Why CM Punk Shouldn't be in stables

[Tastycles]

Stables are a risky thing. They're almost never good and the ones that do turn out ok do so because the people in them either have actual chemistry, or because everyone in them is capable of taking centre stage. Otherwise they kill people's career quicker than any squash match could ever hope to. Take Manu. Remember him? Probably not, because he debuted in a stable and was thrown in front of the bus about two weeks later. Stables breed cannon fodder and nobody epitomises that more than CM Punk.

He is now in his second major stable in as many years, and it looks like it is beginning to ruin more careers. The straight edge society had three other members, two of them are released and one has been taken off television and is training in FCW. Now we come to the Nexus, and what began as a force taking over, eliminating world champions from the running and getting a GM fired. Now they're three men who show up to get beaten up. Former member Husky Harris has disappeared off the face of the earth.

There is a fundamentally obvious reason for this in my eyes - CM Punk is too strong in his character to be in a stable. CM Punk's main attribute as a heel is that he is manipulative, demented and that he loathes people who have different morals to him. That's great, but the problem is that he plays the demented part so well that anybody who is one of his followers immediately looks like they have been brain washed, and are therefore weak. Already, they're having to have Mason Ryan look tense and angry at him every week because otherwise someone earmarked to be a future star will look limp. Otunga looked like he was a cocky bastard and arguably one of the breakout stars in the group, now he looks like he's lost. Or like he's leaving on a stretcher. So yeah, CM Punk shouldn't be the leader of a stable because his character is too strong.

 

[Wade's Public Transit Bomb]

I am not a fan of the guy, but I agree with you.. For a different reason.

He just seems to have been pigeonholed into being some sort of 'great cult leader' role. It hasn't even been a year, and he has headed two different stables that or more than less the same cult kinda thing. I don't know if this is a sign that they don't like the guy on his own or what, but it just seems like a comfort blanket when it comes to booking him.

 

[CuddleBuns84]

CM Punk has done some decent things in Stables. What better to get some young guys over, but pairing them up with a good heel character such as Punk.

Yes the Straight Edge Society ended as soon as he left. But, he utilized the talent of the three very well. It was a more sadistic version of Raven's Flock in my opinion.

Stables, over all, can be good if you work them correctly, and find a proper way to kill it. Like the Corporation. They got heat, and really pushed the Rock's career. It made Austin vs. McMahon look even better. The problem was, they didn't know how to kill it, so they just threw a couple storylines in, and ended the whole ordeal.

Just like the nWo. Didn't know how to kill it, so the stable got stale, and people didn't follow it that well.

Any stable can be a great thing, if they know to write the beginning, the middle, and the end.

 

[Alex]

Thing is some wrestlers fit the loner role very well, CM Punk being one of them. You stick him in a stable it'll be awkward on the other members because they have to fit around this guy who can easily work on his own and as Tastycles said, is to strong of a character to be part of a group. It's the same sort of thing with Legacy, Randy Orton was to strong of a character to be a leader, he works best on his own, look at the other members of Legacy and see what they got out of it, Dibiase's AWOL, Rhodes is only now starting to do something and Manu and Sim Snuka..... well you get the idea.

 

[Nate DaMac]

I don't know man. To me, factions that are led by established guys with several unknowns backing him up are supposed to help in establishing the young guys but for some reason, they seem to just keep letting them flail in obscurity instead of taking what I would see as the proper course of action. I mean, wasn't the whole selling point to Punk taking over the Nexus was that he would lead them to bigger and better things than Barrett did? At some point, wouldn't logic dictate that someone amongst the group has to finally realize that "Hey, this guys hasn't done a damn thing to help us. All he's done is put us in situations to get our asses handed to us by guys like Orton and Cena while he goes out the back door. Fuck this!"

If say, Mason Ryan were to finally confront Punk and break free from the faction, becoming a face, wouldn't that at least give some purpose to the faction? It sure as hell is a lot more than anything they've done with them thus far with Punk as their leader. All in all, I don't think Punk's character is as much to blame as the lazy booking. This kind of stuff could work very well if someone puts the obvious pieces together.

 

[GI Cake]

My friend and I had a similar debate about CM Punk and his stables running into the ground. CM Punk is a great talent. His best work has always came from his singles work. CM Punk's straight edge life style is easy to make the fans love him, or despise him, while all providing a great image for the WWE to have a guy like him in the Roaster.

However put him in a stable and all of a sudden CM Punk comes off weak and needs help in numbers. He took what was once a great stable in Nexus and made it into a 4 man group of brain washed loony toons who get squashed every week by either Randy Orton or even Booker T.

Keep CM Punk in the singles division, when CM Punk was attacking John Cena every week before he joined Nexus it seemed real. It was enjoyable to say the least. I was looking forward to see CM Punk vs. John Cena in a main-event. But that was not the case.

