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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Trips in Charge

Photo from WWE.com
By Kevin Hunsperger
@kevinhunsperger on Twitter

After buzzing from the high of Money in the Bank (a natural buzz of course), I was eagerly awaiting the start of Raw Monday night.  I had hoped that  the writers wouldn't bungle up the single most interesting angle in the WWE in the last couple of years, heck maybe even more.  They kind of delivered, but didn't totally drop the ball.  At least not yet.

I liked the idea of having a tournament on Raw to crown a new champion.  To me, it put some emphasis on the importance of the WWE championship.  For years, it seems like the titles are treated like a prop with little value.  I agreed with most of the participants involved, but was a little confused why Evan Bourne wasn't in there.  He was the only Money in the Bank participant to not be in the tournament.  Or a better question, why wasn't Dolph in the MITB match Sunday?  I guess we'll never know.

John Laurinaitis back in the day
One other note before I get into more of the action, it still blows my mind that Johnny Ace is Vince McMahon's right hand man.  I can remember he and Shane Douglas sporting their mullets and riding skateboards to the ring back in the NWA.   It's been an amazing journey from him I suppose.

The biggest surprise to me for the tournament was Kofi Kingston beating Alberto Del Rio.  I think a lot of people thought ADR would go all the way.  It would have been an interesting plan for the guy with the briefcase to also be the reigning champion.

The announce team doing the John Cena Twitter updates were more annoying than the actual Tweets.  I'm all about the social media aspect, but when the King and Michael Cole talked out it, it just didn't see realistic.

Sorry "Silent Rage" needs to be muted.  I'm not impressed one bit.  But I will give him time.  So far,  he's not captured my attention.

By the way, I love Vince McMahon's jacket.  Reminds me of something Jesse Ventura would have worn back in the day.  I was disappointed they decided to "postpone" the finals.  But as Chad mentioned on Facebook, why not strip CM Punk of the title in 30 days for not defending the belt?  That whole 30 day rule has been a gimmick around for years.

The interaction between Cena and Vince made sense to me.  I liked how he told Vince he'd walk onto another show, brother.  Triple H coming in and explaining to Vince the concerns the board has was also logical and acceptable to me.  While some have speculated that this may be the end of the Vince McMahon as the head of the company, I'm not buying it yet.  I think everything we see on WWE program is done with the approval of Vince himself.  I don't think he's planning to retire.  He's said too many times in the past that he'll never quit the company.  However the tears were a good touch.  But the "I love you, pop." almost made it seem too hokey.

photo from WWE.com
My only real problem with this angle now is that the McMahon family is once again in the middle of the spotlight.  It reminds me of the invasion angle when Stephanie and Shane McMahon were all a part of it too.  It should have been about creating the greatest dream matches, but instead it got watered down.

So the questions now, will Triple H continue to wrestle and be the chairman of the company?  Will Vince hold any position with the WWE?  Will he show up on Impact Wrestling?  (That's a joke)  Where does all this leave CM Punk?  Will Trips try to sign him back to a contract?  And what would motivate Punk to return?  Will the title tournament really finish next week, or are all of Vince's decisions now null and void?

The next few weeks (or longer) SHOULD be interesting ones.  I feel like the WWE has finally spurned some interest in the product again.  There are plenty of unanswered questions that I can't wait to learn the answers to.

What are your thoughts?  Post here, or on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube.

1 comment:

  1. Good episode. From a wardrobe perspective, I thought that dressing VM in the crazy old CEO clothes was good foreshadowing to the lack of confidence. When HHH came out and looked the part of Wall Street mogul, you knew what was coming. Nice job by the story/prep/wardrobe crew to help move the story along.

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