Thursday, September 27, 2012

CM Punk: The last of a dying breed in wrestling

It's proven that wrestlers and even athletes in the general sports world who draw the ire of fans can bring said fans back next time a wrestling/sporting event comes back to town.

They are known as the "heels."

The greatest heels have had that innate ability to draw the fans' thirst to see them get their behinds handed to the next time a wrestling event returns to their town.

Rowdy Roddy Piper had that ability to make fans hate him with a passion with the hope of seeing him get what his. The Nature Boy Ric Flair ditto. A who's who of the greatest villains in professional wrestling history from the late Goregous George to even WWE owner Vince McMahon have had the skill that made fans spend their hard earned money to see their heroes upend the villains.

One of the complaints about the state of professional wrestling today are that there is a shortage of villains who draw that ire of the fans that the bad guys of yesteryear were able to do.

On this past edition of Monday Night Raw, we saw CM Punk take the torch of yesterday's villains and continue the tradition that those before him did by becoming a despicable heel who fans would pay to see lose the WWE Championship.

His alliance with Paul Heyman certainly helps because anytime Heyman speaks on a microphone, fans clamor for him to shut up or for someone to shut him up.

After Punk verbally blasting referee Brad Maddox for not seeing his foot on the rope as he counted the 123 to give John Cena the victory in last week's tag team match, the Second City Saint got into a war of words with both Mick Foley and Cena throughout the show to cement himself as a vile heel.

His way of disrespecting fans and rivals after clamoring for respect of his own makes fans see him as a hypocrite who wants the fans to adore him, but yet, doesn't reciprocate appreciation back makes Punk a bullish heel.

Punk may be the one heel who has gotten 90% of the fans in attendance at WWE live events clamoring for Cena to beat him for the WWE Championship.

The title "Best In The World" may be subject to debate from fans, but if Punk's skill as a vile heel gets Cena over as a babyface then the subject may not be that debatable.

Punk proved Monday night with his disrespect of Foley and belittlement of Cena that he is the torchbearer for a lost tradition in professional wrestling.

He's the one great heel in WWE with the skill to rile up fans and make them want to see someone give him his comeuppance.

Whether it's Cena or a potential new foe like Ryback, who stared down Punk at the end of Monday's Raw after the WWE Champ attacked Foley in the back stage area, fans will want to get behind that person and cheer them on to dethrone Punk.

The art of being a great heel has been lost over the years in wrestling, and Punk has found the lost art and made it into a masterpiece skill.

It's a skill the WWE roster should study the next time Punk speaks on the microphone and draws the ire of fans.

For it's those heat seeking skills that could help them be draw money in a lost-art business.

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Thursday, September 6, 2012

An alliance that could lead to CM Punk... turning back babyface?

The biggest story coming out of Monday Night Raw, surprisingly, didn't crash the World Wide Web like I thought it would.

During the John Cena-Alberto Del Rio Falls Count Anywhere match, CM Punk returned after saying he was taking a personal leave earlier in the night and costed Cena the match by driving him head first onto the hood of his town car.

As Raw was about to fade to black, Paul Heyman stuck his head out of the window and revealed himself to be Punk's driver.

With the reveal of a Punk-Heyman alliance, I was surprised servers around the country crashed after tweeting and chatting about the possibilities the internet wrestling community's two favorite wrestling darling could create.

It is speculated that the Punk-Heyman alliance could lead to a faction of well-known independent wrestlers like Claudio Castognoli, who is WWE U.S Champion Antonio Cesaro, Chris Hero aka Kassius Ohno in WWE developmental, and Tyler Black, who currently reigns as NXT Champion while going by the name Seth Rollins.

While it would be a cool idea to witness a Punk-led group of wrestlers dominate the landscape, my crystal ball says that plan is not in the works.

If I were writing WWE television, this is how I would book the Punk-Heyman alliance to lead back to Punk turning back babyface come Wrestlemania 29.

I would have Punk challenge to Cena to waive any right to a WWE Championship rematch if Punk returns at Night of Champions next Sunday.

Punk retains the title under nefarious means in Cena's hometown of Boston.

Cena would not accept how Punk won so he would try to goad Punk into giving him another rematch.

A week later, while Cena again tries to get Punk to give him his rematch, Heyman comes out on behalf of Punk and tells Cena that Punk will give him his rematch on one condition: he has to beat an opponent of his choosing at the next pay-per-view who happens to be another Heyman client, Brock Lesnar.

Cena and Lesnar would collide in a rematch from their epic match at Extreme Rules at the October pay-per-view.

Towards the end of the match, with Cena making another improbable comeback to overcome Lesnar, Punk interferes and costs Cena his one last opportunity to get a rematch for the company's prestigious prize. The pay-per-view ends with Cena and Lesnar standing over Cena with Heyman looking on.

After two weeks of brutal beatdowns from the WWE's newest dominant force, Cena calls on the one guy who can help him out against his biggest foes at Survivor Series: the Rock.

I would have Punk pin the Rock at Survivor Series to set up their eventual showdown at the Royal Rumble.

Rock would go on to beat Punk at the Rumble, ending Punk's 14 month reign as WWE Champion.

Punk would enter the Royal Rumble match later on the night, realizing an opportunity to get back wrestling's greatest prize.

With a final four of Cena, Punk, Lesnar, and Randy Orton, I would have Lesnar eliminate Punk on purpose, setting off Punk on why his ally would rob him of a chance of the WWE title.

In the WWE Championship match At Elimination Chamber, Punk and Lesnar's problems come to ahead as Lesnar eliminates Punk once again from trying to reclaim his WWE Championship. Punk gets furious and hits Lesnar with a steel chair, allowing the Rock to retain his title.

The disintegration leads to a Wrestlemania showdown between Punk and Lesnar, with Punk going in as the babyface fed up with Lesnar screwing him over reclaiming the WWE Championship.

This is not necessarily how it will go down come Wrestlemania 29, but only one can hope the new storyline with Punk and Heyman can be best in the world.

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