So these days CM Punk is seen as a hero of the wrestling business he can do no wrong and never be wrong. In a sense that is true, for years he’s been the guy who gets a chant regardless of whether he’s on television or not. However before all this, CM Punk was an indie darling who had spent five years trying to get his spot at the top in WWE. At the beginning of 2011 he was the new lead of The Nexus which was just a bad idea. Nobody cared at all. However, within the next couple of months, he would find his niche, he would find what he needed to take it to the next level, so with that said lets talk about the next entry on this list.
2011 – The Summer of Punk
So let’s get right into this one, June 27th, 2011, CM Punk cuts probably the best promo of the decade in WWE. Airing his grievances about WWE because he was working for years to get there, working for years to prove he is the best, and he was tired of the same people getting all the opportunities, and Punk made it clear that his contract was up he was gonna win the WWE Championship and bring it with him, this would be coined The Pipebomb. This promo and the weeks that follow set up one of the best all around matches. From a storytelling standpoint it told the exact story it needed to, as a match it was great. CM Punk won the championship and left with it, doing exactly what he said he’d do. All this was good, it was different it’s what the fans wanted to see. A couple weeks later is where this started going down hill.
So after Punk “walked out” with the title, Vince McMahon refused to acknowledge this fact. He announced an 8-man tournament that was eventually won by Rey Mysterio, only for John Cena to challenge Rey and win the same night. This is exactly what CM Punk was talking about in his pipebomb promo. Right after John Cena won the title again, from Rey Mysterio, CM Punk returned and let me clarify, this was two weeks after he beat Cena at Money in the Bank and walk out. The same night Triple H announced the Board of Directors relieved Vince McMahon of his duties, because of the Punk situation. Mine and a lot of people’s problem with this is they built up this walk out angle so big that Punk leave with the belt etc. they should have done this way differently, why have a tournament at all, maybe we don’t see a championship for a few weeks at this time that wasn’t new and Brock Lesnar wasn’t even back yet. At this time it would have been interesting to not know what was going on with the main event title on the main event show. Regardless Punk came back with the belt and this set up the good old WWE Champion vs WWE Champion match at Summerslam between John Cena and CM Punk. We’ve seen it before to me at the time and looking back at it now, is very, very lazy booking and it could have been done way better.
So at Summerslam, CM Punk gets the better of John Cena again, and just when we think the show is over, Kevin Nash of all people shows up and gives CM Punk a jack knife powerbomb. This resulting in the then RAW Money in the Bank winner Alberto Del Rio to cash in and win the championship from Punk. Making all of this stuff with Punk and Cena completely pointless because from here Punk should have been the guy carrying the show with the championship. Instead he is put into this story with Triple H and Kevin Nash that ended up being a feud for those two that not a single person cared about. Following Summerslam Punk accused Triple H and Kevin Nash of working together to keep him out of the title picture, which in a way isn’t untrue from a behind the scenes stand point. Nash claimed Triple H called him to take care of Punk and Triple H claimed he had no idea what Nash was talking about. So Punk and Nash insisted on facing each other at Night of Champions, a match that never took place because behind the scenes Nash couldn’t be cleared at the time for the match, So Punk faced Triple H instead, a match that Triple H would win thanks to interference by Nash, Miz, and R-Truth.
The Following month Punk would find himself back in the title picture which he never should have been taken out of in the first place. In a triple threat match with John Cena who was champion once again, and Alberto Del Rio, which Del Rio would win, and R-Truth and Miz who had been fired by Triple H were under the ring, attacking everyone in the ring. All of this would result in a roster walk out, and the only people who stayed were Cena, Sheamus, and CM Punk (which made zero sense, considering the pipebomb promo and everything), Vince would return and say the Board of Directors have given him control again and the entire roster would return, and Miz and R-Truth would be re-hired after Triple H had fired them. All of this, was just so overbooked, it didn’t work at all. So after all of this CM Punk would now team with Triple H, let’s not forget the person he criticized four months before this, against R-Truth and The Miz, which they lost thanks to interference by none other then Kevin Nash.
Following this CM Punk would once again face Alberto Del Rio at Survivor Series this time winning and having he best WWE Title Reign of this decade alone, of 434 days, but everything that happened in between that stellar Money in the Bank feud and win against John Cena, to this Survivor Series win, can been seen as pointless, stupid, overbooked, and definitely not a good way to build the so called Summer of Punk. WWE almost ruined everything on there own here, and only took three months to figure out what they really needed to do with CM Punk, give him the belt and run with it. Make sure to keep an eye out for the continuation of this series in the weeks to come.
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