WWE Monday Night Raw 12/26/2011 - The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Last night's Monday Night Raw emanated from CM Punk's hometown of Chicago. This past summer's Money in the Bank pay-per-view notwithstanding, WWE typically makes a point of embarrassing their wrestlers when in their hometowns. At the top of the show, however, the promotion looked to be taking a different approach, letting Punk confront John Laurinaitis and even earn the potential opportunity to face the Interim General Manager in a match later in the evening.

The idea of the WWE Champion wrestling four matches in one night, one right after the other, had a distinctly old school feel to it - reminiscent of the territory days and 60-minute 2-out-of-3 falls broadways. Best of all, by letting the heavily tattooed guy in baggy shorts be the guy doing it, WWE managed to effectively meld the nostalgia and change impulses that comprise the core of Punk's character and appeal. A well-done segment all-around.

I go back and forth on Johnny Ace. WWE programming ain't lying when they call the guy uncharismatic, dull and irritating to watch. A significant part of me cringes as soon as he picks up the microphone, delivering his stiff, wooden, sometimes even nonsensical promos. In my more paranoid moments I even think that it might all be a big gag - something to entertain the 60-something maniac watching it all unfold from Gorilla position. But then I tend to stop for a minute, because maybe Laurinaitis is actually just really incredible at his job.

The fact that I can't wait for someone to interrupt Laurinaitis the moment he starts talking is actually one of his biggest strengths. The guy is absolutely reviled by the audience, but unlike Michael Cole, whose smarmy, unavoidable nattering detracts from the viewing experience, Laurinaitis' insufferability is central to one of the company's major storylines. Then, after mostly coming around on Laurinaitis as a decent heel authority figure, I'll realize that the entire time I've been thinking about his role as a heel, he's been droning on endlessly in that Funkhauser voice of his. Is this guy the worst or the best? The fact that I can't tell has me leaning toward the best.

Initially I was kind of disappointed to see Booker T square off against Cody yet again. There was no escalation of match type, no one else was involved and the Intercontinental Title wasn't even on the line. Frankly, it seemed like a waste of time to show us this match again. But then the actual quality of the contest won me over.

This was the type of match we should have seen at the TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs pay-per-view, instead of a rushed affair confused and muddied by numerous pre-match attacks by Rhodes. While personally I wouldn't have had Booker T go over as clean as he did (where do we go from here, now that we know for a fact that Booker T is the better wrestler?), but the match was competitive enough that Rhodes was kept looking reasonably strong even after getting pinned. Also, bonus points for incorporating the apparently hereditary drop-down-uppercut/throat-jab maneuver.

I've spoken before about WWE's seeming confusion about how to position John Cena. The fact is, the promotion (somewhat understandably) wants to have their cake and eat it too when it comes to their most popular wrestler. He's already beloved by the more, for lack of a better term, innocent portions of the audience, but WWE seems hell-bent on winning over the smarks who take to the internet and call him Supercena and complain about his workrate.

Simply put, this is a losing battle. You aren't going to win these guys over until Cena goes heel, or he's been around long enough to be seen as a veteran. By continually hammering home a connection between Cena and Zack Ryder, you don't bestow upon the Chain Gang Commander any of his little buddy's IWC cred - you just run the very serious risk of the people who supported Ryder's ascension beginning to associating him with Cena. Both wrestlers cater to different audiences, and by mixing them, you threaten to alienate them both.