WWE Raw Review 22/08/11 - Cena Beats Punk In SummerSlam Rematch
John Cena defeated CM Punk in a ten minute tv thriller to emerge as the number one contender to Alberto Del Rio's world title. The result of the match was determined by another Kevin Nash interference.
The Big News: John Cena defeated CM Punk in a ten minute tv thriller to emerge as the number one contender to Alberto Del Rio's world title. The result of the match was determined by another Kevin Nash interference. Nash had been sent home by Triple H earlier in the show but re-emerged after John Laurentis fed Hunter a lie about his friend being involved in a car accident. WWE champion Alberto Del Rio came out to the ring and the monitors replayed footage of his successful title defence from last week against Rey Mysterio who we learnt would be out for a few months owing to the post-match beat-down he suffered at the hands of the new Champion. Del Rio was presumably going to gloat about this turn of events but before he could get going he was interrupted by John Cena. After a cool stare down Cena basically told the new Champion that he was going to take away his title and hurt him in the process and that there was only one person in the company who could stand toe to toe with him and that man was CM Punk. This was a bit of a burial but at least Cena is a lot more fun being arrogant than he is telling jokes. Punk came out and wondered if this was a re-run as once again everyone was greeted to the familiar sight of John Cena requesting a title shot. Punk said that after beating Cena twice in a row in high pressured situations it was he who should be granted a rematch. He also reminded Cena that neither one of them could afford to trust Hunter and that if Cena had won at SummerSlam Nash would have gone after him just the same. The pair then argued back and forth about who was going to receive their rematch clause on Raw before Del Rio informed them both that he was taking the night off to celebrate his victory over Rey Mysterio. This brought out Triple H. He told Del Rio that he wouldn't be defending his title tonight but he also wouldn't be having the night off as he would be in action next. He then announced a blockbuster main event pitting Cena against Punk with the winner receiving a title shot at the Night of Champions PPV. Match: Alberto Del Rio defeated John Morrison via pinfall Fast paced bout. Del Rio targeted the throat before working over the arm only for Morrison to fire back with a dropkick and ground his opponent with a headlock. Tide turned again however when Morrison attempted a Asrai Moonsault off the outer ring apron, landing on his feet but failing to connect with Del Rio who capitalised by throwing a dazed Morrison back first into the security wall. Back and forth action back inside the ring with a finish that saw Del Rio throw Morrison into the ringposts after a failed starship pain attempt and then take his opponent to the ground with his cross arm bar submission for the tap out victory. The timing was a little off but this was an entertaining and engaging tussle throughout and the perfect match to continue the new champion's clean win streak. *** Match: Eve Torres defeats Nikki Bella via pinfall Bellas did the traditional heel double team spot at the start with Brie helping Nikki to weaken her rival behind the referees back. Eve came back though with a side supplex and the booty poppin moonsault before getting the victory with a neckbreaker. Brief and very paint by numbers but nothing terrible by any means. * Post-match Kelly Kelly took out Brie Bella with her horrible leg drop bulldog manoeuvre before Natalya and Beth Pheonix came out on the ramp like last week to greet the winners with mock applause. Shot of Kevin Nash walking backstage. Match: Alex Riley defeated Jack Swagger via pinfall Vickie Guerrero brought out Jack Swagger and announced him as her latest client as they both walked arm in arm to ringside. Riley was given no entrance and quite frankly looks nothing like a star when he isn't feuding with The Miz. The people who thought that he had the most potential out of the two must be out of their minds. Match was very short. Swagger took down Riley with a waistlock before Riley hit back with a spinebuster. At this point Dolph came down to ringside and began confronting Vickie about Swagger. Back inside the ring Swagger struck Riley down with a lariat before being distracted by Ziggler who had accidentally elbowed Vickie on the outside. Swagger came out to make sure she was okay before giving Dolph a push. Of course as soon as he returned to the ring he found himself prone to a roll up pin from Riley. ½ * Backstage Triple H was seen in the hallway talking with someone on his cell phone. I have to say that Hunter is a real pro at these fake conversation spots. After the commercial break the new COO made his way to the ring. He wanted to address the Kevin Nash situation and asked his friend to come out and join him. Nash obliged and the two men began discussing the events of Summerslam. Hunter said that he never sent the text message instructing Nash to take out Punk and Nash replied that while he respects his friends words, he doesn't respect CM Punk and is furious about the manner in which he was treated by the straight edge superstar the previous week. Hunter understands his frustration but says that Nash doesn't work on the show and so can't just go about challenging superstars from the roster. Hunter says that he can go and fight Punk somewhere away from the arena but for now he thinks it best that Nash leaves. Punk interrupted and parodied the game Cluedo as he questioned aloud who could have screwed him Nash, Hunter or Stephanie. For now though he says talk is cheap and whilst Nash might have got off lucky last week, this week he just wants to kick his ass. Punk went for Nash but was blocked by Hunter. Punk then got mad at Hunter and became strongly vocal about Hunter never liking him and always having a problem with him as champion. He called himself a habitual line crosser but Hunter said that he shouldn't cross the line with him or he'll leave him lying where he stands. Punk responded by playing with Hunter's tie and verbally emasculating his boss before Nash got involved with a forearm that took Punk to the ground. Hunter blocked the violence again and berated Nash as the two men walked up the ramp, leaving Punk smiling and tending