*Official* Pro-Wrestling Thread II

[Manee]

So how it went was, Punk made himself white hot in 2011 after that promo and the whole angle with Cena. Instead of being put into a truly high profile feud which would benefit everyone, hhh had himself and his buddy Nash into the storyline for no discernible reason other than to intentionally cool down Punk's immense momentum. Pretty much immediately after becoming the most exciting new champion in years (at mitb 2011), Punk lost the title via a cash in. Multiple times, Punk was powerbombed by Nash during matches and in ring segments and not once did Punk physically get to lay out Nash.

If that wasn't enough HHH actually ****ing beat Punk in a ppv match after not having wrestled a match in ages. And then he promptly went back into retirement (after beating both Punk and nash).

How any of this was supposed to 'get Punk over' is laughable. HHH was a ****ing **** who didn't like than Punk ascended to the top on his own, that's it. Thankfully Punk was so damn charismatic anyway that he was still as over with the audience as before.

And then he became a pretty damn epic heel a few months later. He was so good as a heel...simply could not miss him.

 

[OverratedSanity]

@ Jono

There's also this claim by some people in the industry that when Punk's merchandise was outselling Cena's in 2011, the system wasn't happy and intentionally slowed down Punk's merch sales to keep Cena at the top so that their top guy's sales wouldn't decline.

When CM Punk was red hot and started to outsell the John Cena merchandise, I know people that work in the company in the merchandise department, I know people that work the arenas and sell the merchandise, and I can tell you eactly what WWE did: as soon as John Cena started getting outsold by CM Punk, they made 3 additional John Cena designs, they refused to make a second CM Punk design and they started undershipping the CM Punk design on purpose. For every CM Punk shirt they would ship to the arena, they would triple John Cena shirts and they would do 3 John Cena designs. So every 10 shirts in the arena, if 9 are Cena, only one is Punk. Punk is going to sell out right away ause they didn't send enough and at the end of the night they're going "Oh John Cena quadrupled Punk's merchandise." Of course he did! Because you've puprosely created a situation where it would be impossible for CM Punk to outsell John Cena.

Episode 168: WHO IS THEY? | MLW Radio®

It's a tall claim, but I just wouldn't be surprised at all.

 

[duffer]

Who the feck did Punk piss off? What they did makes no business sense.

 

[duffer]

OS; who are you referring to when you say "the system?"

 

[Spikey]

Who the feck did Punk piss off? What they did makes no business sense.

the coo?

 

[Manee]

@ Jono

There's also this claim by some people in the industry that when Punk's merchandise was outselling Cena's in 2011, the system wasn't happy and intentionally slowed down Punk's merch sales to keep Cena at the top so that their top guy's sales wouldn't decline.

Punk's white and red t-shirt sold well because it was iconic and connected to the angle which had everyone hooked. The best way to do everything, including sell merchandise is good booking. FFS, WWE - they've really ****ed things up recently. I'm so glad there is NXT and hopefully it is putting the right sort of pressure on the WWE upper-management. I'm utterly convinced that using a third hour to get ad revenue is impacting on viewership, it is impacting on hardcore viewership and therefore impacting on merchandise and network sales. It is so short-termist. WWE must have clever business minds who know this - it is crazy!

 

[Manee]

Who the feck did Punk piss off? What they did makes no business sense.

Punk was cool. He was very cool. He was a brilliant face and a better heel. But even he got stale toward the end of 2013. He got stale because everyone gets stale when you see them in four or five segments per week and countless recaps and the odd PPV. No one can succeed with this level of television exposure. It causes extra damage on the body for the reward of...fewer viewers and those which stay become apathetic.

 

[Manee]

Sorry for the triple post but also this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abVk-cLJ6P8

 

[OverratedSanity]

OS; who are you referring to when you say "the system?"

Vince is pretty renowned for his sheer hatred of superstars who get over with the fans "without permission". Haven't you heard about the infamous Zack ryder story?

Back in 2011, Ryder got himself a pretty good fan following through his YouTube show which he ran himself. Vince told Ryder repeatedly that he's destined only to be a lower card guy and wasn't good enough to be anything more. Ryder said, fine, no problem, atleast give me some TV time. Over that 2011 summer, Ryder's popularity started increasing and when he won the US title at TLC, the roof came off the place. Received an immense reaction. His gimmick was that he was the "Internet Champion"... was pretty fun and showed promise as a solid midcard guy with a good sense of humour.

Anyway sometime that summer, Raw was scheduled for his hometown and Ryder was hopeful that he'd get atleast a very short segment to go out there in front of his hometown fans. Vince being the complete **** that he is, decided that this was the perfect opportunity to "get revenge" on Ryder for getting popular with the fans without the higher ups actually pushing him. Vince had the writers prepare a very short "fake script" for Ryder and told him he'd be cutting short promo and would wrestle a 5 minute match. Zack was obviously delighted. Then, barely an hour before his scheduled timeslot on Raw, he was told "plans had changed", and when ryder went to Vince and asked why, he simply replied "I hate the internet". After that, Ryder hardly ever was on TV again and currently does catering backstage.

