The CM Punk Movement Was Over Before It Began

WWE had to put one full year of work into setting an all-time buyrate for WrestleMania 28's supposedly-Once In A Lifetime epic between Cena and The Rock. With one promo, Punk managed to increase the Money In The Bank figure 33,000 from the prior year's event and improve upon the previous month's Capitol Punishment show by 25,000.

His erudite rage and biliousness was no longer as impotent as it must have felt leading up to that one fateful moment. He'd said what he believed and believed what he'd said as he'd taken a seat on the stage never built for wrestlers like him. The spirit, like the message, was real.

He'd tried and failed to enact some change in a rigid entertainment vehicle before realising he was but a "spoke in the wheel", so was giving it one last go as he prepared to disappear entirely. His biggest mistake was actually thinking he could do it at all.

Cody Rhodes found a way, but involved exiting WWE entirely in order to do it. He may never have even considered that without viewing Punk's failed attempt to smash the system first. As WWE Champion for 434 days, 'The Voice Of The Voiceless' worked hard to create a counter-cultural movement from within a company that had espoused the exact opposite for the entire duration of his existence. He even said as much during his own 2012 DVD interview.

Back then, with a year's reflection on his era-defining moment and the decision he made to stay with WWE after it, he said "I feel I have a responsibility to the younger wrestlers on the roster...the ones who aren't signed yet, and the future of pro wrestling as a whole to help make this place better and to change this place. I certainly can't change it by sitting on my couch in Chicago."

He was right. But he couldn't change it sitting on a stage in Las Vegas either.