WWE Raw Review - 30th June 2008

With ratings at a low and with the results of Night of Champions meaning Raw had no champion I was wondering what they were going to do on Raw tonight. WWE needed to do something big to win back the ratings and following Vince’s accident last week I was hoping for a good one and boy did it deliver.

Good Points

CM Punk cashes in the MITB

CM Punk followed up his draft to Raw by cashing in his MITB after Batista had laid out Edge and won the belt. Edge had come down to cut a promo on how nobody from Raw could now touch him after Night of Champions which Batista had interrupted. This was the only logical way to get the belt back on Raw and to use up CM Punk’s Money in the Bank without him cashing it in at a main event. Nobody ever believed he would win the title because of backstage politics, his size and the relatively small period of time he has been in WWE for. To have all this happen in the first half hour of Raw was amazing.

Vince off the scene and inmates are running the asylum

I think the WWE creative team are trying to recreate what they wanted to do with the aborted Vince death angle from last year. Having Shane come on to not comment on his father’s injury all but writes him out for the time being so that no one has on screen control. Just left us with the unpredictability factor. First JBL came down to proclaim marshal law with his own team of security to remove Cena from the building after challenging CM Punk to a title match later in the evening only for Cena to come back with Cryme Time to take out the security team.

JR Speech

Was great to see JR come down to give a farewell speech and plug the life out of Smackdown which is the first time I have seen and heard Smackdown plugged so much on Raw. WWE are really getting behind Smackdown at the moment to give it a good launch on the new network.

Bad Points

Women’s scene is dead

It was time for another throwaway women’s match on Raw between Mickie James and Jillian. Was good to see Katie lea get some backstage time but they need to keep her involved in the women’s title scene.

Use of jobbers

With the talent in WWE and a packed Raw I was dismayed to see two no name jobbers being used to go against Rhodes and Dibiase. It’s like a flashback to the 80’s. Matches like this do no one any favours.

Overall

The first world title change on Raw for some time shows just how much WWE are trying to up the ratings. I am loving the current climate on Raw with no one in charge should make for some entertaining TV. For the first time in a while I am really looking forward to the next Raw.