Notes from the Nosebleeds #123
July 2, 2011
By: Matt O’Brien of Wrestleview.com
Wrestling fans are still talking about CM Punk’s promo last Monday. Odds are you have already read it and have heard a lot of people discussing it. The worked shoot angle has generated a lot of buzz, particularly among wrestling websites. What is impressive about everything Punk said last Monday was that it was not just about him leaving, or his supposed frustration with the company but the fact that Punk did a spectacular job getting the audience ready for a pay per view. Fans are currently speculating just what will happen now at Money in the Bank later on this month. There are so many different roads WWE can take with the CM Punk-John Cena match. This week I have outlined three scenarios that we may see that Sunday and the weeks after. Please keep in mind these are not the only scenarios that are pretty intriguing. Here it goes…
The first option and most likely scenario is to have Cena soundly defeat Punk at Money in the Bank, effectively sending the villain on his way out of the company. Cena beats a lot of guys. Even though he has beat Punk before, a win over Punk at MITB is important for his character. Punk can leave the company and Cena goes on about his business to his next challenger.
The next scenario is have Punk win, taking the championship and getting Cena fired. It’s an interesting choice if they have worked out some sort of extension with Punk. WWE could have a week or two where Raw goes without a main title. After a while, they decide to hold a battle royal or tournament to crown a new champ. They have their winner, only for Punk to show up with the “real” title. WWE then has a big main event for SummerSlam where Punk and the new champion fight it out. I like this option because it gets people excited for an event where they are sure Punk will lose. The kicker is that Punk wins. WWE then is forced to hire back Cena to challenge Punk and win back the championship. However, it is unlikely WWE would hold one of their biggest pay per views of the year without Cena on it. Perhaps they compress everything laid out above in the weeks between MITB and SummerSlam.
A third scenario is to have Punk beat Cena; Cena is then fired, only for Money in the Bank winner to come out and challenge Punk. With the MITB theme, this has already been predicted by a lot of people. I think an interesting twist would be to have the MITB winner lose. It can happen in a couple different ways. It can be a tainted finish due to outside interference or maybe Punk gets his feet on the rope for leverage. Keep in mind that the MITB winner will have just had the snot beat out of them in a ladder match. It is practical for them to just lose to Punk, but if it is a baby face, such as Rey Mysterio, it could hurt them to lose that match clean. I know a lot of people might not like this option because the MITB win is supposed to be a big deal. This effectively squashes that win within a couple of hours when it could be built over the next year. I think having a MITB winner come out and lose right away to Punk would be a big deal. They have two winners every year and can always use the other one later. The other winner with Punk would then be victorious over both Cena and a MITB winner, the crowd would then be looking to the entrance ramp for the second MITB winner to come cash in their prize and unseat Punk before he leaves with the gold. They would wait…and wait…and wait. The pay per view goes off the air, and Punk leaves with the gold.
The second MITB winner could be a heel who could easily be turned baby face when the time came. I would like to see maybe Sheamus be this guy. He has the entire company begging him to cash in his prize, forcing Punk to return for one more match in which Sheamus could then unseat Punk. The whole time Sheamus would be hesitant, saying he has no concern for Punk or Raw, that Smackdown is his show and he plans to unseat Orton. Vince McMahon could even get involved and order Sheamus to cash in his prize, only for Sheamus to threaten or hurt Vince. Eventually, after relentless prodding from the locker room, and a surprise appearance for John Cena urging him to do the right thing, Sheamus reluctantly chases in his prize, forces Punk to return to a Raw or a pay per view, and then Sheamus wins.
But what about Cena? With Cena fired for failing to lose to Punk, WWE could take it in a different direction than they did with Wade Barrett last year. This time Cena would be off the house shows and television for several weeks. Of course he would have to be hired back. Who better to get him back than the Rock? With WrestleMania looming in the background, Rock is getting ready for his showdown with Cena. The match means a great deal to WWE, the wrestling audience, and Rock himself. Unless WWE wants to do a bait-and-switch on one of the biggest matches ever, Vince will be forced to hire Cena back. This way fans are treated to an interesting angle, Cena can recover from wear and tear, and the whole situation can then feed into next year’s WrestleMania main event.
I know the last scenario seems highly unlikely. The most logical choice for MITB is to have Cena beat Punk and send Punk off. That’s what is so incredible about this match that we will see at Money in the Bank. It’s one of those rare matches where our imaginations are running wild wondering what is going to happen. WWE has done a brilliant job of putting together a type of “panic moment” where there is this atmosphere that we may see CM Punk walk out of the company with the championship. It’s a worked shoot where Punk looks diabolical enough to pull this thing off.
Matt O’Brien
Columnist, Wrestleview.com
mattman5436@yahoo.com