CM Punk Has Got To Go

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

OMG!!!!! If you can state that The WWE will prosper with Punk on top, and not by subjective means, i mean by FACTS, then i feel sorry for you when u prove to be a mark.

OK, I'm not going to say anything that hasn't already been said, or that you're not going to completely reject with your cold-cut "facts" and license to kill. They should make a movie of your greatness! 007: Ignorance Never Sleeps! Or perhaps Sherlock Holms and Bitch of Baker Street...

I honestly think it's hilarious how close-minded you are to other people's opinions and perceptions. A couple dozen people are calling you out on the same subject, and you stick to your guns without a single admission that you might be wrong? I admire your conviction, but have a little humility.

You made good points, but as I've already said : correlation does not prove causation! You're trying to scrutinize ratings and numbers that professional analysts are meant to interpret. I am very much sick of people stresses out and making claims based on the ratings systems. Often times, like in this instance, you're using a small cut of the ratings to make your point. Ratings have been dropping steadily for YEARS, and they are constantly in flux no matter who is on top. People thought Mark Henry was the reason Smackdown was up for a couple of weeks, and it average out. Sometimes people watch, sometimes they don't. There are so many things to consider that factor into those ratings that you're not considering. You can't blame the guy with the WWE title all of the time!

It's a fair point, I'll give you that. Maybe in six months WWE ratings will continue dropping and Punk will fall off the grid. Maybe his sales will slip and he'll fall back to upper-mid card guy that can only draw well with cheap heat. But you haven't even given him enough time to prove himself either way. You don't shotgun somebody into the top spot only to pull the rug out from under them because a main event of Raw lost ratings. Because a PPV didn't necessarily sell as well as you might have hoped. People need time to grow! Analysts need time to observe the trends and make educated decisions.

Here's my advice to you, and it's the last thing I'm going to say because if I keep going down this road with you I'm going to get infracted for being a total dick. If a whole forum full of people give you thought-out opinions, maybe listen to them instead of just striking back. 50 people coming together is a much more educated pool than a single man's opinion... Don't start threads unless you can take the criticism of your own thoughts.

And for the love of god, stop using the word "mark". It makes you look like a mark.

 

[CH David]

Hilarity ensued at the title of this thread. Holy crap, I haven't laughed this much since last week when I was watching the movie Powder with my brother and out of the blue said something about "albino technology". Don't ask, it was awesome in context. Anywho, I've veered off topic.

Yes, let's get rid of CM Punk being in the Main Event after just a few weeks of him holding the title. Holy balls that is quite the window of opportunity for anyone to get a real grasp on how people feel of him. Maybe it's because I'm a fan and I don't see it, but damn, that two weeks you can really get it!

Now I could be mistaken, it happens, weird I know, but it just doesn't seem like a logical time frame to truly get a feel for what the crowd wants. Could it be that it was Del Rio that no one wants to see? Quite possibly. Hell, nobody wants to watch David Otunga do anything. In my most humble of opinions, let's give Punk a legitimate championship reign, something more than a month, and see what happens. The man is a crowd favorite, is moving merchandise pretty well, and entertains most people.

Give it a chance before you get all high and mighty think that the WWE needs to reaccess a situation after two weeks.

 

[TheGreatLegend]

CM Punk is nothing but a one hit wonder. Casual viewers don't even care about this guy. Even CM Punk/ Alberto Del Rio fued has buried Del Rio so far down that I don't think he will be able to reach the top again. CM Punk has nothing special. Just some bandwagon fans and stupid looking moveset Kicks,kicks,GTS. If WWE continues to have CM Punk as champion going into Wrestlemania this will be one of the most boring Road to Wrestlemanias of all time. CM Punk cutting insider promos in his monotone voice and Zack Ryder will be the US Champion soon going into Wrestlemania. I hope Rock/ Cena buildup can save this Wrestlemania.

 

[justinsayne]

I'm still amazed at the level of idiocy of some wrestling fans, Punk gets one of the biggest ovations on every show he's works. I highly doubt that that is just from a few "bandwagon fans" the guy is over, he rivals only Cena is merch sales, he wrestles some of the best matches on every card he's apart of, & can make just about anyone look good in the ring. You would have to be a delusional dumbass to let a total package like CM Punk go. Also with this logic, WWE should be releasing pretty much 90% of their roster right now, cause that vast majority are nowhere near ready to ME for the company, including Del Rio, who was NOWHERE near ready to ME for the company much less be a WWE champion. Del Rio is easily one of the blandest champions I have ever seen, & a guy who's matches & segments typically lead to me changing the channel. There is literally nothing intriguing at all about his character at all. Further more the Punk/ADR match was on during a MNF game that was farily entertaining, I'm sure many fans were sick of seeing Berto in the title picture & really had no desire to see a match they had just seen on PPV 2 weeks prior & instead decided they'd rather flip the channel & watch Brees pick apart the Giants. Punk is going to go on to be a great champion, & should head into WM with the belt still around his waist, where he'll likely face Miz.

