Defending Punk

[Big Red Jericho Punk]

I'm not going to go on a full rant here or anything since most people understand. I'm just going to say for all the Punk haters about how his character has died down. Well what did you really expect? Did you think Punk was going to go all out shoot mode weekly? That doesn't happen but it's not like he lost being entertaining and awesome in the ring. He is still the most must watch guy in the WWE although Jericho is someone you can say it that now. Other than Jericho, there is no other guy that is must watch like Punk. People are still talking about change, which just baffles me. You don't think things have changed? If you would have told me that CM Punk and Daniel Bryan were the main champions last year, well that would have made no sense except for possibly Punk. Everyone has been craving change yet you're getting it right before your eyes. You are getting better matches and some great feuds to go along with it. Some things may stay the same, but imagine Punk wasn't here right now. Can you imagine if CM Punk just left the company and things would have been pretty bland. You may have The Miz or Alberto Del Rio as the title but let's be serious both guys are becoming pretty stale. I have no problem if Ziggler was the champ because he's gold right now but the other two I mentioned not so much. On Smackdown it would probably have Bryan in mid card hell. It just baffles me on how people have been saying where is this change when it's happening right before your eyes. I'm all for debating and arguing, but when people say Punk is stale or Punk is overrated, it just pisses me off.

 

[PHX]

The main thing that really annoys me about the whole thing is because when he was doing his edgy style you had people saying he needs to stop doing that he's coming off as too much of a douche he needs to do something else, this that and other. Then he goes and does a more watered down promo then it's like he needs to go back to doing the edgy stuff. So I'm just like make up your mind on how you want the man to be. I mean he's done some mic work that I thought he could have done a hell of a lot better considering his ability but I do think he has balanced it out find as he can't shoot everytime he is out there but same time can't tame himself because that's the advantage he is supposed to have over a Cena or what not.

This really bothers me about how some fans views all wrestlers really like right now there is the big Dolph bandwagon building up but give it a few months then people will say how he needs to go back to doing this or that and he's too stale. Makes it seem like wrestling fans have ADD or something.

 

[Big Red Jericho Punk]

Wrestling fans are like New York sport fans most of the time. They hop on the bandwagon but if the team loses, they just put them down and don't say a word. I'm usually ignoring a lot of stupid comments like how people hate Orton and think Cena is lame. I'm usually avoiding the stupid internet comments about them, but when people are ripping on Punk its just mind blowing. I'm not sure if this is accurate but did you want a repeat of fall 2010? I thought fall of 2010 was among the worst eras of wrestling and I'm a huge Kane fan. Kane had his title run but the failed Nexus story line made wrestling almost unwatchable (for me at least). It took Morrison getting pushed and CM Punk commentary to get me interested especially with Jericho leaving. The main thing i'm trying to get as the predictability of wrestling was taking over. What the Summer Of Punk did was basically make everything unpredictable and made things great again. You never know what's going to happen with this and it's absolutely brilliant. I'm looking forward to everyone being on Punk's bandwagon in a few of weeks after he goes head to head with Jericho on the mic with some great punch lines.

 

[ATKOOL]

I wish that they put on a match beween Johnny and Punk with his job on the line.

 

[PHX]

Wrestling fans are like New York sport fans most of the time. They hop on the bandwagon but if the team loses, they just put them down and don't say a word. I'm usually ignoring a lot of stupid comments like how people hate Orton and think Cena is lame. I'm usually avoiding the stupid internet comments about them, but when people are ripping on Punk its just mind blowing. I'm not sure if this is accurate but did you want a repeat of fall 2010? I thought fall of 2010 was among the worst eras of wrestling and I'm a huge Kane fan. Kane had his title run but the failed Nexus story line made wrestling almost unwatchable (for me at least). It took Morrison getting pushed and CM Punk commentary to get me interested especially with Jericho leaving. The main thing i'm trying to get as the predictability of wrestling was taking over. What the Summer Of Punk did was basically make everything unpredictable and made things great again. You never know what's going to happen with this and it's absolutely brilliant. I'm looking forward to everyone being on Punk's bandwagon in a few of weeks after he goes head to head with Jericho on the mic with some great punch lines.

I feel the biggest reason for this is simply the "cool" effect. By that I mean after his shoot promo it was cool to be a Punk fan so you had others jumping on his bandwagon or pumping their chest cause they were a Punk fan. But then after a while when it's bound to die down but you still have people showing him support then all it takes is a few people to say man get off Punk's nuts already or he's not as good as people make him out to be and then that becomes the "cool" trend to do. This cycle happens over and over again. Would have happened with Rock and Austin had forums been the way they are now back then.

 

[Defiant]

I think Punk has died down a little bit lately, but I'd attribute that to taking a back seat to the Royal Rumble build-up, Cena/Rock build-up and the heel Cena teasing. Unfortunately, I fear even the interesting Jericho/Punk fued is also going to be lost amongst the shuffle as we get closer to Wrestlemania, what with Cena/Rock, Taker/HHH 3 and the probable MITB.

But the quality of Punk's performance hasn't wavered imo. Match of the night on Raw with Daniel Bryan, Match of the night with Dolph Ziggler at Royal Rumble, etc.

Also, his post-match promo on Lauranitis a couple of weeks ago where he got Johnny to admit he was going to screw Punk... Amazing work. He seemed so genuinely angry and disgusted.

