7 Better Ways WWE Could've Returned CM Punk

7. Have Him On WWE Backstage From The Start

It is worth stating once more: 49,000 viewers for the premiere episode.

WWE does not normally taste that level of failure, but their botching of delivering any hype on the show was too egregious not to pan out this way.

Despite the huge promotion for SmackDown, little mention was made of WWE Backstage on Fox or by WWE. This ramped up a little more as the debut neared and around the time of the draft, but a full network show was still treated lesser than or equal to a WWE Network special.

The timing was all wrong as well, both in the time slot and premiere date. Coming over a month after the jump to Fox, the first official episode aired on 5 November. This is after the numbers were already declining for SmackDown, the show they spent massive amounts of promotion and marketing dollars on already. Why they thought this show would succeed off of the WWE name alone in a graveyard slot is beyond me.

If CM Punk would have been announced alongside Renee Young as was rumored from the beginning, this would have been a game changer. None of the other details would've mattered. Hell, if you could've gotten the deal done prior to SmackDown's debut, the viewership for THAT may have gone up. That is the power of suggestion, folks.

The timing is simply baffling, but the real sticking point is of course: why bring him back this way? So let's start fantasy booking some better ideas.