The Official WWE / NXT Discussion Thread *May Contain Spoilers*

[crownsy]

Punk hasn't even said anything. All he's done is show up, raise the belt and smirk at Cena. For all we know, he was backstage for negotiations with Triple H and decided to show up and be a douche to Cena while he was there.

 

 

He said "I'm baaacccckkk" after the show cut, and his shirt and profile are back on WWE.com as of this post. I'm snagging me a "best in the world" shirt

 

and again, i don't think him coming back this early means the angle will tank (a clean victory by Cena at SS would though) and i fully expect there to be more to it then "hhh rehired me" but this is the risk you take when you make a performers absence part of an angle and don't commit to it.

 

According to some rumor sites, the intial plan was to have the Rey-Cena match at SS and have punk ruin cena's moment at the end of the night, just like last night. Raw absolutely tanked last week ratings wise however, and rather than role changes out slowly under hhh they tossed a whole bunch of stuff out for quick satisfaction.

 

sometimes that has to be done, but when you are running a "the new champ is a rebel! he's holding the belt hostage and we don't know when he'll be back!" angle, it takes some of the bite out of it when he shows up after a single week off television.

 

doesn't mean they won't have a great explanation/ follow up next week, but it does lessen the impact of Punk's return.

[randomfreeze]

I thought this was cute on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night.

[Linsolv]

I thought this was cute on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night.

 

OH MY LORD. EVERYONE IN THE ENTIRE WORLD NEEDS TO SEE THIS.

[Hive]

I thought this was cute on Jimmy Kimmel Live last night.

 

Hearing Punk say "sports entertainment" instead of "wrestling" again has now ruined this storyline for me.

[Teh_Showtime]

Smackdown is so much better than Raw on any given day. I just wish they'd bring Striker back and keep Cole on Raw.

 

Seriously: Cody Rhodes, Christian, Daniel Bryan, Sin Cara, Kane, Sheamus, the Usos, Mark Henry, AJ, Kaitlyn & Natalya...

 

It's freaking heaven right now.

 

it has been since the days of Punk/Jeff/Morrison main eventing SD too. So much win.

[DaMegaFish]

On the Jimmy Kimmel bit, I wish Punk would have tried to spook the kid by acting like he was going to give him a GTS.

[sebsplex]

I agree with those saying that the storyline could have done with being drawn out off-screen for a few weeks at least, but one of the biggest PPVs of the year being in a few weeks is a bit of an issue. In that sense, it's a shame that the feud couldn't have started a month earlier. Although with MITB being in Chicago, that moment was perfect as it was.

 

Raw will be a lot more entertaining with him than without him anyway, so I'm not too bothered; but like I said, being able to build the feud off screen for a few more weeks would have been ideal.

 

Agreed. I'm glad to see Punk back on TV in a sense, but his rapid return has really cut the legs from underneath this storyline. So much more fun to be hand with Punk as the outsider, pushing kayfabe, but I guess the need to provide Summerslam with a headline was too great for the WWE to hold off on. Disappointing.

[tommyb]

It seems like a shame that CM Punk has come back so soon and ended the whole 'outsider' shindig. However, I think it was necessary for WWE. For the majority of their casual fanbase, going on wwe.com is further than most go to find out what is going on off TV. For the casual and younger fans, who maybe don't tune in to every show every week, or search the internet for info, it's important to keep guys on TV to keep them relevant.

[Teh_Showtime]

The thing was that they were keeping him relevant though. They still kept referring to him (without name dropping). It's not like they didn't mention him at all.

[tommyb]

The thing was that they were keeping him relevant though. They still kept referring to him (without name dropping). It's not like they didn't mention him at all.

 

I don't think it would have been enough to keep up the interest of the average casual fan, who until recently cared a lot more for Cena, Mysterio, etc, anway, for longer than a couple of weeks.

 

I think we over estimate the interest and investment the average fan has in WWE. I think the majority of viewers don't really have that much interest in the continuity of the program, they just like to see their personal favorites win, in a single show, as a one off. They watch the TV show and think, "there's Cena...there's The Miz," not, "we've seen Cena, and Miz, I wonder where CM Punk is." If the character isn't on their TV screen they have no interest in them.

[Teh_Showtime]

If the character isn't on their TV screen they have no interest in them.

 

Only to an extent though.

[TheEdgeOfReason]

I don't think it would have been enough to keep up the interest of the average casual fan, who until recently cared a lot more for Cena, Mysterio, etc, anway, for longer than a couple of weeks.

 

I think we over estimate the interest and investment the average fan has in WWE. I think the majority of viewers don't really have that much interest in the continuity of the program, they just like to see their personal favorites win, in a single show, as a one off. They watch the TV show and think, "there's Cena...there's The Miz," not, "we've seen Cena, and Miz, I wonder where CM Punk is." If the character isn't on their TV screen they have no interest in them.

 

You're making people sound really stupid.

[Fantabulous]

You're making people sound really stupid.

 

Maybe he wants to relate to them better?

[tommyb]

You're making people sound really stupid.

