RAW Retort – An interesting Monday night

Some might think that the Punk and Heyman storyline needs to be move ahead, but I liked that this week had tension without anything more being answered. The WWE needs to stretch things out a bit because Punk won’t be facing Brock until SummerSlam, and so Punk, Heyman and Axel need to work back and forth a bit before then.

I loved how Axel stepped up and took over the match after Punk said he’d handle it all. The tension between Punk and Heyman, between Punk and Axel, and the way Heyman acted like he had no hold over Axel, and Axel acted oblivious to it all. Axel was like a golden retriever bouncing around the ring, trying to do everything for everyone, even though you know there’s serious heel tendencies right under the surface. The tension in this whole storyline was a lovely part of this episode of RAW, a high point in an otherwise lower and stranger episode.

I’m known for abusing ADR at every turn, and honestly, I’ve never written anything that I wouldn’t say directly to the man’s face, because his character and his ring work has been greatly sub-par during almost his entire time in the WWE.

He’s had a few shining moments, but as a whole ADR has not lived up to what a WWE Superstar should be, and absolutely not what a WWE WHC should be! That Cena beat ADR without any real interference shows me that the WWE doesn’t believe in him as much as they have tried to appear.

I honestly don’t even know why he’s in the main event, never mind being Champ, but obviously they must have some plan of some sort. Hopefully it involves getting the strap off ADR at MITB and onto someone actually deserving of the belt.

Alberto Del Rio does not deserve to hold ant championship

All that being said, ADR hit a lovely bridging German suplex in his match with Cena. Just when I think ADR doesn’t have anything to offer the WWE, he does something like that. The problem is that he’s not able, or maybe not willing, to show that he’s capable of really holding his own in the WWE. I don’t know why ADR won’t show that he’s capable of doing more than phoning it in week in and week out, but he’s proven that he can’t, or won’t, almost his whole time in the WWE.

Some might say that this was a poor episode of RAW, but it did have a solid flow, and not every episode can be the best episode ever.

That the WWE has given us so many really solid episodes of RAW this spring and summer should be celebrated. They’ve made both RAW and Smackdown more interesting than it usually is this time of year, and making pro wrestling back into something worth watching year round, not just during the Road To WrestleMania, as it has been too many years recently.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think the WWE had some competition pushing them to be better again, the way WCW, and even ECW did during the Monday Night War. We all know TNA and ROH are not big enough to compete with the WWE yet, so this is the WWE doing it on their own, and because of that, I have to say – Bravo WWE!