The CM Punk Movement Was Over Before It Began

Perhaps Punk didn't expect the dollar-stuffed handshake to be with Vince McMahon, just hours before he walked through the curtain to face John Cena. Perhaps he'd already pictured himself working that summer's G1 Climax in the name-checked New Japan Pro Wrestling. Or back signing a Ring Of Honor contract on their Heavyweight Title Belt in an extremely cute nod to the way he left the promotion several tumultuous years and one wrestling lifetime earlier.

The promo set up such believable avenues for his eventual exit that said departure felt like the only outcome. This was yet more fantastic gamesmanship from the 'Voice Of The Voiceless'. Mentioning some other initials was a known no-no in WWE dialogue, much like name-checking Brock Lesnar, or John Laurinaitis or touching what it was to be a "Paul Heyman guy" in the organisation five years after the ex-ECW man had left the company under a cloud of destructive acrimony.

Punk was taking inspiration from a man that kept him with the company's developmental system long before an opportunity like this stood before him. A man that had before and would again remind them of another way beyond an antiquated style forced through by an antiquated wrestling promoter. A man that, in 2001, took that antiquated promoter to task for putting him and other promoters on the scrap heap.

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