WWE RAW Preview: “Punk’s Not Dead”

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Source: WWE.com

Preview: Punk’s Not Dead
July 21, 2008

For weeks, Monday Night Raw has been embroiled in a wave of unpredictability that continued through to The Great American Bash, as CM Punk retained his World Heavyweight Championship in a match against Batista.

The title was retained not by a pin or submission, however, but only after a double-disqualification due to outside interference from Kane. This is the second time that the Big Red Monster has attacked the Straightedge Champion outside of an official match — what can Punk expect from the unstable Kane next? And with The Animal’s quest for championship gold thwarted, will Monday night find him directing his fury toward the Big Red Monster?

Also at The Bash, Chris Jericho continued to direct his fury toward Shawn Michaels’ right eye, originally wounded by Y2J on an episode of the Highlight Reel. The contest was called off due to Michaels’ injuries, but not before Jericho did severe damage to HBK’s eye. Y2J emerged later to claim that Michaels’ retina was detached, and that it was a career-ending injury. Will Shawn Michaels be able to recover from this injury like he has so many others, or is Chris Jericho right? Has he truly ended the career of one of sports-entertainment’s greatest performers?

Another punishing match actually took place outside Nassau Coliseum: A NYC Parking Lot Brawl between John Cena and JBL. Recent weeks had seen Cena & Cryme Tyme deface the self-made millionaire’s limo, and JBL attempting to run over the Chain Gang Commander in retaliation. Cena has claimed that the thing between he and the self-proclaimed “wrestling god” isn’t just a match, but war. Will the events of The Great American Bash have been enough to settle things, or have we only witnessed an opening skirmish between these two Superstars?

For the answers to these questions and more, be sure to tune into Monday Night Raw, live at 9/8 CT, only on USA Network.

WWE RAW Rating Drops, “Brooke Knows Best” Premiere Does Strong Rating, Hulk’s House on Google Streetviewv

– Last night’s edition of WWE Raw drew a 3.2 cable rating, down from the 3.5s of the last few weeks and back to where the show was doing before the draft. Last night’s show did hours of 3.11 and 3.29. While that number is disappointing for WWE, Raw did have stiff competition last night – the Major League Baseball Home Run Derby on ESPN drew huge 6.4 cable rating. (Source: PWInsider.com)

– Thanks to reader Kristofer Dylan Strong for sending this in .. “I live in Clearwater, which is next door to Bellair, FL. We see hogan coming and going every so often in the community, so we know where he lives. Google just implemented Google “street view” to his neighborhood. I figured you may want to see the link – (Click Here).

– The 10 p.m. debut of Brooke Hogan’s new reality show “Brooke Knows Best” did a 1.6 cable rating. A The 11:30pm replay did a 1.0. Another replay at 1:30 a.m. Monday morning did a 0.6. The 1 p.m. edition of the show (which aired before the 10 p.m. Sunday debut) did a 0.8 cable rating. The four shows combined did 4.0 cable rating for VH1. (Source: PWInsider.com)

Pro Wrestling Top 25: Week Two

Anyone want seconds? Good! After last week’s groundbreaking submission, I return with the top performers of Week Two. And all I can is that the WWE Draft isn’t the only thing that’s getting shaken up this summer!

Here are the rankings and the top performers of Week Two.

 

1) The Dirt Sheet (ECW, LW: #2): 880 points

After a great performance last week on ECW and SmackDown!, the WWE Tag Team Champions suffered a major setback with two straight losses en route to Night of Champions.

 

2) CM Punk (ECW, LW: #1): 667 points

Mr. Money in the Bank drops mainly because of just one appearance this week. Other than that, he had a great performance against John Morrison on ECW, and he is eyeing the World Heavyweight Championship at Edge’s nuptials on July 11.

 

3) Motor City Machine Guns (TNA, LW: #13): 528 points

After two straight weeks of World X Cup action, the Guns are riding high with two straight victories, including one to give Team TNA an early advantage in the World X Cup.

 

4) Batista (SmackDown!, LW: #4): 528 points

The Animal has been unstoppable the last few weeks, but after an ambush from La Familia, Batista will have to watch his back a lot more with just a week until his match at Night of Champions against Edge.

 

5) Kane (ECW, LW: #9): 507 points

The ECW Champion made a huge impact during his confrontation with The Big Show on ECW, and kept bringing the noise against MVP on SmackDown! With the pay-per-view a week away, what’s next for the Big Red Monster?

 

6) Kaz (TNA, LW: Unranked): 498 points

The captain of Team TNA suffered two setbacks last week with losses to Petey Williams and Samoa Joe in championship matches. But he got back on track with a victory over Alex Koslov.

 

7) John Cena (RAW, LW: #21): 492 points

The Doctor of Thuganomics kept the Night of Champions momentum on his side by surviving the challenges of JBL last week and Umaga this past week on RAW. His night could have ended better if not for the sneak attack from Lance Cade.

 

LAX (TNA, LW: Unranked): 472 points

The TNA Tag Champs got monkey-whipped last week by Robert Roode and James Storm. Now they have a Fan’s Revenge Match against the Odd Couple at Victory Road. Revenge is sweet sometimes, ain’t it?

 

9) Mickie James (RAW, LW: 18): 468 points

The Women’s Champion survived Beth Phoenix last week, but thanks to an interference from Paul Burchill, she now has to go one-on-one against Katie Lea at Night of Champions for the gold.

 

10) Christian Cage (TNA, LW: 10): 468 points

The Instant Classic made up for the loss from last week with a huge win over Team 3D. Now he will be looking for payback for the attack on his partner last week on IMPACT!

 

The Rest of The Top 25

11) Team 3D (TNA, LW: 8): 468 points

12) AJ Styles (TNA, LW: 14): 463 points

13) The Great Khali (SmackDown!, LW: 5): 461 points

14) Umaga (RAW, LW: Unranked): 458 points

15) Matt Hardy (SmackDown!, LW: 16): 443 points

16) Paul Burchill (RAW, LW: Unranked): 441.5 points

17) Finlay (SmackDown!, LW: Unranked): 441 points

18) Triple H (RAW, LW: 23): 437 points

19) Sonjay Dutt (TNA, LW: Unranked): 432 points

20) Kennedy (RAW, LW: Unranked): 431.5 points

21) Hornswoggle (SmackDown!, LW: Unranked): 422 points

22) MVP (SmackDown!, LW: 19): 418 points

23) Hardcore Holly & Cody Rhodes (RAW, LW: Unranked): 416.5 points

24) Armando Estrada (ECW, LW: 22): 416 points

25) Cryme Tyme (RAW, LW: Unranked): 411 points

Honorary Entrants: “Nature Boy” Ric Flair, SmackDown! referee Charles Robinson, Future TNA Knockout Taylor

Close but no Cigar: Kofi Kingston (ECW, 390), Jesse & Festus (SmackDown!, 386.5), Deuce & Domino (SmackDown!, 386.5), Awesome Kong (TNA, 314)

Dropped Out: Kurt Angle (TNA), Tomko (TNA), Rhino (TNA), Matt Morgan (TNA), Samoa Joe (TNA), Mark Henry (SmackDown!), Chuck Palumbo (SmackDown!), Jeff Hardy (RAW), Beth Phoenix (RAW)

Winning Brand of the Week: RAW with eight entrants followed by TNA with seven, SmackDown! with six, and ECW with four.

That’s the rankings for the second week. Next week’s will be insanity thanks to the 2008 WWE Draft. Don’t forget that any superstar that gets drafted will receive an additional 90 points added to next week’s score. See ya Monday night.

 

Taken from:

http://bleacherreport.com/