4 Ups & 7 Downs From WWE Raw (6 Jul - Results & Review)

2. Chicago Magic

WWE Raw CM Punk Chicago
WWE

Two years ago, CM Punk appeared as the rolling doors of the Allstate Arena opened, bloodied, and carried into the arena by Drew McIntyre in the midst of their vicious feud.

Monday night, Punk once again was revealed as those doors opened, but this time he was the conquering hero, returning to WWE for the first time in nearly three months to challenge Sami Zayn for the Undisputed WWE Championship as a replacement for Cody Rhodes.

Punk and Zayn unsurprisingly had an excellent match, countering and stealing each other’s moves and battling through this impromptu world title fight. Sami repeatedly blocked Punk’s bulldog attempts and hit two Go-to-Sleeps of his own, to no avail. Punk managed to counter a Helluva Kick with an Exploder, then “dodged” (the one botch) a Zayn Helluva, hit his own, and finished Sami with a GTS.

Fantastic piece of booking here, delivering the cliché Punk return in Chicago but making it a truly satisfying piece of booking.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.