The Summer Punk.

[seabs]

On the 27th of June 2011 CM Punk set the wrestling world a light with his remarks showing dismay of how the WWE was run, eventually he left the company with the WWE championship over his shoulder at the MITB PPV. I personally believed they mishandled the storyline after this event. So two questions, do you agree the Summer of Punk could have been more then it was ? If so what would you have done to change it?

I personally would have had Punk continue in similar vein as he did at comic con. Causing trouble with the new regime but he shouldn't have made an official return to the company for at least 2 months possibly longer. Little things like redirecting WWE.com to a video of Punk bragging about how he left with the title, keep him relevant with the odd crowd appearance until he makes his big return on a raw. Most importantly they shouldn't have crowned a new champion, why was there the big issue about Punk leaving if they had another belt waiting?

 

[Crayo]

2 months of appearances at places like comic con, RoH even. Would have been great to see him go around making media appearances about it. He was out for what, 2 shows or something?

Also, when he did return, he should have had Vince/HHH sucking up to him to keep him there (to get him to resign still) but then have the conspiracy feud light up. HHH should of turned mega-heel heading the stable, with perhaps ADR (as they were pushing him at the time) as the HHH like figure if Evolution. Then someone younger (the US Champion) being with it too, the corporate stable. Have that feud last for a while with Punk going over them all cleanly (after months of interfering etc), including HHH. Whilst this whole feud is going on, you're building up another mega-annoying heel. Someone the crowd unify in despising (which means booking the superstar properly), then Punk moves on from an amazing feud to another good feud beating someone the crowd despise (without looking like superman).

Something like that would put Punk over massively.

 

[seabs]

I think he missed one Raw, it was hardly worth it tbh.

 

[Crayo]

Yeah that was pointless. I was surprised since WWE are amazing at media and boosting stars through media, no idea why Punk couldn't do it. A lot of kayfabe interviews slagging off Johnny Ace, Vince and Triple H would have been great to hear.

 

[seabs]

It still seemed like they weren't sure what they wanted him to be to me. They wanted him to be the despicable heel who ran away but he got too many pops for it. Even in the shoot itself when he talked about the fans cheering him.

 

[JC4Life37]

On the 27th of June 2011 CM Punk set the wrestling world a light with his remarks showing dismay of how the WWE was run, eventually he left the company with the WWE championship over his shoulder at the MITB PPV. I personally believed they mishandled the storyline after this event. So two questions, do you agree the Summer of Punk could have been more then it was ? If so what would you have done to change it?

I personally would have had Punk continue in similar vein as he did at comic con. Causing trouble with the new regime but he shouldn't have made an official return to the company for at least 2 months possibly longer. Little things like redirecting WWE.com to a video of Punk bragging about how he left with the title, keep him relevant with the odd crowd appearance until he makes his big return on a raw. Most importantly they shouldn't have crowned a new champion, why was there the big issue about Punk leaving if they had another belt waiting?

Very good
WCW did a superb job booking Sting as an outsider leading up to his confrontation w/Hogan at Starrcade 97

Follow Punk w/a grainy camera for a couple months documenting his strange appearances. Showing up at FCW unannounced w/the WWE strap could've blurred the lines further

 

[Snowman1]

I kinda liked the direction it went, with the "Abuse of power, you're relieved of your duties" thing with Vince... While it was terrible to bring Punk back one week later, they should have dragged out the tournament and had the final at Summerslam as well as something involving the Vince storyline, bringing Punk back at Summerslam at the earliest.

But the Triple H controlling the company storyline was incredibly botched... and are they just going to go with "HHH still owns WWE" forever?

Praise God.

 

[Asskicker]

I thought it was totally pathetic for Punk to return THAT quick. Was expecting a surprise appearance during WWE title match at Summerslam causing mayhem, bringing back that OMG feeling SCSA gave whenever he did something like that. Punk's momentum would've been massive and lead to a good championship scramble at Night Of Champions.

Of Course we have somebody called Paul Levesque who hates skinny people who can have more popularity than him ever.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

I was disappointed but I remember Punk in an interview saying we are just armchair bookers, and he had a point that they did have the 2nd biggest PPV of the year (summerslam) to sell.. and without Punk what are you giving the fans for that PPV? ADR/Cena? Don't think most of you wanted to see that

 

[Asskicker]

It could have been a really different match though, but if Punk returned there at Summerslam which LOTS of people already see because it's summerslam the mini wrestlemania so yeah it could've made the PPV sick.

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

A surprise return at SS doesn't help buy rates though. It's the build that sells PPVs; if people don't know he's gonna be there he's not helping Vince sell the PPV

 

[Asskicker]

True ^

Oh well but still a surprise return could've been epic. It would keep fans eager to keep on watching.

 

[Lockard 23]

They brought Punk back too early and then Triple H got involved and started sucking a lot of attention to himself. Then Kevin Nash got involved and that eventually just confused people in a way, since the attention was now on Nash and Triple H mostly and who the mystery man who texted Nash at SS was. Then you had Del Rio winning the belt, and then Punk losing to Triple H in September, and by then, the whole thing had already lost it's feeling of specialness.

This whole storyline could have been bigger and Punk could be more popular.

 

[Snowman1]

A surprise return at SS doesn't help buy rates though. It's the build that sells PPVs; if people don't know he's gonna be there he's not helping Vince sell the PPV

WWE doesn't know this, do you remember the build for this card? Punk was very hot at the time, but the build still convinced me not to buy the PPV.

They could have either put Rey vs Miz at Summerslam as part of the tournament finals, or have Cena's rematch then. Either bring Punk back or give him ringside seats. They lost more than 50,000 buys from the year before with a very hot storyline, prolonging the storyline wouldn't have hurt too much.

 

[Wacokid27]

I get Punk's comments about "armchair bookers", but I also see the point that a lot of folks on this forum are making: the storyline would have been stronger if the build to the "unification match" between WWE Champion John Cena and "The Real WWE Champion" CM Punk had taken longer. It comes down not to booking a match (or even, to be honest, pay-per-view buys), but building a cohesive story that makes sense and is compelling.

When Lex Luger showed up on the first Monday Nitro or Booker T showed up with the WCW Championship belt on an episode of Raw, it created a buzz. Having Punk disappear from "official" WWE television for a month or two, making appearances talked about on wwe.com or by WWE personnel (even if only in backstage vignettes/arguments/discussions), with video from Punk showing up at FCW or (gasp!) ROH with the WWE Championship, "defending" the WWE Championship in those venues, would have created more confusion, more uncertainty, and more drama when it came to selling the question of who was the actual WWE Champion, the guy who beat John Cena for the belt or John Cena toting around a duplicate WWE Title belt.

It actually doesn't come down to immediate ratings or even PPV buys, which has long been a problem with a televised wrestling product. But wrestling bookers are about the gate at the next venue, not where the story goes from here. Fans tend to be more concerned about the long-term direction of the product, which is why bookers think it would be dumb to keep your champion off of television and PPV (thus sacrificing immediate ratings and buys) while fans generally see it as a botched angle because it wasn't built long enough to have the visceral impact it could have (which, arguably, could have meant that short-term ratings/buys sacrifice might have paid off with more buy-in from both the "regular" fan base and the "casual" fan base due to the increased visibility of the product).

wk