C.M. Punk is smarter than you. (The WWE, not so much.)

I continue to enjoy what the WWE is doing with C.M. Punk on Smackdown. On Friday night, a hot crowd thought they would finally get to see Punk, the cultish leader of the Straight Edge Society, without his trademark hair. Finally, after months of running his mouth, the arrogant purist would get his comeuppance!

However, in a brilliant move, he instead wore a mask to the ring and broke out in a wide, psychotic grin. This was a great decision in my opinion, since it allows Punk to maintain his arrogance, and it keeps the crowd hot for the eventual "reveal" on his hair, which I imagine will happen at the next pay per view.

Unfortunately though, Punk was by far the highlight of the show, as several other aspects of it fell flat to me. The main event was a good match between Mysterio and the Undertaker, but because they're both fan favorites without any existing issue between them, the crowd was pretty mellow on the whole affair.

For a few brief moments, I thought they were going to have Undertaker do a heel turn on Mysterio, but this didn't develop. This wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to me, since Smackdown lacks a #3 heel along the same stature as Swagger and Punk, neither of whom is considered a guaranteed money guy yet. There are some decently developing heels behind those two, in Drew McIntyre and Dolph Ziggler, but neither is established enough to me. Meanwhile, the show has plenty of faces without Undertaker - Mysterio, Big Show, Kofi Kingston, Christian, Matt Hardy and MVP are all guys I can see as credibly involved in the title picture, given their past successes.

In a continuation of an angle seemingly only I like, Laycool mocked Beth Phoenix, and also WWE fans for questioning how they can have two titles. "I've got 99 problems but Beth ain't one!" McCool and Layla are both ridiculously annoying in their current roles, and as such, they're the only interesting wrestlers the WWE has in the Smackdown women's division. (Sorry Kelly Kelly and Tiffany - You're both incredible eye candy, I just wish the writers could give you a personality or a gimmick or an angle, instead of imagining what your naughty bits would look like in a cheerleader outfit.) On Raw, Maryse holds a similar role, although Eve at least has some potential. Gail Kim has been completely buried since coming over from TNA, but I imagine she doesn't mind the paycheck too much.

The rest of the show featured a so-so tag match between Kingston-Show and Swagger-McIntyre, Christian being teamed with Hornswaggle (ugh!), and MVP jobbing to Luke Gallows. None of these were that compelling, so grading on the usual curve for Smackdown, I can only offer praise for the Punk and Laycool segments.

Grade: C

Injury, blood mar Over The Limit

I never thought I'd say this about a wrestling program, but blood and injuries got in the way of a good show.

The best match of the show, C.M. Punk vs. Rey Mysterio, was held up for several minutes as a doctor treated a deep cut in Punk's head, and Rey seemed to have a semi-serious injury to his neck. The match eventually resumed with about four minutes of really hot action, before leading to a Mysterio pinfall. (This was probably just in time as well, as Punk's cut had re-opened and looked pretty bad.) The post-match angle was hot as well, although Kane coming to the aid of Mysterio still seems silly to me.

Randy Orton's match with Edge also went to a double count-out because of injury. As Orton was slapping the mat for the RKO, he suddenly stopped. The Internetz is reporting anything from a broken fist to nerve damage, which is unfortunate, because it clearly threw a monkey wrench into the works of the match. Given the circumstances, I kind of wish they had just let Edge has an opportunistic win. You know, like throwing Orton into an armbar or a figure-four, and just going with the injury angle. Orton was able to stand up and move around for a couple minutes, so I think they could have improved the finish a little bit better.

It's unfortunate that both of these matches were a bit spoiled, because the rest of the card was underwhelming to me. Drew McIntyre vs. Kofi Kingston actually had a clean finish, with Kingston going over, which surprised me. The Hart Dynasty also beat The Miz and Jericho clean, so I'm not sure where they go from here. Maybe Jericho wins the U.S. Title from Bret Hart to tease some dissension between the team? And Jack Swagger's match with Show downright sucked because it was so short, and it came on the heels of the Orton injury match.

