whoa whoa whoa.....where in the world did you come up with that statistic?
Single handedly?? Oops, "almost singlehandedly"? Egads man. I can see by your screen name that you are a big punk fan but try to have a little bit of even handed reporting. First, I don't think that the WWE before punk was floundering by any means. And I will admit that our personal perspectives may differ, but I never ever have heard or read about a conversation where someone who was not interested in wrestling suddenly tuned in because they just had to check out this CM punk guy.
I say he almost single handedly created interest in WWE again b/c any fan who has watched in the last few months should see the obvious. Do you think it's a coincidence that both MITB and Summerslam were the biggest PPV's this year?{other than WM). Multiple rumor sites were reporting that MITB PPV had a WM like atmosphere to it. Why do you think that is? It's b/c more fans were tuning in to see what CM Punk would do next. Whether that was him cutting promos or to see if he would win the WWE Title and leave the company. WWE wasn't "floundering" before CM Punk arrived, although until his recent popularity, the shows were stale and very predictable. A slump by my definition. While he may not have interested non wrestling fans, I'm sure alot of former WCW/WWF fans WERE tuning in to see what the big deal was. There's a big difference in the two.
Now you do bring up some good points about CM punk's career, but I have to admit, while you were entertained, my personal experience was not the same.
Clearly you dislike CM Punk, which is fine by me. But, to claim he isn't entertaining is ignoring what is in front of you. I will admit I too wasn't a fan of Punk's intially, but eventually I found his work to be very good. My biggest question here is, if you hate Punk, who do you think is entertaining?
Honestly, I never found punk to really shine on the mic until recently. I will agree he was a decent talker, but never would have put him on the level of greatness that you do. And sure, he had some amusing lines on commentary, but that is somewhat irrelevant. He's not a commentator, and I honestly don't think that led to his "singlehanded" revival of interest in the WWE.
Really? B/c all of his recent work has been on a whole other level IMO. He was always a decent talker, but around the time he was on commentary he started to break out more. And yes, me putting him on Austin or Rock's level is my opinion, the same as you NOT liking him is yours. If you don't think he created interest in the WWE product again, then your dislike for him is blinding you to the obvious. Meaning any logic I give you is pointless and a waste of time.
Eh, I can see your point to some extent. Him cashing in on edge was great, but that was more because of edge showing up and bragging and being a heel and a tool than it was CM punk. Anyone cashing in at that moment would have been great, it just happened to be CM punk.
I will give credit to Edge for helping to establish CM Punk and making him look great. However, to dismiss CM Punk as a megastar simply based on your dislike again shows clear bias. CM Punk carried his weight both in the ring and on the mic to stand out as the next breakout star. Whether someone else could've done it like Punk is irrelevant. The fact remains CM Punk made a name for himself starting there and never looked back. A fact which most intelligent minded ppl would agree on here. Saying him being great is coincidental is like saying he got lucky. Again, proving you haven't seen all his work, or refuse to acknowledge what is apparent to most.
That didn't really do anything for me. I was not a big hardy fan, but punk's mockery wasn't anything special, just a typical heel thing to do. Edge was also good at mocking folks. HBK was good at mocking too. I think it could be argued that either one of them could be just as good at mocking, if not better.
I thought it was pretty freakin' hilarious since Jeff was moronic enough to screw up and Punk used his Straight Edge gimmick to capitalize on it. Could HBK say he never screwed up? No. And Edge would hardly be the type to say he'd never be caught popping pills. So, I found it to be unique to Punk's character and not just a typical heel move. You seem to be biased heavily against him, so obviously logic doesn't apply here. And to be honest, I'm not trying to change your mind. You're entitled to see it however you want, though the vast majority would disagree.
Personally, I hated the SES. I didn't find head shaving funny or unfunny, but that is a matter of personal opinion and I respect yours. But SES was an annoying stable that accomplished nothing, was boring with respect to storyline purposes and its members.
I could see how some might view the SES as boring or pointless. I can respect your views, but I do wanna clarify why I feel the way I do. The SES was intended to be annoying, with Punk using his minions as ploys to do his bidding. I personally thought it was ironic that he made the members shave their heads, while keeping his long hair. And his wearing a luchador mask once Rey shaved his head was priceless. Almost as funny as Big Show unmasking him and making him whine like a little bitch.
Which was basically SES version 2. By this time the nexus had existed past its expiration date. The new nexus was a dud, and like the SES, accomplished nothing except a lame run of tag champs and a brief moment of domination in a royal rumble. Punk gained nothing from his leadership of the nexus, which is further evident by the fact that his leadership seemed to just die out and no one has made mention of it since.
Here I pretty much agree, but I loved seeing Punk kick Wade Barrett out of the Nexus. He's my definition of overrated, so it was awesome to see him get outsmarted from a storyline perspective. Otherwise, the Nexus portion of Punk's career served no purpose and was another way of keeping him down.
Which was interesting when it first arrived but because of rushed storylines has already started showing signs of being put on life support. His promos have lost their steam, and he comes off now as more of a cocky patronizing whiner than actually having anything interesting to say.
Again, you make some good points. The only disagreement I have here is calling him a cocky, patronizing whiner. WWE was clearly trying to capitalize on his shoot type of promos. That wasn't a bad idea, but it was far too overused in a short span of time. WWE definately dropped the ball on Punk with the momentum he had coming back.
Again, I didn't mean to rip the post apart, the main point of my post was just to point out that my personal opinions of the exact same events differed widely. I do think that you made some good points and I can see where you are coming from, but I have to very vehemently disagree that punk saved the WWE in the last 5 years.
I never once said Punk "saved WWE in the last 5 years". I said he almost single handedly created interest in the WWE since his shoot promos started. I also can see your viewpoints, but like you, I respectfully disagree. Agree to disagree. Nothing wrong with that as not everyone sees eye to eye. But at least discussing it doesn't make either person look like a moron who marks without reason.