 

[JohnJohnson]

Lol I love reading wrestlezone forum because of threads like this. I'm not a big poster here but I do check in and read the posts here. This thread is hilarious though. Not because Ryan86 feels that CM Punk has to go, but because as soon as he expressed his opinion and even explained why, dozens of IWC Punk marks attacked him. He thinks Punk should go and has provided facts to support his OPINION, but everyone gets so upset as if he were speaking blasphemy. He never said to release Punk either. He may just want to see Punk removed from the main event. But everyone calls him an idiot. Really? He is an idiot because he doesn't buy into the crap that WWE has been force feeding us for years? CM Punk is terribly over rated. He had one great promo and a few other good promos with Triple h/ Kevin Nash. He has gone down hill since the summer. Let's look at what brought Punk to his current status:
1)"Shoot" promo
2)Threatening to leave with the title storyline.
3)Clean win over Cena.
4)Vince telling fans to not use his name(reverse psychology had to be used to get the arena cheering him).
5)Both Kevin Nash and Triple H putting him over.

Any superstar plugged into the same situation would have gotten a huge push. What matters is what you do with that push. Punk has done nothing exciting since. Yea sure he will spit out a couple of lines during his promos that talk about things that the IWC talk about but over all he is corny and IMO is only doing the same thing as Mick Foley with his cheap pops. WWE used the fact that people were tired of the "Cena Show" and produced an alternative in Punk. In truth, Punk can't carry the show. He has done nothing but roll downhill since his rise to the top of the roster. And yes his style is similar to SCSA in the fact that he won't bite his tongue and yes he is a good talker but he is certainly nowhere near SCSA. Austin was able to come in everyweek and get the crowd on their feet with his mic work. And not only that but he did it during a time where there was actually competition on the mic. Nowadays it doesnt take much to set yourself apart from others on the mic. Most of it nowadays is just recapping what took place the previous week/night. Now if you're a heel you brag about yourself and if you're a face you talk about how important the fans are and that's about it. So of course when a wrestler breaks this pattern and comes out with something "unscripted" people will take notice. CM Punk isn't great, he's just surrounded by blandness. And I'm sorry to tell you that selling a bunch of t shirts and having good mic skills doesnt mean you need to carry the show. That's the recipe for another Cena. It's wrestling, not a t shirt selling contest. I remember back in the days when wrestling was exciting and mid carders like Al Snow would come out and you would see fans with their mannequin heads and j.o.b. squad shirts. Does that mean he should main event? No. Mid carders like Road Dogg would have great mic work and would excite the crowd everyweek. Should he have main evented? No. Point is CM Punk is overrated and can't carry the company and isn't doing anything special. And I am not a CM Punk hater at all. He is currently one of my favorite wreslters on Raw. You just won't see me call someone an idiot for saying something negative about the guy.
Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that I agree with Ryan86 completely. I just think that it's ridiculous that, on this forum, anyone who expresses an opinion that isn't the popular one they become a "dumbass" or "idiot" or what have you. Get over yourselves people. Just because you mark for the popular wrestler doesn't mean that another's opinion is invalid. I'm not taking either side here. There are points throughout that I agree and disagree with. I don't agree that the decrease in viewership is CM Punk's fault. I do agree that WWE has become crap now. And if you want my honest opinion on who made WWE crap and who is responsible for the decrease in viewership its the fans. The fans that mark out for whoever WWE tells them to. The WWE can get away with cheesy Cena promos because the fans will mark out for him. They can get away with predictable formulaic matches because the fans still pop each week when they see the same "5 moves of death". The credibility of all of the WWE's championship have plummeted and that's ok because the fans will still cheer and have the crazy idea that anyone with decent ring skills, good mic skills, and good merchandise sales should be the next champ. WWE doesn't have to write good storylines anymore because the fans allow them to get away with crappy storylines(half of which go unfinished). All the WWE needs is for their baby-face marks to pop each week(to the same routine thing), and for fans to buy their merchandise and they are set. My advice is to stop letting the WWE cheat you. Voice your opinions! Make your OWN opinions though!

 

[wwehqShorty]

Your kidding me right?

