Tonight's RAW

[goodhelmet]

I was at the RAW for Cena-Bryan Daniel and that match had more heat in the last match of the night than any other match I have been too live except for the last 15 minutes of HBK-Taker in the 2007 Royal Rumble. THe problem is the same as it was for Punk-Rey on the same show. The crowd wants to cheer Punk. They don't want to boo his opponent. The WWE wants them to boo PUnk and cheer his opponent. They don't do either.

[Matt D]

On the other hand, WWE seems fairly aware of this, so I wonder what nefarious thing they'll make him do next.

[Ricky Jackson]

The problem is the nefarious actions of a heel only have meaning and impact when the heel is already hated, or at least at a point where the crowd has begun to slowly turn on them. Punk's turn on the Rock came out of nowhere at a time when he was solidly over as a babyface. My first thought when that happened was it felt really forced to turn him heel, even though the WWE needs a top heel and Punk as a babyface wasn't particularly interesting to me. But the WWE rarely does anything with any subtlety, so the direction they have gone with Punk's turn isn't really surprising (Disclaimer: I haven't actually watched a Raw since the 1000th episode). In some ways it's similar to Austin's turn in 01, without the massive fan backlash and ratings nosedive. In both cases, instead of slowly building to the turn and getting fans to actually want the wrestler to turn, or no longer want to support them as a babyface (ala Bret Hart in 97), they booked it backwards, going with a big shock surprise heel turn angle first, then actually building the turn afterwards, with the explanation for their motivation, change in character, etc. coming AFTER they technically turned. I supose you could argue Hogan's turn in 96 was in this mold, but the crowd had turned on him in previous years and were ready for a heel turn, unlike with Punk and Austin.

 

Maybe, if they stay the course, the crowd will eventually embrace Punk as a heel (and really, a well-timed Rock promo on Punk would likely do a lot to help) but at this rate it seems like they're going to have him burning the American flag in the middle of the ring within a few weeks.

[Guest Nell Santucci]

I'm watching Raw right now and laughed that when Triple H came out, a WWE camera zoomed on a sign that had written on it "You Tapped Out"; perhaps even the camera guy doesn't like Triple H. On an aside, his promos are boring and have been for years. Some (even Meltzer at times) mark out for HHH and even HBK as promo acts in 2012, especially in the buildup to Wrestlemania. Me personally, he just bores me. I was watching those two 15 years ago. It's time for a change. Anyway, his retirement struck me as insincere.

 

About the seeming ineffectiveness of Punk's turn, I feel much of the problem with the WWE, besides with being in the post-kayfabe era, is the demographic divide in the WWE. Kids, adults, and seniors, males and females, all watch the product, and they all have their favorites. I remember once reading in the Observer that post-1992 WWF retained their children demographic but lost on the 18-25 adults, who simply couldn't watch the WWF without Hulk Hogan as their childhood hero. Similarly and even more interesting, post-Flair WCW lost the children but kept the 18-25. Such divides tell me that it's hard for a whole splintered audience that comprises modern WWE to ever solidly back an angle. I don't think that's an inherently bad thing, but the WWE's view seems to be to try and push for that monolithic perception, which is an impossibility at this point. The good thing about UFC is the splintered audience never seems to take away from their matches. I think the WWE could pull that off as well.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Kane's anger management speech was similar in tone and how it was shot to George Costanza's pitch for the apartment on the Seinfeld episode where he was competing with his tragic story against the survivor of a shipwreck

By the way, that's brilliant and I'm ripping it off. I got my producer for WHATAMANOOVER! working on an audio mash-up of Kane and Costanza.

 

And crowd aside, how cool was it that Punk was yelling "I'M the King of Memphis, Tennessee!!" ? You could totally tell that he was having a blast.

 

And here we go.

 

 

"KANE meets COSTANZA! WHATAMANOOVER! Fri nites at 11pm EST on http://www.tnt-radio.net/ It's a Pro Wrestling Radio/ Podcast hosted by Bryan Miller and Johnny Sorrow. Join us as we keep one eye on the current world of wrestling, and one eye on the classics. Like Robert Gibson if he was Doctor Who?"

[BruiserBrody]

Kane's anger management speech was similar in tone and how it was shot to George Costanza's pitch for the apartment on the Seinfeld episode where he was competing with his tragic story against the survivor of a shipwreck

By the way, that's brilliant and I'm ripping it off. I got my producer for WHATAMANOOVER! working on an audio mash-up of Kane and Costanza.

 

And crowd aside, how cool was it that Punk was yelling "I'M the King of Memphis, Tennessee!!" ? You could totally tell that he was having a blast.

 

And here we go.

 

 

"KANE meets COSTANZA! WHATAMANOOVER! Fri nites at 11pm EST on http://www.tnt-radio.net/ It's a Pro Wrestling Radio/ Podcast hosted by Bryan Miller and Johnny Sorrow. Join us as we keep one eye on the current world of wrestling, and one eye on the classics. Like Robert Gibson if he was Doctor Who?"

 

Taken down already