Raw - and Wrestlers Behaving Badly

Raw last night was better than expected -although still at least somewhat mediocre. The highlight for me was CM Punk - his snow angels at the top of the show, and his promo at the end when he'd won the right to challenge John Cena in Chicago at Money in the Bank July 17 ... which is also the last day of his contract, incidentally. Threatening to leave the WWE with the belt ... definite intrigue heading into the next PPV, and I'm already more interested in that one than Capitol Punishment - which admittedly left me cold in a lot of ways. Strong, strong matches; Punk-Mysterio, Ziggler-Kingston, Christian-Orton ... all good stuff. But the prerequisite Barack Obama impersonator, and a few other energy-killing aspects of the show sort of mitigated the otherwise strong showing.

I also am not going to be as hard on this Power to the People concept as in other times, as for once I legitimately believe they let the fans have some say. Giving Ziggler-Kingston a best-of-3-falls match on Raw was obviously the work of the fans, and much appreciated. There were a couple of voting glitches - reporting on these over at prowrestling.net is excellent - but for the most part the show, while a bit of overkill after another long Raw and PPV, and certainly not necessarily worthy of 3 hours of broadcast, was better than my ranting anticipated last week.

Perhaps more exciting though is the anticipation this Raw built - first, for the upcoming Money in the Bank PPV as discussed due to CM Punk's pronouncement, but also for next week's Raw, for which Shawn Michaels will be a special guest. My only complaint? It's another gimmick Raw, as Raw Roulette (formerly Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal) is brought back. I don't necessarily have a problem with this in itself, except for the sheer number of Raw gimmicks of late - and it also of course being better in a PPV context where the types of matches the wheel determines are actually interesting, and given the time to be excellent. "Wheel" just need to see how it plays out, I guess.

Meanwhile - in 'not-news', a couple of reports today of wrestlers behaving badly, as Matt Hardy was sent home from tonight's TNA tapings due to several house shows at which he turned up late recently - as well as some disapproval of a Youtube video Hardy posted of his brother Jeff tasering his (Matt's) girlfriend Reby (although this - while I get is in bad taste in so many ways - I don't get why it's in more bad taste than anything else in the wrestling world ... fair enough to be offended by this, but then we should be offended by all wrestler-on-Diva violence, which is a fair position to take, but many fans don't. Inside the ring vs. outside the ring, and/or severity of the stunt I guess?).

And lastly - Scott Hall was sentenced today to 18 days in prison due to a 2010 DUI arrest. He will report to jail on July 5 and, due to ongoing health issues, be kept in the medical unit. Best of luck to Mr. Hall who has a long road toward getting his life together after a very rough few years in particular.

ONE LAST NOTE: Ryan Dunn of Jackass fame - who has done some work with the WWE in the past - along with his passenger died in an apparently-alcohol and speed-related car accident Sunday night. I will thus far stay out of the controversy apparently created by anyone insensitive enough to point out the awful choices which led to these two unnecessary deaths; but I will express my most sincere condolences to the friends and family of the deceased, who are no doubt struggling right now with both their loss, and the circumstances surrounding it. God bless and be well.