6 Ups & 4 Downs For WWE Raw (28 July - Results & Review)

3. Punk Fires Up

After last week’s muted promo “battle” between Gunther and CM Punk (which wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea), everyone was waiting to see how they would course-correct on the go-home Raw.

Sure enough, Gunther was there gloating about his “clear victory” from last week, when he made the Voice of the Voiceless speechless (good line). This drew out Punk, who tried to square his lack of a comeback last week with him realizing he didn’t just want the World Heavyweight Championship – he needed it.

Punk then launched into a “I need it like I need air in my lungs” speech, but he continued to fire up, talking about addiction and how wrestling is his vice, so he needs that title to validate those chanting his name. He talked about earning the right to call himself the best in the world.

That’s when Gunther tried to cut him off, only for Punk to put his hand over the mic and “little bro” him by saying the champ isn’t on his level, which was a great grizzled Punk move. At that point, all Gunther could do was fume as Punk left.

In a perfect world, these two would have had more of a back-and-forth volley, or a real exchange, but this closing argument was much stronger than last week, where Punk seemed more subdued and vulnerable. Here, he was shouting down an overconfident Gunther.

If Punk is up for it this weekend, they could surprise some people with their match. The build hasn’t been the best, but the fans were lapping this up, and the emotions were running high, so that’s about as good a closing argument as we were going to get Monday night.