RAW lost viewers because of the first segment because of how boring Cena is, each time he gives a promo, its the same promo as last time, just reworded and a different name is placed in there... So, its not CM Punks fault at all, its Super Cena's fault for being bland and overused.

 

[bigbootydaddyV]

Last time I checked the PPV sales, MITB was one of the only ones that was UP from last year, and that was the only one which really was centered around Punk. After that there was a shift on to HHH, and since then Punk hasn't really been featured in a pay per view, and definitely not in a compelling storyline. Ratings are down across the board because the product itself has gotten stale. And another reason it looks like Punk hasn't gone far with his push and the ratings is because after the Summer of Punk, Monday Night Raw has had to compete with Monday Night Football. Of course ratings went down this week by the second hour because that was about the time that Drew Brees was laying the smack down on that little bitch Eli Manning.

 

[RoughKut]

Oh wow. It seems like this Punk love-fest is across the entire internet.

You just can't say anything negative at all about the guy without troves of supporters ******ing his every move.

I wouldn't call Punk a "one hit wonder"... yet. But he's been one dimensional since June/July. A few sorta funny promos every once in a while doesn't mean shit in the long term. HHH can do a funny promo each week if that was the case, and get way more laughs than Punk. Punk's gonna have to step it up if he plans to keep his promise to "save" the WWE.

It's like Punk has finally been unleashed and ... Well, what's next? Somewhat funny promos about the management and his dislike for the status quo isn't going to cut it. Jericho did a fabulous job of giving some of the greatest moments and funniest promos since his debut in the WWE, where did that get him? Punk is on the same level.

I congratulate Punk for beating Cena (finally) in t-shirt sales. But that doesn't really mean anything. Jay Lethal topped TNA sales for a while. Zack Ryder is in the top ten of the WWE sales too. Does anyone REALLY think he can lead the main event? If so, that's just plain delusional to me. People buy popular merchandise. Punk is popular.

Bottom line is, Punk isn't doing anything we haven't seen before. Far as him needing to be gone, that's a little bit far fetched. But as far as Punk's promises to make things better, he's got a long way to go.

 

[BK Styles]

I think we all need to accept that the WWE is never going to garner its rating form years gone by. that being said, ratings falling is a worrying thing, and WWE needs to address it befor eit becomes a huge issue.

That said, saying Punk is the root cause is not only unjust, its stupid. Now, me saying his ring work is very, very good and solid has no relevance, and neither does me bringing up his excellent mic skills. Listen to the crowd whenever Punk is out. They aren't just hot for him; they are shit hot. You could argue that he gets the biggest pop at the moment, and the most sustained and repeated chant throughout any segment he is in. Also, if he is the reason for ratings plummeting, why is his merchandise selling? Surely if people won't buy the product he is on, why would they buy his merch?

Also, forget the title rematch; the second half of the show wasn't great. Plus, it's WWE Raw, and Punk was just given the belt on PPV two weeks ago. Why would he lose it straight away? Considering that, people would have been pretty sure of the outcome, so is there then any real point to watch it?

The thing it, yes the rating are going down, but they aren't going down by loads. The last few weeks they've hovered around the same area. yes they've been decreasing, but not by much in comparison. You have to remember that not only are we in an era where wrestling is less mainstream, but people these days have less money, so for Pay Per Views, they aren't gonna shell out money every month as much as they may have done once. For me, it's different because I live in England, and I can't afford to stay up till 2am every Monday for Raw. I'll watch the repeat, sure, but by then I won't have been able to resist looking at the results, and that will dictate what will happen.

There are lots of reasons why ratings are going down, but, and I feel I can say this with some confidence, Punk is not one of them.

 

[JaylisJayP]

Oh wow. It seems like this Punk love-fest is across the entire internet.

You just can't say anything negative at all about the guy without troves of supporters ******ing his every move.

I wouldn't call Punk a "one hit wonder"... yet. But he's been one dimensional since June/July. A few sorta funny promos every once in a while doesn't mean shit in the long term. HHH can do a funny promo each week if that was the case, and get way more laughs than Punk. Punk's gonna have to step it up if he plans to keep his promise to "save" the WWE.

It's like Punk has finally been unleashed and ... Well, what's next? Somewhat funny promos about the management and his dislike for the status quo isn't going to cut it. Jericho did a fabulous job of giving some of the greatest moments and funniest promos since his debut in the WWE, where did that get him? Punk is on the same level.

