Go Home to SummerSlam

Monday night raw had a lot of pressure riding on its show tonight. Having to focus time on all of the major matches coming up this sunday night at summerslam while featuring a celebration for one of the most popular wrestlers in history. The birthday party couldn't overshadow the pay per view or its main drawing events and when hogan is involved that is a tall order. WWE almost nailed it. They almost allowed a wrestling show to sell their pay per view, but they had to wwe it up. But, of three hours of live tv how could they resist, i guess. Lets focus on the good, bad and ugly and see how much it effected summerslam and directly effect the wwe network.
Raw was almost a really good show. We were granted a great Paul heyman promo where lesnar did exactly what he needed to do: look like a guy that could kick your ass. Heyman did what he does best: remind everyone that Brock can kick your ass. It was responded to by a passionate enraged john cena promo explaining his love for what he does and what he fights for. All three men did a tremendous job this evening and wwe made the right call by keeping lesnar and cena away from each other only having a stare down as the show ended. Between the video packages, promos and build this is match has peaked right on time and this main event is anticipated as much as it should be. It was certainly a high point on the show.
Dean ambrose and Seth Rollins made the most of their minutes and really stated why this match should be a lumberjack match, whether it makes sense or not, the "you can't run" line ambrose delivered sealed the deal. This match will live up to the expectation because it involves two young and hungry performers in their ascension to the top tier. Dean ambrose is the most over face in this company and it may not be what wwe wants but ambrose isn't going anywhere soon.
Jack swagger showed that he can sell with the best of them. It was also established that swagger is hurt going into the flag match and when jack takes beating after beating from Rusev until he finally makes that comeback the crowd will go bananas and jack swagger could walk out of summerslam a huge american hero.

The missed opportunities Monday night I believe were where Chris Jericho and bray Wyatt sat down across from each other and continued to just not have that element to make it special. I still expect y2j and Wyatt to still be very good but I am still waiting for that special element.
I have great disdain for the Miz. His commentary just rambles and takes away from what is being offered. Dolph ziggler needs that ic title or it will continue to be lost in the shuffle.

Then there was the love triangle, adultery, getting arrested and sloppy melee that we should be so lucky to forget. For the last two weeks wwe created an interesting rivalry between Stephanie McMahon and brie bells. It was high drama and effective build. However, wwe just had to do it somewhere. They had to over do some angle into absurdity and beyond our suspension of belief and the fan base was served a turd. It was long and it lousy and sucked any momentum created over the last several weeks. Before this segment the wwe universe seemed to be clamoring for this match up and now no one cares in the worst kind of way. This is a great example of a story peaking one week too early and it cost them.  Ironically this story really took off when Brie slapped Stephanie in the face and then Steph retaliated; last night I feel we all took a slap in the face. 
So, raw was good and could have been really good and the important matches have their tables set for Sunday's summerslam. I really expect Brock lesnar to walk away wwe champion and I continue to believe that this will benefit the lesser titles as they will be forced to be more focused on. Which in turn benefits the mid level guys vying for those titles. For as little as wwe emphasizes the titles what better way to change that then elevating the lower titles while the heavyweight championship is not featured on a weekly basis.

Finally, it was awesome to see, and is always awesome to see, the legends return. Hogan may be the greatest "carny act" in wrestling history because he gets it so well that no one ever wants him to leave and plays it off like the greatest of all time. The video package wwe did for him gave me goosebumps and for as bad as it may be I would still go crazy for that infamous one more match.