Raw Thoughts, Ring Of Honor, & More - May 26, 2011

Monday night's Raw entertained me. It was a lot better than the last couple of weeks. Last week was making me beg for it to be over. Monday night saw tributes to the Macho Man. The show opened with the in memory of graphic. At around 9:40 or so, a music video tribute played that was just incredible. The main event hit the ring after that and I had noticed the yellow boots that CM Punk was wearing earlier in the night. I was thinking that was a Savage tribute and then saw the tights that he was wearing as well. The classic pink with white stars Macho Man tights. Only difference was that he had his own name on the back of them instead of Macho Man's. It was a really nice tribute from Punk for one of his favorite wrestlers of all time. I love seeing tributes like that. Thank you CM Punk for doing that. I did notice one spot in the match where Punk was tagged in and did the slingshot jump over the ropes. He then ran across the ring and dropped an axe handle on the back of the head. There was a lot of other good stuff on the show and one segment that left me dumbfounded. I liked the opening segment where it looks like a feud is setting up for Cena and R Truth. I think that could be fun and the verbal exchange between the two was entertaining. Bret Hart was a surprise on the show. That added a lot to it. Bret was named the special ref of a match between the teams of Cena and Rey against Truth and Punk. Entertaining main event which ended with Bret putting Punk in the sharpshooter followed by Rey hitting the legdrop off the top rope. The Miz and Alex Riley. Wow, that was more than I bargained for with that segment. When Riley finally started hammering on Miz, I thought that we'd just get a little something and it would set up a feud. Minutes later, I was amazed that he was still hammering on him. Definitely put Riley over as a problem for Miz and the crowd was chanting for him. That was a brutal attack. Injury angle done with Del Rio taking out Big Show's knee with the car. Lots of time devoted to that Monday night with medical people trying to help Show who wanted no help. He eventually fought his way to his feet with the help of Kane. It should be mentioned too that the new Nexus defeated Show and Kane to win the tag team titles earlier in the show before that happened. Now, I have to talk about the thing that drove me absolutely crazy. The divas match. We get set for a 8 diva tag team match. Based on who I was seeing in the ring, I was happy to get it especially with several in there who don't get TV time anymore. Twenty seconds or so in, Kharma's music hits. All the divas line up for strength in numbers. Kharma gets in the ring and is surrounded by the divas. A big staredown ensues and I'm having all kinds of thoughts. Beth Phoenix being the one to step up to her. Wondering if Melina is about to get beaten down with how she has been used lately. Will it be a pile on? What happens? Kharma gets down on her knees and……cries. I could not believe it. All that build up as a monster and weeks of beat downs for them to have her sit down in the ring and cry. Ugh. You have got to be kidding me. I have heard why this turn suddenly happened but that is all they could come up with? Moving on, Michael Cole returns to Raw for the second hour in a much more somber mood after Over The Limit. I did wonder a lot throughout the first hour of the show if I was liking it more than normal due to the fact that I wasn't having to listen to arguing commentators distracting me from the action. Josh and Lawler were easy to listen to. I watched a little of Smackdown on Friday night and just could not take anymore of listening to Cole and Booker argue. Just takes too much away from the ring.

Other notes from Raw. I loved the interaction between Bret Hart and CM Punk. Punk would hit Hart moves and then laugh at Bret. The moment where he picked him up for the backbreaker and laughed right at Bret was awesome. I cracked up too at Punk yelling at Bret, "where did you learn to count, Canada?" Bret laughed at it too. How funny was Truth ranting at Cena and then quoting Legendary by saying "I want my son back". LOL.

CM Punk got three big names pulling for him last week courtesy of Twitter. Paul Heyman posted on Twitter this comment about Punk: "I'm sure he will get heat for me saying this, but @CMPunk is STILL the most underutilized talent on the WWE roster. And my apologies to to @CMPunk for the heat he'll get, but come on already. Punk is the best heel in the biz today! WAKE UP! It's amazing to me (and not in a good way) that WWE doesn't see how @CMPunk has brought out the best in every opponent". Stone Cold Steve Austin later saw what Heyman wrote and said "Agreed." Bret Hart also retweeted what Heyman had to say. Punk later responded to Heyman's comments saying "oh you know me, if I don't have heat I'm doing something wrong. Keeps me warm."

Big news out of Ring Of Honor last week. The company has been sold to Sinclair Broadcasting. This is a big move by ROH and we'll see where the company goes from here. The company has been kind of stagnant here in the last couple of years so something seemed to have to change. Gary Juster is being brought in to promote the live events and he has done this for WCW back in the early 90's. In the press release, the company said that the front office will not change. Jim Cornette is also remaining. ROH's Cary Silkin posted this on the ROH forum saying "It's a new dawn!! I just want to take a moment to thank everyone for all the years of support.As corny as it sounds if is was not for the fans and the passion of all of you we would have never made it to this day. ROH will now live on bigger and better than ever.We look forward to this new era of ROH. Lots of news will be coming out over the next few weeks and I am thrilled to stay on with the company and be able to enjoy a bigger and better Ring of Honor. Thank you Joe Koff and the Sinclair team for making this happen and I will see everyone in NYC !!! It's a new dawn!!" Sinclair Broadcasting has a big part of the United States with TV and will get the shows out to a wider audience. Hopefully this is a great thing for Ring Of Honor and can help grow the company.

Have clues finally started showing up on what the problem was between Randy Savage and Vince McMahon? Rowdy Roddy Piper posted on Twitter that "Randy slapped Vince in a bar. End of that story!!!". George Steele did an interview saying that he was an agent at the time of when Savage left for WCW in 1994. When Savage said what he was going to do, Steele said that Vince looked "broken".

Paul Heyman was on the ESPN Gross Point Blank podcast and had this to say about Randy Savage. I recapped what he had to say. He didn't know Randy that well. He met him a handful of times but was a huge admirer of his success. Just like Piper and Hogan in the 80's and 90's, he became a pop culture icon. His passing has touched a lot of people. Those that knew him were very moved by him cause he was so intense in his professionalism. Those that got the opportunity to work with him, I heard from many that knew him said that he did whatever he could to bring out the best. A lot of people are losing a part of their youth. In the business, he was someone that everyone universally respected. The most criticism on him is that he cared too much. Heyman then added, "I hope that is the worst that people can say about me is that I cared too much." Heyman was asked about the relationship with Savage and McMahon. Heyman said that something happened and there are ten billion rumors on what happened. Until Vince wants to go public with it which will probably be never, we'll never know. Every year that Heyman was there, Savage's name was brought up for the Hall of Fame. People would say that you've got to induct Savage and Bruno. Then, the subject was dropped immediately by Vince. In 2002 or 2003, his name was brought up and Vince looked down at the yellow note pad and said I don't want anything to do with that man. Jim Ross brought Savage up every year for the Hall of Fame and got shot down every year. Something happened but he doesn't know what happened. Whatever it was, it was pretty serious. Heyman said that he had seen Vince do business with people that he hated especially if there was money to be made. Savage was a sore subject with him.

That is it for tonight. Wishing all of you a great rest of the week!! Take care and God bless!!