Positively Raw 06.28.11: Season Finale

Farewell…

That’s right, this is the last installment of the column for at least the foreseeable future. After taking last week off to go away and celebrate my birthday, I returned to find a job offer put in front of me. I accepted the position and thus will no longer have the time every week to commit to the column. As with all things that come to an end, I am saddened by this, but at the same time am excited to be entering a new chapter in my life.

For now, allow me to kick off this season finale by running down my top five moments from Raw since starting up the column last year:

5. Punk dresses himself in an armband

Of course, six months down the line, we know that not a great deal came to Punk as a result of joining the Nexus. Watching the clip back, you may notice (and may have spotted at the time) that Justin Gabriel hesitated in raising his arm in salute to Punk, which would foreshadow Gabriel’s and Slater’s soon-after leaving of the group. This was because their former leader Wade Barrett would be unceremoniously and literally booted from the Nexus by Punk…

Since then, Punk had a red-hot feud with Randy Orton, although Nexus proved to be of little help to the Straight Edge Superstar. He now finds himself rebounding nicely, with a title shot at Money in the Bank, amid rumours and claims of a near departure from the WWE.

4. The Rock Miz lays the Smackdown to Cena

I’m undecided over which spot I liked better in the run-up to the Cena/Miz Wrestlemania match. On the one hand there’s this:

The Miz may have cut a killer promo there, and using the People’s Elbow certainly raised more than just The Rock’s eyebrow, but I think the following week’s Miz appearance tops it for the sheer awesomeness of that disguise.

The Miz took it to Cena for weeks, using the fact that Cena was so obsessed with The Rock to his own advantage. It would only be post-Wrestlemania, once Cena had his future Wrestlemania match with The Rock secured that Cena would be able to capture the WWE Championship from the Awesome One.

3. Edge Retires

Watching this back still takes me aback. This was rather unexpected and completely real. WWE simply gave Edge some mike time, and let him speak from the heart.

2. The Miz cashes in

I’m a sucker for MITB cash-ins. I know we’ve had eight of them now, but I still find them very exciting. The Miz cashing in on Orton was no exception, especially since Randy still had some fight left in him, and it was a close one to call.

The Miz would then go on to have a pretty darn successful first title reign, winning the main event of Wrestlemania 27 in the process. Oh, and who could forget, demon Miz girl!?

1. An Electrifying Return

I’d resigned myself to the fact that Rocky was never, ever coming back. To be honest with you all I’d moved on, as Dwayne Johnson seemed perfectly happy doing the Hollywood thing. Then, something happened. Vince McMahon took to the stage on an otherwise ordinary episode of Raw in February to tell the world that Wrestlemania 27 needed a host, and that there was only one person for the job, and that said person would be revealed the next week. The next week then rolled around and speculation had reached fever pitch. Many were citing The Rock as a candidate, and many others were claiming that Justin Bieber would be given the honours. Finally, after plenty of hype from the announcers all night, we came back from the final commercial break to get the big reveal…

Watching that back now, seeing the lights in the arena black out, the electrical effects displayed on the titantron, and finally hearing that world famous catchphrase blare out, I’m still getting goosebumps! I actually jumped out of my seat and started cheering at home! Rocky may still not have been around too much since his return from seven years of absence, but a little Rocky is way better than no Rocky at all. Plus, we have that guaran-damn-tee that The Great One will be wrestling at least one more match against John Cena next year at Wrestlemania 28.

Bonus – Because I was there live and it always cracks me up!

The End is Here…

1. Big Show crashes down!

On this special Raw Roulette show, Alberto Del Rio and The Big Show were set to face off once again. Booker allowed the lovely Maryse to spin the wheel, and while it was twirling away, the diva was chatting up the wealthy superstar. Unfortunately for both Maryse and Del Rio, the wheel stopped on the Cage option, thus Maryse was deemed a bad luck charm by Del Rio, and the Mexican aristocrat was forced to face Show in the confines of a steel cage.

The match was of the standard cage match affair you’d expect, only halfway through the proceedings Mark Henry wandered down to ringside. Once both Show and Del Rio were knocked down, Mark Henry would begin to make his move to attack The Big Show yet again. The World’s Strongest Man would rip the door right off of the cage, and take it with him as a weapon into the ring. Del Rio managed to escape through the hole where a door used to be, winning the match, and leaving Big Show all to Mark Henry. Henry would then wait for Big Show to get back up, and once the giant was on his feet, Henry charged with the door in hand, crushing Show against the wall of the cage, and causing it to collapse, with Big Show falling through the cage and out to the floor.

The Positive – I love the way that we’ve progressed very naturally from a Big Show/Del Rio feud to a Big Show/Mark Henry feud. I don’t recall these two big men ever having any proper kind of rivalry, and from what I’ve seen so far, this should really be quite a good clash of the titans type of encounter. Henry has dominated Show like nobody since Brock Lesnar, and the visual of Show being sent through the cage is one to behold, and to no doubt be used in video packages and highlight reels for years to come. As for Del Rio, he soon wised up to the gold-digging ways of Maryse, and will now move on to the Money in the Bank ladder match, leaving Big Show busy with the World’s Strongest Man.

