Is the fix in?

Welcome back once again. I am the Armchair Mouthpiece, the lord of the lazyboy. And i'm here to hit you with the truthfacts.

It's that time again, another Raw has come along. So it's time for me to give my thoughts about it. What I think. You, the readers can think what you like, feel what you like. This is what I think. It's just me saying "here's my opinion, do you agree? why/why not?" If you don't like it, go suck a lemon.

So I'll be honest. I, like I'm sure a lot of people are focused on the main storyline that we're seeing at the moment, the CM Punk, John Cena, HHH and Rock saga. So once again most of what i'm writing will be to do with that.

I don't like that there's been no build up for anything else on Summerslam, at least from the RAW side of things. I mean aside from the Diva's Championship match. Which, for once, I'm at least a little interested in seeing. Mostly because Beth Phoenix is going to destroy Kelly Kelly. I know that it's Randy Orton vs Christian in a no holds barred match.. I always hated that name.. No Holds Barred.. it doesn't apply these days. Just call it a No DQ match, or a street fight. And Sheamus vs Mark Henry. That's all we have so far for the 2nd biggest pay per view of the year? ... I mean yes, everything is kind of revolving around Punk/Cena (and now HHH), but if this pay per view is second only to Wrestlemania, then there should be a better card, now what... only 5 days from the pay per view? Imagine if Wrestlemania was booked this way.. terrible.

But now onto RAW and what stood out for me. I'll get to the obvious in a little bit, but to begin, I am sick of Michael Cole. Why did JR come back if he's not going to be the lead play-by-play guy? Doesn't make sense to me. JR isn't a 3rd man kinda guy. Not anymore. I was watching Survivor Series 1995 last night, even then when he WAS the 3rd guy on the commentary team he still stood out, and i'm talking 16 years ago.

I get the feeling the angle shot with Miz and Mysterio was just in case Rey's knee is injured again, I read that he got hurt at a house show. So hopefully Rey isn't hurt too badly, and we can at least get some kind of match at Summerslam. Having said that, Miz hasn't been champion for about 3 or 4 months now, he lost the title at Extreme Rules if i'm correct, and he's not in the title picture now.. He's still calling himself the most "must see WWE champion" though.. I get what he means, but i think it would make more sense now to say something like "most must-see WWE superstar". But his promo was solid, really good I thought, he's one of those guys who just "has it".. and from what I understand he's had to go through some hard times to get there, so he definitely has my respect.

Am I the only one that doesn't think John Morrison lives up to his hype? he keeps botching movies.. people talk about Sin Cara botching moves.. look at Morrison though. I don't actually remember him hitting his finishing move cleanly, ever. It's always off target and he only hits with his arm or something. I remember not too long ago people were calling him "the next shawn michaels"... not a chance in hell. Seriously, Shawn Michaels, compared to John Morrison? there is no comparison. Morrison is good in the ring, and that parkour stuff is awesome to watch. But he's terrible on the mic. And without that getting better, he's not going to be able to connect in the same way that Michaels, Austin, Rock, CM Punk have.

HHH made himself the special referee for the Summerslam main event. I love this move. As soon as he started talking about it, you could see there was just a hint of what could happen if he turns Heel. He started talking about "how do you ensure one undisputed champion? You put someone in there who can control everything" (i'm paraphrasing.) He talked about change, how it's been a theme lately. He's right, and as far as I can tell, things are going to keep changing. Has anyone else noticed they're using "Anything can happen" again.. just like back in 1995/96. Just a nice little coincidence.

Now when he started talking about who the guy he picked was.. that was the start of the Heel turn. As he started reeling off the "larger than life" stuff, for about 5 seconds four or five names ran through my head. Who's he talking about? First I thought himself (always go with your first instincts is the lesson). Then as he said that man "towers over not only John Cena, but CM Punk" I started thinking Big Show? no.. Undertaker? Why would he come and referee..  then i thought Diesel/Kevin Nash... he's under contract with WWE, he's larger than life and towers over everyo.. oh what HHH said it was himself. Damn. Seriously though, I would've bought Kevin Nash being the Ref. He's buddies with HHH, he's talked about (and to) Punk on twitter.. it could have worked.

But I think HHH being the referee makes sense if the plan is to make him a bad guy.

And then we are told that there's going to be a contract signing. That peaked my interest, because it meant that CM Punk and Cena would be on the mic.

One thing i really liked was the little exchange between Cena and Triple H during Cena's entrance. Everything about this angle is really well done, and feels different. They played it perfectly. Cena trying to keep his words hidden from the camera's microphone, but not really at the same time.. and questioning HHH's motives. Really well done.

I'll be honest, I kind of skipped through most of the matches this week. For a few reasons. One, because i was watching at about 3am. 2, and this is more specific. I do not like Jack Swagger. He looks like Biff from Back To The Future. And that running around the ring gimmick, is kinda awful. Cena wins, nuff said.

R-Truth has become a joke. Sucks, coz Truth is awesome. Spider Soup? really?

