After CM Punk cut his "pipe bomb" promo in June 2011, he made wrestling cool again. When he won the WWE Championship against John Cena at the Money In The Bank pay-per-view in Chicago, he made it cool to be a wrestling fan again. People were wearing CM Punk t-shirts out to pubs, people were posting CM Punk clips on their Facebook pages; the people had a new champion. A few title switches later and CM Punk began his run as the longest reigning WWE Champion of the modern era. He was a huge draw, was main eventing pay-per-views and was the first wrestler to have his merch out-sell John Cena in years. But he just couldn't make that final push to usurp John Cena as the Top Guy. His title matches were often earlier on the card than John Cena's matches (most notably at Wrestlemania 28) and the company just didn't want to plant it's future on CM Punk's shoulders. One of the reasons why is similar to the reason that Triple H was never the Top Guy: CM Punk is just too good as a heel. Mid-way through his lengthy WWE title reign he turned heel and aligned with Paul Heyman, creating one of the most memorable heel runs in a long time. Another reason, perhaps, is backstage politics. We don't know why Punk left the WWE this January, but we do know that he obviously wasn't happy. He often complained backstage, and whether he was right to complain in these situations or not, that's not the sort of behaviour you want from the face of your company. John Cena is the current Top Guy because he has an un-matched connection with the WWE fans, and because he is an excellent ambassador for the WWE. He lives and breathes the company and, for better or worse, the same cannot be said for CM Punk. It just goes to show what a unique set of attributes are required to lead a wrestling company. A set of attributes that few in this business have ever had.
Michael Palmer is a contributor at whatculture.com and thelineofbestfit.com, and he probably likes WWE slightly more than most people would call "healthy".
