10 Reasons That Prove Vince McMahon Is No Longer A Creative Genius
6. Recent Opportunities Squandered
Speaking of CM Punk...
In addition to promoting his inexperience daughter to the head of Creative, expanding the writing team large enough to have their own Royal Rumble, and constantly being shown-up by every NXT Takeover special, Vince McMahon has had the opportunities to create the next crossover superstar and squandered it.
Back in 2011, CM Punk cut the most influential promo of this decade affectionately known as the "pipe bomb" in which he promised to leave the company with its most prized asset. This promo was Punk's Austin 3:16 moment, only more. What made it more is that it didn't take Punk another year-and-a-half to hit the big time; Punk followed up that promo by winning the WWE Championship and becoming the promotion's biggest crossover star since the Attitude Era in less than three weeks.
Instead of keeping Punk off television and allowing the whole angle to build organically, increasing the anticipation for a CM Punk return, McMahon foolishly and haphazardly brought Punk back to WWE 2 weeks later in the hopes of popping a SummerSlam buyrate, which he didn't. To follow that up, McMahon planned for a Punk vs. Kevin Nash program which turned into a Punk/Triple H program that saw the semi-retired veteran Pedigree and pin Punk.
Despite this, Punk still got over but his chance at Austin-like status was squandered thanks to the "creative genius" of one Vincent Kennedy McMahon.
To many, this was just the latest example of McMahon's failure to grasp the current wrestling landscape in 2011. By overvaluing the SummerSlam buyrate and undervaluing the long-term quality of his lightning-in-a-bottle storyline with CM Punk, it is more proof that, even when he stumbles upon something, he'll surely screw it up.
While Punk was certainly the biggest creative strikeout, he wasn't the only. The Nexus, Ryback in 2012, Zack Ryder and plenty of others stick out at being on the precipice of greatness, but ultimately proved of little value after McMahon was finished with them.
Instead of taking something good and making it great with great attention to detail, McMahon now has the reputation of taking a can't-miss angle and somehow completely destroying it.