Much has been made of CM Punk’s “weak” title run. Apparently he’s a paper champion, who can’t beat anyone and isn’t deserving of the belt. To all this I say bollocks. To understand why, we must look at where Punk was before he won Money in the Bank.
Prior to Money in the Bank, Punk was the main face of ECW, who made regular appearances on both Raw and Smackdown. On Raw he faced and had good matches with such wrestlers as Chris Jericho, even defeating the former champion, while on Smackdown he faced off with then champion, Edge, falling only to his heelish wiles. On his own show, ECW, he was wrestling Chavo Guerrero, Jr., a man he beat about fairly easily for much of their matches, but was still giving him trouble and even took his ECW Title, albeit with interference. Punk spent a short time chasing the ECW belt he lost, but was unable to defeat Chavo, even losing clean once. From there, Punk won Money in the Bank, and wandered around in random matches, losing more than he won.
This all changed when, upon being drafted to Raw, Punk took advantage of a fallen Edge, using Money in the Bank, to win the World Heavyweight Title. Despite this move being heelish, it was not enough to turn Punk heel since Edge had twice won the title this way, as well as costing Punk his ECW Title with interference. So, while Edge losing the belt this way was rightful retribution, it also wasn’t a strong title win, leaving Punk something of a fluke champion.
Punk, as champion, has been shown to be a step behind one man. That man is Batista. Many are extrapolating too much from this, but ultimately, Batista is the strongest pushed man in the company, holding multiple wins over Triple H and even recently defeating John Cena. While Punk likely would have been elevated defeated Batista, there’s also possibly a fan backlash for pushing Punk down their throats should the Heavyweight champion have come out victorious. After all, Punk is the same guy who had so much trouble with Chavo and was directionless just a few short months ago. Ignoring continuity from years ago is one thing, but even WWE fans’ notoriously stinted memory isn’t that short.
Beyond being a step behind Batista, Punk has looked reasonably strong. He’s established as being more than a match straight up for the top heels with his defeating of JBL numerous times, while beating Kane by a countout shows that he’s at a level as a face just below the very top guys like Batista and Cena. He even avenged an earlier Raw loss to William Regal in a hard hitting match, unlike much of what you’d see on TV. Considering where he came from, that’s a good, slow push. Getting good matches out of everyone he wrestles and regularly defending the title, he is establishing himself as a fighting champion who finds ways to retain against competition with superior physical skills without immediately being pushed as a superman. That’s a worthy role that shows respect for how tough it is to climb to the top.
What of losing to Jericho on Raw, then? Jericho is, at the moment, the hottest heel in wrestling. He is also someone Punk has defeated cleanly in the past. Jericho now a heel, used a distraction to get the victory over Punk, though they were evenly matched prior and in their previous encounters. This is character consistency for Punk, as he’s been shown to be inexperienced and have trouble with distractions and interference in the past with his matches against both John Morrison and, more notably, Chavo Guerrero. Being Heavyweight Champion didn’t suddenly make him immune to chicanery, but the competition makes him able to hang with a higher class opponent. That a man he’s basically even with and the hottest heel around, used cheap means to beat him should generate sympathy. Without the cheating, with his new skill, he very likely would have won, however, we all know distractions are a major part of some heels styles in WWE and so Punk has to learn to deal with that to keep hold of his title. This merely adds another layer of depth to an already intriguingly human character, while setting up a feud for the title down the line.
CM Punk is an interestingly human character in the land of huge, over-the-top caricatures that is WWE. His role is to play off, work off and learn the increasingly surreal world he’s now on top of. As such, he’s interesting and relatable to normal fans thrust into the WWE world representing both a normal person being in the WWE and a normal fan’s learning the intricacies of the product. CM Punk’s push is the next logical step after the Cena Superman (check last time’s A Modest Response for more on the subject of Cena), just as Bret Hart was once the natural outgrowth of Hulkamania. WWE has handled Punk with surprising care and, should this continue, with careful growth are creating a unique and enthralling push for one CM Punk.
I’d like to say thanks on behalf of the site and myself and I hope we passed the audition.