Grade: C-

Swagger, Punk and actual wrestling highlight Smackdown

Smackdown had three three really awesome segments last night, all of which contributed to its near-perfect show to me:

1) Swagger has really been getting over in recent weeks as a smarmy, arrogant heel, and this Friday's segment was the best one so far. He had a long, drawn out promo that featured him doing push-ups, exaggerating his past accomplishments, and showing off pictures of himself as a little kid and champion at that point. It was the perfect mixture of humor and cockiness for his character; the whole thing felt like something Jericho would have done in his prime.

He was finally interrupted by the Big Show, who predictably started breaking all of the various trophies and displays setup in the ring. This provided some neat visuals, as I think pretty much everyone has the basic urge to go King Kong on a bunch of stuff at various points in their life. I only hope that they let Swagger go over on the Big Show next week, since Show has been better than Swagger in each encounter so far.

2) The Straight Edge Society put a pretty savage beating on Rey Mysterio, furthering their angle. At first, Serena was dressed as the masked attacker and SES member, and Rey was about to hit her until she revealed herself. Then, the real masked man hit Rey from behind, drawing a DQ. However, the SES clearly got the best of the encounter, as they beat the snot out of Mysterio and forced him to pledge while he was unconscious.

3) The show also started out in intense fashion, as there was a good, 15-minute match between Kofi Kingston and Christian over the intercontinental title. Kofi eventually won with Trouble in Paradise after several near falls.

After the match though, Drew McIntyre came to the ring with a letter from Vince McMahon reinstating him, and restoring his title. I imagine this will lead to a feud between Kofi and Drew, which should be pretty good. For now though, next week will feature Drew vs. The Big Show, although I imagine Drew will back out of the match after a few minutes. The interaction between Kofi, Drew and Smackdown GM Teddy Long was really good.

The rest of the show was still pretty good, excluding a squash match between Shad and some local jobber. Surprisingly, there was a fluke title change - An already injured Beth Phoenix had a clash of heads with Michelle McCool, and Layla pinned her to win the title. I imagine this will lead to either McCool turning on Layla, or Phoenix quickly regaining the title whenever the two actually have a match. While Layla has improved in the ring, she isn't a good enough worker to be credible as a champion.

Grade: A+

Stuff you're probably not interested in: WWE Bragging Rights review

[Left] Chris Jericho pictures are always appropriate.

I wasn't really sure what to write about today, but then I realized that I haven't written about professional wrestling in a good, long time. Don't read on if you still want to watch WWE's Bragging Rights! While I realize most of you aren't wrestling fans at all, maybe you'll find this interesting anyway.

Opening match: Miz vs. Morrison was a fun match with some good action, even if I didn't like the finish, which was Miz pinning Morrison clean. Sure, he did a kind of dirty move by shoving him during Starship Pain, but I'm not sure what the finish accomplished. I can't see the Miz getting pushed further just yet, and he get the best of Morrison in their last confrontation (the draft), so I thought Morrison would be going over.

Diva tag team match: The diva tag match was interesting until the finish, when it looked like Beth Phoenix and Melina screwed up. Maybe that was just my perspective though. I did like the sort of odd tension between Phoenix and her fellow heel, Michelle McCool. They would make for an interesting heel stable if it weren't for the Beautiful People in TNA, of which they would be a clear copy of.

World Heavyweight Championship fatal fourway: This match for the WHC wasn't that great. I'm believing the Internet reports about Taker being seriously diminished in terms of health more and more, because this match only went about 10 minutes. Undertaker won after a tombstone piledriver, and after Rey and Batista broke up each other's pins during the match.

