Monday Night Raw -- June 30, 2008

Looking for my crack on the most recent RAW? Go to Monday Night Raw.

Ring of Honor is quite the item nowadays, eh? First, Samoa Joe wins the TNA title. Now, C.M. Punk wins the World Heavyweight Championship.

Maybe we'll see Nigel McGuinness win a strap from one of the big promotions sometime soon?

I was pretty pleased with last night's show. If you've read my previous cracks, you know I'm a huge mark for CM Punk. Going back to his ROH days, the guy puts on a solid match, he has great promo skills, a diffrent style, and he can work a crowd as a heel or as a face. You should YouTube some of his promos, like his Shoot on Airlines, Chris Hero, and the Country of Germany.

It was nice to see JR give us a little farewell address. I fully expected some sort of humiliation to follow, because it seems like that's what happens when JR gets in the ring. Like, getting fired, or joining the kiss-my-ass club, or getting slapped around by some heel so Jerry Lawler has to rescue him, or some other nonsense. But for once, he wasn't humiliated, which I guess is a swerve in itself. Edge just came out and said, hey BBQ boy, get outta here.

Well, I guess that is humiliating...but not by WWE standards. I mean, nobody pulled a hand out of his butt.

So after this endearing good-bye, Edge gets beat down by Batista, then CM Punk cashes in his money-in-the-bank title shot, hits a GTS and claims the top prize on the flagship program. Everybody's happy.

Now, one thing to note here, Batista didn't seem the least bit upset that he basically gave CM Punk the world title. Think he might have something to say next week?

Anyway, I really, really enjoyed this week's RAW. Cody turned heel and joined Ted DiBiase, as expected. And even though it didn't happen that way I wanted it to (see my Raw ReWrite ^TM from June 9, 2008 -- The Return of Insanity), it was a welcome change, because watching Bob Holly wrestle is about as entertaining as watching an inchworm run the 100-yard dash and Cody is a bona-fide star in the making who gets buried by default just by being associated with Holly.

Anyway, if you missed it, Cody basically said he's too talented to pay his dues, and he joined DiBiase so he could win...NOW. Hopefully these guys can ressurect the deceased tag team division, but probably not, because Vince hates putting over tag team matches.

Anwyay, some more entertaining stuff, Y2J puts over Kofi Kingston, and at the end of the show, Cryme Tyme gets a great rub by schmazzing with JBL's personal security, which gave Punk the opening to beat JBL. I was kinda disappointed that Punk's wins came cheap, and he's better than that, but happy that I have a new person to watch.

Prediction -- JBL will continue to impose "martial law" and put himself over as the new power figure, until William Regal returns to usurp the position (now that VKM is out of the way)...until it's revealed that William Regal tried to kill Vince specifically to get his job back...

or maybe not.

btw I hear that before the show, the long-lost D-Lo Brown won a dark match against Charlie Haas. Fortunately, D-Lo Brown did not botch a powerslam and cripple Haas, like he did to a young Darren Drozdov back in 1999. Why they are bringing back this jabroni, I don't know. If you're a D-Lo Brown fan, holla!