5 reasons why CM Punk was a game changer for the WWE

#5 He legitimately outsold John Cena on merchandise

Who was the real Franchise player?

Can anyone imagine that the Face that runs the place was outsold on merchandise by a superstar who did not fit the regular prototype wrestling image? It is true whether WWE publicly admits it or not that C.M. Punk outsold John Cena on merchandise sales. Back in 2011, CM Punk was the greatest professional wrestler in the world and attracted tremendous mainstream attention that made him an icon in a short amount of time. The man was red hot and was more popular than 'the Franchise'.

He openly stated in the popular podcast that WWE never encouraged his merchandise sales and always tried to endorse John as the most recognized superstar. Well, it's fair to say that Punk still carries a huge brand value and WWE's attempt to hide those statistics did not go well with him. Moreover, Konnan, Court Bauer and MSL threw some light in 2015 on MWL Radio regarding the manipulation in merchandise sales by the WWE.

Below is the conspectus of their discussion:

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 exactly 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 under shipping 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 because 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 purposely created a situation where it would be impossible for CM Punk to outsell John Cena.

Well, judging by the discussion, it could be concluded that 'the Cult of Personality' legitimately sold more merchandises than 'the Franchise' but was never publicly appreciated by the WWE. Despite being one of the most iconic wrestlers on the planet, the man left the company and is still missed by legions of his supporters. There's no clue whether he will ever return or not but, there's no doubt that his contribution will be forever remembered.