It's funny that the one guy who can make self-reference in WWE is an atheist. CM Punk told The Rock that he was biting off more than he could chew by climbing from the kiddie table of the Attitude Era into his house, that his arms were too short to box with God. Based on their encounter tonight, Punk was absolutely correct. Punk eviscerated the fans. He gutted and decapitated Rocky. He flash fried the company he works for (speaking truths that were approved by the front office ironically or not).
And the Rock countered with dick jokes.
Of course, the crowd was supposed to be behind him, especially if the cues of the forced laughter from Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler were supposed to mean something. I hate when people try to parse crowd noise as if it means anything, but I thought I heard boos when Rocky planted Punk with the Rock Bottom to end the show. Some people get it. Others don't. But then again, isn't that the triumph of modern WWE? They act like there are allegiances drawn down the line of alignment, but they wouldn't print t-shirts for Punk or Damien Sandow or pre-Hell No Daniel Bryan if they didn't think that cheering the heel wasn't a viable option. Some bad guys are just too good at accumulating a crowd.
But the most impressive part of Punk's night, to me, was never the pipe bomb. He's been warming up his voice for the last month, bringing the good stuff back into use. The fact that there's such a dropoff between his A material and B material is such a disappointment, but that's besides the point. Then again, if Big Show is lazy, you people jump all over him. CM Punk gets apologies. Then again, I guess that still plays into his promo, right? I don't even know anymore.
Anyway, no, the most impressive part was that he was able to transpose the match he most certainly would have wrestled against Ryback at TLC onto RAW just a month after he was on the shelf with structural damage to his knee. All the fearless bumps, all the big spots, all the theatrics... to me, that's better than dropping the mic against Rocky. Why? That's the unknown quantity. I think we need to start giving more than token praise to Ryback too, but that might be the hossophile in me talking. I don't know.
What I do know is that even with Rock's reliance on genital crutches for his promos, there's no doubt that he knows how to hold a crowd in the palm of his hand. The Rumble match feels like it matters, and that always helps. The Shield provides unpredictability. Dolph Ziggler is the nascent star. Bryan and Kane are the buddy comedy. I get the feeling I could be proven wrong in week 2 between the Rumble and Elimination Chamber, but I still think this could be a most special Mania season. Punk finding his oeuvre that he lost sometime after Kevin Nash was making the poopies face at him helps a lot.
Will it be enough to overcome not only Rock's penchant for dick jokes but the eventual THIS BUSINESSING we're bound to get from Triple H though? I don't know, but for whatever reason, when the atheist god is boxing in the ring, never bet against him being able to score the knockout when it matters most.
And the Rock countered with dick jokes.
Of course, the crowd was supposed to be behind him, especially if the cues of the forced laughter from Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler were supposed to mean something. I hate when people try to parse crowd noise as if it means anything, but I thought I heard boos when Rocky planted Punk with the Rock Bottom to end the show. Some people get it. Others don't. But then again, isn't that the triumph of modern WWE? They act like there are allegiances drawn down the line of alignment, but they wouldn't print t-shirts for Punk or Damien Sandow or pre-Hell No Daniel Bryan if they didn't think that cheering the heel wasn't a viable option. Some bad guys are just too good at accumulating a crowd.
But the most impressive part of Punk's night, to me, was never the pipe bomb. He's been warming up his voice for the last month, bringing the good stuff back into use. The fact that there's such a dropoff between his A material and B material is such a disappointment, but that's besides the point. Then again, if Big Show is lazy, you people jump all over him. CM Punk gets apologies. Then again, I guess that still plays into his promo, right? I don't even know anymore.
Anyway, no, the most impressive part was that he was able to transpose the match he most certainly would have wrestled against Ryback at TLC onto RAW just a month after he was on the shelf with structural damage to his knee. All the fearless bumps, all the big spots, all the theatrics... to me, that's better than dropping the mic against Rocky. Why? That's the unknown quantity. I think we need to start giving more than token praise to Ryback too, but that might be the hossophile in me talking. I don't know.
What I do know is that even with Rock's reliance on genital crutches for his promos, there's no doubt that he knows how to hold a crowd in the palm of his hand. The Rumble match feels like it matters, and that always helps. The Shield provides unpredictability. Dolph Ziggler is the nascent star. Bryan and Kane are the buddy comedy. I get the feeling I could be proven wrong in week 2 between the Rumble and Elimination Chamber, but I still think this could be a most special Mania season. Punk finding his oeuvre that he lost sometime after Kevin Nash was making the poopies face at him helps a lot.
Will it be enough to overcome not only Rock's penchant for dick jokes but the eventual THIS BUSINESSING we're bound to get from Triple H though? I don't know, but for whatever reason, when the atheist god is boxing in the ring, never bet against him being able to score the knockout when it matters most.
