With Payback in the rearview mirror, there’s plenty to keep WWE going as it starts the move towards MITB. What will Ryback do now that he has lost yet another high profile PPV match? How will Y2J handle unofficially losing the BITW mantle? Is it possible for him and Punk to wrestle a bad match? Is it possible for Punk not to have hair/facial hair that doesn’t look awesome? Will Kaitlyn attack more referees now that she blew the chance to keep the Divas title? Is there anyone better at selling then Ziggler? Did a double turn actually occur during the WHC match?
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As The World Turns: Before Payback speculation surrounded a possible Punk/Jericho double turn, but WWE made the interesting decision of focusing on teasing a possible Ziggler/Del Rio one instead. Dolph sells the best of perhaps anyone in the industry, but he was on another level against Del Rio as he had the crowd wondering if he was legitimately hurt or just selling extremely well. The crowd was blatantly pro-Dolph and his courageous effort only reinforced that. While the crowd kept booing ADR as he continually targeted Ziggler’s head, they did cheer loudly when he got the pin and the WHC. After the match it would’ve been premature to label it a double turn, but not so much after ADR’s show opening promo where he reverted to his heelish ways.
Punk: Did you notice there was something missing these past two months in WWE? Maybe you couldn’t quite figure out what exactly it was, but you felt like there was a hole in the company’s programming. That missing part was THE BEST IN THE WORLD CM Punk. The match quality immediately goes up and we obviously get better mic work. It was a given that Punk would be greeted as a face in his hometown, but it appears that he’ll continue that way given that he interrupted Alberto and challenged him to a match. As further evidence to support that theory, he’s told Heyman that he’s not his ‘client’ but his ‘friend’ as well as telling him not to be ringside for anymore of his matches. One interesting bit that might have escaped notice is when Punk was talking to Del Rio about his match with Y2J was that he ‘stole the show with Chris Jericho’. Intriguing that he said ‘with’…
Mark Henry: After a few cryptic tweets strongly suggesting he was retiring, Henry comes out to make an announcement to that effect after Cena is done speaking (more on that later). He’s tearful talking about all that he’s accomplished in his career and family. Cena comes back in the ring to raise Henry’s hand, but Henry turns that into a WSS. That was absolutely brilliant as it was a flawless performance and had everyone fooled. I’ll admit I bought into it and was already to type a short bit about all his accolades and career highlights. Instead the Hall of Pain is still open and we even got a ‘Sexual Chocolate’ chant.
BONUS: Brock Lesnar returning after Punk is finished with Del Rio and F5ing him to set up a future feud? Yes please!
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Did You Know?: Did you know that a water molecule contains one hydrogen and two oxygen atoms? That The Great Pyramid at Giza is the only surviving Wonder of The World? That Robert Morris was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence? That Sam Crawford is the all time MLB leader in triples with 309? These are all much more interesting facts to know then anything WWE puts up in its lame ‘Did You Know’ mini-segments.
RVD: Well it’s not just rumors anymore, but Rob Van Dam is coming back to the WWE at the MITB PPV. Plus, it’ll happen in Philadelphia of all places. Right off, it would seem he’ll be in a MITB match given that he won it at Mania in 2006. However, this is yet another star of the past come back to the company and that can’t be good. RVD will put on some good matched and bring some excitement, but it’s still endemic of WWE not giving enough time to the younger guys. This could be a short term return, he could become a Paul Heyman Guy again or worst of all, actually win MITB instead of someone who could really use it, such as Cody Rhodes or Wade Barrett.
Broken Record: Cena doing a promo the night after he ‘magically’ retains the WWE Title? Perish the thought! Complaining about a John Cena promo is a favored pastime of many in ‘the Universe’ and this latest one contains everything they’ve come to hate. Cena talks about the section of people that hate him and how he appreciates their honesty as well those how have stood by him through the tough times, blah blah blah. It’s not just the what he’s saying, but this is more or less the same script we’ve come to expect from a typical Cena promo. At least this segment wasn’t a total waste due to Mark Henry’s ‘speech’.
