Vince McMahon returns to deliver his “State of the WWE” address tonight in Sacramento at the Powerbalance Pavilion. A confrontation between WWE Champion C.M. Punk, Paul Heyman and the Chairman may be exactly what the show needs.

Tonight’s edition of Raw follows in the wake of a record 15-year-low rating for WWE last Monday, causing the company to rush into panic mode and bring back their most bankable performer. It’s not Steve Austin, The Rock, Bruno Sammartino, Hillbilly Jim, The Brooklyn Brawler or the ghost of “Macho Man” Randy Savage returning this evening. It’s Vince McMahon. Will the chairman’s presence inspire changes? His infrequent appearances have usually signaled a fairly prodigious event, but we can only hope that his appearance tonight results in a revolution greater than who fills in the general manager spot.

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Controversy surrounded the finish to WWE’s Night of Champions main event between WWE Champion C.M. Punk and hometown favorite John Cena. Expect a rematch announcement as part of the action tonight.

A lot has happened in the WWE Universe since last Monday, not the least of which was Jerry “the King” Lawler’s on air collapse that has since been confirmed as a heart attack. Our thoughts are with the King as he recovers, and we’re hopeful for a speedy recovery. The show has gone on in Lawler’s absence culminating in Sunday’s Night of Champions pay-per-view. We’ll get into where things stand coming out of the event and what to expect tonight on Raw after the break.

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This week’s abbreviated one-man version of the Warm Up revolves around one name: Bret Hart. Tonight WWE Raw touches down in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, site of the infamous 1997 “Montreal Screwjob” that saw has been the source of more discussion than few other things in wrestling history. For me, this is THE reason to watch tonight. However, given the relative lack of promotion for this aspect of the show on last week’s Raw I fear that many other things will take center stage tonight, and maybe they should.

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C.M. Punk’s latest turn as a heel was cemented last week with a brutal assault on Jerry “The King” Lawler. Punk’s reception tonight in his hometown of Chicago is expected to remain overwhelmingly positive regardless.

Last week’s Raw saw C.M. Punk showed definitively that he was no longer walking the line between good and evil as he goaded Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler into a fight and then proceeded to brutally beat him inside a steel cage to end the show. Regardless of the direction of this storyline, a large part of the audience still cheered Punk. With such headway made to show this new side to Punk’s demeanor, tonight’s Raw eminates from Chicago where Punk will absolutely be received as a babyface. Will he apologize for his actions or give his reasons for attempting to teach Lawler the meaning of “RESPECT!”

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Even at his worst, C.M. Punk should be better than demanding respect and attacking Hall of Famers like Jerry “The King” Lawler. We’ll see how much lower he can stoop tonight in Oakland, CA.

Last week’s post-SummerSlam edition of Monday Night Raw exhibited some incredibly lazy storytelling as well as a near-interminable length clocking in at 3 hours and 14 minutes. (Apparently we need this. Who knew that this was a thing? Now it’s not just about the game and how you play it, but how much time you spend playing the game.) With this kind of time being put into the product, storylines need to have more direction. There’s too much focus on buzzwords (RESPECT!) and not enough consistency with characters and fleshing out the actual plots. It’s something that we can hope they either overcome, or find something shiny to distract us with.

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