After the match was over, Batista savagely attacked Rey, instantly turning him heel. While I think Batista turning heel is good for his character, which was getting stale as a babyface, I don't like it from an overall standpoint. This means Punk is on his way out of the title picture after the next match / short program with Taker, barring a huge upset, setting up Batista vs. Taker around Royal Rumble time. They did have good matches in 2007 and 2008, but it still feels stale to me. Also, given Taker's health concerns, who knows if that can continue?

Seven on seven, Team Raw vs. Team Smackdown: This was better than I thought it would be, although I was annoyed to see Kofi Kingston take the pin. I also thought he went out pretty weakly - All he got was a chokeslam from Show, and about 30 seconds passed before Jericho actually got the fall. At least have Jericho do a Lionsault or something, because the Chokeslam is more of a secondary finisher for Show now, and a rising star like Kofi shouldn't be pinned on it.

Iron Man match: Finally, this was surprisingly good. It looked like Cena got legit busted open, all the pinfalls made it interesting, and they did a good job of portraying Orton's utterly psychotic nature. His look of madness in the last two minutes was incredible, although with the finish, I'm not sure where they go from here. Maybe have Orton get even more ruthless? Just have him beat the crap out of people backstage for absolutely no reason, until even Legacy / Priceless (and specifically Ted Jr.) feels the need to stand up for him.

And with the win, there is now absolutely nothing for Cena to do. DX looks like they're going to be busy with JeriShow, any kind of match with Orton would be stale, and the other heels on the roster - Swagger, the Miz, Masters - don't really seem to be anywhere near Cena's league as a competitor.

Maybe the WWE will actually take my advice and go with a Kofi Kingston vs. Cena match, face vs. face, for the PPV. Or maybe they'll go old school and have Cena and Taker each lead a Survivor Series team at the PPV. You could the GMs pick each team, and Cena's team would be faces - Cena, Kofi, Evan Bourne and MVP. Smackdown would be a mix, maybe Taker, Morrison, Punk and Ziggler / Estrada. To provide an incentive for the winning team, all the surviving team members would be entered into a match for the championship belt on their brand.

At some point, you have Punk get Taker DQed, followed by Taker "removing" Punk from the match, setting up their program for the next PPV. At that point, maybe Morrison is the only guy left, and he fights valiantly against the remaining members before getting pinned by Cena eventually. They shake hands at the end, everyone is happy, the end.

p.s. I was disappointed that there was nothing from ECW on this show. What gives? It's got the best wrestling week in and week out on WWE programming now.

And also, the Chris Jericho picture is from here.

Wrasslin' around

[Left] Still the best entrance ever: The countdown clock from Jericho's initial WWE run.

The other day in The Los Angeles Times, there was a decent article about the new, family-friendly direction the WWE was headed in. However, to a longtime wrestling fan like myself, reading it reminded me that “family-friendly” is a relative term indeed. The columnist also didn't come across as much of a wrestling fan, since the article focused almost solely on current stars and provided little background.

While the WWE has undoubtedly strayed from the tits, ass, violence and blood of the appropriately-named Attitude Era, there is still plenty to get offended by. They have just shifted the focus from things that got them the teen / mature TV ratings (blood, breasts) to simpler storylines and non-bloody beatdowns. Also, with the exception of re-hiring Chris Masters, there has been a shift away from the professional bodybuilder look, probably in reaction to the Chris Benoit incident.

DX, the original group of bad humor, just reformed, even though Shawn Michaels and HHH are both in their mid-40s. Although it was played up as farcical, HBK did Superkick a tween girl in the face less than a month ago. (Background: They were doing a skit where HHH had to talk HBK back into wrestling, but HBK was working as a cook – I mean, a chef – at essentially a cheap hotel restaurant... Yeah, I don't know why I watch wrestling either sometimes.) They also still do childish jokes and crotch chops.

The best argument that can be made for the new direction of the WWE is a shift to more old school storylines. For example, Randy Orton is the current WWE champion, and he has retained his title each time with chicanery, normally with a member of his gang breaking up a pinfall or interfering. Orton has also done vile things, like punting HHH's wife Stephanie McMahon in the skull.