 

[PHX]

That's a good point because when he did his shoot and the ones that followed with his feud with Cena there was nothing going on at the time and really needed something to happen as it was kind of dull overall.

 

[We Are Legion]

In fairness, Punk isn't really doing anything revolutionary right now.

Last summer, he did some great things. He was bending the barrier between what is real and what is fake in the fans' eyes, which is always a crucial key to success for anyone that ventures down the anti-hero path he was going for. The contract angle was something fresh and it really put a lot of crowd support behind him. And everyone praised him, we put him on our shoulders and said, "THIS is our guy. THIS is the future."

But lately, we just haven't seen that from him. Most of his angles have been fairly text book, the content of his promos is getting a little repetitive (and cheesy), and I just don't feel he's working as hard as he was last year to build upon his persona. His ring work is still solid, definitely nothing to complain about there, and I wouldn't say he's getting stale just yet. But if he doesn't focus more on the creative aspects of his character and he chooses to fall into a groove right now, I don't think he will reach the level we all thought he would last year.

You might say, "He's a main eventer, what higher level is there?" but I can assure you, he could still easily be regarded as a flash in the pan a decade from now if he doesn't keep pushing. He's hardly in the position to get comfortable right now and it seems like he is letting off the gas a bit.

Of course, it could just be that it's Mania season and the next couple months of his career are already pretty much decided by WWE Creative right now, but he needs to start getting more serious come April.

 

[Chadillac]

I agree that the Fall of '10 was the worst era in wrestling since 1995.
Things got better only when Punk became a main stay in the Title picture. But the whole "PG" thing is what is holding Punk back. PG makes everything look cheesy.

 

[Dale]

The most must see guy currently in the WWE? Couldn't disagree more to tell you the truth. He's been somewhat entertaining but I'd say he hasn't been must see for months now. Sure he's been having good matches with Dolph, but truth be told you could easily skip his stuff one week and you know for a fact he won't have done anything 'must see' more the usual lame insults on how Ace can't cut a promo blah blah blah.

SAL said it best in his RAW review or whatever it was, so if you agree with him go ahead and rep / like his post which is linked below

CM Punk: He's just so thoroughly destroyed everything about his character that made him popular this summer. He got over telling us about guys like John Laurinaitis, the middle-manager who kisses Vince's ass and is destroying this company. Everything he said during his Stone Cold t-shirt promo was about how WWE was fatally flawed. How it needed to be changed. Well, now that his shirts are selling like crazy, he stopped being constructive about it and now he just calls Johnny Ace a dork. Just because they cheer doesn't mean you're doing it right. And what's with his infatuation with gay/feminine jokes lately? Johnny Ace has his balls in a purse. Daniel Bryan likes to eat....really? This was the change he wanted?

 

[Defiant]

I agree that the Fall of '10 was the worst era in wrestling since 1995.

Is that because Rey Mysterio broke Cody's nose then?

... Couldn't help myself.

 

[Big Red Jericho Punk]

Is that because Rey Mysterio broke Cody's nose then?

... Couldn't help myself.

January 2011 it was.

 

[Brock Lesnar]

I'm going to say this because it's been bothering me for a while.

He's not the best in the world.

The best in the world doesn't botch moves in nearly every match. I've seen it happen week after week, he tries to hard to be perfect and it backfires almost every single time. If he was smart, he'd leave the television matches to the mediocre and really leave it all on the big stage. That would solidify him as someone to see in the climax... instead of making him look like he's trying to do everything at once in the span of 8-9 minutes before the commercial break. That's just on the wrestling side.

How can you get behind this guy as a legitimate face, when all he does is pout his face and insult whoever is standing in front of him. Every single time he's got a mic in his hand, he has go constantly remind people of the storm he caused last year, but that's been gone for months. It's not working anymore, and frankly... the ratings show it. It's not just me, sitting behind here on the keyboard. The viewers are going down, and it's been going down since he's got the title ironically enough. The Punk/Bryan match this week gained viewers, but it was bad for the timeslot.

His biggest claim to fame in the months that he's been champion is ripping on a washed up nobody General Managaer... and that was the GOOD part. His feud with Del Rio sucked, his feud with Ziggler hasn't done JACK SHIT for Ziggler. At the Rumble, they barely even talked about Ziggler being the opponent in the match preview. It really fucking annoys the shit out of me.

I like CM Punk, I think he's terrific. But he needs to be a heel, and you all need to stop hugging his nuts like his balls sweat gold, because they don't. If he stopped trying to have a five star cram-fest every week, he'd do a lot better job of making his real high stage matches matter.

 

[Defiant]

January 2011 it was.

My mistake, yo

 

[We Are Legion]

His feud with Del Rio sucked, his feud with Ziggler hasn't done JACK SHIT for Ziggler. At the Rumble, they barely even talked about Ziggler being the opponent in the match preview. It really fucking annoys the shit out of me.

This is really my biggest knock on Punk and you're totally right about the Ziggler part in particular.

I've never been convinced of Punk's ability to put people over. Frankly, every feud he's involved in seems to do more for Punk than the person he's feuding with. Though something like this seems like it would bug the people Punk works for more than it would bug the fans

I really can't explain why either, I just still don't view beating Punk as being a big deal.