Pro Wrestling Review: Raw Review 6/17/13

 Welcome back to Pro Wrestling Review today I'm going to be talking about Raw 6/17/13. Now usually I don't do raw reviews here on Pro Wrestling Review but since this weeks episode was so good I've decided to do one. I'm not going to be talking about all of the matches, I'll just be hitting on the big things coming out of the show.

Opening promo Del Rio heel turn and CM Punk face turn

 The show started out with Alberto Del Rio coming out and basically completing his heel turn. The night before at Payback after he won world heavyweight championship he cut a promo saying that the last few months he had done everything for the fans and then say that he'd won the title that night for them as well. After which the cameras showed the crowd booing him because of his vicious actions in his match against Dolph Ziggler. In his promo on raw he basically said that he was done with the fans because they booed him after he'd won the title and that the fans got him nothing.

 I'm really glad they they're turning him back to being a heel. His baby face character just wasn't working and I think he's always been better as a heel. The last couple months that he was a heel last year he kind of got boring but now 6 months later he has a new start as a heel and so far I'm liking it.

 Then CM Punk came out and completed his face turn by challenging Alberto Del Rio to a match later that night. Now I'm ok with CM Punk turning face, he definitely has a big fan base but I'm hoping that he doesn't turn into what he was last year. In 2011 when he turned face he was good for a few months but after that he started really hurting his opponents credit on the mic like a lot of people complain about John Cena doing now. He also got very bland and basically turned into a tattooed version of John Cena. As long as those two things don't happen and he can keep his character original than I'm ok with this face turn.

 During the promo there was some tension between him and Paul Heyman and after the segment in the back he told Heyman that he would always be a Paul Heyman Guy but he didn't want Heyman as his manager anymore. He also kind of took a shot at Brock Lesner saying that he wasn't a client like Brock Lesner and Curtis Axel and be didn't need Paul Heyman to help him in his matches.

Christian's return

 After nearly a year Christian returned to face Wade Barrett in a match that he won. I'm very excited to see Christian back in the wwe and I'm surprised that he wasn't back sooner for wrestlemania. As glad as I am to see him back I'm kind of afraid that wwe won't know what to do with him. I kind of get that feeling with Chris Jericho sometimes too but with Christian it's a lot worse. I don't get it either, after two years of being back he finally gets a world title reign that he probably wouldn't have gotten if Edge hadn't had to retire and he does a wonderful job with it. He pulled off a wonderful heel character on smackdown but then when he returns to wwe last year they give the intercontinental title and put him in some minor stuff with Cody Rhodes and The Miz.

 I don't get it it seems like they have no idea how to use him and it's not like they didn't have room for him last year. When he was ic champion last year on smackdown they were having the endless Sheamus vs Del Rio world title feud that had about as much story line as they had characters. They could have really used him over there but they didn't. It's not like he hasn't proven himself because he has multiple times especially when he was world champion. Now I'm kind of getting the same feeling as he fighting 3MB on smackdown this week, I mean seriously can they not think of anything better for him to do. Christian is a great wrestler and can pull off a very good face or heel character. He's about 40 years old so I really hope they use him well while they have him. I wouldn't mind seeing him feud with Wade Barrett and then maybe going into the world title scene.

Antonio Cesaro (with Zeb Coulter) vs William Regal

 Next we had Zeb Coulter come out and announce that the newest member of his group is Antonio Cesaro. I'm very exited about this, I had been wishing that he would have been paired with Paul Heyman and I'm glad that he now has a manager. Now I hope that he doesn't completely switch over to the Jack Swagger gimmick just because he's with Coulter since he's Swiss that gimmick wouldn't really make since. They might need to find an issue for him and Coulter to get behind that applies more to Cesaro. I'm really glad that they gave Coulter a wrestler manage while Swagger is away because Coulter has tons of talent as manager. I'm also a big fan of Antonio Cesaro I think he has a ton of talent but my gosh his stock has really fallen in the wwe. After he lost the U.S. title he was put the dog house so to speak and I'm not sure why. He was doing things like yodeling and being a Swiss solider but I didn't see to much of it because he was mostly on main event and superstars. Now it looks like they're putting him the right track. They have a lot of work to do with him but I'm sure Coulter can manage it seeing as he's the same guy that took Jack Swagger from being someone I cared about a lot less than Cesaro to someone that's actually entertaining and relevant.

 The match that he had was against William Regal. The match very short with Cesaro handling Regal during most of it before getting the win. Now I don't get what it is with wwe and William Regal, a few weeks ago they had him in a match against Wade Barrett on smackdown in England. The crowd really wanted to see a real match between them but instead they just had Barrett beat him in less than five minutes. I don't get what it is with them, Regal is a great in ring wrestler and a 15 or 20 year veteran and they're treating him like a jobber. I know that it's not that he's getting to old to put on a match because I've seen him wrestle 20 minute matches on nxt. They didn't even give him his entrance..Seriously? We did get to see some very cool feats of strength by Antonio Cesaro but I would've also liked to see a good back and forth match between these two. It's not like they didn't have time it's a three hour show.


