By the way, how the hell did we get on the topic of Punk in a Bryan thread?
If you'd look at your watch, you'd notice that it's clobberin' time!
But no seriously, Bryan CAN NOT lose to any member of Evolution/The Authority. He can be beaten senseless, but unless it involves him passing out and the match being awarded to the other one, it will hurt him. The whole point to the story is that he overcame the odds, and now that he's "broken through the defensive line", and "caught the ball", he has to run with it, and make the most of this opportunity. They're making it out as if this is his one and only chance, so if he loses it, it won't look good on him.
Cena's thing is "It's okay to lose, as long as you pick yourself up", Bryan's is to never give into what other people think, and have confidence regardless. While similar, they are slightly different.
But to continue with Punk...what if, and this is a big if, Punk wins MITB (If it's an all star one, he has 2 MITB victories) and then holds onto it. He straddles the line between wanting to help his friend against The Authority, and wanting to be champion. He fights alongside Bryan, but at the same time, constantly fights himself. Say he and Bryan are in a tag match against Orton and Batista. They win, but Bryan is beaten down. Punk realizes this is a good moment to cash in, and he struggles with the decision, only to hold it off. This gives us a bunch of teases to a turn/feud, and when he eventually does (or even loses the briefcase, and kind of blames Bryan), we get the payoff to it. Constant "When will he do it?/Will he do it?". Eventually, he could "say" he wants to cash it in at PPV X, and then he cashes it in before then or something like that, turning PPV X into the rematch.
