The Punk Shoot: One Year Later

[Big Red Machine]

One year ago today, Raw ended with CM Punk cutting a worked-shoot promo on John Cena, Vince McMahon, and the WWE as a whole. This promo broke all of the rules. He didn’t just go after Cena and Vince, but after people who were rarely talked about on the air at the time like John Laurinaitis, Stephanie McMahon, and Triple H in his role as a member of the WWE corporate structure, rather than as a wrestler. He mentioned Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar, who were no longer with WWE and hadn’t been mentioned in years. He mentioned Hulk Hogan, who was working in TNA at the time, and even compared Cena and Hogan, nodding at the (IMO unfair) comparison that many smarks like to make between the two, and their supposed lack of wrestling skills. Then he did something that WWE had not done in ten years: mentioned another active wrestling promotion. And Punk didn’t just mention any promotion. He mentioned his old stomping grounds of Ring of Honor, a promotion which had been on PPV before, and was about to start a new TV deal in 24% of American households.

Then, as he was about to talk about the hypocrisy of Vince McMahon and the Be A Star campaign, Punk’s mic cut out, and the show cut to black. No box with the WWE logo and copyright information in the corner. Just a cut to black. Minutes later it was announced on WWE.com that Punk was suspended indefinitely and stripped of his title shot at Money In The Bank. Once fans calmed down, realized this was a work, and changed their pants, the speculation started. Where would this angle go? Within a day or two, people started pulling up a quote from Vince McMahon about the creative direction of the company from WWE’s annual stockholders meeting two months earlier: “It's important that you sometimes go backwards to go forwards.” Fans immediately declared this promo the start of a new era. This was Punk 3:16. The first bright ray of sunlight of the dawning of a new age. Change wasn’t just coming… change was here.

But was it really? The WWE product definitely improved over the next few weeks, but a lot of it was carried by the angle between Punk, Vince, and Cena. People started to groan when Vince told Cena that if he lost the title to Punk, he would be fired. “There’s no way Cena’s going to lose now” people said.

Cena lost.

The next night on Raw, when Vince went to fire him, Cena told Vince that if he was fired, he would go wrestle “on someone else’s show, brother.” Cena didn’t actually say “TNA” so it was clear that some rules were still in place, but implying their existence was more recognition than WWE had ever given TNA before (I remember seeing Christian do an interview with a local news station about his return to WWE in which he made it seem like he had just taken three years off from wrestling, rather than being a World Heavyweight Champion somewhere else). Then Triple H came out and announced that the Board of Directors thought that Vince was not acting in the best interests of the company and had removed him from his position of authority… and replaced him with Triple H. Vince McMahon was no longer kayfabe in charge. It certainly felt like a different era.

Things were changing in the WWE, and they seemed to be changing in ways designed to please smarky fans. Indy legend Daniel Bryan, whom we had always been told was too small for anyone in WWE management to want to push him as a main event, won the Smackdown Money In The Bank briefcase. The obnoxious Anonymous Raw General Manager that communicated via e-mail to a laptop set up on a podium, requiring Michael Cole to interrupt the flow of the show to get up and relay instructions verbatim, was replaced by first Triple H, and then John Laurinaitis. The two best female workers in the company, Beth Phoenix and Natalya, who many had felt were undervalued by WWE, formed a heel tag team which they called the Divas of Doom and proclaimed that the era of the Barbie dolls was over, taking out their frustrations on Kelly Kelly- the woman who had become the embodiment of every negative connotation of the term “WWE Diva” in the eyes of the fans. WWE rectified the mistake they made at Wrestlemania and pulled the trigger on Alberto Del Rio as a world champion. By the end of the year, CM Punk was WWE Champion, Daniel Bryan was World Heavyweight Champion, Beth Phoenix was the Divas Champion, Zack Ryder was the US Champion, Booker T was putting over rising heel star and Intercontinental Champion Cody Rhodes, and Kane had returned with his mask on. The word “wrestling” was being used more and more frequently, Daniel Bryan and Big Show were involved in a compelling angle that kept fans wondering who would turn heel, and WWE seemed to be slowly leaning towards the John Cena heel turn fans had been begging for years for. Now, entering the seventh month of this year, Punk is entering his eighth month as WWE Champion, and has the longest reign of any WWE or World Heavyweight Champion since Cena’s year-long reign five years ago.

All of this is well and good, but does it really mean anything? Unfortunately, it probably doesn’t, because, when you look at the backstage decisions being made in WWE, it is more of the same old sh- stuff that made people unhappy with the product before the Punk shoot. The Divas of Doom went absolutely nowhere and were disbanded off-screen when it was decided that a better use of Nattie Neidhart would be to give her a gimmick where she farts a lot. The opening match at Wrestlemania was Daniel Bryan losing the World Heavyweight Title in a squash match… FOR NO OTHER REASON than trying to break the record for shortest title match in Wrestlemania history. Beth Phoenix’s Divas Title reign was squandered when WWE decided to have her lose the belt in a two-minute un-hyped match… and then rather than build to Beth vs. Kharma, then decided to put the belt on Layla El instead. That’s right: WWE thought more people would rather see Beth Phoenix wrestle Michelle McCool’s sidekick than Awesome Kong.

