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PUNK WINS! PUNK WINS! LOOKING AT CM PUNK'S RISE TO WWE WORLD CHAMPION

So if you read our Roundtable Preview of Night Of Champions (and shame on you if you didn’t), you’ll see that Night Of Champions turned out to be the most predictable PPV in recent memory. The only exception is that *I* was the only one on our panel who predicted that Triple H and Edge would both walk out with their titles intact. However, I said that for a different reason: I thought they would keep both belts on Smackdown and unify them. What ended up happening instead was something I never would have thought to predict, but I was very happy to see nonetheless.

As you are probably aware by now, CM Punk opened this week’s episode of Raw by cashing in his Money In The Bank title shot to defeat Edge for the World Title after Edge took a beating from Batista. I was thrilled to see this, and even more thrilled when he defied WWE logic by also beating JBL, totally clean, in the main event. It’s no secret that I’m a huge ROH fan and have followed CM Punk since shortly after his series with Samoa Joe, and I think he’s the best thing going in the business today. Part of it may just be me being a ROHbot, but seeing him holding that title and being thrust into the top spot on Raw was immensely gratifying.

Despite what a lot of people thought in terms of him being “held down”, I saw that he was in a featured position on every PPV and that they were obviously behind him, and were just waiting for the right time to pull the trigger. I knew he was going to hit it big in the business, and even though some say they should have found some other way to put the title on him than having him get a cheap win over Edge (a point even my fiancé, a non-fan, made), I think it worked because he most certainly was not in a main event position before Monday even though he had the MITB title shot, but became a major player in one night with wins over Edge and JBL, complete with John Cena and Cryme Tyme coming out to back him up.

In fact, it seems like the main focus of Raw has now been completely shifted to young talent, with Punk holding the World Title, Kofi Kingston being the Intercontinental Champion, and Ted Dibiase & Cody Rhodes (who inexplicably defeated himself to win a title, but that’s neither here nor there). In my opinion, this is the best way to create a legitimate “next generation” of guys. Part of the problem I’ve seen with a lot of younger guys that have come along in the last several years is that they’re put in entry level positions and never move up because unless they’re given monster pushes like Cena and Batista, they’re not seen as on the same level as the top guys. This isn’t necessarily a situation where the top guys are actively trying to hold them down, but their presence alone often stands in the way. Now we’re in a situation where Cena, JBL, Michaels, and Jericho are all there, but they’re already tied up with each other and won’t directly interact with the younger talent anytime soon. Hopefully that will continue for a while until it’s time for them to start putting the young guys over, and then and only then is when they should be allowed to interact. Putting the young guys in a relatively sterile environment where they’re the focus of the show and the older guys are off to the side doing their own thing is the right way to do it.

Now with the focus of Raw turning to the younger talent, CM Punk, as the World Champion, becomes the focus of the company’s flagship show, which is a tremendous position to be put into, and one of tremendous responsibility. Being the guy carrying a company (brand, whatever) means more than just working well in the ring, you’re also expected to be able to carry yourself in a certain way because you become the face of the company. Fortunately, CM Punk is one of the best guys they could have put in that position. He’s a very smart, well spoken individual who can make a good impression on people who may just think wrestlers are musclebound screwheads.

Another huge reason that Punk is a good choice to lead the company is that he’s a clean living, straight edge guy and is very proud of it. Let’s face it, a lot of time wrestlers get pushes is in response to the company they work for coming under fire for some allegation or another. Remember when Booker T just happened to get the WCW World Title when they were being sued for racial discrimination? Same thing here, WWE has been under scrutiny for steroids and drugs for some time now since the deaths of Eddy Guerrero and Chris Benoit, and even though WWE has come down hard on those things, people still fail Wellness tests fairly frequently, and that doesn’t reflect well on them. Putting the World Title on a guy that they know is never going to fail a Wellness test is a smart move by WWE, especially since the guy who was originall supposed to get that title shot…that’s right, failed a Wellness test! I’m not saying that either Booker T or CM Punk are just bodies that fit the Johnny Bravo suit so to speak, but they’re both instances of the company needing to push somebody different for unusual reasons. Booker T obviously made the most of it and became one of the biggest stars of his generation. Can CM Punk do the same?

My answer, of course, is absolutely. For one, he’s a great worker. Unlike a lot of indy guys, he’s foregone becoming a spot machine and instead has put a lot of time and effort into developing into a guy who can work. He’s only improved more during his time in OVW and ECW, and I’d go so far as to say that if ECW never produces anything good ever again, it was worth it just for getting Punk his shot to move up to TV and become the centerpiece of the televised developmental territory.

Punk is also one of the two or three best promo guys in the business right now. People who only know him for his rather bland WWE promos would probably dispute this, but if you go back to his ROH days and listen to some of his promos during the Raven feud and the promo he did after winning the ROH World Title, you’ll realize how good he really is and what a treat WWE fans are in for if and when the day comes when they allow him to cut loose and show what he’s got.

The best part is that the fans really like him. John Cena is over, but that’s in large part due to him being shoved down our throats, and even still he gets lukewarm reactions in a lot of markets. Punk is over pretty much everywhere he goes. He’s over in a way similar to Matt & Jeff Hardy in that he’s a guy that the girls like because they think he’s hot or whatever, and even though that’s usually that’s enough to kill any chance of him getting over with the guys, they like him anyway because he’s a good wrestler and they have to admit he is pretty cool.

Assuming this lasts more than a few weeks, I think this is a great new direction for the company and was just the kind of major shakeup they needed. The ratings seem to bear that out, though we’ll have to see if they’re able to sustain that interest in the long run. For right now though, let’s enjoy it while it lasts and see where they go from here.

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