Punk's Lawler Heart Attack Promo from RAW

[Troy]

On RAW this past week Jerry Lawler returned to the announce booth on RAW, two months after his heart attack. His return promo was interrupted by CM Punk who then proceeded to mock Lawler's situation and he and Heyman even ran a fake heart attack angle.

In the RAW discussion thread there was some good back and forth on the topic and it was clear that people were quite clearly for or against it.

What did you think of the promo? Did Punk go too far or was he just doing what a good heel does?

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

If this happened back in '98 everybody would be loving how edgy the storyline is.

Because it happened today in a Be A Star world everyones complaining because it could hurt someones feelings.

Like I said in the Live Discussion, I found it amusing to the point I actually laughed. Its about time WWE started pushing the envelope again.

 

[Troy]

A guy died and was revived after a heart attack, that is a line you just don't need to cross. Punk didn't get any good heel heat out of it, the crowd pretty much just sat their in awkward silence other than a few laughs at Heyman being revived. I fail to see how it did anything for Punk to do that, did he come out of it as a bigger heel? I say no because he definitely didn't get booed that much from the segment as people just didn't want to react.

I just didn't see any need for it at all, was Punk struggling to get heel heat before the segment? He wasn't at all so he didn't need to attempt this cheap heel heat tactic because he was already a hated heel. Lawler should have just returned, done his promo and then went to the announce booth.

 

[John McHenry]

After the initial shock I was ok with it. I think they could have waited but it was WWE being presented with a way of doing something they'd never thought of before. I mean if they had faked the whole thing people would be even more pissed. It's a television show are you pissed off when someone on Sitcom X has a heart attack? I'm sure someone on that set knew someone that had a heart attack.

 

[Troy]

After the initial shock I was ok with it. I think they could have waited but it was WWE being presented with a way of doing something they'd never thought of before. I mean if they had faked the whole thing people would be even more pissed. It's a television show are you pissed off when someone on Sitcom X has a heart attack? I'm sure someone on that set knew someone that had a heart attack.

It isn't the same at all.

If an actor on a television show had a real heart attack, not scripted, on a live show and then the writers wrote a storyline where they did a fake heart attack angle and said that the actor should die it would be condemned.

I just don't see why there was a need to stoop to that level. WWE pretty much reinforced the view that most of the mainstream media have of wrestling, that it is just a bunch of dumb hicks.

Did the angle do anything for Punk or for RAW or WWE? What purpose did it serve?

 

[John McHenry]

If say nathan fillion had a real life heart attack so they wrote it into the show nobody would say a thing. I'm pretty sure they've done it before to an older character of some show I used to watch. I believe they did so, so in the event he had another or died they could write him off TV.

It did give Punk more heat you claim it didn't but here we have this thread so it did something.

And it could be used again further down the line.

 

[PHX]

I'm still not exactly a fan of it but my stance has softened on it some. Makes him look as evil as a hell has in a minute. I had way more of an issue of WWE filming Jerry's heart attack than I did with this personally.

 

[Troy]

If say nathan fillion had a real life heart attack so they wrote it into the show nobody would say a thing. I'm pretty sure they've done it before to an older character of some show I used to watch. I believe they did so, so in the event he had another or died they could write him off TV.

It did give Punk more heat you claim it didn't but here we have this thread so it did something.

And it could be used again further down the line.

That isn't heat, I am pointing out how it made him a worse heel and how it hurt his character. This didn't make him a better heel, it made him look like a weak heel because he had to stoop to this level. He is meant to be a mainevent heel yet he did this, this is something I would have expected from Heath Slater's character someone much lower down the ranks.

I'm still not exactly a fan of it but my stance has softened on it some. Makes him look as evil as a hell has in a minute. I had way more of an issue of WWE filming Jerry's heart attack than I did with this personally.

Yeah that was really weird and not needed. Showing that footage was just odd because it made that video shown before his return look like another storyline.

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

Punk might not be getting the heat in the audience(and lets face it, the audience is more concerned with their cell phones than the event they payed money to see) but he is getting heat amongst the people who are actually craving wrestling. This forum is solid proof of that.

Triple H dressed up as Kane, and feigned having intercourse with a dead girl. Undertaker killed his own parents, and attempted to kill his brother. Rikishi ran Austin down with a motor vehicle. All Heyman did was fake having a heart attack.

 

[Troy]

Punk might not be getting the heat in the audience(and lets face it, the audience is more concerned with their cell phones than the event they payed money to see) but he is getting heat amongst the people who are actually craving wrestling. This forum is solid proof of that.