Some of this is pure speculation, but boy if even a shred of this is true, it just shows what a joke Vince's anti-bullying campaign is (which Punk mentioned in his pipebomb before the mic was cut off). The point is that even Punkw asn't ever supposed to be quite as big as he became. Vince saw him as an eventual main eventer, but the fact that he became popular enough on his own to reach Cena-level popularity pissed him off. And presumably HHH. Again, not everything about this might be factual, but it sure as hell wouldn't surprise me.

 

[GIMH]

Sorry for the triple post but also this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abVk-cLJ6P8

Thanks for wasting three minutes of my life

 

[Spikey]

Vince is pretty renowned for his sheer hatred of superstars who get over with the fans "without permission". Haven't you heard about the infamous Zack ryder story?

Back in 2011, Ryder got himself a pretty good fan following through his YouTube show which he ran himself. Vince told Ryder repeatedly that he's destined only to be a lower card guy and wasn't good enough to be anything more. Ryder said, fine, no problem, atleast give me some TV time. Over that 2011 summer, Ryder's popularity started increasing and when he won the US title at TLC, the roof came off the place. Received an immense reaction. His gimmick was that he was the "Internet Champion"... was pretty fun and showed promise as a solid midcard guy with a good sense of humour.

Anyway sometime that summer, Raw was scheduled for his hometown and Ryder was hopeful that he'd get atleast a very short segment to go out there in front of his hometown fans. Vince being the complete **** that he is, decided that this was the perfect opportunity to "get revenge" on Ryder for getting popular with the fans without the higher ups actually pushing him. Vince had the writers prepare a very short "fake script" for Ryder and told him he'd be cutting short promo and would wrestle a 5 minute match. Zack was obviously delighted. Then, barely an hour before his scheduled timeslot on Raw, he was told "plans had changed", and when ryder went to Vince and asked why, he simply replied "I hate the internet". After that, Ryder hardly ever was on TV again and currently does catering backstage.

Some of this is pure speculation, but boy if even a shred of this is true, it just shows what a joke Vince's anti-bullying campaign is (which Punk mentioned in his pipebomb before the mic was cut off). The point is that even Punkw asn't ever supposed to be quite as big as he became. Vince saw him as an eventual main eventer, but the fact that he became popular enough on his own to reach Cena-level popularity pissed him off. And presumably HHH. Again, not everything about this might be factual, but it sure as hell wouldn't surprise me.

holy crap

 

[Manee]

Thanks for wasting three minutes of my life

Fool! It's epic.

 

[GIMH]

I think it's nonsense just ftr. Vince loves money. (@OS/Spikey)

He certainly prefers his stars he's made, no doubt. He's out of touch but to try and level this stuff about punk is a bit silly when he told Punk to go out there and cut the pipe bomb promo

 

[Manee]

holy crap

That cannot be true. I'd be so upset if that was true. I used to really like Ryder but now the booking has made it impossible to do that. I loved his internet show back in 2011 - which come to think of it was a pretty cool time to be a fan.

 

[OverratedSanity]

I think it's nonsense just ftr. Vince loves money. (@OS/Spikey)

He certainly prefers his stars he's made, no doubt. He's out of touch but to try and level this stuff about punk is a bit silly when he told Punk to go out there and cut the pipe bomb promo

Yeah possibly, I admit not all of that story is consistent.

But the Ryder thing has been backed up by a few people at least.

 

[GIMH]

Oh the Ryder thing was bad no doubt

 

[OverratedSanity]

Call me a cynic but Punk's "feud" with HHH and Nash where he repeatedly got laid out by Nash and was beaten by HHH looked to me, at least, like an attempt to slow down his momentum. I don't know. It just seems consistent with their behaviour wit other guys who got over who weren't "their guys".

 

[GIMH]

Call me a cynic but Punk's "feud" with HHH and Nash where he repeatedly got laid out by Nash and was beaten by HHH looked to me, at least, like an attempt to slow down his momentum. I don't know. It just seems consistent with their behaviour wit other guys who got over who weren't "their guys".

But they'd have known that giving him the open mic in the first place would have that impact so I don't really buy it to that extent. I just think it was more a case of HHH wanting to insert himself (and his buddy) into a hot story

 

[OverratedSanity]

But they'd have known that giving him the open mic in the first place would have that impact so I don't really buy it to that extent. I just think it was more a case of HHH wanting to insert himself (and his buddy) into a hot story

But why on earth would he book himself to beat Punk. Yeah, it wasn't a clean victory, but why? Why beat him?

 

[duffer]

I just think it was more a case of HHH wanting to insert himself (and his buddy) into a hot story

So not to put Punk over? Which is what HHH claimed.