Yes, Punk had a 434-day WWE Title reign, lasting from Survivor Series 2011 to Royal Rumble 2013, and that's great, but you could seemingly count the number of times Punk was the top guy on a WWE show during that span on one hand. John Cena was, far and away, the company's "golden boy", title or no title, and at times, it would seem like Randy Orton was even ranked ahead of Punk. As soon as Punk was going up against Kevin Nash, of all people, wrestling fans all over the world threw their hands up in disgust. There was just too much talking in their feud, and many of it was that "shoot" style insider stuff that was going over the heads of the majority of WWE fans. Triple H being involved in the feud only made people more angry, and all of the "Triple H and WWE are trying to bury CM Punk" talk truly began. It may or may not be a good thing that the planned CM Punk VS Kevin Nash match was scrapped, as it very well could have done even more to tarnish Punk's standing. What if the 52-year-old Nash had injured Punk, or even had been injured by Punk? Many would have expected the new corporate version of Triple H to put the blame on Punk, who was already notorious for butting heads with management, instead of one of his best friends. Combine that with Punk taking an even further step back once The Rock made his in-ring return to the company, culminating in Rock beating Punk for the WWE Title at the 2013 Rumble, and it starts to get a bit clearer as to why Punk decided to take his proverbial ball and go home.
Columnist/Podcaster/Director at LordsOfPain.net for nearly seven years, with nearly 2000 total columns written. Interviewed and/or involved in interviewing the likes of Tyler Black/Seth Rollins (twice), Diamond Dallas Page, Jimmy Jacobs, Christopher Daniels, Uhaa Nation and more.