Triple H dressed up as Kane, and feigned having intercourse with a dead girl. Undertaker killed his own parents, and attempted to kill his brother. Rikishi ran Austin down with a motor vehicle. All Heyman did was fake having a heart attack.

But it isn't really heel heat, more of an XPac heat. I don't see him as a more heelish figure after this, I think it hurts him and made him look like a midcard heel.

Those situations are completely different because they are all fictional storylines. If Glen Jacobs in real life committed necrophilia then that angle wouldn't have been right at all because it would be disrespectful to the woman involved. Heyman faking the heart attack wasn't the worst thing, pretty sure the bit about Punk essentially saying he wanted to kill him in the ring was worse.

I still haven't seen anyone say why the angle was even needed. What was the point in Punk going after Lawler again?

 

[PHX]

Because Punk and Lawler were in a mini feud before that and he did suffer that heart attack after being in a match with Punk. Thought that much was at least obvious as to why they did it.

I don't see how this is "midcarder heat" that doesn't even make sense. By that logic Iron Sheik or any other foreign heel wasn't a real heel and didn't have real heat. A heel is based off doing low, backhanded dastardly things that piss you off. You do what you gotta do to add heat esp in this day and age where it is actually harder to get booed due to the emergence of the "cool heel". If it was offensive and a heel did it that is perfect for a heel and doesn't hurt them.

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

Wasnt Lawler in a match against Punk the night of the heart attack? The perfect heel thing for him to do was come out and gloat about it. Atleast he waited until after they knew Lawler would recover before they did it.

The point of the examples was to show that worse things have happened on Raw. But if you want a real one then, Owen Hart died in the middle of the ring, years later Vince would go on to fake his own death on screen. Drug abuse has killed numerous wrestlers over the years, but it was part of Jeff Hardy's character in his feud against Punk. Alcoholism(and other things) destroyed Jake Roberts personal life, Lawler was using that as a catalyst for their feud. They turned Eddie Geurerro's death into a storyline that led to Mysterio winning the championship.

When were any of those getting the attention that Punk & Heyman are recieving?

 

[Troy]

I know they had a feud before the angle, just don't see why there was a NEED to have Punk interrupt the promo and cut that promo.

But there are different levels of heat. This is the cheapest of cheap heat that I would expect a company to use if someone was really struggling to get heat. Maybe if they turned Cena and they couldn't get people to hate him they would used this to try to get him boos. Punk was already getting plenty of heat as a heel so it makes no sense to me as to why that promo was given to him.

A heel can definitely get hurt when they are given a weak storyline. Just because it was offensive doesn't mean that it gave them more heel heat or got them more over. I guess we will see what reaction he gets at the PPV and on RAW next week. If WWE are smart they would just ignore the promo but I highly doubt they would do that even though that segment dropped close to a million viewers.

 

[Troy]

Wasnt Lawler in a match against Punk the night of the heart attack? The perfect heel thing for him to do was come out and gloat about it. Atleast he waited until after they knew Lawler would recover before they did it.

The point of the examples was to show that worse things have happened on Raw. But if you want a real one then, Owen Hart died in the middle of the ring, years later Vince would go on to fake his own death on screen. Drug abuse has killed numerous wrestlers over the years, but it was part of Jeff Hardy's character in his feud against Punk. Alcoholism(and other things) destroyed Jake Roberts personal life, Lawler was using that as a catalyst for their feud. They turned Eddie Geurerro's death into a storyline that led to Mysterio winning the championship.

When were any of those getting the attention that Punk & Heyman are recieving?

Lawler literally died for a time and then they mocked the whole issue. Pretty sure that everyone hated on them taking advantage of Eddie's death especially the segment when Orton said that Eddie went to hell. It was another example where there was no real need to stoop to that level. If Vince had faked his own death by falling from the rafters then people would have slaughtered the company, his was a comical car explosion and I can't recall any wrestlers dying from a limo blowing up. I am not defending the angle because it was dumb but I can't remember seeing anyone link it to Owen before.

Punk could definitely have used the heart attack and made a mention of him being involved, the way he went about it just didn't work at all. Plus I still think that in the end there was not a real need to use it, Punk would have still been a top heel without it and Lawler didn't need the sympathy that the promo brought him. Everyone already felt that way for Lawler.

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

Vince still faked his death on screen, regardless of how he did it, did so knowing full well he is partially responsable for a near on screen death, that luckily only those in attendance had to witness. I know its not one people would make normally, but when you really discect it, its alot worse than this whole Lawler/Punk bit.

I agree with PHX on his stance with babyface heels, Punk is trying his hardest to become a true blue heel. A stunt like this will get him away from any fans with a heart cheering for him, because aligning with Heyman only seemed to make Punk cooler.