WWE’s creative team did not come up with the idea for the C.M. Punk and Rey Mysterio feud. It was actually the idea of another wrestler that Mysterio then pitched to the company. His daughter, Alliyah Gutierrez, is a child actress and model so they were confident that she would be able to make the birthday celebration angle work. The original idea was to have Punk become friends with Alliyah and her brother, Dominick, hanging out with them, playing video games, turning them against their father in a riff on the Raven/Sandman angle in ECW. At one point the idea was to have Punk cut Alliyah’s hair off as well but WWE turned that down. Punk pitched the idea of doing a Hair vs Mask stipulation but that was scrapped for WrestleMania because WWE felt it would be too obvious that Punk was going to have his head shaved. Mysterio still needs knee surgery for his torn ACL and was originally going to take time off after WrestleMania for it. At the moment, however, he is planning to go as long as possible without getting it done. There are Punk/Mysterio street fights being planned for house shows after WrestleMania. The Hair vs Mask stipulation will probably be used for a future PPV instead.
Credit: Wrestling Observer
