WWE And Punk Heading For An Austin 3:16-like Boom?

[Aggro]

Hello people, long time no anything. Consider this a slight return post. I won't be overly active as I'm now only knee deep in the shit known as life rather the chin deep. Hope your all doing well.

Anyway, looks like CM Punk could be my saviour....

WWE and Punk heading for an Austin 3:16-like boom?

After not watching any wrestling for nearly four months, I stumbled across a YouTube vid entitled “CM Punk shoot on RAW”. Intrigued, I clicked the PLAY button and witnessed one of the best pieces of mic work in years. Becoming hooked instantly, I fished around for all the other segments involving Punk, Cena and Vince. This then obviously lead me to make sure I watched WWE programming from MITB through to this week’s RAW. Whilst watching, one thought kept creeping into the biscuit tin: This so reminds me of Stone Cold Steve Austin and Bret Hart back in 1996-97

Now there are glaring differences in the four characters from either scenario, but bare with me and you’ll see why I’m thinking about it this way.

Back in’96 as most of us know, Steve Austin was being pushed by WWE to be the companies top Heel. Beating up poor old reformed (At the time anyway) alcoholic Jake Roberts at the King Of The Ring wasn’t enough, due to a certain post match promo, so WWE had Austin target Bret Hart in a constant barrage of promo’s. Austin would mock the fan favourite whilst Hart was taking time out of the ring. Now this is where the similarities start to appear with Austin/Hart and Punk/Cena.

By this time in his career, Hart had reached the pinnacle of his career IMO, as the top Face of the WWE. Carrying the company with his wholesome approach and positive message to young people everywhere, Hart picked up where Hogan left and this baton was picked up some years later by Cena. Vince laps that stuff up, we all know that, but times were a changing. Due to the nWo over in WCW, the anti-hero/rebel movement was taking shape. Fans actually saw that there were a lot of fair points actually being made by Austin during his promo’s aimed at Hart. These rants, Arm in arm with his in ring antics, (Getting himself disqualified, flipping the bird, etc) saw Austin’s popularity slowly rise, before exploding at Wrestlemania 13. After months of moaning about being screwed by nigh on everybody in the United States, Hart and Austin practically reversed roles in one historic match. Things were never the same again, until this past Monday night.

When CM Punk returned to RAW, the crowd reaction to his raising of his own title belt beat Cena’s preceding effort by at least 2 to 1, even as close as 3 to 1. This is the peak, the result of constantly coming out on top of Cena and Vince in the past weeks. I don’t mean this in a storyline sense either. Punk’s promos and work were delivered to perfection. The mic work done by Cena just did not get the desired effect. The bulk of fans have basically expressed what Punk said in “The Shoot” for years. The pick of the bunch for me was the “Yankees” counter from Punk which goaded Cena into hitting him, although the Comic-Con Invasion was a masterstroke too. Thus, like Austin back in 96, Punk has used the feelings of the fans to propel himself from what WWE want him to be(The top Heel) to become the TOP man in the company, Heel or Face, in the eyes of the fans, by trumping the companies TOP man. But you may say “Punk reached a great level of Heel before this, unlike Austin who needed the Austin 3:16 thing”. Well, let’s have a look....

At Wrestlemania 24, Punk won the MITB match (As a face) and would cash in on a Batista battered Edge sometime later. This run as World Heavyweight Champion is not the most memorable so they had Punk win the following MITB match at Wrestlemania 25, still as a babyface. Punk cashed in on a very popular at the time Jeff Hardy. This initially looked to of worked out well, with Punk taking advantage of a battle worn Hardy who had just won the title in a Ladder match with Edge. However, early in the run Punk started to use an eye injury excuse, which basically made him seem pretty weak, even as a Heel. Then Punk started to refer to Jeff’s problems outside the ring and this almost left both guys in limbo because Punk was actually putting across his Straight Edge message as Heel, yet there were smatterings of crowd members who agreed with Punk. Plus, Jeff had a similar problem to John Cena; a lot of wrestling fans just don’t like the man! Still, WWE kept on and had Punk assault Hardy as he bid farewell to the fans.

Punk then created the Straight Edge Society. Again, potentially a catalyst to becoming THE top Heel in the company despite being up against guys like Jericho and Orton. However the SES didn’t get the mileage it could of. Serena was in trouble early on going out drinking and WWE were just clearly not hot on Luke Gallows. Once SES was done with, Punk then took over the Nexus after his short spell on commentary. This was basically flogging a dead horse as the Nexus angle had died out beforehand. This did allow Punk to start things up with Cena though, along with Orton who had become a face in recent months.

