I totally agree that at the moment Punk is coming off as insecure and unoriginal at the moment, but they've spent too much time working on him to let him fall into a state of obscurity which is exactly what would happen to him if he wasn't champion and wasn't with Cena. People seem to constantly complain that Punk isn't main eventing shows and Pay Per Views and the last few weeks have made the reason obvious - Punk still isn't doesn't have a big enough fanbase to headline any show by himself. Cena has headlined Pay Per Views with R-Truth, The Miz etc. I'm not saying that they were good headline acts, but Cena could sell them to his fans. Do you think that anyone would be willing to pay for a WrestleMania with CM Punk vs. The Miz as the main event? Hell no. As big as Punk is, he's not at a level where he can be trusted to successfully lead the company. If CM Punk was pulling this bullshit respect gimmick with anybody else on the roster bar Lesnar or Triple H nobody would even care. If Cena was facing anybody going through Punk's transition, people would care because Cena has a frickin' huge fanbase. I'm not saying that this is Punk's fault, he can't help the fact that not as many fans buy into him as Cena because after all it is Cena's house and everybody else is just a guest.
I've kind of gone off track there, just something that I feel that I should put out there because too many people are whining about Punk not being 'that guy' in the WWE.
I don't really think that you can compare Punk's push last year to Bryan's push now. Punk's push was perfectly executed, he got a lot of attention because of what he said and how he went about getting the title. Going into Money In The Bank, nobody could call what way that match was going to go and be confident about it. They made him into a legitimate main eventer, then it all started to wear away when he came back. If he still had that momentum now, he would be, or at least should be, main eventing Pay Per Views. At the moment, Bryan's just over. He hasn't been pushed in any way that makes his character stronger, his push is for entertainment purposes. Just because someone is over doesn't mean that it's the right time to make him into something bigger than they already are. His time will come though, I'm almost certain of that.