WWE's Problem Isn't CM Punk

I'm one of the more negative wrestling fans people will come across, I've made my visceral hatred of Mark Henry, Kane, and the Miz known in my comments and fanposts, as a result, I bet many would expect me to easily turn on CM Punk at this point seeing as how no one on Earth gives a shit about his next PPV match, and, as many have said, Punk is getting "too cool for school." What's the point in preaching about change when things are still the same as they ever were, Punk? Why did you go from taking on John Cena and utterly burying WWE's shoddy business practices to an impotent feud with Johnny Ace and remarks about WWE being terrible that, while true, don't help anybody, and will actively get people to turn off their TV's, our dear Second City Savior?

It would be easy to begrudge Punk for this, but the fact is, Punk is not the WWE's new problem, as easy as that would be to think. Punk is a fantastic worker despite being a crappy athlete. Punk is fantastic on the mic, even though his remarks are hurtful towards certain people, he actually sounds like a human being when he speaks, not an F-List actor like Miz. Punk looks distinctive from the other guys on the roster. Most importantly, Punk's reactions are uniform throughout the crowd as opposed to the constant smattering of boos Cena gets despite being the company guy.

Punk is not my favorite guy currently under a full time WWE contract, I'm a far bigger fan of Bryan Danielson, and of the part time guys, I'm a bigger fan of Triple H and Undertaker than I am of Punk, but Punk did something this year that no one's been able to do in WWE since Batista's huge push in 2005, he became a star, and to suggest that WWE's problem is who they push to be a star simply isn't true. Punk being a star is one of the best things WWE could have happen.

The real problem with WWE isn't Punk, it's almost everyone and everything else. Despite the fact that WWE elevated Punk, he has almost no one to face in a match.

That might seem a drastic statement, but think about it like this: Punk recently had a PPV match with Alberto Del Rio, one of the best athletes and workers in the company, on the second biggest WWE show of the year, and nobody cared. If two of a companies best guys are facing, everybody should care, and the fact that no one did indicates something went very wrong.

Though it wasn't because Punk had already won the title, plenty of greats have had career defining moments by winning their upteenth title. Many consider Ric Flair's greatest moment to be when he won his 12th title from Vader at Starrcade '93, but the moment was great not because Ric Flair won the title, but because he won the title from Vader. For damn near a year, Vader had run roughshot over WCW without comeuppance. Sure, Vader cheated constantly thanks to the help of manager Harley Race, but it kept him from getting his due nonetheless. Vader was every bit the star Ric Flair was back in 1993, and though even the densest mark could probably tell you that Flair was winning at Starrcade '93, it didn't matter that they knew Flair would win, it mattered because they wanted Flair to win.

The same thing happened to WWE in 2005 at Wrestlemania 21 when John Cena faced JBL, and Batista faced Triple H, it didn't matter that just short of everyone knew the matches would be awful, what mattered was that JBL and Triple H had been unrepentant dicks with no comeuppance whatsoever for what felt like centuries, and people wanted to see those assholes kicked off their thrones, tarred and feathered through the streets, and buried in a shallow grave on their way down. It was the most predictable pair of matches WWE has ever booked, but at the same time, the buyrate for Wrestlemania 21 was one of the best buyrates any WWE PPV has ever done, doing double what the years previous event, Wresltemania XX, did in total despite the fact that Wrestlemania XX easily had the superior match booked to headline the event.

Hell, from a technical standpoint, Del Rio vs. Punk at Survivor Series was superior to JBL/Cena and Hunter/Batista in every way, but no one cared because as opposed to Triple H and JBL escaping comeuppance for eons, Del Rio got humiliated at just about every TV show and PPV he was featured on throughout 2011. Del Rio had already lost clean to Edge, lost clean to Christian, won the title in a cheap MitB cash in, tapped clean to Cena, and lost clean to Punk on free TV. There's no reason to care about seeing someone get their comeuppance when you've already seen it happen half a dozen times this year alone.

Punk wasn't the problem with any of this, the problem was that even though WWE did the right thing and elevated Punk, until they elevate some heels for Punk to tackle, and give said heels consistent pushes before they face Punk, nobody will care about seeing those matches. The only heels WWE has given a steady push in the past decade have all been longtime veterans, and most of those guys are now retired, dead, or completely awful.

Don't blame Punk for WWE not giving a steady push to a potential adversary, blame Vince McMahon for not having the balls to give a steady push to a fresh heel.