2. Matches from the wheel

After last week’s viewer’s choice snafu that pitted Evan Bourne against Mason Ryan instead of Sin Cara, WWE decided to put things right this week by giving us all the match we wanted to see. Sin Cara took on Evan Bourne in what was decided by Booker T and his wheel of fortune to be a ‘No Countouts’ match. The two went back and forth with a quick and steady flow that spilled in and out of the ring. Sin Cara eventually picked up another victory after nailing his head-scissor finisher on Bourne.

Elsewhere, Rey Mysterio was backstage with Booker, and had himself a spin of the wheel. The wheel presented him with the ‘Tornado’ option, and as a result, Rey would team up with Alex Riley to take on The Miz and Jack Swagger in a tornado tag match, and it was revealed that these four men would all be competing in Money in the Bank. The face team of Rey and Riley would score the victory after another very fast paced, action packed match up.

The Positive – We love us a bit of good old fashion wrestling action. Both of these matches delivered and then some. One of the major positives coming out of the Bourne/Sin Cara match was that we weren’t robbed of a proper finish as many predicted going into Raw. In fact we actually got a match of decent length that looked as if it could have gone either way. I think WWE may have found their ideal opponent for the Mexican Luchador.

As for the tag team affair, these four men all brought it on Raw, and the energy throughout the match was incredible. The crowd was very much into it, and strangely there seemed to be rather a few Miz fans in the house. This match helped to preview the upcoming MITB PPV and the Raw MITB match that will take place on the show. If these four men can put on action like that, I look forward to seeing what they can do in a ladder match when accompanied by the other four participants: Evan Bourne, Alberto Del Rio, R-Truth, and Kofi Kingston.

3. Punk punks Vince and the WWE

To start the show, we got an appearance from HBK Shawn Michaels to plug his new show on the Outdoors Channel. Shawn was promptly interrupted by CM Punk and his tag-champ followers, who claimed that HBK was in many ways similar to Punk. Punk then went on to complain that the fans shouldn’t be cheering someone who is retired and should instead be begging the future of the WWE to stay. A dose of sweet-chin music to David Otunga later, and the Raw GM chimed in to put CM Punk in a match there and then. The wheel stopped in ‘Mystery Opponent’, and out came Kane. Kane would take it hard and heavy to Punk, but the Straight-Edge Superstar, who was now in full ‘What’ll they do, fire me?’ mode walked out claiming that he didn’t care about the win as he’s already number one contender and that he’s leaving.

The night’s main event pitted John Cena against R-Truth. The wheel was spun and revealed the contest to be a tables match. Cena and Truth went back and forth until CM Punk came on down to the ring wearing a Stone Cold T-Shirt. Punk began to bring some fight to the Champ, causing enough of a distraction to allow Truth to plough Cena right through a table set up in the corner of the ring. Punk then grabbed an mike and perched himself atop the ramp and began to rant about how Cena was an ass-kisser, and basically buried Vince, and everything WWE. He was eventually cut off from his tirade, as the mike went dead and after a few seconds the show didn’t even fade, but rather just cut to black.

The Positive – CM Punk was absolutely f***ing tremendous here, and I think I’d have to go back and add this final segment into my top 5 moments since covering the show with this column. Punk’s tirade covered every taboo going in WWE, from breaking the fourth wall, to claiming to be a Paul Heyman guy, to slagging off Triple H and Stephanie, to mentioning Brock Lesnar, to calling Cena the biggest ass-kisser since Hogan, to even claiming that The Rock was nothing more than an ass-kisser. Punk even managed to get in some shout-outs to New-Japan Pro-Wrestling and Ring of Honour, before saying ‘hi’ to Colt Cobana. The quick cut to end the show added to the realism of this piece that really felt like a complete shoot. The fact that Punk was wearing a Stone Cold shirt was also a hidden highlight of sort, as it can either be to signify a coming feud between Punk and Austin, or could just be because of Austin’s recent support of Punk on Twitter. Either way, this was a fantastic way to end the show, and had the crowd in a frenzy. Punk showed absolute attitude, and I’d like to thank him, and the WWE for giving me this final moment to discuss in my final column. If you missed it, look it up now!

Closing Comments

Well folks, that’s it. I’m riding off into the sunset. I’d like to thank Larry Csonka, Jeremy Thomas, and all the guys here at 411mania for allowing me the opportunity to spread the positive word. I’d also like to thank you, the readers for clicking the link and reading what I have to say every week. I’ve had an absolute blast, especially when writing Positively Wrestlemania 26 earlier this year as part of the 411 countdown to Wrestlemania series. I’ve been invited back to join in on columns such as Wrestler of the Week and Roundtables when I get the chance, so I’ll make sure to do that.

For now, in closing I’d just like to remind you all that wrestling, be it Raw, Smackdown, Impact, or any other promotion, is meant to be fun and not taken too seriously. Nobody’s ever going to enjoy every aspect of a show, as we’re all different. Instead of focussing too much on what you didn’t like, why not just think back on the parts that you did enjoy, and remember why you like to watch wrestling in the first place. You’ll feel much better for it, trust me.

Oh, and one last thing…. remember to Stay Postive!