Raw discussion for July 25th 2011

[J.D]

What to expect

- Triple H laying down the rules as the new sheriff in town
- Miz vs Mysterio or the return of Punk with the belt
- Cena rematch build
- Alberto Del Rio MITB storyline

[Majin HoHo]

What might happen is Miz and Mysterio are wrestlng and Punk stops the match and Cena interferes so they will have a fatal four way at the next ppv.

[Adampro123]

I Fully expect Rey to beat miz and then ADR Cash in on Rey then we have ADR vs Cena at Summer Slam.

But if that happened i guess Rey would be in line for a title shot too and then you have the stuff with Punk. and i guess we will see where the triple H stuff goes if it goes at all.

But this raw is supposed to be the dawning of a new era and stuff right? so Zack Ryder SHOULD be on this show, and hopefully it's in a singles wrestling match in which he wins.

I's also like to see Drew back in some sort of way. Like to see Dolph with a new storyline, like to see Kofi with a new storyline, I hope bourne is back this week and his push just didn't die after MITB.

I'm sure i won't get a lot of that though, but it should be an interesting raw heading for SS because new feuds have to created to set up SS matches. i wonder if morrison will be back for SS to face truth.

[J.D]

I just want to see the US title and tag titles defended more and to become more prominent and to see new faces. For example have Ryder get an upset on Ziggler starting a US title feud which could go on for a while. Have McGillicutty and Otunga defend a few times as they aren't memorable then drop the title to the Uso's as they are a family team and could make the tag division exciting again if given half the chance.
As for the main event I think they are heading in the right direction with whatever they are doing at the moment, can't fault them on that.

It's irrelevant but I want to see the same stuff on SD. A lengthy IC title feud with Zeke vs DiBiase or Rhodes.

[Adampro123]

I don't know about lengthy beings jackson is the current champ and the sooner he drops it the better IMO. but I'd also love to see the same and just overall more storylines for the mid card.

[RyPrax]

I think you're setting yourself up for a lot of disappointment Adam. As far as I know Vince is still likely to be backstage. Hopefully Punk talking about Ryder at Comic-Con means we'll at least get that but I'm not confident about that either. I think it will be better than last week though, which IMO was a snoozefest.

[Adampro123]

- WWE announced this afternoon that Rey Mysterio vs. The Miz to crown a new WWE Champion will kick off tonight's RAW from Hampton, Virginia.

WWE is promising that a new champion will be crowned on tonight's show, the first under Triple H's rule.

Kicking off tonights show is interesting.

[Leonardo Lunchbox]

Miz better win this shit.

[J.D]

Whoever wins Del Rio will probably cash in anyway. But I see Mysterio winning as I can see ADR taking it off Mysterio, perhaps not even tomorrow they might have another 'Mexican' feud.
I'm not against Miz winning though, its common knowledge I am not a fan of the guy but I don't think it is a bad move at the moment.

[Rhymin' Greiman]

What might happen is Miz and Mysterio are wrestlng and Punk stops the match and Cena interferes so they will have a fatal four way at the next ppv.

Ha... I should have visited this thread before saying that in the Shoutbox.  Great minds....

[Adampro123]

Great Raw IMO.

Miz vs Rey was really good. but leaves me wondering where the miz (and Rey for that matter) will go from here.

Divas i skipped.

Ziggler over Bourne was pretty good. i liked his new catchphrase "Follow that" however i don't like his remake of his theme. he and bourne both looked good in this even though i wish it could have been longer. i feel bourne should have won to start a bourne vs ziggler feud setting up a SS match for the 2. now it seems neither have a direction which is what i was talking about saying i want mid card feuds we get 1 in morrison vs truth but the rest of the mid card there isn't much of a direction.

Triple H Stuff was good im glad JR is back i was hoping he would say Cole is fired from raw and is exclusively on SD now. but oh well looks like cole will be sticking with JR and King which i guess is better than king and cole at least. it's still not a MAJOr improvement though beings i feel we need a voice for the CM Punk generation or whatever you wanna call it. but like i said its better than what we had.

Triple H and Truth stuff just went on for too long though and dragged a bit but morrisons return was good, i was surprised he did as much risky stuff as he did his first night back.

Kofi vs ADR was a really good match. the issue again for me is where is the direction?

Zack Ryder in a match on Raw and he wins it was awesome. and even though it was short as shit the crowed still gave him a major pop and gave him a loud chant. hopefully this leads to a push for Ryder and hopefully a US title feud with Ziggler maybe?

Rey vs Cena was great. a bit botchy cena kind of seemed like a statue in there at times but it was still a great match IMO. i always wanted to see these 2 just go at it for the title. it was obvious Cena would win and i felt bad for Rey but it was still good.

When Punks old last ROH theme hit i instantly marked. then the interaction with Cena was great and he even got more of a pop when he put his WWE title up.

Speaking of the belts i wish we would have got a new WWE belt. which i think we may soon but i was hoping it was tonight.

Great raw though. my only issues really is the lack of direction for everyone but morrison/truth and Cena/Punk. also im sure rey shoudl be in line for a rematch for his title shot too.

But where do these guys go from here?
Ziggler
Del Rio
Kofi
Bourne
Ryder
Miz
Rey even if we get punk vs Cena
and we only have 2 more raws left.

