10 WWE Storylines That Were Only Good For One Moment

2. The Summer Of Punk

CM Punk's Pipe Bomb
WWE

The biggest swing begat the biggest miss in 2011 when CM Punk scooped out the rotting insides of WWE and thrust them into the eyes and ears of the braying masses.

That was the point of the "Pipe Bomb", beyond elevating Punk to such a degree that he ended up working for the company for three more years instead of doing what he'd once intended and actually leaving WWE behind. It was dramatic and incendiary, but set the bar way too high for the flailing creative forces to top after the fact.

Everything Punk said that night was true. Too true. Truer now than ever, in fact, which has only served to undermine the significance of the original angle - the WWE Championship match between the 'Voice Of The Voiceless' and John Cena at Money In The Bank 2011 is a monument to how well that promo sold a pay-per-view, but not for how an iconoclast managed to affect any lasting change.

And the less said about everything after that (again), the better.

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Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett