Punk's Lawler Heart Attack Promo from RAW

[rawisrey]

A man in his career both stole, killed, cooked, and fed a superstars close pet to him. But that same man mocked a mans fathers death repeatedly, hired an actor to tell him he died just to see him cry, got his mother to call him a bastard, and on the day of the funeral chained up the coffin and dragged it with the angry son on top of it. I've seen people threaten people with the rape of their daughter, accusing of necrophilia, people run over or crushed in cars, and a whole bunch of other stuff all in the WWE

You might say "this is different, this is real" well no, it isn't real. Sure King had an accident it was terrible but he didn't have a heart attack and while he was being strolled up Punk came down and laughed at him. The issue is with the segment, the segment itself was not in fact real, and therefore no lines were crossed or at least that's my opinion. I actually found it a little amusing when Punk said "how dare you, Paul just had a heart attack" I actually laughed.

I know a lot of people might get offended, but this was the greatest thing that it could of been used for. Do you know why? because it was done as the heel having a good laugh at the misfortune of someone. All the other storylines that would be deemed offensive had serious intent behind it in a storyline capacity, it wasn't haha you had an accident because of me it was "I ran you down, and given the chance I'd do it again." Punk could have come out to the ring, attacked King, and have King have another heart attack, while the emts try to save him Punk looks down as if worried, then as they roll King up the ramp he turns the stretcher over as King starts to foam at the mouth from a capsule one of the emts slipped in for him. This was a real situation that once it was resolved was turned into a way to get heat on your top heel.

See They didn't mock the death of one of their loyal employees, their employee signed off on a character mocking it. Everyone has their own opinion on the situation but how offended can you be for someone who isn't offended themselves, but that's just my view on the situation.

As far as the heat itself, The only reason i don't find this as cheap heat is simply because cheap heat should be very easy, while this situation would take someone to really want to do it for it to be done because if anyone involved from Lawler to Heyman to Foley to Punk didn't like it this wouldn't have happened. You can argue the realness of the heat, but it's heat the mentality of "he could still be a good heel" is never a factor, if you know a way to get people to hate you just a little bit more and the parties involved are okay you go for it. JBL was a great heel and would of stayed one if he didn't give Eddies mom a heart attack, but it still happened. There is never a point to heat, you look at the guy in the audience, you call them ugly, and they hate you. Why did this guy call him ugly? what reason was there for it? it was pretty cheap and he didn't need it. It happened cause one more person will hate him and at the end of the day that's all that is wanted.

They could of done nothing with this and it wouldn't make a difference, but when a situation arises to do something that could work and everyone involved is willing then why not try and get some more boos.

 

[Defiant]

I don't know if I'd say it was Punk being a good heel considering the fans seemed to think it was tasteless with their silence, but the way the segment was actually used it seemed to serve as the catalyst for Foley's emotional promo afterwards. It was put over as a purely despicable display too, as in painting Punk as a man not to be admired. So I can see the purpose of it.

For those who think the line was crossed, that's up to you. But if you ask me, the only person whose outrage should matter in this case, if there is any, is Jerry's.

 

[Troy]

Don't get me wrong I completely agree that in the end Lawler would have had a say and he would have been happy to go through with it hell he probably suggested it. I just still can't see any reason for them to go through with what they did and present it in the way they did.

The way I think about it is, if they didn't do this promo would Punk have been worse off? I would argue (and have been ) no, therefore I see no need for them to get involved in an angle like this. Punk would have been fine without it and I don't think it added anything to his character or made him a bigger heel by doing it. There was no real net gain here, and they wouldn't have lost anything if they didn't do it, so in the end it does nothing for the Punk, nothing for the show, and nothing for the company.

 

[Deezy]

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?

Seems like cheap heat imo.

Heyman it his best.

 

[Keith]

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.

This has nothing to do with being edgy it has to do with right or wrong, don't reduce people who don't like to being over PG, as far as I am concerned it is about being a human being. It was disgusting plain and simple, Troy you summed the whole thing up perfectly.