 

[Montague]

The SES was a great idea he used all 3 of his minions very well
but Sarena was fired and Joey got injured so the stable was scrapped
Punk as leader of the New Nexus is a horrible idea
It really didn't make any since why Punk was the leader in the first place
Why didn't they just have Barrett vs Otunga for the leadership position?
and now Punk as a Stable leader has about run its course

 

[Mantaur Rodeo Clown]

Yeah. Pretty much. The problem is that as strong as CM Punk is, he's not strong enough to carry the entire cast of NXT. And that's the truth. And why should he have to? It's a huge burden, and Punk has never been as good as he was during the Summer of '09 when he was more or less on his own and loving life.

You need more than one strong person in a stable in order to carry it. Having a leader and 4 disciples is always going to look weak eventually (Exhibit A: That Nexus thing sort of petered out didn't it?) The nWo didn't just have Hogan, and Evolution had Naitch backing up HHH. You can throw a bit of youth in there so it doesn't look like a Class of '56 Reunion, but generally, its established guys who carry the team.

The whole point of a stable is to join together supervillains. Generally, all the best factions ever were heel to begin with, or formed in order to combat a stable of heels. CM Punk is so distinct with his persona and lifestyle however, that he wouldn't possibly, in a kayfabe world, agree to share power with another heel. Thus, using him in a stable is never going to be effective as it should be.

 

[Azane]

The Nexus on its own was strong
Punk overshadows the Nexus.
Wade Barret was on the cusp of being a world champion when he lead the stable, now when you mention the nexus members, they seem weak because they have Punk holding them up.
I remember this being predicted by MANY posters on these boards, that if someone big ended up being behind Nexus that it would ruin all the young guys. CM Punk is the sun, and the other Nexus members are stars, you can't see them behind Punk.
Punk is ME material, world champion, either winner or loser, he's above being in a stable. Nexus does nothing for Punk, and Punk hurts Nexus.

 

[localcompetitor]

Personally I liked the Straight Edge Society, it sort of got Punk back on the radar following his World Title loss. When the SES was just Gallows, Punk and Serena it was simple and uncomplicated - the star, the bodyguard and the woman. However in its final stages it got silly firstly when they bought Joey Mercury who didn't fit with the look of the group and then with the stupid Big Show feud I believe this stable suffered from poor booking and should've been made to look more dominant than it did.
In terms of the New Nexus I really don't think Punk should've been their leader in the first place other than both the Nexus and Punk had beef with Cena. Once Punk started with Orton there was really no need for these guys and most importantly there was no character development for example who really knows anything about Mason Ryan. Again I don't really see this as Punk's fault rather that the WWE has no faith in these other guys to succeed as tag or solo talents without a more trusted figure leading them.

 

[izzyinsanity666]

Yeah, even though I don't like Punk that much anymore either, I think I agree. His character is way to strong for that. SES could've worked because everyone was fairly equal, and they could've gotten really annoying at times. The only thing I think is good about Nexus is to see how it will end, what happens to Harris, Otunga, and Ryan, and what happens to Punk afterwards, even though it seems it doesn't matter anymore, since he isn't interested in re-signing with WWE (gee, I wonder why that is).

 

[WZMember####]

Just throwing this out there... Punk was in groups before the WWE. He was in one in TNA with Raven's New Flock and ofcourse The Second City Saints in RoH I believe it was.

To me, some guys are tag team wrestlers and some guys are faction wrestlers. I would say a guy like Xpac is a faction wrestler. A guy like CM Punk has certainly become a group guy remember the brief step in The New Breed as well?

For a guy like CM Punk he can stick around the WWE if he is in a faction. As a strong leader or sometimes a follower.

 

[ltrav1984]

personally i couldnt understand why he was brought in to take over the nexus they were doing just fine with barrett. If they wanted cm punk in a stable why not have him build the corre rather than barrett. I mean they forced barrett out 2 then create the corre that seemed stupid to me to be honest. But i think if anyone will turn on the nexus it will be mason ryan that could be the start of a big push for him

 

[GoochOwnsYou]

I agree: having a strong character lead weak or un-established characters dont work. Punks character is unique enough to be much stronger on its own, but he cant rub his heat off to others. Lets go through the list of successful stables and see why:

The reason the Nexus worked so well was because there wasnt one strong character hogging the spotlight, they were new guys and when you got used to each character it came with the group as a packaged deal.

The nWo worked because everyone initially in the nWo were established guys: Hogan, Hall & Nash. Then you had The Giant (Big Show) join who already had a world title to his name, DiBiase, Savage, Bishoff, Steiner: then you had the unestablished guys who ran with it and established themselves like Konnan (at least outside Mexico) and Buff Bagwell.