Opposing Orton would be John Cena, who you might remember from some funny appearances on late night television shows and some god-awful movies (The Marine, 12 Rounds). He is as close to Hulk Hogan as you can get in the current wrestling industry, as he is built like a starting middle linebacker and always plays the “good guy” role, at least for the last five years. (He does get booed a lot by hardcore fans, and while I'm not the biggest fan of his squeaky-clean persona, I do think he's a good wrestler. He also seems to be a good guy away from the ring as well.)

There are other clear bad guy vs. good guy feuds throughout the Raw roster, although I will say that as a result it tends to be the less entertaining show for longtime fans. Smackdown, which airs Friday nights on MyNetworkTV, is by far the better show at this point. That show has an edgier feud between the straight-edge CM Punk and the notorious risk taker Jeff Hardy, which culminated in a vicious tables, ladders and chairs match Sunday night at SummerSlam.

While there is far less blood in WWE programming now, there are just as many metal chair attacks and leaps from 20-foot-high ladders, so I'd hesitate to say they're getting back to “family-friendly” programming. When I was watching wrestling as a kid, it was just tamer in general; the brightly-colored outfits of Bret “The Hitman” Hart and Hulk Hogan definitely lightened the tone.

The Monday night Raw doldrums

Unrelated to the rest of this post but always important to mention - Chris Jericho is the man.

I shamefully enjoy professional (fake) wrestling, which normally surprises others and forces me to mount an awkward defense of my interest. Yes, it's fake, but so is everything on television. Yes, it's a bit like a soap opera, and yeah, it is kind of homoerotic that guys are clutching each other, and yes, that's weird. But there is something oddly entertaining about it to me, to the point where I've never really been able to stop, even when the programming is in a down cycle.

I think there is something primal in wrestling that gets pretty much every guy interested in it at some point. I was substituting for an elementary school gym class last week, and casually commented on a CM Punk shirt a kid was wearing. This was a bad decision from a class control standpoint, but good for me personally, because soon every kid was asking me about the wrestlers I knew and (somewhat comically, somewhat scarily) trying to put their friends into the Go To Sleep (you put the person up on your shoulders, then swing them down toward a knee to the face).

All the kids I knew growing up watched wrestling, but pretty much all of them dropped it as we got to middle school and high school. I didn't really advertise that I watched it, but it never came up in casual conversation, except for a few times when "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was fighting with The Rock and the corporation and Mick Foley (1998, 1999). From conversations in college, when I grew a little less ashamed about my habit, I found out that there weren't really many people watching it in secret like I was.

Enough with this trip down memory lane, though - The current product leaves something to be desired. The most pressing issue to me is what has happened to Monday Night Raw. This week's episode was OK, with a bloody, intense confrontation between Randy Orton and Ric Flair to hype up this Sunday's meeting between Orton and Batista. However, even the hilarious Santino Marella and a solid MVP-Kofi Kingston match couldn't keep the hour I watched from dragging a bit.

After the draft, it seemed like Raw would become the dominant brand, because of all the star power - HHH, Batista, Orton, HBK, The Big Show, John Cena - in the top tier. Oddly though, this has made most of the booking predictable. After a slight push to MVP, involving him in the Orton-HHH--Batista-McMahon family angle, he is back to the midcard, in a feud with the pedestrian William Regal and Matt Hardy. All of the big names force the WWE to book formulaically at top, since HHH and Batista and Orton aren't going to be losing often to the likes of MVP and Kofi Kingston.

Meanwhile, Smackdown and ECW lost a lot of their marquee talent, and both have been great since the draft. Because there aren't really any talent "tiers" on the shows, the only focus is on good angles and good matches. Both of the shows, and to a lesser extent Superstars, are normally my focus in a given week as opposed to the normal flagship, Raw.