I congratulate Punk for beating Cena (finally) in t-shirt sales. But that doesn't really mean anything. Jay Lethal topped TNA sales for a while. Zack Ryder is in the top ten of the WWE sales too. Does anyone REALLY think he can lead the main event? If so, that's just plain delusional to me. People buy popular merchandise. Punk is popular.

Bottom line is, Punk isn't doing anything we haven't seen before. Far as him needing to be gone, that's a little bit far fetched. But as far as Punk's promises to make things better, he's got a long way to go.

C'mon...what is Punk REALLY supposed to do? He has much less leverage now that he's resigned, Vince is going to have the show go down however he ends up wanting it to go down...so as much as they might let Punk go a little bit here and there, if he ever really did something to really piss Vince off, Vince no doubt would bury the guy. It's happened before, Punk isn't THAT huge in the business now or ever that he's untouchable from that sort of thing.

I said it in this thread already, when they throw Punk out there with the guise of being this "rebel" but transparently doing a scripted piece for 5 minutes or so, it's even worse that Cena doing his repetetive nonsense. Because, at least in my eyes, they set Punk up to be the anti-authority, but then he's forced to play into whatever Vince wants to do on an "off night"...it ends up hurting his character and his character's credibility.

But I will say this...it is really not Punk's fault, and here's why.

1. You're an anti-authority superstar with no authority figure to play off of. JL is AWFUL, and it's so ridiculous how stupid they turned that HHH/Vince/JL angle into utter nonsense. They had so many great opportunities to hit us over the head with something we hadn't seen or felt it years...Punk certainly did his part laying the groundwork on his side and Vince just dropped the ball so hard on his side. So Punk is left jabbering the same crap week after week to JL and, Jesus....David Otunga.

2. Like I said, in reality Punk can only go so far as Vince allows him...maybe a touch further, but not far enough to actually "change" anything. Anyone who isn't a total Punk mark has to be able to see that. I mean, what's he really changing...that he can keep WWE Ice Cream bars on the minds of the IWC for months at a time? Great.

 

[dansaun77]

Listen Eugene, CM punk has made WWE worth watching again. Ratings are dropping because people are sick of Cena. That is fact. Punks merchandise is selling like hotcakes. If HHH didnt bury him two months ago, Punk would well over further.

 

[TheGreatLegend]

Listen Eugene, CM punk has made WWE worth watching again. Ratings are dropping because people are sick of Cena. That is fact. Punks merchandise is selling like hotcakes. If HHH didnt bury him two months ago, Punk would well over further.

WTF has changed ? Now we get two average mid-card guys fighting for the WWE Championship. WWE Title means even less now. This is what WWE is doing -

They made CM Punk a guy who hates how the company works so they script him to say things which people hate about their company and make CM Punk into some kind of saviour. All the stuff that Punk says ...This is the same stuff people tweet to WWE on Twitter...Change the title design, Hire this or that guy, etc. Its all WWE's way to keep the IWC in illusion that something is changing and CM Punk is the reason whereas CM Punk has done nothing. Back in July CM Punk talked about being the "Voice of the Voiceless" when he named guys like Chris Masters,Luke Gallows,etc. Are those guys back in WWE ? Do we get more Wrestling on the show now that we got before ? NO...we even got lesser Wrestling and more half hour promos from Punk etc. WWE Championship means even less now then ever.

Its just WWE's way to keep some of the IWC happy while they have to change nothing. "Nothing to lose when you keep both the IWC and casual fans happy".

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

CM Punk is nothing but a one hit wonder.

CM Punk drew a decent feud out of the Big Show. That does not happen very often... His work with Mysterio was great. He completely expanded his character and went off the deep end with as the Straight Edge Messiah. When he was out with an injury his work on the Raw commentary team was absolutely priceless! His feud with Randy Orton was great and brought out the best in both men. Then of course you have the infamous "shoot" on Raw leading to Money in the Bank, him leaving the WWE, and his eventually SummerSlam match. And that's just the last two years... There's got to be at least ONE other thing you like in there, making him a bit more than a one-hit wonder.

Casual viewers don't even care about this guy.

Fuck casual viewers. Let the marketing team and select members of management worry about attracting casual viewers. Let John Cena and Randy Orton attract the casual viewers for Christ sake! But me? I don't give a damn about the casual viewers! Do you know what happens when you try to make every top guy on the roster pander to casual fans? You lose your biggest fan-base! You lose your hardcore fans! I don't care what Punk does to attract the casual fans, because I want to be entertained! Me, the fan who has been watching for years! Not some random kid who's gonna buy a John Cena t-shirt, watch a few matches, and eventually move on to the next fad in his pre-pubescent life.

