It's funny how when Austin took his ball and went home and acted like a huge bitch, people didn't care. And he is still considered one, if not the best, of all time. He even refused to put people over.
Punk is just burnt out and upset over current product, and didn't refuse to push someone like Austin did. Good for him for being able to walk away. A no one pull that "But he can't draw like Austin" shit. Austin was around during the best and highest rated time in WWE history. It wasn't just him drawing. Undertaker was in his prime, Triple H was, Angle, Jericho, Rock, Kane, Mr.McMahon. Now the product is watered down, restricted, and Punk has no one to help him draw. Just Cena. Bryan and Orton to a less extent. No wonder ratings are down from the attidude area.
Pinning low ratings on ONE guy out of a roster of 60+ men is such a narrow, ignorant, and straight up Blue theory that holds no ground. Punk took his ball and rent home. Like Austin did. Apparently no one on this forum has ever had a job they hated and had enough balls to just walk away. Fact is, Punk doesn't need WWE. And WWE doesn't need Punk. Now he's got millions of dollars, and can just enjoy life. As I say again, good for Punk.
Money runs out.
He is no Steve Austin. Austin can live comfortably off his earnings and his side projects without ever having to show up for a WWE event again. When you bring money into it, youre comparing, financially, the guy who led WWE into the biggest boom they ever saw. A guy who Vince McMahon personally said "he has seen nothing like before", to a guy who coasted WWE as champion for 400 whatever days and really didn't make that much of a real discernible difference in the company as a whole. He made a mark, he made an impact, sure, but he is no Steve Austin. Austin can go on with the rest of his life never stepping into a WWE ring for any reason again.
Again, if people here understood it from a business sense, they would see Austin was not 100% wrong in what he did. He didn't want to lose cleanly to a guy like Lesnar who was becoming something. He figured it would have been better to sell it as a marquee PPV match down the line AFTER Lesnar was OVER. He was wrong in throwing that away, but he still had a valid point. Austin felt he was making so much money, and he was, he was bouncing back from a sore year the year before after his ill-fated heel turn which sort of put him in the back seat while Rock drove the car, and then WWE pushes for him to lose cleanly to a newcomer with potential on free television. Bad business. He could have handled it a hundred times better, but it is what it is and Austin would be the first to say he fucked up.
The fans eating him up and WWE publicly acknowledging Austin going home completely contradicts the statement "no one cared or gave a shit." Austin put a lot of guys over, in fact while he was on top more people were WWF Champion than he was. Rock, Foley, Taker, Kane, Triple H, Angle, Jericho, all those guys whether it was for a title, a clean win, a promo were put over in some way by Austin. If you disagree with that you need to go back and check history. Im sure there were times when he wouldn't put someone over, and hey it happens, when you are that top guy you have that pull.
Punk left cause he was too tired, too beat up, too tired of the way WWE brought in part timers while he never got the main event. Wake up Punk, you were spoon fed golden corn flakes for the better part of three years. Longest reigning WWE Champ in 25 years? Single handedly getting a nod to go over a group like the Shield? Facing Jericho/Taker in back to back WrestleMania matches? Getting main event slots on RAW and Smackdown against guys like John Cena on a regular basis? Having solid matches and top tier booking against guys like Brock Lesnar? T shirt sales, action figures, all doing well? Yeah, go home cause WWE is so unfair and not treating you right.
How does that justify a guy like CM Punk by him leaving just because he doesn't like the fact that hes not winning the title at Mania and getting a huge payday? That's what it all boils down to guys. I don't care if people buy into his shit about "its not fair to the rest of us" Punk only cares about Punk. There are guys in the back who would give a year of their career to even get a shot to have a match at the end of the card even once, and more than a few of those guys could make a run with it. Let alone going over on a regular basis.
"I don't like that WWE brought back Batista to go over me to WrestleMania. I don't want to lose to Triple H at Mania. Im going home." Wah wah.
People say "yeah good on Punk for sticking it to them, yeah! We want Punk!" Punk doesn't give a shit about you guys.
CM Punk, logically thinking here, can live without WWE for a while but he would eventually run out of money and have to come back. What would he do? Would he be like the guys who CAN live comfortably off their money they made in WWE after they left WWE? Would he start a talk show? MMA? Become a rock star? Start his own podcast? All plausible I guess. But logically thinking, here. You talk about the money, and I can tell you about guys who made more than CM Punk during their run and still had to come back to keep the flow going. Guys who made multi-millions, millions more than he did, who became broke. Punk is probably smart with his money, but I would bet you he has become use to a life style that going back to the indies or doing any type of side project or MMA would not support immediately or maybe even in the long run.
You think the millions of WWE fans who "are in support of" CM Punk would give a shit if he started something on the side? Im sure a decent amount would. Those being the die hard Punk fans. Im sure some of the casuals would follow it too but give up after awhile simply cause its not their product. The majority of people chanting "CM PUNK!" in the crowd are the same people who let that chant die after a few seconds only to start chanting YES! or something else, and they are the fans who chant "JBL!" or do the wave during matches that they don't care about. Point being its a fickle bandwagon to cheer for a guy like CM Punk cause it gives them liberation and identity as an audience. Other than that they don't give a shit. Punk leaves, they will move on.
Punk might not need WWE for the time being, but WWE definitely does not
need CM Punk. Ever.