Oh and another thing. Kofi Kingston is great, but pastel colours make him look weak. He is not weak.

Alberto Del Rio is awesome. But he needs a finisher that isn't a submission. It limits what stories can be told in a match if he always has to "work on a body part". He used a backstabber in his match on RAW with Punk this week.. Make that his second finisher or something. Give him a bit more freedom.

Ok onto the contract signing.

Oh wait, Divas. The gap in talent between the few that can actually wrestle well and the ones that can't is huge. Beth Phoenix, Natalya, ...who else is there?.. Oh right they fired one other one with talent, and the other quit. Beth Phoenix spoke the truth after decimating Eve this week. It should be about WRESTLING! Not perving.

Kelly Kelly looks unsure about everything she does. If change is really in the air, we will see a new Women's champion at Summerslam.


Dolph Ziggler will be in the title picture for real soon. He's one of the best things going today.

Ok onto the contract signing for real this time.

I love that Punk is given the freedom to say things that seem "contreversial" Talking about how what the contract signing segment is really used for was great.
Using the Rock's facebook video was interesting, but I'm guessing it was just used to keep the rivalry going between Rock and Cena. One a side note, Rock is boring. Yup i said it. I'm not a massive Cena fan, but Rock is coming across like a bully to me. Taking shots at Cena because of how he looks/dresses/what music he likes. And Rock? I'm a man, and you DON'T represent me.
But this isn't about the Rock, that's for another blog.
I LOVE Cena's promo on the haters. "maybe i could increase my workrate, maybe i could add to the 5 moves of doom, maybe i could let my heel persona shine through".. Ha! Brilliant. All signs of change. Cena said Punk (and the voiceless) think maybe he's a "product of the system". I think that's true. He's been marketed to kids. He did change.
He said maybe he's a little "too pg for ya". It's not him, it's the product as a whole. Cena being the face of said product, he gets the brunt of the criticism. Now I may not be a huge Cena fan, but i've said it before, I respect him for sticking to his guns, for not pandering to the people who hate him. Sure he's a product of the system, but he's not changing who he is to fit in with what other people want. And really, isn't that what CM Punk is doing too? Just in a different way?
But back to Punk.
It looked like to me after HHH called him gutless and Cena called him a phony, Punk actually got legitimately mad.
Maybe that's why he dropped the names of the released wrestlers. Laurinitis sure didn't look happy when Kozlov, Smith and Masters were mentioned. But then, maybe it's all part of the story and really, isn't that the mark of a good promo or angle? When we, the so called smart wrestling fans question wether something is real or not?

Only problem is dropping names has lost a little of it's effect since the first time he did it.

Punk was at his best as usual though, telling Cena he gave up on his dreams etc. It's all great stuff, it's all the signs of change happening.
Cena having the last word was great. He delivered that last little part so well. "You will be a loudmouth, one hit wonder". Punk calling Cena a phony seemed to get under his skin a little too.

The last thing i want to talk about is the ending of the show. It was, without a doubt, the best part of the entire show.

It was so well done, all the little things that came together to set up this match.
I'm talking about after the predictable table thrown aside spot.
Punk and Cena get in each other's faces, and Laurinitis breaks them up, firstly pushing Punk back, and then turning around to Cena to push him back. Now this is where it gets brilliant.
Punk goes to kick Cena in the head, but hits Laurinitis and MISSES Cena. Laurinitis goes down (which I'm always happy to see), and the HHH gets in front of Punk. Now Cena, in retaliation, goes to Punch CM Punk in the face, kind of hits HHH but actually CONNECTS with Punk.
That's important. That Punk missed, but Cena hit. Because what happened is Punk didn't see HHH and Cena argue and shove each other because he was knocked down and rolling out of the ring. So as far as Punk sees, he gets hit in the face with HHH holding him back, and then the next thing he sees, is HHH and Cena standing next to each other in the ring.

I can't stress enough how awesome that was. It sets up the match perfectly. Cena won't back down from HHH or Punk, Punk now thinks, as he said .. that "the fix is in" and Cena and HHH are working together, and everything will go back to the soul crushing status quo. Triple H is, at least appearing to be trying to maintain order, and send the impression that that's what he's going to do as the referee. But, let me take you back to the opening segment. He never said "I'm going to call it right down the middle." He said "I will call it, as I see it". And we all know, if the ref doesn't see it, it never really happened. Little touches like that are what the WWE has been missing, the little things that push the storylines over the edge and make them great, instead of good.

Absolutely brilliant ending. If you can, really go back and watch it to see what i'm talking about. CM Punk as the underdog, the guy that doesn't fit what society (or in this case, the WWE) says is "the norm", which I relate to. This match has a lot to live up to, but adding the special Ref element will give it a different flavour.

Let's just hope that the rest of the card will be as entertaining at the last 45 minutes or so are sure to be.

That's it. I hope you enjoyed reading this, leave me a comment, follow me on twitter at @TheACMouthpiece and remember, you only get truthfacts from the couch. and Cena is the beets of pro-wrestling. #CenaIsBeets