Every Road Has Potholes

Photo from WWE.com

By Chad Smart
@ChadSmart on Twitter

Kevin touched on this in his Raw recap, but I wanted to share my own thoughts on the latest stop on the John Cena, CM Punk car ride on the road to Money in the Bank. I wonder if whoever mapped out the trip stopped to consider if it made sense logically or if they threw the GPS out the window and said, “who needs directions? We’ll get to Chicago on July 17.”

After last week’s promo by CM Punk, I was intrigued to see where the story was going because the emotion Punk put into the promo was different than the usual wrestling promo. I’m not going to rehash Punk’s promo here. If you’ve been following wrestling for at least a week, you’ve heard it.  After Raw ended last week, wwe.com reported CM Punk had been indefinitely suspended due to his words. This heightened the anticipation for Raw because I was curious to see how he would get unsuspended in order to have his title match at Money In The Bank.

I didn’t have a problem with John Cena coming out and demanding Punk be put back into the match. I think Cena’s petitioning added more to the match. He basically said let CM Punk back up his claim. Let the issue be settled in the ring and not in the boardroom. When Vince McMahon started to explain his reasoning by saying he didn’t want Punk to show up in another promotion with the WWE Title, I was okay with that. The champion showing up at another promotion’s show has happened to Vince in the past, as well as happening on Vince’s programming too, so Vince’s fear is warranted. What wasn’t warranted was Vince’s reasoning for fearing Punk walking out with the title.

Photo from WWE.com

Has Vince McMahon not paid attention to any of his shows over the last seven years? When was the last time John Cena lost a title to someone not named Randy Orton in a manner that couldn’t be considered a fluke? This is the same John Cena who singlehandedly took out Nexus. Why would Vince be doubtful Cena would lose to CM Punk? Vince’s irrational fear of Cena losing while a bit of a head scratcher wasn’t the worst part of the Cena, Vince verbal 

exchange.

The worst part was Vince telling Cena if Punk walks out of the building (notice he didn’t say, if Punk wins), Cena would be fired. Kevin touched on how we’ve seen the Cena is fired angle less than a year ago so this seems like an unoriginal rehash. What makes it even worse is how poorly the previous angle was handled.  During his time being “fired,” John Cena was still on every episode of Raw. There was nothing different about the show.  As a fan, why should I think this time would be any different?

Factor in the main event for Wrestlemania 28 has already been announced as John Cena vs. The Rock and one would logically assume even if Cena gets fired it’s only a matter of time before he returns. Thus negating even the short-term impact of the firing.

I want to point out I am still more interested in this title match than any other WWE title match in recent memory. Don’t want to sound like I am hating on the match. My only quibbles are the unnecessary, and groan inducing stipulations. If Vince is worried about his title being hijacked and taken hostage, I would have preferred to see him entice one of the Money in the Bank winners to cash in the briefcase offering any and all help necessary to ensure CM Punk had a short lived title reign.

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