WRESTLING 101

While any half-way intelligent wrestling fan could tell that CM Punk was slowly transitioning into a full-fledged heel, said transition allowed his fans to maintain the illusion that he was still a baby face and continue to root for him. In fact, his “tweener” status was extremely interesting, simply because characters like that don’t exist for more than a few weeks in wrestling. And, sure enough, his mini-feud with Jerry Lawler has made it perfectly clear that this, too, would not last.

If Punk had a “heel meter” that increased at even 10% increments in the weeks following the 1000^th episode of ‘Raw’, it would have jumped up from about halfway or so to full-blown all within the last two episodes. What happened? Who got tired of seeing him tow the line and, basically, just act like CM Punk? Everything he had done, up until that point, had been somewhat justifiable when the zany logic of WWE is taken into consideration. Kicking Jerry Lawler was not. It became impossible to deny that Punk had become a bad human being.

To be perfectly clear, Punk’s segments with Lawler were golden in that Punk was a ruthless heel, all the way, picking on an over-the-hill legend way past a reasonable point. It was impossible not to be a little relieved when John Cena finally chased him off. But for anyone who’s not a fan of Cena, it was a bit of a frustrating return to the status quo of a year and a half ago. Is Cena really just going to vanquish another villain at ‘Night of Champions’?

The bigger question, in any case, is this: is ALL OF THIS going down just so that Punk can be a heel against The Rock down the road? Keep in mind, WWE threw away merchandise sales and a very, very over baby face by turning Punk. There was no real reason to do it other than to allow his battle with The Rock to have a clear hero and villain, unless protecting Cena from getting booed out of the building in his hometown is that important to the brass at WWE. Rest assured, Punk is probably perfectly content with his role and, as always, he’ll make it work. But that doesn’t mean it was a good move.

Tags: CM Punk, John Cena, The Rock, Wrestling, WWE

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