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Thanks for spending the money to see tonight's show and sitting through the tournament, Green Bay. Your reward? NO FINAL!
Final segment was unexpected, but I'm left with a very bad taste in my mouth.
No final? Postponed? Frigging seriously?
I don't see the hardcore fan accepting a sappy final angle with more character swerves (Vince "fired", HHH "now in charge", etc.) as something that causes them to HAVE to see what happens next week. I think RAW rating next week is going to fall, because I'm pretty sure a lot of people feel like tonight's show was a major letdown. The big final angle didn't make up for the lack of a tournament final and it certainly didn't measure up to all the buzz and anticipation that WWE had built up over the last several weeks, and especially built up from last night.
One last comment on the angle. It was actually GREAT to see an angle like this, some sort of "family feud" happen without one or more of the family members overacting and screaming and yelling YOUUUUUUU'RRRRRRRRRE FIRRRRRRRRRRRED or something like that. If this was 5 years ago we'd have had Vince yelling, Stephanie screeching, Shane dancing and throwing fists around, Linda messing up a bump from Kane and HHH probably swinging a sledgehammer.
Then again, we'd have also had Jim Ross calling it all, so maybe it would have been a fair trade.
Lost in all this, to me, was Cena delivering yet another great promo. He's been ON lately in a big way. This after his best-ever wrestling match last night to boot. Cena pretty much also gave TNA the biggest acknowledgment they have ever (and likely will ever, until WWE buys their tape library for a song) had on WWE television. That actually made me gasp.
*****
Agent D:
I liked this show. I didn't necessarily love it, but I thought it was a smart, measured way to come out of last night's pay-per-view. I disagree with the idea that WWE dropped the ball tonight for not going all-out, because I think that loses sight of pacing.
The build-up to Money in the Bank with Punk happened so fast; everything happened in the span of just a month, and was really in high gear for just 3 weeks. At some point you have to tap the brake pedal and slow things down, or else you're going to burn the angle (and the audience) out. Go back to what Les Thatcher (and I think Richard Trionfo, too) said after the big live Impact special at the beginning of 2010... yeah, TNA threw a bunch of stuff at you at 200 MPH, but they left themselves with nothing to follow up on it. If you want something to be more than just a temporary blip on the radar, you have to pace it with some consideration.
WWE has captured people's interests, moreso than they've done in a long, long time. Like I kept said so many times about how unwise it would have been to immediately take the belt off Punk last night, it would have been foolish to give everything away up front tonight and say to all those new/returning viewers, "Okay folks, here's everything you wanted. See you again in another ten years!"
I think the complaints about there not being a final match in the championship tournament tonight are a case of looking too much into things. If this was something like a King of the Ring tournament that's promoted locally and on TV for weeks, then WWE would owe the fans a conclusion. But for a tourney that was only announced at the top of the show, it was fine - especially in the context of the Vince/Hunter angle at the end of the show. It would have been too much to try to shoehorn a satisfactory WWE Championship match and the ending angle all into that last segment/overrun (keep in mind that the commercial break following Truth/Mysterio ended at 10:54 PM Eastern).
Also, one of the best things about the Punk/Cena build was that it put so much renewed focus on how important the WWE title was. Why squander that? The "Vince, you're fired" angle would have completely overshadowed the new champion if the match would have taken place this week. I think they totally made the right call to hold off on that match for a week.
Matt Meola:
With an angle like last night's it is all about what is next. So if you are WWE you have two options. Give it away in the opening segment and hope people stay...or save it to the end and deal with two hours where your audience is largely waiting.
I thought WWE did a good job in making the two hours somewhat meaningful by putting the tournament out there instead of just completely meaningless matches.
However, RAW was all about the Vince-Cena confrontation as the next chapter of this Punk angle. I thought Cena was great in his promo. Just as Vince was about to retort, the Triple H surprise hit in an awesome moment. Great swerve with Triple H firing Vince. And you are left asking "what's next" ... tune in next week to find out.
Great stuff. Will Miz/Rey happen for the (interim) WWE Championship? Does John Cena get entered into the mix? Will Triple H do what Vince couldn't and bring back Punk?
I'm sitting back and enjoying this one.
*****
Brian Pickering:
Wow they blown it big time. Not having the Finals tonight. They lost any viewers they picked up over the Punk angle with this.
Just a very bad Raw to follow up what people are saying the best PPV of the year.
****
Duffman:
I see some people online crapping on the tournament tonight and I don't get why. I mean yes Punk is holding the WWE title but he walked out on the company, it would be stupid to not crown a new champion. If Punk really left there shouldn't be any video footage of him doing anything, he left so WWE did the right thing by moving on.
I don't understand why some people are so letdown by that. Unless it's because WWE didn't do what they wanted/hoped for so now everything is stupid.
