Updates on Punk/WWE Situation After a week where the C.M. Punk news started dying down, people both in and out of the company are now looking at the 3/3 Raw, since it’s from Chicago. Either Punk will be back on that show and they’ll get an incredible reaction for it, or there is a lot of concern how that show will play out. My gut says that if Hulk Hogan and Undertaker are brought to that show (both are scheduled to be brought back to TV at the 2/24 Raw in Green Bay), as they should be, plus Brock Lesnar, that while the Punk chants will probably be there, having Hogan there may serve as a counter. If Hogan was around too long, it would be one thing, but on week two and in Chicago, where he was a star dating back to around 1981, they aren’t going to “turn” on him. There was less concern this past week because while there were Punk chants at several house shows, they didn’t pick up strongly nor last long. The feeling is that with nothing significant on that front happening with a Los Angeles television crowd, that it’s a pretty much done situation with the possible exception of Chicago. At the house show I went to in Oakland, it sounded like maybe four people who were clearly aware of the situation (since Punk was never booked for that show to begin with) started the chant. It picked up somewhat, but it was mostly little kids just parroting a chant, and not any kind of a protest akin to the nearly two years of “We Want Flair” chants at WCW shows from the summer of 1991, to early 1993 after he left the company for WWF. At the Raw show in Los Angeles on 2/10, the company feared given they were in a major market, that fans could hijack the show and ruin the John Cena vs. Randy Orton TV main event, like happened with their match at the Rumble. So the idea was to bring Daniel Bryan out twice, including right before the main event, have him go over strong and get the chants out of the way. For Punk, what happened, whether by design or an audible (and I’d be shocked if this was an audible because can you imagine the heat Rollins would have gotten had it backfired and he did it without prompting?), is that during the Dean Ambrose vs. Mark Henry U.S. title match, in the third hour, Rollins got on the mic as soon as they cut to a commercial at home, and said “C.M. Who? How about showing some respect for Dean Ambrose, the greatest champion in this company,” which started the Punk chants (one person said the Punk chants started right before and Rollins said that in response). The idea seemed to be that long before the three minute break was up, people would get it out of their system and at home, nobody would hear it. That seemed to work to a point. When they came back from the break, there were remnants and there was a woman right in front of the camera holding up a Punk sign, but it was barely audible and the chants never came back. During that commercial break, Lawler made a remark about them going to die out soon, Cole on the headset said, How about “Go away, Go away,” like they should chant that instead, while people were doing the chant. Layfield laughed and said there wasn’t much determination in them (the ones chanting as it quickly died down). During the videos they showed during commercial breaks on the show, there was a lot of Hogan and Sting, but everything with Punk was edited out. They even played the ad for the “Best of the Money in the Bank” DVD and everything with Punk was edited off the ad. But they were not confiscating signs when you came through the door. There were a few Punk signs, and as noted, one was right in front of the camera shown during the Henry vs. Ambrose match, but that was about it. The next night in Ontario, there was one small chant but one can argue the people who start those chants are smart enough to know it’s not making it to television on a taped show. The crowd was said to have responded there pretty much the way one would program them to respond. There is a mixed feeling within the company. Virtually nobody sides with him when it comes to walking out 30 minutes before a live TV shoot unless it’s an elaborate angle (which on 3/3 we’ll likely find out 100%, although those in the company certainly don’t believe it’s a work). Many have sympathy for some of his points about being promised things, or the heads of the company being so steadfast into believing that if you don’t have the right kind of size and physique you can’t be the top star. But they argue Punk very legitimately was No. 2 for a while. I guess the idea is that he really wasn’t No. 2 because Cena was always around, and Dwayne Johnson was clearly ahead of him, and Lesnar was ahead of him, and now Batista was being positioned ahead of him. While most conceded he was very popular, the belief was that he was not a ticket seller to live shows, and only on occasion was he a difference maker in PPV (clearly he was a few times). On the flip side, he was the No. 2 merchandise seller, and his T-shirts in particular are a hot item so he is a strong revenue generator. One person noted to us that he saw with his own eyes Staples Center security telling fans not to chant for Punk, and that security pulled two people aside and threatened to kick them out if they kept chanting it as they tried to get a chant going while they were on the air. Regarding Punk, I don’t know who he’s in contact with, but it doesn’t seem like he’s in communication with many. The story is that those who have worked with him and know him that have tried to contact him haven’t heard back, just like a TNA storyline about not returning phone calls, texts or e-mails in between shows. It is notable that he really did come close to leaving in 2011 and when the angle started, he was gone. I think the moment it changed is when he was going through that period on Raw where he quietly lost every week, until all of a sudden things changed. Jim Ross, who had been in communication with Punk in recent months, said he thought C.M. Punk would make a great MMA announcer. “He’s glib. He’s intelligent. He’s well-spoken. He understands infinitely the product and he knows how to entertain. He has everything that an MMA company would desire. And I think he would just be phenomenal.” During one of the periods where Punk was injured and he worked as an announcer on Raw he was praised for his instinctual timing in the role. Mick Foley, another friend of Punk’s, was on Live Audio Wrestling this past weekend talking about him. “The last time I touched base with him was after the Rumble and I don’t want to discuss what he said exactly. I’ll just say I wasn’t shocked when he decided to leave because he and I, there is a deep, mutual respect there and we like each other. I would say to him after I watched him at a house show and I would say, `Geez, you don’t have to work that hard every night.’ And he would say to me, `If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be here.’ And I respect the work ethic and I understand if you’re hurt and you’re not enjoying yourself that it’s not the place to be. I would hate to see C.M. Punk turn into what I did where my philosophy became, `Good enough is going to have to be good enough.’ And it wasn’t that philosophy that helped me succeed, to get me into the WWE Hall of Fame and I kind of regret going through a few years where things had to be that way. I don’t think Punk wants anyone to see him at anything less than his best and I know he’d been frustrated for a while. “He’s a pretty outspoken guy, and in the end, he’ll make the decision that’s best for him. What I said, and I’ll repeat for you guys, if he can reconsider one thing, it’s not to let whether or not he’s officially the main event dictate how good his match is. If he had a big match coming up at WrestleMania, I would encourage him to at least think about taking advantage of that. In 2006, in no way, shape or form were Edge and I the main event at WrestleMania, but we had a great match. I didn’t walk away from that WrestleMania thinking it was any less special because we weren’t the feature, so that’s the only piece of advice I’d give him, not to let those words, main event, dictate how important the match is, but if your heart’s not in it, it’s not in it.” Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Posted on: Fri, 14 Feb 2014 18:22:01 +0000