Inside Pulse Wrestling | This Week In ‘E – 08.01.2011: CM Punk Makes People Money

This Week In ‘E – 08.01.2011: CM Punk Makes People Money

by Paul Marshall on August 1, 2011

This week, we discuss CM Punk’s return, the double-champion situation the WWE is involved with, and many other things.

My Space

Last week’s column was a washout because I forgot to add this column to the one hundred-one things that I needed to get done during my vacation. Anyhow, I’m back this week and I’m itching to get this column done in less time than it takes to get through my checkout line at work. 20 items or less? Nonsense, if you have 50 items or more, come on down because I look stupid standing in the express lane while everyone else is at another checkout waiting their turn.

The News of the Week

“STAMFORD, Conn., Jul 29, 2011 (BUSINESS WIRE) — WWE announced that its Board of Directors today declared the Company’s regular quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share for all Class A and B shares of common stock. The record date for the dividend will be September 15, 2011, and the payment date will be September 26, 2011.”

If you notice, I left out the legal notice from WWE’s press release because it’s information that is irrelevant to the main point. I’m not overly big on reporting the corporate side of the WWE, because it’s boring. But when the WWE announces their quarterly dividend, it’s major news to those who has a few (thousand) shares of WWE stock. Perhaps you could send your dividend checks to the U.S. Government since they are broke, but that’s better left for a political column. The WWE is still financially stable and it appears that keeping Vince McMahon off TV will allow him to please stockholders and come up with new inventive ideas that don’t suck.

Welcome Back, CM Punk

CM Punk has returned to the WWE last Monday Night with his WWE Championship and he confronted the new WWE Champion “of the Triple H Era”, John Cena.

This does put the WWE in an interesting predicament. First of all, CM Punk returned using “Cult of Personality” by Living Colour, thus giving that music group a decent payday in terms of people downloading that song. This one is big because Vince would rather use original music instead of paying royalties for non-original music. How much did it cost the WWE to acquire the music? Probably not as much as it would have cost them to use Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” on a regular basis for Sandman.

Secondly, how does one treat the WWE Championship reign? Logistically, since CM Punk was “unemployed” (if you call it that, the jury is still out on this one), his title reign would have been non-existant. But, since we’re suspending logic right now, we’ll know who the true champion is at Summerslam.

This is a great time to introduce a new feature. I call it the Question of the Week. I’ll ask a question and leave it to you guys to respond. There’s no right or wrong answer as I’m just curious as to what my readers are thinking right now.

Question of the Week

Did the WWE rush CM Punk’s return? Should CM Punk stayed away longer (if it was feasible)?

Two parts, I know.

Woo, Woo, Woo. You know it.

Zack Ryder made his way back on the top WWE shows after being shown in cutscenes for the past few months. He wrestled ~~Triple~~ ahem, Michael Cole in a thirty second squash last Monday. But Friday night, he was appointed Teddy Long’s assistant.

It’s about time that Zack Ryder gets noticed. Â Will this lead to a decent push for one of the secondary championships?

Tonight…

CM Punk will make a statement on RAW tonight. It will consist of him being the true WWE Champion and that John Cena is just a fake champion. Triple H will probably make light of the dual champion scenario and Alberto del Rio will probably fake-cash in his title shot again only to be outsmarted. Â There’s also a Battle Royal with all the WWE Divas which will last a couple minutes and will ultimately lead to a Bella Twin to challenge Kelly Kelly for the title at Summerslam.

Last Week…

SmackDown!

Raw!

The Top Five

Each week, I will rank the top five WWE superstars based on promo work, match skills, strength of their competition, title wins or retentions, and personal bias.

5. John Cena – He won some championship last week. I want to say the WWE Championship, but CM Punk is the WWE Champion. I don’t have as much love for Cena winning the title because after awhile it becomes stale. I was very critical when Triple H hogged the championship spotlight many years ago. John Cena does not need the championship in order to be the face of the WWE. He doesn’t need the WWE Championship RIGHT NOW, because WrestleMania is still several months away. Although Cena/Rock does not need the WWE Title to make it important, that is the way the WWE wants to go with it, even if it is the wrong move.

4. Randy Orton – He showed R-Truth (and Christan) that he knows how to use weapons.

3. Zack Ryder – He showed up on RAW and beat Michael Cole in a quick match and was announced as Teddy Long’s assistant on SmackDown. You wanted him. You Got him. Woo, Woo, Woo.

2. Triple H – The man brought back Jim Ross, CM Punk, and John Morrison back to WWE RAW; he showed Christan that he isn’t Teddy Long and that he won’t run over him; and he made Zack Ryder Teddy Long’s assistant. All without breaking a sweat.

1. Rey Mysterio – He won some championship last week. I want to say the WWE Championship, but CM Punk is the WWE Champion. Yes, I said it twice. However, Rey not only won a title, but he defended it on the same night and even though he lost the title defense, putting on two decent matches with the big championship feel is always worth the top slot when it’s hard to decide who on SmackDown is worthy of being in the top five.

Thank You, Come Again

Maybe next week’s version of the ‘E will feature something other than CM Punk. Â I would love to write all day about CM Punk, but we have other talented writers that do that and a whole lot more, so check out the columns on Pulse Wrestling. I would spotlight a few, but everyone deserves the credit. Â Thanks again for reading me this week and please send some cooler weather to the Midwest.

Tags: cm punk, john cena, triple h, vince mcmahon, wrestling, WWE, zack ryder

Paul Marshall

view profile »

Paul Marshall has been with Pulse Wrestling since September 2007. He currently does a weekly WWE Column titled "This Week In 'E". Follow him on Twitter here.

