10 Times WWE Totally Blew It With CM Punk
7. Breaking Up The Straight Edge Society
Earlier in the year the wrestling community decried WWE's decision to break up the Hurt Business. A move that was short-sighted at best, bone-headed at worst, it's still no clearer why WWE broke up one of its best modern-day factions.
This wasn't the first time WWE inexplicably broke up a popular group, however.
Well, perhaps "popular" isn't the right word to describe the Straight Edge Society. After losing the World Heavyweight Championship to the Undertaker, Punk reinvented himself as a sinister cult leader. Proclaiming himself as the saviour to the drink-loving, drugged-up losers he perceived wrestling fans to be, Punk would deliver his self-righteous sermons to increasingly indignant audiences across America.
Punk gained tremendous crowd heat with his wannabe-Messiah act. As Daniel Bryan noted in the aforementioned "Best in the World", the Straight Edge Society were legitimately despised wherever WWE toured. Unfortunately, WWE got cold feet and defanged the group before it could peak.
Punk was made to look like a fool by being shaved bald and wearing a goofy mask and after Serena broke kayfabe by being seen acting in a less-than Straight Edge fashion at a party, WWE had the excuse they needed to break the group up.
Punk himself expressed disappointment with how the Straight Edge Society ended, and there's no doubt his deranged Saviour act deserved a longer shelf life.