So looking at it, Punk did reach a certain level when being pushed as the bad guy, a VERY good level, but it just did not reach the heights hoped for by many. As for John Cena, well I need not say too much about the man which isn’t already obvious. Like Bret Hart in 95, early 96, the kids, girls and WWE love the guy. The work ethic of both men is very similar but that would be were the individual comparisons end. Hart outdoes Cena in ability department. In Punk’s case, he is basically now what the people want, much like Austin was. The main difference between these two in my eyes is this; Austin was the voice for the rebel inside all of us. Punk is the voice of the fan inside all of us, what with all the access we have now via forums, twitter etc, Punk is doing what so many of us would like to do in his position.

So what now? Well for this to work out for me then one thing at least should happen. Cena should use Monday’s crowd reaction as the vehicle for a gradual Heel turn. The title has to stay on Punk for now. Have Cena screw Punk out of it somewhere down the line, with the help of HHH maybe? Give the fans what they want for the time being. Let Punk retain the title and frustrate Cena the same way Austin did Hart. This way, Punk would of reached a level by the time he does lose the belt, that he actually will not need the belt to still be considered the MUST see thing on WWE programming. Back in 1997, Undertaker won the title at Wrestlemania 13, but despite this Austin was the main draw, whether he was feuding with Taker himself, Hart, HBK or Vince. You had to see what Austin was going to do next and this is how I personally feel about CM Punk right now.

I’ve tried to keep individual comparisons to a minimum, as I am looking at the similarities between the two situations. WWE could be about to hit a boom period as the Punk “Best in the World” period beckons. And who knows, the door could then be open to a PPV headlined by a CM Punk/Daniel Bryan World Title showdown....or is that a dream too far?????

Thanks for reading.

[cero2k]

great read aggro.

I had seen this comparisons, yet i did miss on some you mentioned. I knew Punk would become the austin that Orton had failed to become, but i didn't really made any comparisons between Punk/Cena and Austin/Hart.

you just won yourself a ticket to the main site

[Aggro]

B-) Thanks cero!!

[Big Red Machine]

Brilliant analysis. I have never thought of this in terms of the whole Hart-Austin thing, but the similarities don't stop there. Back then, WWE was in a rut because fans thought the product was too childish. Austin (especially the 3:16 promo itself) was the beginning of the end of that period of time. Most people seem to be seeing this as the end of the current PG Era (and a lot of us have noticed that words like "ass" have begun to find their way back into promos).

Out of curiosity, what did you think of the Punk-Cena match?

[Aggro]

Brilliant analysis. I have never thought of this in terms of the whole Hart-Austin thing, but the similarities don't stop there. Back then, WWE was in a rut because fans thought the product was too childish. Austin (especially the 3:16 promo itself) was the beginning of the end of that period of time. Most people seem to be seeing this as the end of the current PG Era (and a lot of us have noticed that words like "a**" have begun to find their way back into promos).

Out of curiosity, what did you think of the Punk-Cena match?

Certain words ARE creeping in from what I've seen so far. Vince really gave it a big "Son of a B*TCH!" during the contract signing.

I actually had the outcome of the match spoiled by accident, so I just went straight to finish. Once I get time I'll sit and watch the whole thing. I'll let you know what I think once I've seen it!

[Big Red Machine]

Brilliant analysis. I have never thought of this in terms of the whole Hart-Austin thing, but the similarities don't stop there. Back then, WWE was in a rut because fans thought the product was too childish. Austin (especially the 3:16 promo itself) was the beginning of the end of that period of time. Most people seem to be seeing this as the end of the current PG Era (and a lot of us have noticed that words like "a**" have begun to find their way back into promos).

Out of curiosity, what did you think of the Punk-Cena match?

Certain words ARE creeping in from what I've seen so far. Vince really gave it a big "Son of a B*TCH!" during the contract signing.

I actually had the outcome of the match spoiled by accident, so I just went straight to finish. Once I get time I'll sit and watch the whole thing. I'll let you know what I think once I've seen it!

Not to boost your expectations or anything, but it is most people's current MOTY. Even Meltzer got over his dislike of North American wrestling and gave it a full five stars.

[Aggro]

Not to boost your expectations or anything, but it is most people's current MOTY. Even Meltzer got over his dislike of North American wrestling and gave it a full five stars.

Damn! Know what I'm doing when I get home!

[ECWFlairfan]

And like Austin, Punk is the complete package...