The End Of CM Punk’s Title Reign
The Rumble was last night and there’s a LOT to talk about so expect a lot of posts from me today about various topics from the show.
One of the major things that happened last night was CM Punk’s 434 day world title reign came to an end. The common response to this (mine included) is that the ending to Rock vs. Punk could have been better. Let’s take a quick look at why and some other things about the title reign.First of all the problem I had with the ending wasn’t about the People’s Elbow but rather the spinebuster that set it up. Rock had been talking about hitting the Rock Bottom and dedicated an entire promo to the idea. The Elbow itself is fine for Rock to finish with as he beat Hogan with it plus multiple other legends. It’s a finishing move for Rock so it’s not a huge deal at all.
As for Punk losing, you knew it was going to happen at some point. It had to. I mean, the guy had been champion since the November before last. It doesn’t make Punk’s title reign a joke, it doesn’t make Punk look weak and it doesn’t do anything bad to him. Everyone loses their title at some point, from Bruno getting pinned by Ivan Koloff to Hogan getting cheated by the Hebners. Punk had to lose at some point and he was pinned at a Big Four show by the third biggest star in the history of wrestling. That’s hardly getting surprised by a rollup by Primo.
Finally, where does Punk’s title reign rank all time? The main problem for Punk’s reign is that almost everyone knew that he was losing the title to Rock at the Rumble for well over six months now. That made nearly half of his reign feel like a formality than a championship reign that could go on forever. That being said, it was still amazing to see in this day and age, especially given the people he was retaining against. It doesn’t come off as one of the greatest reigns ever due to feeling like a transitional reign, but it’s going to be the longest we see for a VERY long time. That’s something Punk can certainly be proud of. How he didn’t win Wrestler of the Year from everyone is beyond me.
Personally, for such a long reign, it was handled rather poorly for the most part. I was never a fan of him somehow always ending up on the undercard rather than the match that headlined each PPV. Cena on the other hand went on last each and every time. Yeah, Cena’s a draw. That’s no mystery. That’s my other problem. He’s a draw. What difference did having Cena vs Johnny Ace or Cena vs Big Show or the MITB he won have headlining a PPV other than putting the WWE Champion and title, the aledged centerpiece of the company under him? Aside from his matches with Lesnar and Rock, none of Cena’s matches that didn’t invlove Punk had no real business being the leading match on a PPV card.
Cena is a proven draw. His placement on the card could never affect him. He could wrestle a broom opening a PPV and it would get big buys. But it did affect Punk in my eyes. It became far too glaring that Punk always played second to Cena’s first despite the 434 days. He champion for that long but just how many of those days was he truly perceived as the top guy?
I’m just wondering how much longer they can ride this cena horse.
Even though this seems like Cena’s year, it’s certainly not a stretch to think that Punk will have that title back come June when there’s a PPV in Chicago.
Then again, with the way they’ve been booking Cena lately he’ll probably get his MITB 11 win back in Chicago then (Cena fan here).
I just believe that if anybody deserved a Mania main event because of their work, it definitely would be Punk. Orton has one, Edge has one, MIZ has one FFS…. Punk deserved his main event spot at Mania and not just jobbing to Taker in the “co-main event”. I just hope the WWE decides the give him a real Mania main event before he retires in a few years (He’s already stated he’s not staying in wrestling into his 40s).