Mark Henry Segment

 After that we had the big Mark Henry segment. Now the announcers had been talking about how on twitter  he had been talking about retiring. So he came out to the ring during John Cena's promo and put his wrestling boots on the stage. He was wearing a suit and tie and told Cena that he could put guard down. Then he started giving his retirement speech, he was acually crying and cracking jokes about his career. Then John Cena gave him the wwe championship and held his hand up. Now I was skeptical at first and I was hoping that it was a hoax and he wasn't actually going to retire but by the end of that promo acually about two second before the big thing happened I thought to myself ok he's actually retiring. After that John Cena gave him a hug and them Henry picked Cena up gave and gave him the world's strongest slam.

 This was a very cool and surprising moment and Mark Henry did an amazing job with that promo convincing everyone that he was retiring. I'm sure he'll win a slammy at the end of the year for it but heck he should win an Oscar. I've been a big fan of Mark Henry since 2011 when his big heel turn began, He has a really good heel character and I love when he yells at his opponents during his matches it's very entertaining. He's a very good unscripted talker. I've heard nothing but good reviews of this segment from people and I'm hoping that this helped to get some of the people that weren't already on the Mark Henry train so to speak onto it. I'm really looking forward to his feud with John Cena and I'd really like to see him win the wwe championship this summer. He's about 40 years old and has one of the best heel characters in the company, John Cena can always have another world title reign but Henry might  not be wrestling in two or three more years. I think they should take advantage of Mark Henry while they have him and give him a wwe championship reign. He definitely l deserves it.

Daniel Bryon vs Randy Orton

 This match was very good, Bryon got an injury during match and I heard that it was real but nothing too serious. The referees eventually stopped the match because of it. Weather or not it was real I thought it came off very well on tv. Bryon kept fighting through it and telling the referee not to stop the match and he looked angry once it was stopped. Also afterword he apparently yelled at Triple H backstage on the wwe app. This was kind of like the same thing they did with Dolph Ziggler at payback and I think it really helped to get people behind him.

 Orton and Bryon also had a very good match on smackdown that ended in a count out win for Bryon. Tonight on raw we have a third match  between them. I'm really looking forward to that and I'm hoping that they start a big feud between Bryon and Orton, I think Orton should turn heel because with the reaction that Bryon has he should probably stay face. I'm guessing they'll both be in the money in the bank match so maybe they could have a match at summerslam.


Main Event CM Punk Vs WHC Alberto Del Rio

 This was a pretty good match and it ended with CM Punk winning via count out after Del Rio left the match. I was thinking that this was kind of a dull ending to the show but it definitely wasn't over yet. As Del Rio was walking up the stage Dolph Ziggler comes out of nowhere and starts attacking Del Rio. Earlier during the show after they said that Ziggler wasn't going to be there do to his injures I tweeted that they should have him on the show right after payback because it was the perfect time to turn him face after his performance the night before and I'm really glad they did. I also like how they're taking it slow with his face turn, it's not all at once. He still hasn't cut any face promos. So far it's very interesting and the attack on Del Rio was awesome.

Epic Ending

 That wasn't the end to the show though there was more. After Ziggler's attack they announced that CM Punk was the winner but his music didn't come on Brock Lesner's did. Lesner came out and walked around the ring, then got in the ring and grabbed a mic. It looked like he was going to say something but instead he F5ed CM Punk. This was a really awesome moment, it was one of those really exiting things when your watching it live and you know that your in the middle of a big moment.

 I'm really exited for this feud, I'm not sure if their match is going to be at money in the bank or summerslam or maybe both. It will also be very interesting with Paul Heyman being the former manager for Punk and the current manager for Lesner.

 This was the best episode of raw that we've had in a long time. We had lot's of big things on the show with Bryon and Orton's match, the wonderful Mark Henry segment, Christian's return, Ziggler's attack on Del Rio, and the start of Brock Lesner's feud with CM Punk. I've heard people call this the best episode of raw all year and I would agree with that.

 The whole landscape of wwe seems to have changed a lot after Payback and this episode of raw, there's tons of big things going on, Mark Henry's wwe championship feud, Lesner and Punk's feud, Christian being back, of course the shield which has always been good, Daniel Bryon who has been getting a huge reaction and hopefully a huge push, and Ziggler and Del Rio potential interesting character changes.

 I'm hoping that wwe can maintain all of those big things for the rest of the summer and it looks like wwe has come out of the post wrestlemania low. We also had a very good episode of smackdown this week as well.

 Be sure to tell me all of you thoughts on the latest edition of Raw on twitter: @ ENC98, Facebook: Enc Wwe, or on Instagram: ENC98. You can also follow Pro Wrestling Review's very own twitter account: @ PWReview for news on just this column. You can also check out my youtube channel: ENC98TV and my other column here on blogger: TV Movie Review. See you in the next article thanks for reading.