Swagger and Riley have a match on superstars this week and im fine with that. swagger has started to bore me and i think he needs a new and improved self like we got with ziggler which i think wasn't needed. and Riley hasn't done anything impressive yet at all really. and i guess Drew is selling his injury since he fell off the stage with show and Henry? he'll probably be fired soon which is a shame he never should have got drafted to raw it's too stacked. the the tag champs MM and Otunga face Santino and Masters on Superstars this week so i guess we won't be getting any tag team stuff anytime soon unless it's on SD.

with all that said i very much enjoyed raw. soo much better than last weeks.

[RyPrax]

Fantastic RAW.

Both title matches were great. I think I liked Cena/Rey a little more than Rey/Miz but both were great. Cena's been on the money lately and he pulled off some nice moves with Rey. I have a feeling this is kind of a sendoff for Rey, maybe his last title shot. I don't know what they're planning for Summerslam but it seems easiest to do ADR vs. Rey. Either way, they pulled off two great matches that had nothing to do with feuds or people being angry at each other, just the title.

And then Punk came out to Cult of Personality and I lost my marbles. Epic return. Maybe a bit too early but I guess if they're going to do it at Summerslam it makes sense to have him return now, and at least they left it open ended by him not saying anything.

Triple H's promo was a little long and I wished he could have dealt with a couple more things. First off JR returning was great as was the Truth promo and all the Cole stuff, but i felt it could have been a little shorter. I really wish he would have done something about the Anon GM. The frigging computer is still out there, doesn't make any sense to me that the anon gm wouldn't say anything about the new COO. Whatever.

Ryder vs. Cole was a nice little treat, but we'll see where Ryder goes from here.

Dolph vs. Bourne was a nice little match. I think the right choice was made in having Dolph win, he needed it more having missed the PPV and needs to reinforce himself as champion. I didn't like the beginning of his remixed song but the instrumental part was better.

ADR vs. Kofi was good too. Again the right person one so ADR doesn't look too weak with all the false cash-ins.

Obviously things are still kind of in Limbo after everything that's happened. So we'll give them another week to get their hens in order but this was a great Raw nonetheless, love the new "wrestling" direction they're taking and I hope it continues.

[J.D]

Awesome ending, Punk's ring presence is insane
Bit repetitive seeing Cena win the title again but it is probably the best thing to happen at the moment as I just want more Punk and I don't want to see Del Rio or the Miz at the moment because they should play on their strength which is Punk and Punk HAS to go over Cena again. Cena has had his reboot winning the title but they have to give Punk the edge again as to build this new star he has to be the one person Cena can't stop (every wrestler has one.) Besides if someone doesn't take the reigns soon every feud will be Cena vs some heel and that will get boring.
Anyway Punk= the biggest name in wrestling at this moment

Apart from that was good to see Morrison back, the midcard hasn't been the same without him.
Triple H ripping R-Truth was actually hilarious.
The show seemed to get shit when the Cole stuff happened but it led to seeing Ryder on TV which is good and I suppose the return of JR is pretty cool.
I can see what Miz means with his tweet as JR coming back and Cena winning the title isn't exactly new but this Cena/Punk feud is fresh and Miz just has to deal with the fact that Punk is the heel people want to see and not him (which is reasonable as Punk's presence, in ring talent, promo's and gimmick triple The Miz's skill.)

EDIT: Oh and why hasn't anyone commented on the hilarity of the picture posted in this thread yet?

[Adampro123]

Oh you mean the one you posted that only you find funny?

[chappers]

Really good RAW, glad Punk has finally changed his music, the one thing that was holding him back I thought. Going to purchase his shirt when it goes up on wwe euro shop but glad they are releasing it as its pretty cool and I just love the back of it .

I actually enjoyed the Triple H stuff, its good that he has a new fresh character and I can see many great stories coming out of this, hopefully a heel turn will happen fairly soon (which could be very likely if this Punk story continues). I found Michael Cole's derogatory remarks towards JR hilarious lol, I really want him to come off commentary and have more of an on screen presence, it should have happened as soon as that Lawler feud was over. Thought JR did a good job on commentary, glad he's back. R-Truth stuff was good, Triple H actually made me legitimately laugh rather then the sort of cringeworthy laugh i usually bust out when he tries to say something funny.

Did anyone else notice the divas kind of were more raunchy then they normally were, both in the match and in the promo earlier in the night with the bellas, hopefully this will make the division somewhat more bearable.

Good that Ryder got on TV although I didn't get why they built up Cole's in ring gear as if he was going to come out something ridiculous when he wore triple h's gear :s. That joke backfired pretty fast. Match was pointless as well, Ryder may have got a match but I swear he barely got a reaction. Bourne and Ziggler was a nice little match, growing to like Bourne some more, liked Zigglers new music as well, seemed we got a lot of new entrance music on this raw.

The only thing I didn't really like was Rey's first WWE championship run ending on the same night he bloody got it, bad booking in my opinion having two championship matches, Cena didn't need the championship in my opinion. Both title matches were really good though so that made up for it and I knew Cena would win so it didn't really upset me. I was glad the Miz didn't win though, to be honest, I found his promo very weak on this RAW, it started really good but he seemed to overkill it. Having not watched the show for a month, and the build of Punk and some other guys I've realized, he shouldn't be in the WWE title scene. Maybe in a year or 2, but right now I think he really needs to refine his skills some more. He seems to get a lot of backing as well, with Cole constantly bragging about him. In ring he's known to be pretty weak, his image needs working on and his promos have too much energy to a point of them coming across as corny. If he continues the way he works with his promos I just can't picture him pulling off a really heated feud at all. He has the tools of the trade, but right now, he needs to adjust a few things.