A little background about me as a wrestling fan before I begin. I'm 34. I've been watching wrestling for about 30 years give or take. I was a NWA/WCW guy and yes, I was rooting for the bad guy before doing so was considered cool. I was a Ric Flair fan, not Hulk Hogan. I was a Demolition guy, not LOD ironically enough. (In case you were curious, Tully & Arn were my favorite tag team as a kid.) So I say all of that, to say this...
2011 could've been a really great year. By the time June of 2011 rolled around, much like most wrestling fans, I was really struggling to stay tuned. Then, one fateful night in June, CM Punk runs in during a Table Match between R-Truth and John Cena. He costs Cena the match and as Cena lied in the wreckage of a smashed table, he sat down on the stage with a mic in hand and dropped the single greatest promo in the history of Monday Night Raw. Seriously, I dare you to find one that topped it in the annals of that show's history and you'll fail miserably. I guarantee it. This thing was wide reaching and it was resounding. It was one man who for the better part of his career, kept exceeding the expectations put before him and had nothing to show for it. His World Title run in 2008 was short circuited because they felt Jericho/HBK (which was a great feud at that time, Jericho was really lights out as a smarmy, suit wearing heel) needed the strap. His World Title run a year later was more of a jog around the block than a run, as he dropped the belt to Taker barely two months after winning it. Oh and that screw job finish at Breaking Point in that Submission Match, good grief I could've written it better hung over and in my sleep than what we ended up with. 2010 saw the rise of the Straight Edge Society and despite it being one of the better stables they had at the time, he got no closer to the title. So he moves to commentary and just KILLS IT, before snapping back to action beefing with Cena. Which brings us to...
June 27, 2011. CM Punk spent the end of Raw just blasting the WWE for everything that fans like me were sick and tired of. We were sick of Cena being crammed down our throats. We were sick of folks like Punk being told their only role was to make the meatheads look good and that was it. Finally, for every angry fan who was smart enough to know good wrestling when we see it, we had a voice. A week later, CM Punk wasn't seen and that promo was still felt by all. Cena voiced his displeasure of Punk being suspended, Vince stood his ground until Cena handed him the belt and bounced. Vince caved, giving Cena what he wanted but stated if he lost to Punk in Chicago and the belt with it, he was "fired". So we flash forward a week to Boston, Cena's home turf and with a bullhorn in tow, CM Punk owned the first segment. Then when Cena came out, he owned him too even though Cena spoke most of that time they were out there. Then the night ends with Punk talking the masses into the building with a scathing promo about the walking contradiction that Cena has become and this was after he spent what felt like a solid 10-15 minutes putting Vince in his place for all the screwed up roster decisions he has made. Contract gets torn up, Raw ends with Punk mocking Cena and everyone's jacked for the PPV. We want to see how this ends.
Money In The Bank 2011. Lemme tell ya something, as someone who remembers The Montreal Screwjob and all that came from it...this was another HUGE MOMENT the WWE had and unlike 1997, they royally hosed this. The match itself was absolutely GREAT. The fans were seriously jacked in a way I hadn't heard in my lifetime. I still get goosebumps watching that match, the false finishes and then THE FINISH which was an inverted ending to Montreal 1997. What you got in Chicago, was the 'what if HBK stopped Vince from ringing the bell, slid back in and lost to Bret' finish. Punk wins the title, celebrates with the strap and then...he stares down Vince after keeping Alberto Del Rio from cashing in on him and keeping the belt in the company. With a simple blown kiss, he was out. He did the unthinkable. We all lost our minds watching it. I lost my voice cheering it on. The next night, Vince stopped a one night tournament to crown a new champion to attempt to fire Cena for his failure to keep the belt from leaving. Punk had already taken to social media, posting a picture of the belt in his fridge next to a jar of Smuckers Jelly I believe. But before Cena could be fired by Vince, Triple H came out on behalf of the Board of Directors to begrudgingly fire his Father-In-Law as COO and announce he has been picked to replace him.