Even CM Punk/ Alberto Del Rio fued has buried Del Rio so far down that I don't think he will be able to reach the top again.

ADR's fall from grace at the beginning of this year is not CM Punk's fault by any stretch of the imagination. His work with ADR was WAY better than Cena's work with him, and Punk is doing his best with what he's got. Del Rio's a solid in-ring worker, but the man can't think outside the box. He's just got his stupid grin and whatever lines the creative team writes for him that night... Go ahead and call me a "mark" because I'm just recycling lines that Punk himself said on Raw, but you know it's true regardless!

CM Punk has nothing special. Just some bandwagon fans and stupid looking moveset Kicks,kicks,GTS.

You'd be amazed at how effective kicks can be to a great wrestling match! Ever seen Davey Richards perform? Eddie Edwards? I'd rather see Punk kick the hell out of somebody and physically (and noticeably) wear them down, than selling for 20 minutes, hitting some ineffective looking throws, and winning with a lame finisher. He can tell a story in the ring; people like you just want to burn through angles and matches to get to the chewy, caramel center. Savor the match... Wins and loses mean nothing.

If WWE continues to have CM Punk as champion going into Wrestlemania this will be one of the most boring Road to Wrestlemanias of all time.

I'd be interested in who you think would be a more interesting champion going into Mania at this time... Miz? Alberto del Rio? Dream on...

CM Punk cutting insider promos in his monotone voice and Zack Ryder will be the US Champion soon going into Wrestlemania. I hope Rock/ Cena buildup can save this Wrestlemania.

Not a huge Ryder fan. But him winning the title could free Ziggler up to potentially fight for the WWE title. So maybe your last problem will be solved by this problem..? I'm sure you'll find something else to bitch about though.

To all the people amazed at all the PUnk support, complaining about how the guys are just trying to "voice their opinions": Yes. They are. They are voicing their opinions, and so is everyone else. The trouble with people like this is they can't actually defend themselves, and aren't mature enough to deal with their thoughts being questioned. So they resort to telling people like me to "go to hell" and let them speak their mind. I'm letting you speak your mind...But that doesn't mean I can't respond! Ya'll are preaching freedom of speech, but you really only want it if the opposition (which is rather large in this case) doesn't fight back.

This whole thing should just speak for itself on how popular Punk is, and could be going forward. It still amazes me that you have 50 people yelling at you, and you're still unwilling to budge. No, that's not hypocritical. If I had 50 people yelling at me and telling me I was being an idiot, I'd have the common sense to listen and rethink my opinion...

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Do we get more Wrestling on the show now that we got before ? NO...we even got lesser Wrestling and more half hour promos from Punk etc

This is just all kinds of untrue. CM Punk has yet to really cut lose and deliver a long drawn-on promo since his stuff with Triple H a few months back. When he and Hunter teamed up, he never really got to cut a promo. It was always the Game and Nash going back and forth, and Miz and R-Truth. And then in the 3-way with ADR and Cena he never once got to say anything... In his most recent run with ADR he allowed del Rio to do a lot of the talking, trying to increase dialogue on both sides. But even in those segments there was action.

And Punk can't control what others do. Punk can only be Punk, and make sure he's doing what he says he wants done. He can lead by example, but he can't force other guys to have matches, or force management to do things... You're starting to blur the lines here between the man and the character. At the end of the day we see CM Punk the character. Don't pretend to actually know anything that goes on behind the scenes.

And Punk has wrestled more. He's in a match almost, if not every single week. He had a title match against del Rio last Monday. He had an amazing match with ZIggler last week, the very night after he won the belt! Before that he was in some tag team matches...Punk is wrestling every single week on Raw, and he's done a damn good job too. Ziggler is wrestling every single week, sometimes two or three times a week! Rhodes is wrestling every week, sometimes twice. Same for Swagger and Kofi Kingston. Orton and Sheamus are almost always in one or two matches a week. There is a LOT more wrestling than there has been in past years going on right NOW.

But of course you wouldn't see that, because it doesn't match your point...

 

[Cracka Jack]

Can't tell if trolling...

Seems you've succeeded in getting a thread with plenty of attention around it, even if all it took was a statement as idiotic as the one you're making now. Listen, Punk is one of, if no THE most talented guy in wrestling right now. He's the type of guy who can pull at least a decent match, and more likely a great one, out of just about anyone on the roster. He can go out into the ring with no script, no predetermined outline for a promo, and grabbed the attention of everyone in the arena. Basically, he's the most awesome guy around (I am quite a mark for him). I can understand if you don't think he's as great as everyone else on these forums does, but you're pretending he's a talentless hack, which certainly isn't the case. He can be the face of the company, and while his face turn was very recent, he's still getting a bigger pop than all but perhaps Cena and Orton, topping theirs on some nights. I don't know what world you live in, or if you have a hearing disorder, but it's clear that the people are quickly warming up to CM Punk.

