Cena really hurt, scrambles crazy enough to work

Well, I guess the reports were true.

As Mike Adamle mentioned on Monday's RAW, John Cena has indeed suffered a neck injury and is out indefinitely. Graned, last time Cena was said to be indefinitely injured, he was back in a jiffy, but I guess this time is serious until we hear otherwise. And now, RAW, more than ever before, is an open door.

With Cena injured and Triple H on a different show, it's important for everyone on RAW to step up a notch.

In my view, the scramble matches might be crazy enough to work. Jim Ross has mentioned on his blog that Pat Patterson has had a hand in getting the scramble concept off the ground and Patterson doesn't associate himself with poor match concepts. You may remember that an idea of Patterson's about two decades ago became a WWE institution; The Royal Rumble. With three scramble matches now announced for Unforgiven as the backdrop to the big Shawn Michaels-Chris Jericho match, the show might end up good.

Putting somewhat unproven guys in the match adds to the intrigue. Who will pin whom? Who will get a nice rub? We'll find out. By the way, for those unaware, ECW does all the qualifying for its championship scramble against Mark Henry. The show was taped tonight due to upcoming tour schedules.

• It was nice to see CM Punk get a win over JBL after losing to Chris Jericho clean last week. I'd thought and JBL had admitted it in interviews that he had been a step behind since returning. His matches with Punk, for my money, have been his best since his return. Maybe JBL has some gas in the tank after all. Just a nice long match with a satisfying finish.

• I thought Mike Adamle even did a pretty good job in his limited exposure on RAW this week. Baby steps.

• Boy, is it a good time to be a fan of women's wrestling in North America. It was not a good time to be Beth Phoenix, the Glamazon on RAW after Kelly Kelly seemed to stiff her in the face with a kick that left her nose gushing blood. You don't see that every day in women's wrestling. Actually, the last time I saw that much blood in a women's match was probably when Beth kneed herself in her own mandible and fractured it a few years ago. Kelly Kelly has gotten pretty good, Beth already is, Candice should be back soon and she was getting a lot better when she left. And that's not even mentioning Mickie James, the injured Melina, Jillian Hall or Katie Lea. Plus all the SmackDown! divas and the impending return of Gail Kim. My assumption is a return match for the women's match at Unforgiven. There might already be too many RAW matches on the card though.

• Speaking of Candice Michelle, it was nice to see her back on TV, albeit at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. It was also nice to see Josh Mathews. I think the last time we saw him, he was getting killed by former referee Tim White in that remarkably dark angle after those Hell in a Cell vignettes with White. I still think he should be announcing somewhere in WWE.

• I don't know why someone on the RAW writing team thinks it is so hysterical to put Charlie Haas in all these absurd scenarios. In wrestling, you are supposed to play to strengths, not weaknesses, nor the whims of one man's laughter. Haas is always made to look like a joke. Primo Colon's debut was a little underwhelming. Referencing Carlito was weird since Carlito still has not been on television since the draft.

• Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho continue to do an awesome job, selling their angle. Both men have given tremendous performances and cut just fantastic promos on each other. The better part is that no one is yelling. Understated intense emotion is just as important as screaming. Michaels saying his wife was tougher than Jericho and he's get jailed for what he wanted to do to Jericho was a nice touch. It's nice in 2008 to see a one-on-one grudge match with months of backstory like this one. I guess Shawn is not retiring after all. Would that have anything to do with John Cena's injury.

• Good that Cody Rhodes & Ted DiBiase got a win, albeit over the aging tag team of Jerry Lawler and Jim Duggan. What took them so long to do this match. Oh yeah, we had to mess with Michael Cole, have Cena and Batista, then Cena bury the champs and THEN, this match could happen. OK match even if their opponents were 58 (Lawler) and 54 (Duggan). Ha. No one in this match was in their 30s or 40s. When Cryme Time starting doing their "Money, Money, yeah, yeah" shtick, I flashed back to Cody Rhodes doing it with Cryme Time and Roddy Piper a few months ago on Carlito's Cabana.

• Wouldn't it be funny if Scotty Goldman hosted a segment on SmackDown! called Cabana's Cabana?

• Santino looked so upset that his muscular female friend, Beth Phoenix, the Glamazon, did not accompany him for his match against Kofi Kingston. It was Jamaican him crazy, you could say. At least that's what Mike Adamle told me. OK, so he didn't. Santino saying "You're not mad at me" at the end was fun. I love the Glamarella team. They are so much fun. May they reign for a long time.

• Putting Rey Mysterio in the match in the middle of his whole angle with Kane is a little weird, but I suppose they had to put someone in there. My other ideas were William Regal or Big Show somehow coming over from SmackDown!

• The final match with Kane against Batista did not knock my socks off, but they were trying psychology and the crowd seemed a little burned out too (they taped ECW tonight too).

If anyone is curious, the qualifiers for the ECW scramble, spoiler-free, are:
• John Morrison vs. Matt Hardy
• The Miz vs. Evan Bourne
• Chavo Guerrero vs. Tommy Dreamer
• Mike Knox vs. Finlay, which had already been announced.