WWE also still refuses to pull the trigger on some guys (Riley was mega-over after he turned babyface on the Miz, but has been mostly absent from TV since his injury, Christian is right back where he was before he won the title, and WWE constantly jobs Dolph Ziggler out), and Zack Ryder has pretty much disappeared from TV… as have the “WE WANT RYDER!” chants.

Perhaps the most telling fact, though, is the way the WWE Title has been treated. Going back to Survivor Series, every PPV aside from one (TLC) has not been main evented by the WWE Title. The Royal Rumble was (rightfully) main evented by the Royal Rumble match, but the rest of the shows have been main evented by John Cena. To be fair, aside from the Ambulance match, I can make a good argument for why all of those matches main evented those shows, and you could even argue that Survivor Series and Extreme Rules were not main evneted by John Cena as much as they were main evented by The Rock and Brock Lesnar respectively, but the fact remains that the WWE Title has been a secondary concern for the WWE (and the World Heavyweight Title is even lower down on the totem pole than that). Hell, even right now, the WWE Title doesn’t feel as important as the angle of “who does AJ love?” that is surrounding it.

To sum things up: yes, change has happened. Sheamus, Alberto Del Rio, and Daniel Bryan are much bigger superstars than they were at this time last year, and CM Punk has become a megastar, but it seems like this major potential that is nothing but a phase that WWE is going through. Just like Zack Ryder was.




Thanks to all of those who contributed thoughts to this. It is important to look at things from all angles, and you guys have helped me do that.

[cero2k]

good read BRM.

One year later, would you say that the 'reality era' died and we went back to that era that we had two years ago?

[Big Red Machine]

good read BRM.

One year later, would you say that the 'reality era' died and we went back to that era that we had two years ago?

I wouldn't say that yet, but if it does happen, I would say I saw it coming. For all we know, the things I wrote about in this article could just be the last vestiges of the era of two years ago, rather than an indication that things haven't really changed.

[KILLdozer]

Yea;No,not too much of anything has changed or seems different at all other than he got what he wanted and became a bonafided main event top and WWE champion,other than that so what what happened.

[KILLdozer]

^But than again,to add to my above,I havent seen an entire wrestling show in IDK how long...Even If I do catch something on or remember Its already half over.

[Big Red Machine]

^But than again,to add to my above,I havent seen an entire wrestling show in IDK how long...Even If I do catch something on or remember Its already half over.

Everything is available on youtube by the next morning.

[RedSon]

i also don't think anything change other than some people got pushes, some got buried, new people came in, some left...but that's every year's thing. even when we thought that wwe was starting to listen more to youth and bring in more indy guys and push younger talent, this year they've been bringing in former main eventers that are already big. to think that show vs cena has been main eventing ppvs!!!

[Big Red Machine]

to think that show vs cena has been main eventing ppvs!!!

For the last two PPVs, Show vs. Cena made sense as the main event because the job of the guy in charge of both Raw and SD was on the line. IMO, that takes precedence over the title.

[RedSon]

to think that show vs cena has been main eventing ppvs!!!

For the last two PPVs, Show vs. Cena made sense as the main event because the job of the guy in charge of both Raw and SD was on the line. IMO, that takes precedence over the title.

i'm not challenging that the feud needs to main event, but the fact that show and cena are involved in the angle that is main eventing, which is not even related to the title

[Big Red Machine]

to think that show vs cena has been main eventing ppvs!!!

For the last two PPVs, Show vs. Cena made sense as the main event because the job of the guy in charge of both Raw and SD was on the line. IMO, that takes precedence over the title.

i'm not challenging that the feud needs to main event, but the fact that show and cena are involved in the angle that is main eventing, which is not even related to the title

And I am saying that I think that it should be the main event of the card. Some things are more important than the title.

[KILLdozer]

^But than again,to add to my above,I havent seen an entire wrestling show in IDK how long...Even If I do catch something on or remember Its already half over.

Everything is available on youtube by the next morning.

And work is available by the next morning too,When Im off wrestling never crosses my mind very much,And Im certainly not one for watching it on Youtube.Im old-fashioned in a way,you should know this by now.

[Big Red Machine]

^But than again,to add to my above,I havent seen an entire wrestling show in IDK how long...Even If I do catch something on or remember Its already half over.

Everything is available on youtube by the next morning.

And work is available by the next morning too,When Im off wrestling never crosses my mind very much,And Im certainly not one for watching it on Youtube.Im old-fashioned in a way,you should know this by now.

My point is that you are no longer bound by the tv schedule. If you are old fashioned, just think of it as a VCR on your computer, but you don't even have to remember to put the tape, make sure it is at the beginning, or hit the record button.