More thoughts on Batista squashing C.M. Punk in a dark match, at least one person was worried about John Cena

Tuesday, JULY 15 - 9:59 A.M.

-As I mentioned last night, I wouldn't read too much into the dark match main event held after Raw last night. I think it was wise of WWE to have Batista beat C.M. Punk in that match since Punk is being pushed as a vulnerable champion who needs to prove that he can hang with top competition.

Granted, I don't think I would have booked him to lose in a little over a minute because that makes him look incredibly weak to the fans in the building. Then again, that may have been the point since the quick finish probably convinced fans in the building that they are going to see a title change on Sunday.

-Kayfabe is dead. The days when people would buy into a stunt like last night's JBL and John Cena angle have long past, right? Um, not so much. My Raw correspondent reported that he saw a girl who appeared to be 12 years-old crying uncontrollably in the arena after Raw last night. The girl was inconsolable and was openly praying that Cena would be okay even as her friends tried to comfort her. It's still real to her, damn it.

-By the way, how does one transition smoothly from trying to make an arena full of fans believe they just witnessed vehicular homicide into a main event wrestling match? I can just hear Lillian Garcia saying, "Cena might be dead, folks, but let's get back to the action." Ugh.

-I'm still bothered by the way TNA tried to cover for Jim Cornette's absence at the pay-per-view on Sunday. They simply stated that he wasn't there and then Mike Tenay said the storyline authority figure was going to be upset once he got the memo about Abyss attacking a woman (Raisha Saeed). It's bad enough that the storyline authority figure didn't attend the event, but they basically implied that he didn't care enough to even watch it on pay-per-view.

-Raw is coming to Minneapolis at the end of September. I'm trying to decide whether to go to the show and let Rich Twilling fly solo on the review side or if I should stay home and cover the show. I was leaning toward going until last night's Cena angle. Yes, it was that much of a turnoff. By the way, I have a group of friends who are trying to find out the pre-sale password for the Minneapolis event. If you have any information, send me a note at dotnetjason@gmail.com.

-Here's a question that's been bothering me for a while. Do the troglodytes who clap at the end of movies they watch theater do the same after watching a DVD at home?