to his lip in the middle of the ring with the crowd vibrantly chanting his name. The intensity between Punk and Triple H was off the charts in this very heated segment. Out near the parking lot Triple H told Kevin Nash that is not acceptable to put his hands on a WWE employee whilst Nash told him that him that his friend sure has changed since occupying his new position of power. WWE TAG TEAM TITLES MATCH: Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne defeated Michael McGullity and David Otunga to become the NEW tag team champions Basic but effective match with Otunga and McGullity using their muscle to wear the challengers down and Kofi and Bourne firing back with their high flying expertise. Finish saw Kofi connect with a kick to Otunga from the outside of the ring apron which left the big man vulnerable for Air Bourne and the pinfall that greeted us with a long overdue title change. ** Backstage Kofi and Bourne were conducting a celebratory interview before becoming involved in a champagne avalanche courtesy of a group of random babyfaces. This was a nice segment that at least took the time to make the title change mean something. Another backstage skit followed with John Laurenitis informing Triple H that Kevin Nash had been involved in a car accident. Hunter took off like a gullible fool with Laurenitis feigning ignorance. Santino Marrella came out but he hadn't gone far before he was attacked by Miz and Truth. Both men then got on the mic and agreed that they were involved in a company conspiracy as ever since Triple H took over they've been left on the backburner. They told the crowd however that from now on they're no longer going to sit around just waiting for opportunities, they're just going to take them. Afterwards Truth's music played and Truth did a hilarious parody of his old song in which he sang the chorus as You suck instead of the usual What's up? Both men were brilliant here in conveying their frustration and interacting with the crowd and the line between pantomime style humour and take notice intensity was perfectly toed. No 1 contender's Match for the WWE Title: John Cena defeated CM Punk via pinfall (MATCH OF THE NIGHT) Alberto Del Rio and John Laurenitis both sat near ringside to remind us that some sort of interference was imminent. Cena and Punk mat wrestled at the beginning trading headlocks and headscissors before standing apart to soak in the buzzing crowd. Punk teased Cena's pose for the five knuckle shuffle before Cena took him down and geared up for the move himself. He took too long however and Punk caught him off guard with a roll up. Nice psychology there. A series of near falls and escapes followed with Cena countering a GTS attempt into a STFU only for Punk to crawl to the ropes and connect with the GTS for a near fall. Punk then missed his Macho Man tribute elbow drop with Cena responding with a perfectly executed top rope legdrop of his own. Cena landed the attitude adjustment but Punk kicked out. Punk then attempted a crossbody but he was caught by Cena who hoisted him back up in the AA position before being taken down with another sneaky pinfall roll up attempt. Punk was just priming himself up for another GTS when Kevin Nash arrived on the ramp just long enough to distract Punk so that when he turned around he was struck by an FU for the pinfall. Those contrived finishes always suck but this was still a darn fine match that was a lot crisper and entertaining than their recent summerslam offering. *** 1/2 Post-match Alberto Del Rio gave Cena a convincing beat-down to remind the number one contender that the new Champion is a force to be reckoned with. He was held back by John Laurentitis and officials but managed to wriggle free to continue the assault as the show went off the air. Hopefully Cena will start showing some respect now in the build to their title match. VERDICT: This was a very impressive edition of Monday Night Raw. Alberto Del Rio got yet another clean victory and a vicious beat-down of John Cena to maintain his momentum as champion whilst Cena and Punk both verbally communicated their need for gold at the beginning of the show and physically highlighted their passion in the number one contender's match. Normally I would be against putting such a marquee match on free television but with the seeds being gradually planted for a Hunter/Punk match-up and Rock/Cena set in stone this is not such a great concern at the moment. As long as Punk and Cena are now booked to stay away from each other for a while they could indulge in another money-making clash in 2012. Meanwhile the Kevin Nash angle was smoothly incorporated into the world title storyline as he interfered in the main event and it was heavily suggested that both himself and Laurenitis are plotting against the COO of the company with perhaps Stephanie being the driving force behind it all. The power struggle storyline still all feels a little too cartoonish but this week's show was still instrumental in creating a layered main event picture. Punk feels Alberto Del Rio is being protected and wants to know who sent the crucial text message that effectively cost him his world title, John Cena is desperate to win back the gold as he feels that the champion is inferior to him, Del Rio himself sent a message to Cena that he can bite as well as he can bark and Triple H is feeling pressure from both his friend Kevin Nash, company man John Laurenitis, outspoken CM Punk and superstars like Truth and Miz who feel that his presence is pushing them out of the limelight. This week these intertwining confrontations felt a lot more vital and dramatically urgent than last week and instead of too many cooks spoiling the broth it now feels much more like a ticking time bomb with the action ready to explode at any minute. SUPERSTAR OF THE NIGHT: CM Punk You know you're onto something good when a man can come out on three separate occasions during a show and still arouse excitement and suspense amongst the crowd on each occasion. Punk was without doubt the heartbeat of this show convincing in his initial plea for a rematch clause, creating verbal fireworks with Triple H and working with John Cena to produce perhaps the best tv match of the year thus far. MOMENT OF THE NIGHT: Punk and Hunter going nose to nose in the middle of the ring. Hunter fuming, Punk lapping it up and the tension becoming increasingly palpable throughout.