CM Punk vs Kevin Nash angle continues on Raw in Tulsa: Match booked for Night of Champions?

While WWE is moving ahead with a few different storylines on both Raw and Smackdown, which will apparently be merging back into one for a "SuperShow Era," most of the time devoted to the product is spent on the CM Punk vs. Kevin Nash vs. Triple H angle.

With each passing week, the promotion has done a masterful job of releasing new bits of information and connecting more and more dots until the program reaches its logical conclusion.

Well ... hopefully logical.

Last night's (Aug. 29) Raw was no different, as the angle took a few big steps forward and revealed more and more the direction the company is headed in the coming weeks.

Let's break down what happened to keep you up to speed on the twisting and turning angle and see if we can't attempt to figure out where things are headed.

Triple H opened Raw to establish that he's still ignorant to the entire situation, or at least that's the position he's continuing to take. CM Punk joined him to make it clear that he believes "Trips" is lying and playing "the game," as it were. 

Now it was time for Kevin Nash to join the party and he did so this time with a theme song. For the past few weeks, he's entered the ring to silence but last night he came out to the original nWo theme. As it turns out, WWE.com is teasing a possible return of the popular 90s faction, which would be an absolute disaster. We'll have more on that later, though.

Anyway, he comes out and admits to Triple H that he's done some lying since he's been back. Fabricating would be a better word, actually. He says he had his driver call Johnny Laurinaitis to tell him Nash was in the hospital last week, which, of course, led to Laurinaitis telling Triple H, who ran off to the hospital. This allowed "Big Sexy" to interfere in Punk's match against John Cena, costing him a shot at the WWE championship at Night of Champions.

Nash did not, however, back off his claim that Triple H sent him the original text message to "stick the winner" at SummerSlam.

Finally, at this point, Nash reveals that Laurinaitis signed him to a contract, which, surprisingly gets one hell of a pop from an extremely dull crowd in Tulsa. To get around Triple H just firing him and telling him to go away, Nash says the deal he was signed to is a lucrative one and it's guaranteed, meaning he'll just sit home and collect a bunch of cash if he gets fired.

Simple enough.

Punk jumps back into the conversation at this point and points out that "The Kliq" is back. He makes a solid crack at Nash by saying it's funny because "Kliq" is the same sound being made by viewers at home as they change the channel on their remote when he comes on TV. It's also the sound his knees make when he walks.

The gift that keeps on giving.

The feud finally gets to a point that Nash asks Triple H to book them in a match. Punk replies by saying he should make it for Night of Champions and the match we've all known would happen and they've been building towards is booked for pay-per-view.

Later in the night, "Big Sexy" comes out to distract Punk after his match with Miz and while he's dealing with he and R-Truth, leading to another jackknife powerbomb and Nash celebrating over him before walking out, again, to the nWo music.

It's worth noting that the Tulsa crowd was absolutely dead for Punk vs Miz. I mean completely dead, like a vacuum sucked all the life out of the arena.

That seemed like a well enough way to close the show in regards to the Nash-Punk feud but WWE chose to throw in yet another wrinkle. Just as the show was about to go off the air, a backstage segment aired in which CM Punk approached Triple H.

"The Game" told the "Second City Savior" that he talked to the Board of Directors and they cancelled the match between Punk and Nash at Night of Champions. Instead, they booked Punk against Triple H himself.

Fade to black.

Now that we've established where the storyline stands now, where is it headed? For starters, I don't believe for a second that Triple H will have a match with Punk at Night of Champions. If anything, that final segment seemed like a way to promote tonight's live Smackdown SuperShow, especially after "Trips" established that the brand split is no longer in effect.

Basically, they were just giving us more incentive to tune in.

With WWE teasing a return of the nWo, I suppose it's possible Miz and R-Truth could come back into the picture and Nash could reform the faction as its leader. This wouldn't make much sense to me, though, as the nWo was always strongest as the anti-establishment group and well, isn't that how Punk got over?

Honestly, I'm unsure of which direction their headed with this. I'm assuming they'll figure out a way to get Nash back into the match with Punk at Night of Champions but it's also almost a certainty that Triple H will have a big blowoff match with the "Straight-Edge Superstar" at some point to pay off Punk dogging Stephanie McMahon week in and week out on television.

Which makes me wonder when she'll come back into the picture, if at all. And I'm still unsure where Laurinaitis fits into all this. They're painting his relationship with Triple H as rocky, but that doesn't make sense based on Nash saying he played Laurinaitis the same as he did Triple H.

We'll have to stay tuned, of course, to see what happens with all this. It will undoubtedly continue tonight on Smackdown and we'll have a live blog and running coverage of the show to keep you up to date on everything.

In the meantime, sound off with your thoughts on how things are going to play out.