8 Hyped Wrestling Matches RUINED By Backstage Politics
2. The Undertaker Vs. CM Punk (WWE Hell In A Cell 2009)
WWE Raw was as bad as it gets in 2009.
The year in which the Guest Host Era was launched was also the year in which one of John Cena, Randy Orton and or Triple H dutifully wrestled every single top programme in painfully familiar and often very overlong, overbooked matches. A loveless and pointless attempt to bring in casual fans was rewarded with the least inspiring main event scene ever.
SmackDown, conversely, was shockingly good - and CM Punk’s incredible slow-burn heel turn and ultra-believable programme with Jeff Hardy drove its success. When Punk defeated Jeff in a hateful, creative TLC match that escalated to violent perfection at SummerSlam, it felt that he had finally arrived as a bonafide main event star. WWE ruined good things like it was going out of style back then, and so naturally, Punk ended his breakthrough year doing house show jobs to Matt Hardy.
Around autumn of 2009, WWE implemented a new dress code. Punk supposedly flouted it. The Undertaker pulled him to one side, and told him that he was getting some heat from the boys, who obviously did what they were told. Punk said “What about Cena?”
Undertaker said flatly “You’re not Cena.” This was reported by Dave Meltzer at the time, and the Undertaker himself backed up that report years and years later. Punk was immediately relegated. A would-be classic match at Hell In A Cell between ‘Taker and Punk ended after a mere 10 minutes of flat action. David Bixenspan reported at the time that ‘Taker’s replaced hip was giving him grief, and that the title switch was planned before Punk’s etiquette breach. However, ‘Taker was legendary for gutting it through important matches, and Punk didn’t end up in an upper midcard feud after the fact, which is what tends to happen when a wrestler loses the World title. Punk went 50/50 with R-Truth on Smackdown in November, and lost to the same opponent on the TLC pre-show a month later. It very much seemed like Punk was taught a lesson for his perceived entitled attitude. But isn’t this the exact mentality with which the top stars make it?
And if WWE had such an issue with outspoken wrestlers acting like the rules don’t apply to them, why did infamous sh*t-disturber Randy Orton win the 2009 Royal Rumble match and go on to wrestle in no less than 10 World title matches on pay-per-view that year? Punk's face never fit, did it?