 

[Killz]

When you were as over as Punk during the pipe-bomb phase and then turn heel only to still have smarky crowds cheer for you and still have the IWC mostly going to bat for you week in, week out NO heat is bad heat. Every guy saying this went to far are using words like deplorable, disgusting, despicable, disgraceful and "too far"...well damn, that's a heel's job.
[MENTION=2]Troy[/MENTION] you might claim he didn't need to do it or he's not seen as a more heel-ish figure but look at the last few posts in the live discussion thread this week; those guys are going to TOWN on poor Punk and Heyman there so it's obvious that he has struck a nerve with people and not just people like you who are looking at it sort of objectively; no, there are people who have been genuinely pissed off about the angle and ergo Punk did his job. He's stll fighting an uphill battle to be universally hated. This is a step in the right direction.
[MENTION=20]rawisrey[/MENTION] said it best when he said no lines were crossed because the angle was fake. They gave the King the corniest return package, hyped him up on TV and gave him all the fanfare he could have wanted so that people were both respectful when he did return AND it could easily be turned into an angle. The fact we're talking about it now means it was a success too because it was memorable. I highly doubt a massive ratings slump with fans citing "oh Punk went too far and he didn't get any more heat really" as the reason for them tuning out.

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

The fact still remains if this was a storyline in the Attitude Era, it wouldnt solicit this kind of attention. People would probably cheer Punk like they did an alcoholic who hit his wife.

Numerous examples have been brought to the attention of everyone in this thread, from Owen, Eddie, Roberts, to Kane, Big Boss Man, & Undertaker. People have been kidnapped, Paul Bearer was burried alive in cement, the daughter of the owner was crucified, people have died and used to further another stars career, Bell's Paulsy was mocked.

But here we are today, people getting offended over a scripted storyline all parties agreed to. Sounds like I hit the nail on the head when I entered that first response.

 

[Troy]

When you were as over as Punk during the pipe-bomb phase and then turn heel only to still have smarky crowds cheer for you and still have the IWC mostly going to bat for you week in, week out NO heat is bad heat. Every guy saying this went to far are using words like deplorable, disgusting, despicable, disgraceful and "too far"...well damn, that's a heel's job.

@Troy you might claim he didn't need to do it or he's not seen as a more heel-ish figure but look at the last few posts in the live discussion thread this week; those guys are going to TOWN on poor Punk and Heyman there so it's obvious that he has struck a nerve with people and not just people like you who are looking at it sort of objectively; no, there are people who have been genuinely pissed off about the angle and ergo Punk did his job. He's stll fighting an uphill battle to be universally hated. This is a step in the right direction.

@rawisrey said it best when he said no lines were crossed because the angle was fake. They gave the King the corniest return package, hyped him up on TV and gave him all the fanfare he could have wanted so that people were both respectful when he did return AND it could easily be turned into an angle. The fact we're talking about it now means it was a success too because it was memorable. I highly doubt a massive ratings slump with fans citing "oh Punk went too far and he didn't get any more heat really" as the reason for them tuning out.

The key in the end will be if people actually tune in/buy PPVs to see Punk get beaten up by the faces as a revenge for what he did to Lawler. I can't really see that happening, I think that there is a greater chance of some people just not bothering to tune in anymore because WWE scrapped the bottom of the barrel with that segment.

I will still be tuning in like I do every week but that is one angle I didn't find neccessary.

The fact still remains if this was a storyline in the Attitude Era, it wouldnt solicit this kind of attention. People would probably cheer Punk like they did an alcoholic who hit his wife.

Numerous examples have been brought to the attention of everyone in this thread, from Owen, Eddie, Roberts, to Kane, Big Boss Man, & Undertaker. People have been kidnapped, Paul Bearer was burried alive in cement, the daughter of the owner was crucified, people have died and used to further another stars career, Bell's Paulsy was mocked.

But here we are today, people getting offended over a scripted storyline all parties agreed to. Sounds like I hit the nail on the head when I entered that first response.

