Heyman Is Cool With Undertaker Punking Punk

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In his Heyman Hustle column, Paul Heyman analyzes the booking of Summerslam’s main event. He explains why he defends the Undertaker chokeslamming Punk during his victory celebration, taking the focus off Punk’s win and Hardy:

As Punk stood over the writhing-in-pain Jeff Hardy, where was the audience’s collective focus? It was on Hardy, “selling,” letting the crowd both at home and on tv know his sacrifice does not come without a price. He projected the image of a man in severe pain, both physical and emotional, and the audience felt sympathy for this person, both as a character and as a human being. Punk, understanding the art of a heel, kept his head down, looking at Hardy, so no one would have even the inclination of looking at Punk for the moment. Then, in a perfectly timed mannerism that displayed his awesome ability to generate heat on himself, Punk slowly looked up, grabbing the attention of the audience, and saying with his subtle facial expression “I did this to your hero, give me all your hate for victimizing him … and by the way, notice the fact I have the title in my possession … hate me even more for the fact I took it away from your precious protagonist.”

What happened next violates every principle of “Booking 101” ever taught. Yet, it was the best thing WWE has done in a long time, and it was, as the old expression goes, “right for business.”

An audience that dreams of Hardy gaining retribution and winning back his championship is an audience that contributes nothing to the WWE till. Something had to be done to shift the focus, and place the spotlight directly on where the championship storyline was immediately headed.

Look, it’s Heyman talking about booking. Just go read it.