Reported by Mike Siciliano of WrestleView.com
On Monday, June 30, 2008 at 11:55 PM EST

Let's put this in to perspective, ladies and gentlemen.

I just today got discharged from being in the hospital for two days. I was not fortunate enough to see the results from Night of Champions on Sunday, as I received that information from my lovely wife via telephone while I was recovering. I was placed out of work for the forthcoming week, so I was fortunate enough to get the chance to see Raw tonight from bell to bell.

I figured with the results that had occurred from the pay per view, that things were going to stay relatively status quo for the forseeable future, at least until WWE figures out a way to re-write McMahon back in to power.

Raw starts, Jim Ross comes out for his farewell address to Raw, which is well deserved. I am pleased WWE didn't do anything stupid with it, and let him say what he had to say, but I have to admit, when Edge came out, I was surprised. I understood the logic of it, but I was still surprised. Edge did his monologue, bragged, heel work, the whole schmere, and I figure we're about to get a run in from someone. Sure enough, here comes the Animal.

Hawkins & Ryder are nowhere to be found. Nobody else from the family is there, so the sitting duck is prey to the Animal, and takes a hell of a beating. I thought the whip to the stairs looked exceptionally brutal.

Then the unthinkable.

The unimaginable.

The shock that stoked a fire in my heart from a pro wrestling standpoint.

CM Punk comes out, referee in tow, they announce Money in the Bank has been cashed, a vicious, and I mean vicious G2S....
(people, it looked sick, kudos to Edge for selling that puppy.)

1.

2.

Done.

We have a new World Heavyweight Champion, and no more title problems for the forseeable future.

I'm thrilled for Punk. I am stunned at what happened. I am absolutely astounded they did this on RAW, which is by far and away a statement made by WWE that they're working on upgrading the product. Why? Simple. It's the first time a face champion has cashed money in the bank on the flagship show to win a world title and return it to a show that had no world title.

I know 3 times Money in the bank has been cashed. First, at New Year's Revolution when Cena came out of the chamber, and Edge beat him. Appropriate, to the last. Second, on Smackdown, when 'Taker was hurt, legitimately, and beaten up by Henry, Edge beats him again, although the case should've been Kennedy's. Now, we have it on Raw, when it was technically supposed to be Jeff Hardy's, but instead, it's ROH stalwart, and now WWE World Champion CM Punk.

I'm excited.

I know that people are going to say I'm over rating CM Punk, and you know what, you may be right, and you may not be. Opinions vary. What I know, and what I can tell you is this. The first time I saw CM Punk compete ever was in a Ring of Honor ring in July of 2005 when he signed his WWE contract on the ROH World Championship. Anyone with the cohones to do a stunt like that in that surrounding has the cohones to pull this off, and not to mention, has my respect.

I'm a fan of CM Punk. Like him, hate him, who cares. He's fun to watch, he's no frills, he's no gimmick, he is who he is. Yeah, I know the labels, but I don't give a damn. I like a guy who will come up, take a challenge without batting an eye, go out there, give 150%, and not give a damn, win, lose, or draw. I can't say 100% for certain that all of those parts fit the new World Champion because I'm not an insider, and I can't tell for certain, but from what I have seen from CM Punk, during his time in Ring of Honor, and his time in ECW and Raw while in WWE, he appears to fit that mold perfectly.

He is an absolutely perfect World Champion, if only for a short while, but who knows? You may see some very interesting new challenges come down the pike. One thng is for certain for the flagship brand. It is definitely going to be fresh and new. And that, ladies and gentlemen, should make every single Raw fan very, very excited.

I have to be honest here, I never saw this coming. I read all the reports on the sites, I thought Punk was in over his head, or just shooting his mouth off in the locker room and pissing off the wrong people. He had seemingly gone on one hell of a losing streak while holding the briefcase that I thought it was only a matter of time before someone wrote him out of the title picture enitrely by doing to Punk what they did to Kennedy last year.

But, I guess all the so called insiders were mistaken. Because one way or another, the WWE did listen to the bulk of its fans that have been cheering for this guy since he broke in to ECW. He's had some damn good matches with ECW stalwarts like Shelton Benjamin, John Morrison and others. He had a very positive ECW title run, he had one hell of a showing in Money in the Bank, and it's obvious that someone in WWE hierarchy has some idea that this guy is the goods, because now, he's got the big gold.

And I couldn't be happier.

Don't get me wrong, I respect Edge as a world champion. I think he is due for one hell of a feud, a feud for the potential ages with Triple H for the WWE Championship. I am happy as hell I am going to be able to see that week by week on Friday Night Smackdown, and, I'll admit I was wrong, I expected that Edge would be champion, and Trips would be hunting the family and the Rated R champion. The roles are reversed. One way or another, that feud is going to be violent. It's going to be ugly. It's going to be fun to watch, from the word go.

I am anxious as hell to watch Smackdown this week to see how things fall in to place. I am even more anxious to follow Raw from a distance and see how CM Punk's world championship run continues. I give kudos to WWE for the draft moves, and the laid out storylines that led to this opening moment on Raw. It was one of the best moments I've seen on Raw in some time.

I'll make some quick comments about the rest of Raw, and call it a day. I'm running on fumes right now, everybody, I hope you understand.

Kudos to all the emails who said Kofi Kingston would be the challenger for the IC title. I am thrilled he won it. The title rematch tonight ended poorly, but c'est la vie.

Cena's shot to the face with his knee on one of JBL"s flunkies was sick.

I'm glad that they didn't focus on Edge screaming about the loss.

I'm glad they didn't focus on the McMahon angle.

I think Raw desperately needs to get back to wrestling. WAY too many promos.

Cena and Cryme Tyme coming out during the World title match, freakin' priceless. Hell of a great move by Punk after the win with the over the top hilo on everybody.

And lastly, Kudos to Edge and JBL for putting their egos to the side for the sake of business and putting a new face over as "the man." I can't prove it to save my life, but I'll be damned if WWE was able to put this scenario out there for these two men without asking for their "permission", paycheck or not. It's nice to see some of the old guard showing some signs of making actions needed to freshen and bolster the overall product.

Ok, sleep calls. First night in my bed in three days. See ya.

Thanks for reading.

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