After a one-week hiatus, welcome back to my weekly (ish) look at Raw! This one came off a not-great-but-interesting-and-somewhat-fresh Summerslam, and was broadcast from CM Punk’s hometown of Chicago!

Tender Cuts (The tasty parts)

Booking Punk to wrestle Jericho in his hometown
Punk gained a good deal of momentum at Summerslam, and given Jericho’s current white-hot heat, this was a great choice of match-up to give the champion an extra jolt.

It should be noted that the bout itself was impressive. Punk’s unique counters continue to be a talking point. When he broke out his back-breaker variant, Welcome to Chicago, it resulted in a believable near fall. Those last few minutes were very exciting, and both guys should be commended.

Authenticity of Shawn Michaels/Chris Jericho
I officially can be regarded as a crusty ol’ broken record, but the realism of this feud cannot be understated. Jericho’s continual, twisted justification of his own agenda, and disdain for Michael’s, continues to play with reality and storylines.

Although much has already been made of the faux outrage, that WWE wrestlers and staff have shown Jericho, when what he did was clearly unintentional, this unfocused anger plays well into this storyline- one that defies certain wrestling conventions, and reflects the complications offered in real life. It’s still going strong.

Chewy Bits (Intriguing, and with potential, but not quite sure…)

Replaying the Entire Shawn/Jericho confrontation
Normally I’d completely oppose the use of a replay in such detail, so soon. But this one was somewhat different. No one bought the PPV for this segment, but it was the most effective of the show. Thus, it was a good calling-card and lead in to the show. However, they still could have cut it down somewhat.

Insistence on Screwing Home-town fans
Did Jericho really benefit that much from winning a non-title match? I don’t think Punk was particularly de-railed through losing this, but the momentum he would have gained had he won, could have been incredible.

Home-town fans are always sent home with a frown by Vinnie though.

Kane
Kane’s promo was rather good- and the whole Rey mask-in-the-bag thing is intriguing (if silly… Kane may have had only one when he was a burns victim like Edge, but Rey has millions of the things. Though Kane could start stealing them all, one by one…), but it’s hard to get excited for this angle, when Batista gets involved. Now, Big Baps has been fantastic of late- but a Kane/Dave rivalry just induces sleep for me…

Scraps & Crap ( The stuff that was particularly bad)Just when I thought It was safe to flush the toilet… Mr Mike Adamle made this announcement. He did so poorly indeed ,and for a moment I panicked, soiling myself, as I feared the World title would be swapped around several times, like Chyna in a Hardcore invitational.

World title becomes a comedy belt

And this could indeed be what happens (though I doubt it). Terrible concept for a match. And it will feature two guys who don’t deserve shots. Why on earth is JBL included? Didn’t he lose cleanly at the PPV? I guess squashing Jamie Noble goes a long way in 2008! ~

They may produce something entertaining, but it’s rather silly, could be seriously damaging, and has a stench of TNA about it. This one could be irreparably bad. Amazingly retarded really.

The Spectre of Undertaker looms large
Chris Jericho’s accidental punch to the face of HBK’s wife Rebecca was described as “shocking” and historically “controversial”. No doubt whatsoever, as I’ve backed this angle all the way - it was both these things. But it was undermined because The Undertaker burned Edge alive after chokeslamming him through the canvas.

You tell me that does not sound completely and utterly ridiculous. Any attempt to take anything seriously on this show was undermined by the frivolous attitude with which the announcers have exhibited towards one superstar attempting to murder another one (and apparently succeeding).

“Parity” Booking in WWE land
Paul Burchill, Jamie Noble, and the bloody Tag Team Champions. All sacrificed. Why? Because their respective opponents all jobbed last night. So? They weren’t harmed- they jobbed to stars. These guys however, were slaughtered. In the case of the Tag team champions, that’s particularly narrow-minded, and short-sighted.

Overall?
It had it’s ups and downs. Almost everything involving Chris Jericho was great. However, there were a bunch of squashes, and some hair-pullingly infuriating decisions. It was nice to see the Champion get a main event, but it was tinged with the haphazard hand of ineffective creative as usual, which is seemingly determined to offer us “promising” and “interesting” rather than “excellent” and “dazzling”.

Thumbs pointing slightly to the ground for this one.

Thanks for taking the time to check this out. I welcome any and all feedback and I can be contacted at www.myspace.com/michaelwrestlingetc or simply by emailing me at michael@wwepreview.com I look forward to hearing from you, and will be back soon!