By Sean Radican, Torch columnist

Last night’s edition of Raw wasn’t the slam dunk build SummerSlam needed to pop a big buyrate on PPV this weekend. SummerSlam will draw more buys than most PPVs because of the value of the SummerSlam brand, but the build to WWE’s summer classic left a lot to be desired.

Punk’s apparent heel turn seemed to be geared to build some steam behind his character heading into SummerSlam last night, but it fizzled. Punk mocked Cena and then Cena mocked Punk during their tag match against Daniel Bryan and Big Show. Punk ended up bailing on Cena, who managed to beat Daniel Bryan to win the match anyway. The big concluding segment for the built to the WWE Championship match saw Punk run back into the ring and save Cena from a Big Show attack on the surface. It seemed to play out as if Punk would have hit Cena with the title if he had gotten the chance, but instead Punk offered a handshake and Cena blew him off.

Really? That’s it? I’ll take a pass on getting too excited for Punk defending the WWE Championship against Cena and Show. WWE needed to something more to drive home Punk’s heel character. It’s been subtly done, but WWE really towed the line last night and the concluding angle fizzled as a result.

The build for Triple H-Lesnar was better than the build for the WWE Championship match, but it wasn’t much better. The problem was the show closing angle took way too long to unfold and ended up dragging so that Raw didn’t conclude with much of a bang. Sure, Brock ended up breaking HBK’s arm much to the dismay of his buddy Triple H, but people don’t have the attention span in this day and age for that angle to take three hours to unfold.

When Lesnar debuted after WrestleMania this year, he seemed like a force of nature the way he attacked Cena leading into Extreme Rules. With SummerSlam, fans have seen a more subdued Lesnar who doesn’t come across like he’s as dangerous as he did when he faced Cena earlier this year. The big money with Lesnar comes with him being presented like a force of nature and breaking the arm of a retired wrestler and having a back and forth ordinary brawl with Triple H wasn’t the type of build that is going to make casual fans buy SummerSlam if they were on the fence.

Heyman’s words may have painted the picture of a dominant Lesnar last night, but Lesnar’s action showed him to be ordinary. Heyman told fans they wouldn’t see an ordinary match between Lesnar and promised Lesnar would deliver the beating of a lifetime to Triple H at SummerSlam, but Heyman’s words weren’t enough given how Lesnar was presented on television.

The undercard was handled fairly well heading into SummerSlam. The Prime Time Players have some steam behind them after laying R-Truth heading into their tag title match against Truth and Kingston at the PPV. It’s an angle you might not have seen if Raw was still only two hours long.

On the other hand, the build to Dolph Ziggler taking on Chris Jericho was drawn out too much last night with Jericho uttering his catch phrases during the Piper’s Pit segment in response to Ziggler’s digs against him. Jericho did some really good work and transformed himself into an unlikeable heel during his last run with WWE, but he hasn’t done his best work during his current run.

That being said as convoluted as the setup was for the Miz-Jericho-Ziggler Triple Threat match, these three men delivered an excellent television match. Ziggler picking up the win over Jericho might was a solid way to give fans a reason to wonder what will happen when he takes on Jericho at SummerSlam. A better verbal exchange between Jericho and Ziggler without Miz being thrown in the mix would have been more satisfying, but I’m still looking forward to this match.

Overall, Raw was a mixed bag last night. A lot of the show seemed to drag with highlight packages and drawn out angles built around the big matches. SummerSlam had big potential when the card began to take shape, but with Raw being stretched out the show didn’t hit the crescendo it needed to pop a bigger than usual buyrate for SummerSlam.

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