the value of unexpectedness

I haven’t written about CM Punk’s championship victory on Raw a few weeks back. It was beautiful, it was unexpected, and it was exactly the type of thing the WWE should do more often to ensure week-to-week ratings. Surprise us. Make us wonder what you’re going to do next. It takes more creative juices, but it doesn’t cost a million bucks a week.

A lot of viewers have become too jaded; people are so busy watching the man behind the curtain, they’re forgetting to watch the show. It’s like the movies: beyond the cinematography, lighting, costumes, and so on, there’s a story just waiting for you to suspend disbelief. But again, that can be tricky when the quality is lacking.

On to last week. Waaaaaaay too much JBL; glad to see Kane still involved at main event level. Cena’s stooping to new juvenile lows – Triple H was right when he said Cena’s fans would be in bed by the time the main event rolled around. And that’s sad because the guy has skills often beyond what a lot of people give him credit for, IMHO. Last but not least, while I have no qualms with Y2J’s heel turn, I’m having a hard time with the relatively soft-spoken, reflective approach. I want my loud, funny, sarcastic, rockstar Jericho back. (And don’t get me started on HBK’s band-aids as an indicator of eye injury; they’re almost as funny as Christian’s bloody towel from a few weeks back!)

On a side note, JR objected to the speculation that Mark Henry was awarded the ECW title due to race issues. Apart from the fact he’s been there forever and has never been deemed worthy of a half-decent push, and that I believe he’s among the more dangerous super-heavyweights around, let me just say this: how can I not be tempted to think that when Kofi Kingston is crowned Intercontinental champion at the same PPV, and if Cryme Tyme gets involved in main event action that same week? Leave Shelton Benjamin to rot to prove me wrong.

And one last thing: did anyone else see the irony in Cena hiring Cryme Tyme against JBL to reprise the role the APA once held? I miss the cigar smoking, poker playing, goddamn-it there’s a door Bradshaw. *sigh*

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