Follow on Twitter · Follow on Facebook · Email Paul Marshall

Recent Posts »

CB

Like I said last week Paul, it’s GREAT to have This Week in ‘E back on the Pulse. Love the Top 5 feature too!
TxF

I admit… you’ve got me paying attention. I like your style mi amigo, but as you’re asking for feedback, and I’m a fan of quid pro quo, paying it forward, whatever you wanna call it as I’m attempting to create a competitor… yeah… let’s just focus on the task at hand.

Did the WWE rush CM Punk’s comeback? You DAMN RIGHT they rushed his comeback. Not to say that it wasn’t a great moment… I haven’t been able to stop smiling about it. I’ve watched the last five minutes of Raw at least a dozen times this week. Not since Jericho’s Countdown To The Millennium has there been a strange music playing to a better arrival… except Cult of Personality is probably the best fitting song to a WWE Superstar since Hulk Hogan’s “Real American”… yes, I said it. Did they rush it? Undoubtedly… they should have had some faith, and let it run for awhile… they’ve been paying Punk to sit in the shadows for this long, it would have almost been worth it to let him sit, show up in the crowd as a fan, let him show up in RoH, put him in the stands in Orlando… stretch it out until the Royal Rumble… let the Road to Wrestlemania start up… let Punk trash the brand, take up Jim Rome’s offer, do radio interviews, get him media coverage on the entirety of pro wrestling and the WWE, and let him blow it all to hell… and when it seems like nothing can happen to derail Cena/Rock at Wrestlemania XXVIII, CM Punk shows up and rocks the WWE’s world to its core… that’s enough to make everyone forget to remember where in the hell Taker’s gonna be come Royal Rumble time… but as it was… it was a hell of a moment… would have been better after a few months.

Will Zack Ryder being an assistant to the GM on Smackdown lead to an IC Title shot? (Since it’s the only secondary title the WWE has, and they’re not going to put Ryder on Raw, I assure you of that.)

In short… no. He may get a couple of shots… but it won’t be for awhile. Hell, he MIGHT even pick up a win… but it won’t be a long lasting thing. Enjoy your Zack Ryder dosing Broski… cuz he’s a slightly less annoying Vicki Guerrero… woo woo woo… you know it.
Darkstar

“Did the WWE rush CM Punk’s return? Should CM Punk stayed away longer (if it was feasible)?”
As it’s a two-parter, I’ll respond in two parts.

Did WWE rush Punk’s return? Without question.
They could have easily have Punk delay his return until after SummerSlam. This would have given him the chance to show up in ROH and make everyone actually think that he was gone from WWE… until he heels on ROH at their Sinclair tapings in Chicago.
More-so than anything else, Mysterio should be insulted, they put the belt on him only as a 2-hour transition to Cena; even Kane got a longer run than Mysterio did in ’98. I’m usually not a fan of face vs. face matches, but here it would have made sense: “current” champion vs. former champion on rematch clause… then Punk shows up after Cena wins and we’re off to the fall’s top angle.

As for if Punk should have stayed away longer? Not only was it feasible, I actually thought it should have happened. Yet again, SummerSlam would have been a great point to have Punk return; we all know the smarks would buy the replay and the next PPV if that was the case.
Instead, I think WWE ruined a potential payday just to rush the hottest commodity in wrestling today back to RAW.
FDSwayze

If you think they should have kept CM Punk off TV, then you don’t know anything about wrestling and should stop commenting on wrestling. You’d have to be completely retarded to think the one guy in ten years that has created interest outside of the general wrestling fanbase should a) be kept off TV and b) should wrestle in other companies that nobody watches.

Get a clue.
Steven Gepp

Did they rush Punk’s comeback? No. He left MitB in a fine visual moment, but it fits the character that he should come back when they crown a new champ.

Should he have stayed away longer? Hell no. This is a feud that, if done right, can see them through to Survivor Series, and hopefully set up big time feuds for both of them come WM.

For the first time in a long time, WWE Creative look like they know what they are doing.
FDSwayze

The REAL question is: Does WWE need Cena anymore?

The answer is no. Proof? Batista. Did anyone miss him? Exactly. I’ll be in my office if you have anymore questions. FIST PUMP!
John Kincaid

Did they rush Punk’s return? Yes. Would it have been feasible to keep him away longer? Yes.

Even had they delayed it for a month for the end of Summerslam, it would have worked. They wouldn’t even need to keep him off tv. Ala the nWo, have Punk “buying” commercial time with cheaply made commercials around 15-30 seconds to make some comments while having the address to his You Tube channel (the thisiscmpunk I believe) on the screen. Then have him do a little internet show where he can cut more detailed promos; report defending his title at indy shows (citing a loophole that it is not stated anywhere the title has to be defended at sanctioned WWE events); and things of that nature. Have him show up as a fan in attendance, even brining signs that he holds up through out the night. Have backstage interviewers “break company policy” to ask Cena about Punk, especially if it is getting to him all the talk of how he’s a false champion. Hell, if you want him to have a more direct impact on television, do an episode of Raw where he “hacks” the anonymous GM account, and is revealed sitting in the arena come the end of the show. Lastly, the week before Summerslam, tease the hell out of him being in LA, even showing him with a ticket for the show. Anticipation of whether or not he would be there and would do anything would add buys, even if he wasn’t scheduled for a match.

There were plenty of ways to keep Punk away from a WWE ring and still run with this story, keeping up the use of social media and other alternatives to extend it. Would it become more obvious over time Punk was actually employed? Of course, but if the execution was right, no one would complain.

As I stated in a prior comments section, waiting for the September PPV, which I believe is Night of Champions, would have been perfect for him to return. Not only does it cash in on the name of the PPV, but it gaurantees buys for a secondary show.