On Raw last Monday, Daniel Bryan and Triple H ended the show with a chat, and then a beatdown. But during the chat, Triple H backhandedly complimented Bryan for not taking his ball and going home. The crowd immediately picked up on this sleight at Punk by chanting his name. It was a subtle shot at the departed star, and there have been a lot of them. Although most have come in the form of removing Punk from history. CM Punk is now not seen in any WWE signature video to start shows. Hes not in the montage open for Raw, or for Smackdown, or Main Event, or any other televised event. He was removed from Wrestlemania promotional videos, despite being in a fantastic match with the Undertaker last year. And now, hes even being removed from future WWE productions, including their Flinstones movie. Originally, Punk was slated to play a version of himself in the animated movie. He would be CM Punkrock, but since his abrupt departure, the WWE has decided to cut him out of the movie. He wont be appearing in Camp WWE either, an animated web series developed by the company. The WWE is removing Punk from all licensed projects (including, quite possibly, WWE 2K15), all future marketing, and anything remotely related to the WWE as a company. Theyre not publicly slamming him in various ways (similar to what they did to Stone Cold Steve Austin when he left under similar circumstances), but make no mistake, they are burying him. These are not the actions of a company that feels one of its most coveted superstars will be returning anytime soon. This feels more like a divorce than it does a reconciliation. For the WWE to go through the painstaking process of removing Punk from video packages and future projects only indicates the severity of a deteriorating relationshipif not completely defunct. Its somewhat ironic, then, that CM Punk has made a name for himself through acts of defiance very similar to this. Only this time, its possible he went to the well one too many times.
