Raw 3/3: Coach rides the bus

Meltzer's been wrong about nearly everything since Mania 2 years ago.

Punk stays away til Raw after Mania, when he comes out as Hunter's new corporate goon.

Man people really have short memories.

Punk in the Rock role and Bryan in the Austin role and some people would still complain.

I bet dougref would get this.

But that doesn't work with Punk. No one will buy him as a corporate lackey. It just won't work.

I wonder sometimes if I'm the only person paying attention. That sounds way more dickish than I intend it to be but I don't have a better opening line, so there.

Whatever you may think of Punk, I feel I must at the start here point out that he does not - on any meaningful level - walk with the greats. Moreover, to quote da Coach, "he's 35 years old, he's not gonna get a whole lot better."

I hope you do not think this makes me happy to say that. I also hope that you do not think this does not consume him ... because everything I believe I understand about the fella leads me to believe that it almost certainly has to.

Now ... no mainstream fan - the type WWE makes their real money from I might add - has ever, or likely will ever, see a 'great' match from Punk for two good reasons: (1) WWE would never allow his style of 'great' to be broadcast on their airwaves (say, Punk vs. Samoa Joe #2), and (2) because of the first point as well as his advancing age, all his 'great' matches are behind him.

-- BUT --

Punk feels (perhaps rightly so but likely not) that he can put his name on the list of greats not with a great match, but with a great moment. Now sure, there are some great Raw moments (Foley wins the belt, DX invasion, the night of the ECW invasion before we knew the abortion it would become) and there are great PPV moments (Foley/Taker HiaC, Dudley/Hardy/E&C TLC 1 and 2) but, like it or not, it's nearly impossible to supersede a so-called 'Wrestlemania Moment' for legacy building and impactfulness (not a legit word but I'm using it anyway).

Now I'm not suggesting that this whole thing, from the start, was Punk jockeying solely for a (perceived) huge role in Wrestlemania, because I think that's granting far too much. What I will suggest though is that at some point it occurred to him that since WWE was never going to give him the opportunity to properly slow-build to a WM Moment, his last, best option was to get hot-shotted into one, which is the potential scenario that exists right here, right now - and surely will never exist again.

So, I suggest it eventually occurs to Phil that he break from incommunicado status not for the money (it's nice, but he's been very careful with his money by all accounts), but because he wants to achieve a status that is reserved for the true greats - Hogan, HBK, HHH, Rock, Austin, Undertaker, Tito Santana.

Now I don't see a happy ending for that wish, I really don't ... I want to, I just don't. I don't know what can be crafted that will have a lasting impact that even is remembered two years from now ... and I want to be wrong, I really do.

Because I'll never get over my deep and abiding love for the workrate in ECW as well as during the Monday Night Wars, I'm therefore relegated to being happiest when my action soap opera is busy letting someone like Heyman or Punk cut a scathing promo to the point I suspend disbelief.

I can therefore only hope for my own selfish entertainment wishes that if and when Punk comes out tonight that he is given the VAST majority of a 12-18 minute segment to just roll, and I mean just. fucking. roll. I can only hope they put him in a match with such volcanic heat and with someone very interested in putting him over (and, my friends, Mr. Levesque does -NOT- fit that bill though that's surely who his opponent would be) that his place NEAR Olympus would and could be solidified on a night in early April.

But I think that's asking too much from all involved ... which, in turn, unfortunately, makes getting ooey-gooey about a CM Punk return probably too much to ask of me.

I have been known to be wrong before, though ... from time to time.

I seriously have no idea who Aaron Paul is.

Not 'til about 10. Cribbage night!! And I really don't know who that dude is. I'd rather see RuPaul.

He's hosting Raw. And since when do I talk about what's actually in a thread?

Oh man - a guest host in Chicago. I'm sorry guy.

I'm jacked for this show. I just hope I can stay awake.

Two things on the pre-show:

1. Fans booing the shit out of the Matadors in the background of their set.

2. Brie Bella looking RIDICULOUS tonight.

I kind of hope Punk is nowhere to be found. I want to see how far the fans will take this.

I kind of want to see a train wreck as well.

I want to setup an inferno match between Kane and this Chrisley guy. Kane doesn't enter the ring, but he sets the entire ring on fire. Chrisley lights on literal fire. Match over. We win.

I rarely brag about Chicago stuff, but damn it, we do have the best wrestling crowd in the nation. Love this group, haha.