CM Punk's Feud Against Alberto Del Rio

I'm not going to complain about more lack of focus and straight direction from last night's Raw right now. I'm going to switch gears and talk about something that does have a clear focus. CM Punk will feud with Alberto Del Rio over the WWE Championship.

Issues between these two have existed in kayfabe for months now. Del Rio won his first WWE Championship from CM Punk at Summerslam. After Hell in a Cell, I still would have built Punk to continue a singles feud against Alberto Del Rio, who had won the title back from John Cena. Have John Cena's feud with Miz & R-Truth (Awesome Truth) develop since then. In other words, I would have switched around how the WWE did end up handling things. Whatever the case, we still end up with Del Rio and Punk feuding and Cena and Awesome Truth feuding. Not surprisingly, Cena's feud is the main feud.

That is the main point I want to make. CM Punk is involved in a midcard feud over the WWE title, while Cena/Rock gets the build in the main event. I'm not complaining about that. The Rock is more important than CM Punk right now. But this is 2008 all over again for CM Punk. That year, CM Punk's first World title reign on Raw was treated as a midcard push. He was still being trumped by John Cena's feuds, made to look weak frequently, rarely got featured in the main event unless someone the WWE cared more about was also in some way part of the segment, and how the reign ended just speaks for itself. This current feud is not as horrible as that, but it is still under John Cena. How far have we come since that magical night in Chicago? This all does not surprise me at all.

Even though this feud with CM Punk and Alberto Del Rio has a clear direction as compared to many other rivalries developing, it still seems to be lacking the hype a WWE title feud should presumably get. It has a storyline to it. Alberto Del Rio is playing a cowardly heel who does not want to face Punk and his hiding behind his ring announcer. Not the character I like seeing from Del Rio, but so be it. Even though some may complain about CM Punk losing a lot of steam, he is still getting multiple segment time, although what he is doing right now is not as controversial and more tamed. In other words, it probably will not draw. When you come right down to it, this is still one of the best things going on Raw right now. Only Rock/Cena is being pushed better than it. Too much poor focus on the "Michael Cole Challenge" and Brodus Clay. Nothing is coming up there as of yet. The WWE should really consider developing the WWE title feud more. So much potential there that has not yet been completely lost sight of.