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The opening segment with John Laurinaitis coming out mocking CM Punk in his hometown and then Punk basically getting the hero's welcome home as the WWE champion was an OK segment. Punk owns Chicago and every time he was out there last night, it was total love-fest. Laurinaitis as a performer in front of the mic is growing on me as he's finding his place as this smarmy manipulator who's trying to act like he's on the up and up. His back and forth with Punk and the tease of Punk vs. the former Johnny Ace was pretty interesting, but the second they announced Mark Henry was the third man in the Gauntlet, you could see where they were going with this. I wonder what Road Warrior Animal thinks about his brother being the top heel on Raw?
Booker T vs. Cody Rhodes was great stuff and easily the best match on the show. The entire Booker storyline is designed to give Rhodes a legitimate former top star to compete against and defeat so he gets the rub and is brought up to the next level. Tonight, WWE handled this perfectly, giving them lots of time through several segments to have a good back and forth match. Booker winning had some readers complaining about an "announcer" beating the IC champ, but the reality is he's a former World champion and it's not like Booker is in terrible shape. Rhodes got the better of him on the PPV and now Booker gets some form of revenge to set up title shots on the road this week and going into the next chapter of their story. Makes sense to me, since the end result is all about building Cody.
The backstage bit with John Cena and Zack Ryder was fine as a way to show there is no issues between the two and that they are on the same page, since you know at some point, they are going to come to the other's aid. The bit with Big Show, the former Johnny Ace and David Otunga was fine in setting up Show vs. Otunga that night, but it's pretty silly to see a guy as jacked up as Otunga wincing like he's Alfalfa in the Little Rascals.
Eve Torres and Zack Ryder vs. Natalya and Tyson Kidd absolutely had the feeling of "placeholder" since you knew what the finish would be the second the ring entrances went down. Kidd's work is so good, he may be the most underrated talent in the entire company. This was more of a house show style match where everyone did their thing and they went home to make the crowd happy. On this episode, that was fine.
The John Cena promo setting up his confrontation with Kane later on was OK, but watching Cena trying to play up to Chicago, Punk's hometown, especially when its a place that has been merciless to him over the years (cue up Wrestlemania 22 if you don't believe me) was silly. It was better than Cena's usual forced promos and was fine in setting up the Kane monologue (and trust me, that was a monologue, later on).
This brought out Miz, who challenged Cena, but that match was more of a backdrop to set up the return of R-Truth. Truth's return didn't get a big reaction from the crowd, but the brawl between he and Miz was really strong. I liked that Miz didn't run like a coward, even though he was the heel, and instead charged his former partner. They had a pretty spirited brawl with Miz being tackled over the ringside table and tossed into the stairs. Truth's promo that he could finish Miz now but instead wanted to take a piece of him every week was pretty damn good. I like the logic there a lot. It may take some time for fans to get behind Truth again, but this was a good first step in that feud. I also liked that Cena quietly disappeared into the night, allowing the focus to be on the other talents, since WWE really needs more names to get to the next level right now. Good call on that.
The Big Show vs. David Otunga match was sort of "whatever" to me. Show is already over losing the World title? We needed Mark Henry and Daniel Bryan to both pop up? Otunga couldn't lose clean? It felt like one of those segments that was just forced in there with no real reason for it ever happening.
Alberto Del Rio's promo was really good in terms of explaining why he's going to be gone as well as setting up the return of a hopefully angrier and more dangerous Del Rio. I am wondering if his reaction to the Bellas was a blow-off of some of the sillier aspects of his persona that have seeped in over the course of the year. He started the year as this killer you knew would carry the flag for the company and instead of graduating into this JBL level heel, he just became another person that went "so" far before having some of the legs cut from under him, never really getting the traction he needed to be a legitimate draw. Perhaps the time off will allow creative to reset him and I hope it does, because his work in the ring is great and Ricardo is just plain awesome in his role.
The CM Punk Gauntlet was damn entertaining. Poor Jack Swagger. No one, not even his father or his old mascot, believes this guy has a chance in the world of beating a top star. That said, his work here against Punk and their segment was solid. Punk vs. Ziggler was excellent. Punk did a hell of a job as the babyface in peril after Swagger nailed him with the chop block from behind. The sequence where he was trapped in the ropes and his face just screamed pain and determination while trying to will himself to the ropes was damn perfection, both in his work and from the camera angles. I loved the bit where Laurinaitis came out trying to act like he was doing Punk a favor by tossing Vickie Guerrero and Swagger from ringside but instead cost him the match. Ziggler's work has been on in recent weeks and you can see he is just right under the cusp of breaking through and truly "finding" himself as a performer. He had a good showing with Punk several weeks ago and another go-round will do him wonders in that regard. Really enjoying Punk as the champion thus far.
Of course, you can't discount that the mystery Youtube video popped up over Punk tonight. That's going to be a pretty big deal when it goes down and obviously, it's an angle Punk looks to be involved with.
The closing segment with Kane explaining that he's out to destroy Cena was a nice throwback to the Kane Attitude era character with him using his "magical powers" to keep Cena at bay and explaining that while Cena was about rising above hate, he was a false prophet to the people. Kane did a nice job getting over his new role as the purely evil demonic Kane out to destroy what Cena stands for and wanting the hate to tear him apart, using the Cena sucks chants as this weapon to destroy Cena's morale. There was a lot of the angel vs. the devil played up here, with the heart and soul of the people Cena fights so hard for being at stake. I would have probably enjoyed a return to the silent Kane, but the promo, despite going a little too long, was fine in setting up the program. I liked that the show ended with a troubled Cena showing concern as opposed to the usual superman ending with Cena standing tall and the heels having been de-fanged.
Overall, a decent ending to the year.
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