Happy Pipe bomb day, yes June 27 shall forever be know as the day CM Punk became a star. One year ago today CM Punk sat indian style and delivered one of the most memorable promos in RAW history.
I dont think WWE creative or Punk knew how much of an impact that his 6 minute and 24 second promo caused. It created such a buzz on the Internet and had more fans talking about him than at any other time in his career. It increased his value over the last year following the promo.
Since that pipe bomb Punk became the #2 guy, John Cena being number #1. Thats super impressive considering nobody had been able to give Cena a run at the top spot for several years. Punk is sells a shit load of merchandise, only second to Cena in sales.
Punk deserves the recognition as a great talker and engaging personality. Hardcore wrestling marks respect him for putting on great matches and the casual WWE fan cheers for him because well they dont really know who else to cheer for and thats ok. The causal fan is like the guy who gets Yankee tickets from his office they sit real close in there business casual khakis and don’t pay attention to the game.
I am a huge CM Punk stan. I think all who read this know that. I think he gave WWE the kick in the ass that was needed, but they (the WWE) did not continue to act upon for a short time yes but they didn’t think long term. I had a twitter conversation with one of my followers and he brought up a valid point, even with the WWE championship, Punk NEVER headlines WWE pay-per-views. He is not the main attraction. I had no response all I said was Punk has been putting on amazing matches.
Money In The Bank will forever be his crown Jewel, so lets look out side of MITB. To be fair and not fill all this space with RAW matches and such lets look at the last 4 PPV’s. Wrestlemaina 28 and Extreme Rules CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho for the “wrestling purists” Mania 28 was a goddamn clinic. CM Punk vs. Daniel Bryan at Over The Limit another wrestling match. Punk vs. Kane and Daniel Bryan triple threat match at Over The Limit, all assumed Kane would slow this match down but shockingly he held his own.
Once of the main issues I had with the Summer of Punk was not having the Summer of Punk be a real head scratcher. After the Punk promo Punk, was reminiscent of Stone Cold with that anti-establishment “shooter” who know he’s good and wanted to win the strap and leave the WWE and having them realize O shit we need that tattooed mother fucker.
The way the Money in the Bank angle played out had myself and a room full of other 30 year olds think where do they go from here. We all knew Punks leaving was a work and he would be gone for a while, after MITB he was back in two weeks with a new contract. That kinda killed it for me. The random twit pics of where he placed the WWE title was great. Can you imagine how great it would be if Punk showed up with the strap at a Ring Of honor show. That would have done so much for his fuck you I’m doing what I want attitude.
So what exactly has changed in the year since CM Punk promo? For starters, Punk likely wouldn’t have won the WWE Championship at the Money in the Bank PPV three weeks later. After winning the championship for the second time at last November’s Survivor Series, Punk has now carried the WWE title for nearly eight months which is the fourth longest title reign in the last fifteen years. Hot and sexy AJ, plan jane of all the divas had no TV time time until her relationship storyline with Daniel Bryan and the whole I dig crazy chick movement. The WWE has given talents from various indie promotions like ROH stars an opportunity to prove themselves on WWE television. Antonio Cesaro (formerly Claudio Castagnoli) is one, Chris Hero and Tyler Black will be on WWE TV more sooner than later.
I am curious to see Punks position after he drops the title. Punk is likely to drop the WWE Championship no later than SummerSlam, perhaps to John Cena, perhaps to Daniel Bryan. When this does happen Punk is going to lose the title and will have to take a seat behind Cena and the new champion. This is the true test of his awesome to see if he can maintain fan interest without a title (like Cena and Randy Orton). How he reacts to that and how well he holds his position going into what I believe will be the next Summer Of Punk in June of 2013, will really cement his worth with the company.
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