DX worked because everyone were already established: HBK was the top guy, HHH & Chyna were well known, and the Outlaws & Sean Waltmen were already famous.

The Horsemen worked because everyone was established, Flair was the top guy in wrestling, Arn & Ole were the new Minnesota Wrecking Crew and Blanchard was an established mid card heel. Any incarnation of the Horsemen had established guys until the Paul Roma debacle and the original stable lost credibility it never got back.

Evolution worked because you had HHH AND Ric Flair and Orton was a strong enough character. Batista got lost in the shuffle but managed to get a spotlight when Orton broke out on his own and ran with it.

The initial Nation of Domination worked because nobody was established (Ron Simmons adopting the name Farooq became a new character as they didnt want to acknowledge WCW existed let alone he was a former World Heavyweight Champion). The group was not defined by any characters but a collective.

The new nation worked because it had a list of strong characters, you had The Rock, you had Owen Hart, Godfather. They had interesting characters.

The SES and New Nexus had no interesting or established characters impart from CM Punk, it was never going to work.

 

[Da Truth]

The Staight Edge Society was actually a great stable. Personally, I loved them. They had great chemistry and the storylines were superb, but all of the suddened the "E" got stupid overnight. They were just booked wrong. Having Big Show make a fool out of them week end and out didn't help. So, that wasn't really CM Punk's fault.
Them problem with the Nexus is they're too green and when you place someone like Punk with them it shows. Punk shouldn't have been placed with them because he outshines them way too much. If they plan on keeping the Nexus around the "E" is gonna have to place a leader from within or have a midcarder that's not so overpowering to b the leader.

 

[radec]

u need a strong chacarter to lead a stable in fact just look at HHH. The problem with nexus is not CM PUNK but the lack of build up to the team they dont have matches and when they do they lose. This means the team lost alot of credability and punk is just their as the only dude doing something. cm punk should just be in singles and thats it hes more of a solo dude anyways OR be in a tag team with some1 like him. EXAMPLE: chris jericho OR miz. Those 2 would be good compliments to cm punk if he ever enters the tag division. Punk character jsut insint a stable kind of guy because to make him work as leader he needs unknown dudes but stables dont work like that, they need compliments with big stars in them.

 

[Hulk Hogan's Brother]

I agree. Heel stable leaders are essentially not supposed to be the strongest of characters. Morally, they are supposed to be weak guys who lust after fame and glory and can resort to anything to get it. The way Punk's character is and even the way in which the New Nexus has been booked, Punk looks like a guy who is protecting a bunch of weaklings. Punk's character is morally strong, he is evil for the sake of being evil. He is not misled by the lust for glory, he is the way he is because that is what he likes to be.

I think that a character like Punk should form temporary alliances with people and leave them once he gets his job done. It will only consolidate Punk's character while not hurting the other wrestler as it will only be a temporary alliance; something which the fans will forget about once the alliance ends.

 

[ThatGuy99]

Punk's been made to look weak, which has in turn made the member of the New Nexus look weak. After all, whose weaker? The weak man or those who follow the weak man? The members of the Nexus have been fed to Cena and Orton; similar to how Rhodes and Dibiase were fed to HHH. When 2+ guys are beaten by just one guy, it make the 2+ guys look even weaker and bury them. So the problem really is how the writers have booked CM Punk and the member of the New Nexus.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

The New Nexus stinks, and I think that's mostly due to the group not having a clear goal. When the Nexus debuted, under Wade Barrett, they wanted to make an impact. Despite the generic premise, they made it work. How? All members were on the same level (within the company, not in terms of talent, obviously).

Under CM Punk, they (Otunga, Harris, etc.) are nothing more than henchmen. Usually, one of the subordinates will rise up to overthrow the dictator. However, in this group, such a talent doesn't exist. There isn't that one guy who can secede and take down Punk. That's a problem, and it really wasn't any different under Barrett.

The S.E.S. was bumbled, no question. The idea works, but the execution was shit. The underlings meant nothing, as not one of them (Gallows or Mercury) were good enough to threaten Punk, or anyone else. Punk pressing his values upon not only other superstars, but the crowd as well, is a great idea, and can work if the talent is there to support the stable.

I still believe Punk is the best possible leader for a heel stable, if given proper talent to work with. Young, rising stars, with more potential than Otunga or Gallows. Guys with actual talent are needed to make it work. However, if they continue to promote guys who have no business being featured, I agree the idea of Punk leading a stable should be dropped. And that's a damn shame.

 

[zabba53]

all these months later i still hate that cm punk took over nexus, nexus was barretts group, he and the other nxt wrestlers made nexus what it is, why couldn't they have remained the nexus, and punk made the corre, they shud hav a feud for naming rights instead of breaking the corre up, and maybe even replace Zeke with a returning Skip Sheffield!