I still consider this as a very, very unique case that has never occured in wrestling before. Lawler is fine now but he died for a bit when he had the heart attack live on television. He died and was very lucky to be alive yet alone able to return to his job as an announcer. The examples that you listed don't come close to what happened here, in my opinion, because of how serious the Lawler situation was.

 

[Keith]

1. The fact it was scripted and is supposed to be part of an entetainment show makes it even worse, there is such thing as bad heat that has been proven time and time again, Jericho in Brazil, Flair heart attack angle in WCW, Katie Vic etc...

2. The fans would have loved it in the attitude era argument doesn't hold water for me, if you look at simler storylines from that peroid such as Hawk pretending to be drunk and jumping off the Titan tron and Terri losing her baby, the fans didn't like them, they were bored by them, they didn't understand why they were watching them. These sorts of angles/storylines are not what fans tune in to see and that is any fan whether from the 80s, 90s or today.

3. I loved the Punk pipe bomb stuff last year, but if this had happened then I would have had the same view.

 

[ThatGuyFromNukemHigh]

And I do agree that this is a unique story, because we actually have the dead guy capable of having his say in the way the story is done. When I think of it like that, its really not a bad thing at all.

But like I said earlier, they waited until Lawler returned, not the week after the heart attack, and not the same night. When everyone knew he would recover, and continued a storyline that makes Punk a heel that even the smarkiest fans are going to find a problem cheering for him from here on out. Turning heel, all his fanbase was still behind him, facing Cena did nothing to garner more heat and probably pulled in more of those Cenahaters to Punk's fans, aligning with Heyman made the smarks love him even more, now the top heel is getting the attention that a top heel should.

And all these comments about the live reaction, the crowd is dead 90% of the time anyways. So I dont see any point at all for bringing that up as an example.

 

[The Cork]

It's cheap heat, hardly the mark of a good heel.

Any FCW rookie could of got on the mic, said the same shit and got the same reaction. To be honest the most offending thing about it was that they didn't do it in a funny way, like when Bossman trashed Big Show's dad.

 

[Gimmick]

I think the main issue here is not Punk's fake heart attack angle, but rather Jerry Lawler's video package before all that took place. A man was dying on a stretcher and they decided to film the whole thing. THAT to me is going too far.

I still don't think the promo was too much. The promo itself was bad, but I just don't think it was that offensive to Jerry Lawler. What makes this situation different to that of the Eddie Guerrero angle between Orton and Mysterio in 2006 is that Eddie Guerrero actually died. Jerry Lawler was able to give the OK for his segment.

It wasn't needed, and it didn't give Punk anymore heat than he had going into the promo, but it just wasn't going too far in my opinion.

 

[Rated R Superstar]

I have yet to see it. But honestly, wouldn't they need permission to do it? Wouldn't they need Lawler to agree to it? I'm pretty sure if he didn't know about it, he'd make a stink about it. It's just dumb fans who don't like the idea of an edgy heel. Ridiculous. Like I said, I haven't seen it, but all I hear is bitching about it.

 

[Dale]

I think the main issue here is not Punk's fake heart attack angle, but rather Jerry Lawler's video package before all that took place. A man was dying on a stretcher and they decided to film the whole thing. THAT to me is going too far.

That's the only issue I had with the whole thing. Showing that footage just made it seem like a wrestling angle to me and took away the legitimacy of it so to me, Punk cutting the promo was just fair game. I mean it's one thing for the cameraman to actually film it all as it unfolded, but it's a totally different beast for them to sign off on being able to use it.

As far as the whole thing went, I was totally fine with the promo and actually quite enjoyed it however the actual heart attack skit did nothing for me, not because it was distasteful or anything merely because I didn't find it entertaining.

I have yet to see it. But honestly, wouldn't they need permission to do it? .

You reckon JR signed off on the numerous bells palsy jokes or the bleeding colon angle with Lawler?

 

[Rated R Superstar]

Well honestly, I don't see why not? It's all part of getting the heel over. This was during a time when Vince was the bad guy wasn't it? And Cole was a heel commentator during some of that stuff too.