Tonight’s Raw will feature a potentially solid wrestling match: Randy Orton v. CM Punk. Note I said potentially solid. Orton’s matches are always judged on how often he goes into the headlock, so we’ll see if that’s within the first two minutes of the match–it usually is.

Also featured on tonight’s show wil be “Stephanie McMahon’s Raw Superstar Forum.” That segment will kick off Raw, and promises to be oh-so-exciting. Nothing like losing your audience to football in the first five minutes of the show.

Also, in other Raw-related news, PW Torch is reporting that Triple H is up to play the role of Thor in the movie Thor. I’m a big fan of the Thor comics published by Marvel (DC Sucks!), and I think he’d be a fine choice–he looks just like the guy. Also, if he’s off filming a movie, he won’t be clogging up the title scene on Smackdown.

Apparently it’s down to Trips and Daniel Craig (James Bond), so we’ll see if they go with big look-a-like or big star.

By the way, here’s Thor back in the day:

Oh, and uh, discuss Raw here.

Well, it looks like there won’t be a title change tonight unless they’ve got something really wacky planned–the WWE has just announced that the World Heavyweight Championship match will open Raw. That’s right, it will be C.M. Punk v. Chris Jericho at 9 eastern/8 central.

They must REALLY be concerned with their ratings if they are throwing that match on first, but hey, it’s good for me because it means I can go to bed early and DVR the second hour of the show.

The only other match announced for tonight’s show is Kane v. Rey Mysterio.

Discuss Raw here, and don’t forget to vote in the newest podcast poll:

HBK Post match
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=EoklBQCuwfM&feature=related]

Also CM Punk post match interview
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=nGgLAy_h6hI&feature=related]

WWE ECW

This is the night that the crowd shitted all over the Big Show/Batista main event

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZTqOv3gJbEg]

From Jason Powell of ProWrestling.Net:

The unanimous opinion of Dot Net sources is that C.M. Punk’s title reign won’t be a long one. The feeling is that Vince McMahon wanted to shake things up in a big way and still does. One source noted that nothing in WWE should be considered a long-term move at the moment because of Vince’s mindset.

However, multiple sources agreed that Punk’s title reign is reminiscent of Bret Hart’s title reign back in 1992 when he defeated Ric Flair for the WWF Title. The feeling at the time was that Hart would be a short term, transitional champion. However, he won people over quickly, and there is optimism that Punk could do the same.

If you guys listened to The Rant this week, you know one of my fears is that C.M. Punk’s title reign won’t be well-booked, ala Rey Mysterio’s last year. If it does end up being a short reign, let’s hope they give Punk at least one big win.

Unfortunately, the big rumor is that Great American Bash will feature ANOTHER freaking triple threat match for the title, with Punk taking on Cena and JBL. That gives the bookers a really easy out–just have Punk pin JBL again, and not John Cena. This is very similar to the way they booked Mysterio, unfortunately–he won the title by pinning Randy Orton in a triple-threat, and not Kurt Angle, who was the champ at the time. Then, he feuded a bunch with JBL. Oh no, I’m getting bad flashbacks.

But seriously, what’s the consensus here? Will the WWE give Punk a short title reign with no real notable wins to elevate him, or will they have him beat at least one big opponent (i.e. John Cena) in a one-on-one match?

In my opinion Episode 19 of the PWBite Rant is the best yet. I finally got the audio issues worked out and this week Jade and I are joined by long time PWBite Arron and some guy named Lex Luthor. We discuss WWE Night of Champions, CM Punk and Kofi Kingston’s surprise championship wins, UFC 86, John Cena’s new album, the genius that is  Santino Marella and much, much more.

[audio=http://therant.podbean.com/medias/play/aHR0cDovL21lZGlhMi5wb2RiZWFuLmNvbS82MjI5NC91L0RfUFdCaXRlUmFudEVwaXNvZGUxOS5tcDM/D_PWBiteRantEpisode19.mp3]

P.S.

Remember Jade and I can always be reached at:

And you can also reach us at our official Facebook pages with are listed on the sidebar of the newly designed http://therant.podbean.com.

-sideshowRaheem

gets:
-Cena. Smackdown needs faces. Its been Batista, Edge, Taker since King Booker lost it, except for Kahli’s short reign.
-Beth. Moving to Smackdown would make sense. How many DIVAS are left on RAW for Beth to run over?
-Kennedy. To feud with Edge possibly. Kennedy may also go to ECW and become champion there.
-London and Kendrick
-UUUUMAGA
-Snitsky
-CM Punk

outside chance of cole to raw and JR to smackdown WONT HAPPEN THOUGH!

gets: take note that ECW will be on the road with RAW
-JBL
-Jeff Hardy. Lets face it, Hardy will never become a RAW champion. If he moves to SD or ECW, then it is believable that he can become heavyweight champion. If he went against edge, then maybe Lita could return for one night and Matt would help Jeff become champ. Team extreme would return for one night.
-Big Show.
-Carlito. His push begins here.
-Noble
-Finlay
gets:
-Kelly Kelly
-Natalia
-Batista. Fresh feud. He will become part of the new evolution, along with Orton. Remember, Orton asked Batista is he would like to team up. Batista didnt say yes, but he didnt say no
-MVP. WWE will build him back up. SD writers dont know what to do with him.

WHAT announcers will be drafted? Lillian? King?