So turning this forward, at Comic Con, Punk appeared and given his stature, he blended right in with the crowd there. He had a rather nice back and forth with Triple H who was speaking front and center, setting the wheels in motion for his return only we didn't know when. It would've been better, if his return wasn't until just before Summerslam. They could've milked this beautifully and I believe if they had the creative team they had in place during the Monday Night Wars, they would have done so. Instead, Punk returned the night Rey Mysterio won the WWE Title and then lost it the SAME NIGHT to John Cena who decided he was going to get his rematch. (Hustle. Loyalty. Picking Your Spot Like A Sneaky Snake To Reclaim The Top Spot.) So LOLCENAWINSLOL and as he's celebrating with Jim Ross calling it, we hear the static sound which would lead to the anthem we all marked out for when we heard it cause we knew what it meant. The Champ. Was Back. Punk returned and while the reaction was okay, maybe I should've seen this thing falling flat from here. Of course, we had the unheard of 'two champions at the same time' deal when in reality, Cena was the Interim Champion. Punk was THE CHAMPION as he was never beaten for the title and it was never formally stripped from him. He simply took the belt on the final day of his contract and that was it. But logistics, right? Anyway, they make the rematch at Summerslam with Triple H as the special guest ref. Match goes off without a hitch, except for the finish where Trips didn't catch Cena's foot on the rope. Honest mistake. Fine. Punk's made history. First man in history to beat Cena clean on back to back PPVs. HOORAY!!!
Then Kevin Nash ran in. Then Del Rio cashed in. Then the proverbial bottom to the single biggest rise this side of Stone Cold in 1997-98 started to erode bit by bit. He lost to Cena the night after Summerslam thanks to Nash's distraction. Long story short, it took Punk nearly two and a half months to earn his one on one return match for the title Del Rio took from him. Trips inevitably books a match for Night of Champions between Punk and Nash, then it flips into Punk and Triple H. Okay, this is probably the way they should've went from the get go but okay. Makes sense given Punk has been jabbing Trips since Comic Con and Trips has had to put his ego on the backburner for the betterment of the company. He can't do things the way he's used to doing it and well, he finally had enough. Punk is still convinced him being screwed was a Triple H move and the match has a catch. Punk wins, Trips steps down as COO. There's no way Punk should lose this match. Not after beating SuperCena on back to back pay per views. Right? RIGHT?????????
Wrong. So wrong. The match itself for an all out brawl, was really good to me. Hell, the promo these two had with each other six days prior to NOC, was as heated an exchange as you'll ever see. Once it got going anyway, cause for the first few minutes it was kind of a slow dance. But basically, after what felt like 80 run ins from and not limited to R-Truth and The Miz (great team that didn't even touch its ceiling as a unit) and of course Kevin Nash...Trips wins after 3 Pedigrees and I think a sledgehammer shot. Punk went on to lose on the next two PPVs, once in a tag match with Trips against The Awesome Truth and then at Heck In A Cage to Del Rio and Cena after Cena was locked out of the cell by Del Rio and Punk was teed off on with a lead pipe. Not for nothing, the ending of this match with Truth & Miz coming in from under the ring and hitting anything that move made for one of the best PPV endings you'll ever see. So Punk finally gets his rematch at Survivor Series in the Garden and him being introduced by The Fink, was great. Punk ends up making Del Rio tap and Day 1 of 434 begins. This should've been a star making moment, the moment when the WWE had its Batman to SuperCena.
