The purpose of this editorial is to rundown the latest edition of professional wrestling programming by highlighting the various segments and storylines of the show, quickly recounting what happened, how I feel about what happened, and what I want to see out of a storyline or feud going forward. The following Rundown covers the July 4 edition of Monday Night Raw.

By Ryan Kester

Kofi Kingston and Dolph Ziggler:

Vickie Guererro and Dolph Ziggler came out to celebrate America's birthday and Dolph Ziggler's current status as the United States Champion. Kofi Kingston crashed the part and jawed with Ziggler for a moment before brawling. As a result, Vickie ended up getting cake all over her rump.

While I feel this feud is completely played out, it was nice to see these two get some mic time, and it was even nicer to see an entire segment on raw devoted to the mid-card belt. It's not quite where I think the belt should be, which is in main events of some of the TV shows, but at least it was something. I would love to see more storylines developed for the mid-card belts that run deeper than the bare bones formula of two guys switching between title reigns and chase mode with each other every few months.

Kofi is so incredibly over that he just needs to be elevated. He could easily feud with Truth as he isn't doing anything worthwhile at the moment. Plus, Kofi's constant presence in the mid-card title scene only serves to make Dolph feel stale. He needs to work with a fresh guy and focus on honing his mic skills while elevating the mid-card title.

Triple Threat Match to Determine the No. 1 Contender:

Alberto Del Rio, R-Truth, and Rey Mysterio put on a great triple threat match that saw the return of Del Rio getting a clean win via his cross arm breaker. The match featured several innovative and classic three man spots that put it above the usual formula of two guys wrestling while the third sells off camera.

This match was a pleasant surprise. I figured we'd gotten all we could out of Mysterio and Del Rio and R-Truth isn't exactly someone that sets the world on fire with his in-ring work. However, these three worked their asses off in that match and it paid off. I absolutely love seeing the cross arm breaker tap people as it time it happens the move look deadlier and del Rio looks credible.

Del Rio now adds a unique wrinkle to the WWE title picture; I have no doubt that they will just push his match back to SummerSlam, which could make for one hell of a showdown if they book MITB right. WWE will need to establish if Del Rio will stay in the Raw MITB match or not considering his win last night.

The Miz Snaps:

After losing to Alex Riley via a backslide, the Miz completely lost his marbles. Miz seemed to switch between nearly in tears to red-faced and pissed several times as he beat the tar out of Alex Riley.

Miz needed this bad as he was quickly losing steam from repeated losses to Riley. I hated seeing Riley win with a backslide, though, as that does nothing to get the young guy over. It will be interesting to see where they go from here. Miz looked more vicious than he has in months and he really seemed to amp up his brutality to good effect during the post-match beat down of Riley.

I imagine the MITB match these two share will see them more or less take each other out of the running for the briefcase. Following this, we will likely get a SummerSlam showdown out of these two which I hope to be the blow off to this feud. Riley needs this feud to end quickly as he is simply wilting under the star power of the Miz rather than being elevated by being associated with the man.

John Cena:

John Cena delivered two very memorable performances on the stick. The first was in the opening segment where he gave a no nonsense declaration of intent to appeal C.M. Punk's suspension. Then, later in the evening, he called out Mr. McMahon to confront him about McMahon's decision and gave him the ultimatum that either he gets his match with Punk or he will simply walk away from the title. This made Mr. McMahon cave in, but not before telling Cena that if he loses the belt to Punk at MITB, he will be fired.

I loved the opening segment. It was Cena in rare form and was so much better than his usual shtick. I was equally enjoying the final segment until Vince said that he can't trust Cena winning. Really? Cena took out an entire faction out on his own. I think those comments rang completely disingenuous. The firing angle has also been played out already and I feel like it telegraphs the ending to the MITB showdown.

I cannot wait to hear Chicago when heir hometown boy comes home to steal the title from Cena. It will be ridiculous. I haven't been this excited for a WWE storyline since last year when the Nexus first debuted. Let's just hope WWE delivers and doesn’t over think this potentially historic moment in wrestling.

Overall Show:

WWE managed to hype the MITB PPV well and kept the holiday camp to a minimum. For a pre-taped holiday show, Raw was entertaining. I know that I am looking forward to next week, which makes last night's show a success with this viewer.

Thank you for reading through this Raw edition of the Rundown. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to hit me up at ryan.kester@gmail.com or find me on Twitter at @Ryan_Kester. Have a good week.

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