WWE RAW: Top three superstars of the show (17/06/13)

The RAW after Payback was in more ways than one, better than the RAW after Wrestlemania this year. It had it’s share of shocking returns, amazing matches and awesome angles setting up for the next pay-per-view Money in the Bank. Instead of leaving everything for later, the buildup for MITB is already underway and kudos to the WWE for that. This week, most superstars made an impact on the show, highlighting the excellent work by the creative team with each superstar getting their share of the spotlight. But as always, there were some who performed better than the others. Here’s my pick of the top 3 :

Christian

Christian

The stars couldn’t have aligned better with ‘Captain Charisma’ returning after more than a year of being out of action, due to a shoulder injury. This was quite the surprise, given how there has been no buzz around Christian’s return. He looked to be in great shape and as always, gave it all in the ring with his fast-paced counters and signature moves. Wade Barrett was expecting a match with Curtis Axel, when Vickie Guerrero announced the last minute replacement to be Christian. Wade Barrett didn’t like the surprise too much I suppose, because he lost his match in no time.

CM Punk

CM Punk

Every wrestling fan would agree that Punk was missed on WWE TV since WM 29 after his epic match with ‘Taker, where he stole the show, yet again, both with the build and the match itself. If there were any sceptics doubting his importance, they were given an emphatic answer by Chicago’s favourite wrestling son. Punk took offence to the fact that Alberto Del Rio claimed to be the best, and that got Punk riled up enough to challenge him to a match. With differences creeping in between Punk & Paul Heyman, Punk chose to fight the match alone, which seemed to have been taken kindly by Paul Heyman. The match itself was quite good and solidified the happenings at Payback, where Del Rio was heelish throughout the match and Punk was the resident baby face. His night was accentuated by an F-5 from Brock Lesnar, who just walked in and attacked Punk to set up a meeting between them in the near future.

Mark Henry

Mark Henry

The World’s Strongest Man showed yet again that he is a man of many a talent. Apart from breaking records and people’s bones with his sheer power, Henry flexed his histrionic muscles to the max last night and delivered a performance so believable, he should be nicknamed ‘World’s strongest actor’.

Henry started talking about his retirement, and everyone bought into it. He was visibly emotional and effectively used humour to convey his message and in a heartfelt manner, praised John Cena and the WWE. He wasn’t the only one emotional though as his message seemed to have struck a chord with people as the audience started various chants in tribute to him. When the speech culminated in the attack on Cena, the audience was stunned and entertained at the same time. He punctuated his attack by growling in Cena’s face that ‘I have a lot of gas left in the tank’ and later challenged him to a match at Money in the Bank for the WWE title (which he has never held!).