CM Punk - What does his future look like in WWE?

CM Punk and Daniel Bryan

When John Cena announced last week that he is going to be gone for 4-6 months owing to an elbow surgery, many wrestling fans all over the world heaved a sigh of relief.

As horrible and cruel as it may sound, it is the truth and I am not even a Cena-hater but the buzz about his departure was at fever-pitch leading up to Summerslam and while the announcement came as a bit of a jolt, many arm-chair bookers swung into action and started scripting the various storylines going forward in Cena’s absence.

While everyone has their favourites, if a poll is taken among the hardcore wrestling fans as to who should be ‘The Man’ in the WWE, two names that would come out on top would be Daniel Bryan and CM Punk.

Daniel Bryan, the indy darling, has been on a dream run in the past one year and is deservedly getting quality main-event time now, although it’s been a bit underwhelming given the constant spotlight on the dysfunctional McMahon family. But, he still is destined for bigger and better things and he has the crowd egging him on every week, every show.

That brings us to the other guy, who too should be competing for the main-event spotlight, because he is that damn good. Hell, he is the best in the world – CM Punk.

Punk is one of the best the industry has to offer right now and he, not Miz, has truly been the most must-see superstar on WWE TV for a long time. He broke every barrier put in front of him and walked through every obstacle there is to imagine and became the top dog in the company a couple of years ago.

He hasn’t looked back since and his resume boasts of the longest WWE title reign in the modern era, which I believe came to an abrupt end at the beginning of this year. But noticeably, even when the champion, Punk seemed to be positioned lower on the card than John Cena and that ticked a lot of his fans off, including myself. And ever since he dropped the title to a part-timer in the Rock, who in turn handed it to the golden boy of WWE, John Cena, his positioning on the card has been even more confusing.

He feuded with the Undertaker at WrestleMania and in itself, a Taker match is always the main event, so it was a step in the right direction for him. But that meant a third consecutive loss in a row on pay-per-views after a multitude of fluke wins as a champion during the later part of his run as a heel.

Since then, he went on a hiatus to heal nagging injuries and has gotten back to deliver amazing performances against Chris Jericho and in his feud against Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar.

WWE sees a lot of value in CM Punk and given the smarts of the people running the business, they should be making a lot of money with this rare of a talent. But, we have seen stranger things and while a solid and intense mid-card feud with his former mentor is cool and entertaining TV, ask any Punkaholic and they wouldn’t want to see Punk in the main-event duking it out for the title with the topmost guys.

Paul Heyman recently said that he wants to see Daniel Bryan-CM Punk in the main event at WrestleMania 30. That’s an exciting news for any fan but then is it really what the WWE would want? Two under-sized guys, with indy credibility headlining their biggest show of the year?

For the sake of the business I hope that’s what they want, because that program would be money and both are more than capable of delivering on the grandest stage of them all. Plus, given the stinker that went on as main-event last year, they should be allowed that opportunity just to redeem the history of main-events at WrestleMania.

Punk, hopefully would be done with the Heyman feud and would have no problems dispatching off his sidekick without going for the Intercontinental title and then as promised in his interviews, he will go after the world title. With Cena not being around, Punk is the man to beat on the microphone and as the only guy to rival Bryan’s popularity at present, it’s almost criminal not to mention his name in the discussion about the next ‘face’ of the WWE.