 

I am, aren't I? That's not the point I meant to get across though. All I mean is that a large proportion of the WWE's viewers aren't actually that interested in the WWE or invested in the product. Here I'm talking directly about the younger viewers who are, due to merchandise sales, probably WWE's most important target audience. Maybe I'm way off, but when I was young and first watching WWE, me and my friends didn't watch WWE every week, we just watched it when we remembered that it was on, or when we turned on the TV and it was there, or when there was a particular reason to do so. Therefore, I often didn't know what was going on storyline-wise. I just knew that I liked -insert wrestler 1- and didn't like -insert wrestler 2- and wanted to see -insert wrestler 1- win. Storylines and continuity are interesting in themselves for the older fan, but for children they are a vehicle to deliver interesting one-off matches and angles.

 

I'm not trying to call anyone stupid (though I'm not saying that's not often the case), I'm just (partially to play devil's advocate to complaints that CM Punk is back too soon) saying that for a large part of the audience who just want something to watch on a Monday night, absence is as good as irrelevance.

 

That's also why I think people put too much emphasis on the TV viewing ratings. The ratings don't always go up and down with the quality of the product (with the possible exception of a big appearance meaning that people who hear about it switch over briefly to see what's going on), because the casual fan merely watches Raw or SD if they're home and watching TV and it happens to be on, but if they're not, heck, hopefully they'll get to see Cena (or whoever their favourite may be) win next week.

[MasterJ]

TBH all this storyline has shown is that Punk cant draw. The week leading up to MITB were the lowest rated raws in a few years. Punk is a IWC poster boy but the other 95% of wrestling fans must not care too much for him.

[Fantabulous]

TBH all this storyline has shown is that Punk cant draw. The week leading up to MITB were the lowest rated raws in a few years. Punk is a IWC poster boy but the other 95% of wrestling fans must not care too much for him.

 

I guess you missed the small detail about the Punk segments actually showing a strong increases in viewership.

[tommyb]

TBH all this storyline has shown is that Punk cant draw. The week leading up to MITB were the lowest rated raws in a few years. Punk is a IWC poster boy but the other 95% of wrestling fans must not care too much for him.

 

He's just about been a heel throughout this whole thing, despite the pops and popularity with the internet and hometown crowd. I see it as, It's not so much his job to draw, as to help someone else draw. By getting a lot of heat, in the long term he can help a babyface get over and become a bigger draw themselves, and I certainly think that he's getting heat.

[Teh_Showtime]

TBH all this storyline has shown is that Punk cant draw. The week leading up to MITB were the lowest rated raws in a few years. Punk is a IWC poster boy but the other 95% of wrestling fans must not care too much for him.

 

You do realize 2 of the most important parts of the storylines were taped AND on a major US holiday.

 

I certainly hope you see that Punk had been a better draw than Truth (the previous challenger), even though the entire shows were possibly rated higher.

[Astil]

TBH all this storyline has shown is that Punk cant draw. The week leading up to MITB were the lowest rated raws in a few years. Punk is a IWC poster boy but the other 95% of wrestling fans must not care too much for him.

 

Guess John Cena, the other major part of this storyline, can't draw either.

[Teh_Showtime]

Nor can Vince

[Tha Black Phenom]

I guess you missed the small detail about the Punk segments actually showing a strong increases in viewership.

 

As well as Punk's merchandise completely selling out in stock, before the PPV too.

[bigtplaystew]

TBH all this storyline has shown is that Punk cant draw. The week leading up to MITB were the lowest rated raws in a few years. Punk is a IWC poster boy but the other 95% of wrestling fans must not care too much for him.

 

 

Horrible point.

 

WWE has posted low ratings, but thats because July is terrible for ratings. No shows do well in july. If you compare their numbers by previous years, this july is huge for them. But you didn't bother to look at that when you made your point, did you?

 

If you can break your fingers away from the keyboard long enough to actually watch wrestling, you'd see that Punk has been getting massive pops all around the country (even when he's not there!), not just in Chicago. This is the dawn of something special in my opinion.

[FINisher]

As well as Punk's merchandise completely selling out in stock, before the PPV too.

 

Ye dumb euroshop only has extra small or xx-large sizes for CM Punk's older shirt. I'm getting me that new white Chicago one and the black one with the white fist on it as soon as the new shirt is available and good sizes for both shirts.

[SaySo]

TBH all this storyline has shown is that Punk cant draw. The week leading up to MITB were the lowest rated raws in a few years. Punk is a IWC poster boy but the other 95% of wrestling fans must not care too much for him.

 

http://www.newswire.poormojo.org/archives/Blank-Facepalm.gif

[MrOnu]

Well, that was a disapointing RAW for me since a) I don't like Jim Ross b) I don't like Rey c) where was the anynomous GM again ? d) they rushed the Punk storyline. On the plus side though, I have to agree that the matchs were pretty good and that seeing Zack Ryder made my day. That guy will never be a world champion, but if Santino can make a career by acting goofy, why not Ryder ?

 

I'm trying to keep an open mind for the Punk storyline, but it's getting harder. Maybe they can win me back with a strong reasoning as to why he's back so quick. They will probably need another surprising twist to keep this going for some time and that's the disapointing to me. It feels like they are rushing a 6 months feud into 2 or 3 months.

 

Oh and I don't remember who asked, but yeah, that will count as a title reign for Rey. That shouldn't in my opinion, but if they can call Dolph Ziggler a world champion when he hold the belt for like an hour.... Reminds me of the day of the 24/7 rule with the hardcore title which was fine for a midcard belt, but not for your main title.