 

[Rayne]

CM Punk's awesome, but overrated as anything. He isn't 'the best in the world' he's probably one of the best on the mic, but in-ring? dude needs to get over himself.

He's another IWC Bitch. along with Zack Ryder and Christian.

Someone posting on the internet, complaining about the internet. Love it. After all, we all know that as soon as you turn on a computer, electrical tentacles zoom out of your monitor, attach themselves to your brain, and start feeding you information, removing your ability to come up with your own thoughts and opinions. Thus, no one buys CM Punk or Zack Ryder's t-shirts merchandise because they think they're entertaining, they buy them because everyone who uses a computer is a brain-dead slob who can't think for themselves.

Except for you, of course. You should see if you can make a vaccine and sell it!

I congratulate Punk for beating Cena (finally) in t-shirt sales. But that doesn't really mean anything. Jay Lethal topped TNA sales for a while. Zack Ryder is in the top ten of the WWE sales too. Does anyone REALLY think he can lead the main event? If so, that's just plain delusional to me. People buy popular merchandise. Punk is popular.

We're in the age where it doesn't matter how you perform as a wrestler, it doesn't matter if you can't cut a promo- what matters is pushing merchandise. Everything else about wrestling; microphone work, fan interaction, everything, comes back to how much product you can sell. It doesn't mean anything, it means everything. These guys are out there to make money for the WWE and its stockholders. Advertising gets sold based off of ratings, which is why you hear people harp on those so much. Merchandise tends to follow ratings over the long-term, in a "sum of all t-shirts" sense, but your individual guys matter a LOT to merchandising. If CM Punk and Zack Ryder can keep selling t-shirts, you're going to keep seeing more of them.


And in general response to the thread: people want to complain about the CM Punk lovefest? This might give you an indication that CM Punk is more popular than you think. It's fine not to be entertained by a guy. I've never understood John Cena's popularity, but I'm not about to deny the fact that he's popular. CM Punk is the same way, except he's the first entertaining thing I've seen from the big two since the first few weeks of the Nexus angle.

 

[JohnJohnson]

Fuck casual viewers. Let the marketing team and select members of management worry about attracting casual viewers. Let John Cena and Randy Orton attract the casual viewers for Christ sake! But me? I don't give a damn about the casual viewers! Do you know what happens when you try to make every top guy on the roster pander to casual fans? You lose your biggest fan-base! You lose your hardcore fans! I don't care what Punk does to attract the casual fans, because I want to be entertained! Me, the fan who has been watching for years! Not some random kid who's gonna buy a John Cena t-shirt, watch a few matches, and eventually move on to the next fad in his pre-pubescent life.

Completely agree with this.

There are a lot of great points and a lot of irrelevant ones.
To the OP: Punk can't be blamed for the ratings dropped. There's no actual evidence period. Releasing Punk would make no sense unless you were doing a complete overhaul of the roster and released a hell of a lot of more people before Punk. Punk is popular with the fans. There is no arguing that, just look at the reaction he gets.

To the Punk marks: His t-shirt sales beating Cena's is as relevant as WWE having more twitter followers than Coca-Cola etc. T-shirts don't equal ratings. Also most Cena fans have his merch now, CM Punk's shirt has an arguably more adult look to it than the brightly colored Cena shirts. Regardless of which wrestler I liked more I'd rather where a casual looking shirt that says "best in the world" than a purple shirt saying "never give up".

 

[BK Styles]

To the Punk marks: His t-shirt sales beating Cena's is as relevant as WWE having more twitter followers than Coca-Cola etc. T-shirts don't equal ratings. .

Very true, but in regards to the OP, would you not agree that if people aren't tuning in because of Punk, they also wouldn't be buying anywhere near the amount of his merchandise that they are? Just food for thought.

My firm opinion is that CM Punk deserves to be in the main event scene, and he's virtually a shoe-in to be in the WWE title match at Wrestlemania (with Cena against Rock), and rightfully so in my opinion. Back to my original post, to suggest he is responsible for Raw's downturn of ratings is absolute rubbish. Does that mean he is responsible for the current ratings? I wouldn't go that far, but he's certainly helped more than he has hindered.