Yeah...did they ever screw this up. Wanna know how long it took Punk to headline a PPV after Survivor Series? Nine months. It wasn't until Night of Champions in Boston in September of 2012 that he headlined against SuperCena no less, with Paul Heyman in his corner that Punk was finally put on the marquee. Sad thing is, this wasn't by design, it was because The Rock on Raw 1000 announced he was challenging for the title against whomever the champ was at the Royal Rumble. So now, with this on the horizon, they had to put the belt back on the front burner. Needless to say and I don't know this man personally or even informally, but I can't imagine this made Punk happy. AT ALL. Punk went on to battle his archnemesis to a draw in Boston, beat Ryback at Heck In A Cage thanks to a crooked ref, survived the combined efforts of Ryback and SuperCena thanks to three guys who would go on to form the single most destructive force this side of the New World Order at Survivor Series before it all ended in January. Well, you know how this story goes from here. Punk gets his rematch, loses, challenges Taker at Mania and loses again. Takes off for a few months and returns in Chicago to face Jericho, wins, then has Heyman turn on him at Money In The Bank a month later. Long story short, Punk's last days were spent spinning his wheels when in reality, he should've been the Savage to SuperCena's Hogan. His last night was the 2014 Royal Rumble when he went from #1 to being one of the last 4 before being tossed out by Corporate Kane.
We haven't seen him on WWE television since and while the WWE would lead you to think otherwise, they haven't really bounced back from this since. See, Punk was pound for pound the best mic worker they had. He was your proverbial Swiss Army Knife, a tool for every occasion that the WWE had in its toolbox and then minimized it to the point where he just went home and never went back. Like someone I remember reading said, you don't break contract unless you're seriously not happy. Since late January, I've read a ton of keyboard warriors on their moral high horses bashing him for his decision to leave and break contract. But to them I say, what reason did he have for staying? He was the longest reigning WWE Champion this side of Hulkamania. Think about this for a second. Nobody...not John Cena, not Triple H, not The Rock, not The Undertaker carried that belt half as long as CM Punk did from November 2011 to January 2013. CM Punk & Paul Heyman were your new age Ric Flair and JJ Dillon. That's fact, not opinion or fiction. Now, the WWE finds itself in a serious hole. Daniel Bryan, the popular choice to step into that #2 spot is out until feasibly 2015. He was the fans' preference to win this year's Rumble that Batista won, but well, you know how that went. Roman Reigns became the next guy pegged to not just become the Face Behind THE Face, but to inevitably become the heir to SuperCena's throne. Welp, he just had to have surgery and he might be out until 2015 too. Boy, they sure are running through them aren't they? So now this falls to Dean Ambrose, one of the men who made his debut along with Reigns and Seth Rollins during Punk's title defense at Survivor Series in 2012. Ambrose is a really nice hybrid of what we never got to see of Brian Pillman during his WWE run and is very Terry Funk meets Roddy Piper on the stick.
Lemme put it this way, if I had the book, he's winning the 2015 Rumble if healthy and he's taking the strap off Lesnar in San Fran at next year's Mania before Seth Rollins cashes in on him and becomes champion. But all of this is moot if Punk is still on the roster. See, Punk's gone because when you hit the point where you feel your hard work isn't going to net you the reward you deserve...you lose motivation to keep doing it. I've personally had that happen to me and while I didn't break contract like Punk did, my lack of give a crap led to me being fired. Because I was drained from feeling like I was never going to get the reward I felt was warranted and others did too. As a result of the mismanagement of The Summer of Punk and the 434 Day Reign it led to, the WWE has nobody behind Cena on the babyface food chain at the moment. Ambrose is likely to run with this and unless they cut his knees out from underneath him, he's not going to let this go. As he said on Monday night...
"Nobody takes food off my plate. Not even you, John."
Dean's eating now at the spot vacated by the injuries to Daniel & Roman, but wouldn't even have that spot if not for the general disdain that set in and led to Punk leaving the company never to be seen or heard from again. For now??? See, it's rare to see anyone leave and never return. Especially when there's still money to be made. Austin left in June of 2002 and eventually returned. When he left though, they blasted him the DAY he left. Other than Stephanie blasting fans for chanting Punk's name a few nights ago and the occasional veiled shots at him, they've been incredibly careful to not incinerate any bridges with Punk because they know what he brings to the table. In light of the recent legal hooblah, it really is 'Never Say Never'. Especially in wrestling.
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