The Summer of Punk Rebooked (Part 1)

One of the most exciting periods in modern wrestling (certainly in the E era of WWE) was mid-2011 and WWE’s rendition of The Summer of Punk. While Punk himself lead this charismatic volt of electricity back into the chest of the comatose WWE product, I still can’t get over the fact that once again WWE ruined themselves creativity to me. In the third edition of my first blog posts ‘Characters in Wrestling – CM Punk’, I mentioned one of the most integral elements to his character was ruined the moment he reappeared after Money in the Bank (everything before then was divine, couldn’t have wrote it better). He was leading the charge for change, but he surrendered his leverage the second he signed a new contract… horrible booking on so many levels. It totally undermined the entire MITB build by ruining Punk’s integrity (by claiming to run away with the belt, he’d promised people like me he was going to hold the company hostage), and the title tournament destroyed that resurgence of newly found power you’d just given the belt. And the reasons people give for WWE’s rational here while I can accept as truth, I don’t accept as justification for playing it the way they did. Punk did need to be on Summer Slam, and Vince did need to publicly pass the torch, but they could’ve come up with something better than they did.

And here’s my way of doing it.

--------------------Raw, July 18th 2011--------------------
Vince opens the show to address the fans flanked by his legal team. He calls the previous night the most devastating one of his professional career, and shows utter disgust for the fans chanting the name of the man who’s going to ultimately put him and his company out of business. He declares war on CM Punk, claiming he’ll sue him for the rights to his companies’ belt, and make his image so politically toxic that no wrestling company will ever go near him again. This process has already begun, but in the meantime WWE has only one World Champion, so until a verdict has been reached the World Heavyweight Champion Christian has to work both shows (super show idea wasn’t in effect yet I believe) and can be challenged by anyone from either. This leads to him announcing a tournament to determine the no.1 contender to the World Heavyweight Championship, a tournament from which John Cena is barred from entering. And with a sinister grin on his face, he promises to deal with Cena’s situation later on in the night.

As the promo begins, you get Cena’s usual beating round the bash, taking five minutes to emphasis the same point, etc… but his overall argument is if Vince was stupid enough to fire him, he’d be ruining his company even faster than Punk is currently doing. He’d walk straight into a rival company, which would gravitate many of the existing fans away from WWE. Vince responds in kind, agreeing with Cena’s major point. He eventually realised firing Cena would do him more harm than good. But he references past high profile departures and his abilities to always walk away the winner and the reason behind this being his ability to continuously re-create these engulfing figures which eclipse the original poached talent. So while he quickly reassures Cena he won’t be firing him (why cause unnecessary agro for himself in his old age), he does remind Cena that he’s the reason WWE no longer have possession of his prized asset, and for that he fully intends to take Cena out altogether insuring he’ll be in no position to wrestling for anyone again. He’s going to put a bounty on Cena’s head, and has guaranteed a member of his family’s domestic circle a WWE contract if he hammers the final nail and cripples him at Summer Slam. Segment ends with Cena F-Uing Vince.

NOTE: So in Punk’s absence, the main angle for Raw is a condensed Cena vs. Vince feud.

----------------Raw, July 25th 2011-----------------
As well as the conclusion of the WHC tournament, won by Orton, one major thing of note happens on this episode. It’s Cena vs. Henry in the main event, if Henry wins he collects Vince’s bounty on Cena, and Vince is at ringside. Cena wins in Cena fashion, looks like he climbed Mount Everest in the finish, etc… when Nexus come out (yes, they don’t quietly disband after MITB without cause). With everyone thinking they’ve coming out to pound on Cena and claim the bounty, they first address the CM Punk situation. They essentially stay loyal to their leader CM Punk and pounce on Vince. And couple of days later, WWE.com reports they’ve terminated the contracts of the individual Nexus members.

Continued.....