 

[TheGreatLegend]

I have to say all who are saying "punk sells lots of t-shirts" well that's all well and good but WWE isn't in the t-shirt selling buisness. It is a factor but WWE is a wrestling company, just saying. And Randy Orton has also beaten Cena in merchandise selling :

Source : http://wrestlingtruth.com/news/randy-orton-beats-cena-in-merchandise-hometown-hero-tonight/


I am also one who didn't think there was anything spectacular about Punk's pre-MiTB promo because it was clearly part of a storyline. All the guy did was insult the McMahons. Who hasn't insulted the McMahons! And the guy had been announcing for weeks that he was going to leave the WWE. Clearly, he was doing what he was allowed to be doing.

Let's face the reality. CM Punk is in the league with the light-heavy-weights like Christian, The Miz, Cody Rhodes, and Jeff Hardy. As HHH calls him, CM Punk is a "skinny fatass".

The problem with CM Punk is indeed his "skinny fatass". He looks like a whimp. He is no Stone Cold Steve Austin.

When I say he is no Steve Austin, what I'm saying is that CM Punk cannot realistically beat up anyone he please at any time he wants. It doesn't look realistic to have Punk run to ring, beat every one up, and clear the ring like Austin could do.

We've seen this FAIL a couple times with Punk already. CM Punk's run-ins with Kevin Nash were a disaster. It didn't look realistic that Punk could make good on his threats to "kick Nash's ass". More like Nash kicked Punk's ass. Hence, Punk looked like a little boy against Nash, which is probably why Vince didn't want Punk to feud with Nash because he knew it would diminish Punk's *myth*.

This has always been the problem with Punk. Hence, why Vince has always paired Punk up with a big man in order to increase Punk's intimidation factor.

So the WWE creative is stuck with how to capitalize on CM Punk's rise as a Babyface. They've given Punk lots of time to do more promos, but all those post-MiTB promos sucked! They were so boring because all he did was insult the McMahons and HHH, and complain about not getting opportunities - which is BS.

 

[Uncle Sam]

I'm not even sure where to start with this mess of a thread. Perhaps I can best get my point across by supplying a list of things that I don't care about:

• Ratings
• T-shirt sales
• Hugh Jackman
• WWE's profit margins
• What your mother does after she crawls out of my bed in the morning

Many of the posts in this thread have the stench of what an old poster called Lord Sidious dubbed "WWE Shareholders." These are people that don't care about how compelling a storyline is, how entertaining a match is, how gifted a wrestler is, how talented someone is with a microphone in their hands. These people don't even care about their own opinions. One thing takes primacy with them; ratings. If something isn't drawing ratings, isn't picking up numbers, isn't selling t-shirts, it's automatically garbage and has to go. The degree to which they're invested in the WWE's business interests would be understandable - if they were literal WWE shareholders.

I'm not interested in debating the minutia of whether Punk draws ratings and pay-per-view buys, whether he puts butts in seats. He puts my butt in a seat; why should I be concerned about anything else? How the WWE balances its books isn't my concern. The fact that it's your concern makes me wonder how you function in the real world. Do you drink only Coca Cola? Do you read only Harry Potter? Do you only watch Avatar and Titanic on a loop? Why are you so concerned with what's making other people money, and why do you want to destroy things which don't make them quite as much money?

 

[Jfrankart81]

Ok So let me get this straight. CM Punk is Overrated according to someone in here. Same guy who says christian is overrated to. mmmmmk. And CM punk needs to go because he does not draw?! Are You serious bro? (yea i went there). I know i just read an article about a month or 2 back stating how CM Punk is the number one Seller in Merchendise for the Company. But hes not drawing?? Also, Do not blame Cm Punk for ratings falling,viewers changing the channel etc....BLAME WWE and WWE BOOKING!!! How can the guy keep momentum going week after week when hes pushed into an half assed barely put together/No Build up feud with Del Rio?? Go back and Watch Austin when he started his feud with vince. He was in the opening segment damn near every week!! They barely Put Cm punk in the opening segment and they do not let him run with the Mic. The Guy is not getting the chance to make Raw better. And even with all that, He's still as popular as he is!!! As far as overrated goes I call BS on that! Punk has about as much moves as RVD does,but just like RVD is only allowed to do so many in a match. Thats what happens when your talented in WWE and were not Groomed there. Dont believe me, go watch a Brian Danielson match, His moves are cut in half now that hes daniel bryan! Punk can work with anyone and make them look good. When hes in a match, Its interesting. When cenas in a match...YAWN! blame booking, Blame vince, and Blame 6 years of Super cena for why WWE fails, Dont blame the guy who just got the torch this past summer, and since august has barley got a chance to run with it!

