The King And The Best

Raw closed with a long promo between Triple H and CM Punk. I will be very surprised if this match does not close the show at Night of Champions. Even though the WWE title is not involved, and no Cena either, it is still elaborate and effects the entire company in terms of the storyline. Besides all that, Triple H is involved. Why not make it the main event?

Looking at just the promo itself, I liked it about as much as the segment John Cena and Punk had before Summerslam. I'm not a big football fan, but I doubt the back and forth Triple H and Punk had will seem more exciting than NFL action. Yes, it is back. Watching that promo, it was like seeing an argument on wrestling message boards get dramatized. Would that make it better? In terms of a good argument, it is easier to have it on a message board. You get to take your time to plan, while looking back at what was said before, and might even rely on others to join your side and argue for you. But that is not what this was about on Raw. They were obviously not out to deepen the understanding of what is going on or come to a compromise. They were there to hype their match.

Honestly, I forgot why they were even feuding while listening to that promo. It does not help that they have been developing this thing a little sloppily over the past few weeks. This all started when Kevin Nash attacked CM Punk and cost him the WWE title. There was a controversy as to who told Nash to do it. Punk pointed fingers all over the place, including Triple H. Triple H denied it, and Kevin Nash even later confirmed that he did it on his own. Triple H even fires Nash. While this is going on, Punk keeps pushing Triple H's buttons, which leads to this feud. There are a few more details here and there, but the overall message I am seeing is that this is CM Punk's fault. In terms of the storyline, Triple H tried to call things fairly and do his job right. Then they have CM Punk act arrogant and bitter about what is going on. He makes it seem like he is still being held down, like this was 2006 to him all over again. So they put the COO position at stake. There I see a mistake. Again, Triple H has not really done anything wrong. Miz and R-Truth are also taking jabs at how things are being run under Triple H, but there issues always happens to jobbers after they are built up and fed to a centerpiece, which would be Cena in both of these guys' situations. I don't see anything special for Triple H to be criticized for. That is another reason why I would have drawn this thing out a little more. Have CM Punk face Nash at Night of Champions. Have CM Punk face Triple H at Survivor Series. In the two months until then, really build up that some people dislike what Triple H is doing as COO with some good evidence for the storyline. Build the heat. From what I am seeing, they are only building it now by having CM Punk be annoying and pandering to the fans. The promo they had on Raw put over John Cena for no good reason whatsoever, revisited Punk's history of why he believes he has been mistreated, and talked about the idea that the WWE likes pushing big guys as their major stars. Oh, and ice cream. From what I can see, nothing was really resolved whatsoever.

The saving grace of the whole segment, for me, was when Punk's mic got cut off. This led to Punk eventually attacking Triple H with the pipe bomb. That brought back in some real hatred into what is going on. Aside from that, all I see is bitterness from Punk and Triple H defending himself and the WWE product. I see holes in both of their sides, some of which the other brought up. But of course, this was not about being a real debate anyway. For what it was, I found it pretty stupid.

What happens at Night of Champions? You have Kevin Nash released, but John Laurinaitis seemingly taking his side. If Triple H loses his position, who takes over? Notice Laurinaitis casually making a few decisions over the past few weeks in booking matches? In other words, I think you can see the obvious route this may go. I just hope they tease it out a little. Add some suspense to it.