10 Wrestling Moments That Broke The Internet
1. Pipebomb
Lost amid the praise heaped on CM Punk's industry-shaking 'Pipebomb' promo is that it was never meant to shake the injury: Punk was handed free reign to put his pay-per-view match with John Cena over, not his credentials as face of the company. Punk never referred to himself as a spoke in the wheel to encourage fans to break it; it was just one more truth in a promo spewing them.
Still, this did not stop fans from fervently fantasy booking the alternate reality Punk promised. Maybe he would defend the belt in Ring Of Honor, who would have jumped at the prospect of cross-promotion. Maybe John Cena's time was up - it's not every day a wrestler becomes the hottest commodity in the industry over the span of a five minute promo. Maybe WWE was about to recognise the creativity of its own talent, allowing them to shape the identity - and thus the course - of their own characters. None of this happened; after months of wall-to-wall weirdness, CM Punk Vs. WWE somehow resulted in Triple H Vs. Kevin Nash.
Still, until Punk returned from self-imposed exile after a scant eight days, we dreamt of a brighter future - which, via a text message to himself, Nash consigned to history.