Why hasn't Punk made the big step up?

[seabs]

[size=xx-small]The fact that Dwayne is in the main event last year and I'm not makes me sick.[/size]
​

CM Punk is one of the most enigmatic figures currently in Professional Wrestling, it's not for his character or his performance rather why can't he click with the audience to that level where he feels like a successor to Cena's throne as the man on Monday Night Raw. He seems to have everything to a tee, he has the ability to make people invested in him no matter what he does. He even got dueling chants with The Rock whilst attempting to be a heel and brought mainstream interest to the company with his worked shoot. Punk marks, myself included used to consider that the company needed to get fully behind him to support him on his road to becoming an icon however he held the WWE title for a year, he was pushed as the antidote to Super Cena and although he was rarely the main focus of Raw he was always the second star to Cena so it's not like they didn't give him a spotlight. All of wrestling's megastars had to battle with the man of their era to establish themselves too so that's not even a reason which holds much weight too.

So why can't CM Punk seemingly make the jump to take over Cena's mantle?

 

[Dolph'sZiggler]

Throne*

 

[Leo C]

Well, his first big step up was when he won the title for the first time, but they screwed that up, was the first mistake they made, they caught lightning in a bottle but a series of bad booking decisions sort of got in the way there. Then he won the belt again, and yeah, he was treated as more of a glorified midcarder so to speak and was given a boring face character followed by a heel one that got sort of stale in the end. So his character didn't help, it wasn't that bad but not as good as it could. Plus, who did he go over during his reign? Ziggler, Jericho, DB, Kane, "Cena" (since it wasn't clean, and as a matter of fact it wasn't clean on MITB/SS 2011 either), Ryback (not clean either) and then he lost to Rock. I think that it would've been much easier for them to do it right during the "Summer of Punk" in 2011 but they screwed that up and what followed wasn't good enough.

 

[Zack Ryder]

It's because Punk has anger issues with fans. ity:

 

[Lockard 23]

Because Cena's star power still shines the brightest. I also don't think people as a whole find Punk as relateable as they do Cena. Same with Ultimate Warrior being Hulk Hogan's successor. Hogan was still the main star in most people's minds and Warrior was just too eccentric for a lot of people.

Punk's whole image - his "skinny fat ass" look and tattoo-ed up body and his ability to sound a little too much like an internet mark sometimes (and I say this as someone who likes the guy) - just doesn't carry the same aura of being a star as Cena does. Anything else other than that can just be put down to some people just flat out not interesting or captivating the crowd as others do. It's not something that can always be quantified or measured.

 

[Senhor Perfect]

Fact is, size matters. Love him or hate him, Cena is a big guy and well built. Punk, (yes I do like him despite this sentence) looks like someone you'd find sleeping in a subway station. Hogan was 6'8 and massive, Austin was much bigger than Punk, Rocky is twice his size, and I've already mentioned Cena. It's not a coincidence that the two biggest wresting stars of the last 50 years: Sammartino and Hogan are body builders.

 

[Zack Ryder]

Fact is, size matters. Love him or hate him, Cena is a big guy and well built. Punk, (yes I do like him despite this sentence) looks like someone you'd find sleeping in a subway station. Hogan was 6'8 and massive, Austin was much bigger than Punk, Rocky is twice his size, and I've already mentioned Cena. It's not a coincidence that the two biggest wresting stars of the last 50 years: Sammartino and Hogan are body builders.

:

 

[Super Saiyan Goku]

B/C WWE JUST DON'T HOW TO MOVE ON FROM PG BITCHS JOHN CENA! #THETRUTH! ipebomb:

 

[seabs]

B/C WWE JUST DON'T HOW TO MOVE ON FROM PG BITCHS JOHN CENA! #THETRUTH! ipebomb:

Why didn't Cena hold the title for a year if they were obsessed with only pushing him?

 

[Swift]

PPL cant handle da pipebomz. DUH!

 

[Cloud]

Tbh it doesnt help that despite Cena not having a belt he is still main focus a lot of the time. Plus his star power is so huge its gonna take a huge amount to dislodge him.

 

[Rysenberg]

IMO because WWE don't want him to. They want to push him as much as they can to be the number 2 guy, but as was made obvious by the refusal to give Punk ME for 75% of his reign, Cena is still their number 1.

 

[Jose Tortilla]

They're completely different.

Cena is a man who has a face to be the face of the company. He wears his working clothes with pride, and does what he's told to since day one.

Punk on the other hand... Looks like a guy who works at Tony's Pizza Place down the corner. Not a man who can represent a company like Cena can.
Punk has his own ways to handle his business, and a lot of times in the wrong ways.

 

[Stopspot]

Lack of connectivity with the fanbase as a whole.

To be the man 9 out of 10 times you need to be able to connect with the entire spectra of the crowd. John Cena, Hulk Hogan and other "the guys" have been able to be marketed to and connect with the mainstream, both of the fans and of society. Whilst second fiddles like the Warrior and Punk have not. In Punk's case I'd say that it is the fact that he is punk, he prides himself so much on representing a counter culture and subculture (which in itself limits itself to a set group of society) that he in representing it limits himself from a marketability standpoint.

Hopefully that made sense.

 

[Dat Kid1]

You know what I'm starting to think it is, Punk was never meant to be this super anti-hero like Austin. I mean just look at the approaches they take, Austin being a more kick ass kind of guy, certainly more aggressive. Then you have Punk who is more of a pessimistic kind of personality and not confrontational. Austin is more a guy who'll let lose through action, which is a lot more entertaining than a pipebomb no matter how explosive it is. The only reason I compare Austin, is because it seems that's where WWE wanted him to be, and they failed.

I think his peak point was killed by bad timing and losing to Triple H. Then there was the stale reign with opponents who were just out of the blue, with no good build up aside from Jericho. Then you had the love triangle with AJ which made things even worse, then Ryback who couldn't deliver the match to make that reign good. Then every week Punk just comes out to talk. I mean he's great but repetitiveness is just boring, no matter who he goes up against and I felt there wasn't enough involvement creatively to take it to the next level.