 

[J.J.]

Is argue many turn away in the second hour to watch Monday Night Football. For me I generally tivo it and watch bits and pieces later. I cannot stomach the first 15-20 minutes of the show taken up by microphone time every week. I don't feel CM Punk is the issue here as honestly around the second hour in having to turn the TV away from a typical Divas tag match which got stale long ago. As pointed out by many in this topic he(Punk) is a main seller in merchandise - and extremely over, definitely not blaming him for losing viewers. Perhaps the mid card should become more interesting as a way to carry viewers into second hour. But then one must wonder; "why won't the viewers turn back to see Punk in the main event?"

 

[Paralyzer Z]

I can't fathom how uneducated the OP and his first post is. We are fans, we in general do not give a shit about fact related data that include T-shirts sales, Merchandise sales in general. ratings, and finance. We care about opinion and the WWE universe has spoken their opinion. They love Punk, and he is the #2 face on their flagship show because of it. You are saying that because a match with Del Rio, CM Punk vs ADR, a match that we have seen countless times over the Summer, and fall, and not to mention the overwhelming probability that Punk was going to come out the victor does not draw? Of course it does not! It was the intangibles listed above that made those people turn away, not Punk. He has had monstrous success since turning face and the crowd reaction has shown that. CM Punk can stay right where he is at, he ain't going nowhere from his current standpoint.

 

[Lionshare]

WTF has changed ? Now we get two average mid-card guys fighting for the WWE Championship. WWE Title means even less now. This is what WWE is doing -

They made CM Punk a guy who hates how the company works so they script him to say things which people hate about their company and make CM Punk into some kind of saviour. All the stuff that Punk says ...This is the same stuff people tweet to WWE on Twitter...Change the title design, Hire this or that guy, etc. Its all WWE's way to keep the IWC in illusion that something is changing and CM Punk is the reason whereas CM Punk has done nothing. Back in July CM Punk talked about being the "Voice of the Voiceless" when he named guys like Chris Masters,Luke Gallows,etc. Are those guys back in WWE ? Do we get more Wrestling on the show now that we got before ? NO...we even got lesser Wrestling and more half hour promos from Punk etc. WWE Championship means even less now then ever.

Its just WWE's way to keep some of the IWC happy while they have to change nothing. "Nothing to lose when you keep both the IWC and casual fans happy".

Im pretty sure that CM Punk's promos are not scripted, and do you really think that punk got the leverage to bring those guys back.
Seriously, and to bash punk because the ratings are not up, not even cena and the rock can save raw against the football season.

 

[Saeros]

Now, I don't know how long this expeirement with trying to play "dress-up" with Punk as a credible "super" star whom will carry the brand is going to last; but they need to wrap this thing up before the WWE title picture is set for WM.

I am one of the half million fans who did not stick around after the opening segment. Punk - Delrio was supposed to keep ppl watching through the entire show, but opening with Cena-Piper just made that match look weak. If a WWE champ is advertized to defend his belt in a SVS rematch and WWE loses a crap load of viewers... It not only shows you people were not buying the SVS PPV for a Punk title match, it shows you his appeal to a broad audience isnt there. Sure, his "nich" base stuck around, but Raw lost a huge amount of viewers based on the fact he couldnt carry the show into the second hour.

Raw should not be losing that many viewers to re-runs and blow outs. If they are, the person responsible for keeping them interested needs to be properly phased out.

Time to reacess

I dont mean to draw the same old comparisons but the Raw ratings falling may actually not have anything to do with Punk.

When Stone Cold Steve Austin 1st started his face run in 1997, the raw ratings were in the shitter and he wasnt helping the ratings whatsoever.

a year and a half later it paid off.

Maybe you should actually give him the chance to boost ratings instead of a few months.

You are a prime example of everything that is wrong with wrestling these days.

No fucking patience. Everything must be a quick fix.

The ratings will NOT suddenly go up in a matter of months. You have to build, build, build and then build some more.

Stop expecting things to get better overnight.

Punk hasnt even been the main attraction on Raw. Its been The Rocks return.

Raw's ratings wern't that great when he was back either. So to blame it solely on Punk is just damn right ignorant.

And you seem to be ignoring the fact that Punks Merchandise is through the roof right now. That indicates there is something there thats making the WWE money.

Ratings have been shite for years
PPV buys have been shite for years

Because the WWE has gone and lost patience. Everything now days has to be a quick fix, and they, nor people like you never ever learn that you cant just quick fix something like this. You need the patience to BUILD!