, that's totally something to care about. It devalues the title, makes Punk look bad and also hurts a market where WWE does very well.

 

This should've been Punk's triumphant homecoming, he's fought off all these challengers and now he gets to come home as champion. Instead he jobs in a meaningless match

[bob_barron 0]

just walked in on some fat Oriental dude going over someone else . Didnt catch the names, but the Oriental got a huge pop -- he looked like a oriental version of Terry Gordy

 

That was Takeshi Morishima, he's a former ROH champion, and a big name in Japan

[Precious Roy 0]

and also hurts a market where WWE does very well.

 

[goldengreek 0]

Who cares? At this point I care more about what they do with Jericho than I do Punk... a bad sign for their title, yes, but oh well.

 

They jobbed the champion in his hometown, that's totally something to care about. It devalues the title, makes Punk look bad and also hurts a market where WWE does very well.

 

This should've been Punk's triumphant homecoming, he's fought off all these challengers and now he gets to come home as champion. Instead he jobs in a meaningless match

 

 

Agreed. I was assumming there was going to be an HBK run in or at least a DQ with Cade. There were alot of pissed off fans leaving the arena although Punk did a great job of pumping them up a bit after his dark match with JBL.

[bob_barron 0]

and also hurts a market where WWE does very well.

 

 

While it's not like they killed Chicago, sending a crowd home pissed off is not good business.

[goldengreek 0]

Was Raw as bad on TV as it was live ?

[goldengreek 0]

Your sarcasm would be justified if CM Punk was actually a big deal.

 

Oh, no, I'm with you. Punk and even Triple H are getting buried as champions. Hell, neither mainevented last night and neither have even been the main focus on their shows the past month. They're being set up to fail, I tell you.

 

You have me all wrong man, I don't care about Punk. He's not getting buried and I wouldn't care if he was. I just said he's not important because A. A lot of people really don't care about him that much. And B. His reign is like Big Shows was when he was feuding with Bossman. Overshadowed by more entertaining things.

 

 

And look at the pop Cena got...Wrestling fans are so fucking fickle it makes me sick.

 

 

He go a nice intial pop when he came out , but the crowd shit on him with " cena sux and you cant wrestle chants throught the match"

 

Batista was WAAAAAY more over than Cena

[Brett Favre 0]

Cena can't wrestle? Didn't someone say Chicago has the smart fans?

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

I watched Raw just now (West Coast and all). I saw a small group of fans in the front row pop for Jericho's win over Punk. I don't think EVERYONE was that heartbroken.

 

Now I already said it devalues the title with the "bad sign" remark, but my point is that the booking lately has caused me to not care as much about CM Punk as they have caused me to care about Chris Jericho. Jericho's so hot right now as a heel that you almost feel like he should have just steamrolled over Punk instead of winning in the fashion he did.

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

Not to mention this Unforgiven match, isn't that going to devalue the title since you can be sure to see at least TWO title changes?

[mfn 0]

then i hope they at least setup a jericho/punk fued for the ppv, then have jericho win so he can go to defend against shawn or something.

[Enigma 0]

and also hurts a market where WWE does very well.

 

 

While it's not like they killed Chicago, sending a crowd home pissed off is not good business.

Why do you think they had Punk beat JBL in a title match after the show?

[Black Lushus 0]

And Rey was getting squashed and pinned clean in non-title matches by Khali and Mark Henry. How is this anything like that? Even with the Batista/Kane stuff he would end up on the mat, but he would never actually get pinned. Rey would kill for the booking of CM Punk so far.

 

Other than beating JBL, he ends pretty much every show on his back...how is that not like Rey Mysterio again?

[JPopStarKami 0]

And Rey was getting squashed and pinned clean in non-title matches by Khali and Mark Henry. How is this anything like that? Even with the Batista/Kane stuff he would end up on the mat, but he would never actually get pinned. Rey would kill for the booking of CM Punk so far.

 

Other than beating JBL, he ends pretty much every show on his back...how is that not like Rey Mysterio again?

 

Because he wins his matches. Well...he's won most. I can only think of two in which he's actually been pinned: The handicap match (odds against him, obviously), and tonight, which was an 'iffy' finish at best.

 

Also, they let him win a dark match for the benefit of his home town, so you can't say WWE doesn't care about their champ. Losing to Jericho on TV allows him to look like the 'face in peril'. Is he gonna lose his belt? The odds are really against him. But if WWE books him to win this one it could give him the final bit of credibility he needs. I'd rather they not take the belt off him in a multi-man match like this.

[Black Lushus 0]

I don't see the difference really, but I guess that's just me and we'll leave it at that.

 

 

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

But did Jericho really need to beat the World Champ in front of his hometown crowd? It's not like Jericho is in the Scramble match. Both needed to be kept looking strong, but Punk could have used the clean win more.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Slow day in history?

 

They 24/7 commercials showcase segments that are actually on the channel at the time instead of weekly history blurbs that aren't even on the channel like they used to do. I really love this added push for people to order 24/7, it's really quite the great service.

 

Why were people still asking what D'Lo did to earn a title shot? They immediately rescinded the "title defense" comment from Cole when Lawler called him an idiot and Cole apologized for being too "into the moment".

 

The Unforgiven match is confusing as they've said both "the match can have multiple title changes" and "the end of the match signifies the official champion". Hopefully, like people have assumed but with Adamle you never know what he's supposed to be saying, the deal is nothing counts until the end.

[rezinda 0]

Jericho & Michaels won't happen at Unforgiven. That feud is so hot right now they would've immediately announced the match and started building to it. Jericho is definately getting in that title match. I didn't see Raw so i'm not sure what this match stipulation is, but looks like it could turn into an elimination chamber

[BruteSquad_BRODY 0]

*slaps head*