That Was Then, Is This Too? 07.28.09: He's Better Than Us

Posted by Jasper Gerretsen on 07.28.2009

After last Sunday's incredible heel turn, That Was Then, Is This Too? takes a trip down memory lane to revisit the feud that firmly established Punk as one of the biggest stars of the independent wrestling scene, when he first proved just why he's better than us.

Welcome back to another installation of That Was Then, Is This Too?, the column that looks for parallel lines in all the right places. To start us off this week, we have comments!

Shit column.

Posted By: Mil Mascaras (Guest) on July 21, 2009 at 03:35 PM

Play him off, Keyboard Cat.

HBK VS EVAN BOURNE MATCH ON RAW 20 MIN MATCH
create another classic like putting him over through shawn. see
hbk vs shelton benjamin
hbk vs jeff hardy
hbk vs edge (street fight)
EVAN BOURNE IS THE FUTURE

Posted By: Guest#9336 (Guest) on July 21, 2009 at 03:58 PM

While a program with HBK could certainly give young Evan Bourne a much needed boost, I'm not sure whether or not it would be the right idea at the moment. I actually really liked what he did with Rey Mysterio last year before he got injured, an awesome tag match against John Morrison and The Miz and a great singles match. A 'passing of the torch' between the veteran and the rookie high flyer would be great.

I've seen the double moonsault and the 630, has anyone managed (or even attempted) a double shooting star yet?

Would a double SSP even be possible from a platform as low as the top rope?

Posted By: smithy84 (Guest) on July 21, 2009 at 07:43 PM

I'm sure someone will eventually try it on some indy show, but I really don't see how it can be done off the top rope, it'd have to be off something like a cage or a platform.

The reason Londrick never lasted on Raw was because of one man and one man only...HHH. If he would have thanked them fromm saving him and PUT THE OVER they would've been one of the most over tag team at that time but instead he pedigreed both of their asses and killed any potential they had. FUCK HHH!! Good column BTW, I really don't see Bourne doing much on RAW. He'll probably have a weak US Championship reign but that's about it. I wish he was an SD! or just stayed on ECW at least he would've been one of the top guys there and eventually get the ECW Championship.

Posted By: Paul London is Free aka This Guy (Guest) on July 22, 2009 at 02:53 AM

While I'm sure that the Triple H pedigrees didn't help, I really don't think he personally decided that he was going to hold them down. There were more factors involved.

Anyway, time for the next edition of That Was Then, Is This Too?, completely rewritten on Monday because my entire original point got refuted on Friday's SmackDown! and Sunday's PPV. Banner!



That Was Then, Is This Too? - He's Better Than Us

At WWE's most recent Extreme Rules PPV, CM Punk, through the second successful cashing in of his Money in the Bank contract, added his third world championship to his resumé. He did this at the cost of Jeff Hardy, who moments before beat Edge in a harrowing ladder match for that same world heavyweight championships. Two Go To Sleeps later and Jeff Hardy officially held the dubious honour of having the shortest championship reign with that particular title in its almost seven year history.

Of course Jeff Hardy was pissed, and rightly so, but Punk didn't quite see it that way. When Hardy interrupted him on the following episode of SmackDown! he calmly pointed out a very simple fact: people didn't seem to care nearly as much when he cashed in at the cost of Edge a year earlier. Eventually a main event for that show was signed, Edge vs. Hardy for a title shot on next monday's three hour special edition of RAW, but after Punk got Hardy disqualified Theodore Long decided to sign a triple threat match between the three men as Punk's first defense.

The feud between Punk and Hardy didn't really start moving until the title match at The Bash. Soon after that, Punk started showing more and more questionable behaviour. It started with a dubious finish to their title match at The Bash, where Punk got disqualified for striking the referee. Hardy was pissed of course, but Punk claimed that he didn't see that he was striking the referee because he had injured his eye. As the weeks progressed things got more and more heated, with Punk and Hardy constantly costing each other matches.

Then, on the July 11th edition of SmackDown!, things got personal. Punk was finally fed up with Hardy's shenanigans, and decided to call him out in a way that was incredibly surprising considering WWE's current PG direction: He addressed Hardy's drug use and the two wellness strikes he has against him. The discussion that followed the next week really cemented Punk as the heel, and perfectly outlined their opinions on the problem: Hardy has been clean for over a year and has taken full responsibility for his missteps, but that's not good enough for Punk, who feels personally insulted because he has never had trouble staying clean, and because Hardy somehow thinks he's setting a good example.

Then, at Vengeance, the fecal matter hit the electrically powered airflow producer. Punk had had enough of not just Hardy, but also the fans that thought he was someone whose example they should follow. He called out the fans' parents, or more likely parent, who refuse to draw a line for their children. It starts with a Hardy t-shirt, goes to a Hardy shirt, then cigarettes, and then whiskey and marijuana. And then street drugs and then rummaging through mom's purse for her prescription medications. It was an awesome promo, and any doubt as to whether or not Punk is the top heel of the blue brand was taken away.

Of course to fans of independent wrestling the whole idea sounds surprisingly familiar. This is because Punk had an almost identical program in the early days of 2003 with another wrestler whose past was filled with drug-related problems: Raven.

That Was Then...

As soon as it was announced that Raven would be making his ROH debut, Punk took issue. After all, he had worked his ass off to get where he was, and here was someone who was about to just walk in on his name alone despite all the mistakes he had made in the past. They were at each other's throats almost immediately and ended up having an extended series of matches, most of which involved the same hardcore stipulations that had made Raven famous. Along the way CM Punk managed to join up with his former trainer Ace Steel and best friend Colt Cabana, who had previously been recruited by Raven for a tag match, to form The Second City Saints, one of the most successful stables in Ring of Honor history. However, it wasn't until Wrestlerave that Punk revealed why he truly despised Raven in one of the most intense promos ever:



The feud had some intensely personal moments. After Punk beat Raven in a dog collar match, he started pouring beer down Raven's throat until Tommy Dreamer made the save in his Ring of Honor debut, and the former rivals ended up giving Punk his first taste of beer. Punk would get his revenge on Raven at Beating the Odds. Even though he lost to Raven in a Clockwork Orange House of Fun match, he would get the last laugh by crucifying Raven to a huge X that symbolized his straight-edge beliefs. The feud finally ended at The Conclusion on November 28th, 2003, when Punk beat Raven in a steel cage match. It would be Raven's last appearance in Ring of Honor.

...Is This Too?

So here we are, six years later, with Punk facing off against another fan favourite with a troubled past. However, he now finds himself in the far more moderate environment of WWE so one has to wonder whether or not the second iteration of this feud can live up to the original version.

Of course at this point it should be noted that it's a miracle that most wrestling fans even know CM Punk as CM Punk. After all, it's almost unheard of for indy wrestlers passing through WWE's developmental system to retain their gimmick, much less their original name. Punk lucked out twice in this regard; Paul Heyman was the man in charge when he showed up on OVW to begin his transformation from a wrestler to a superstar, and the former owner of the original ECW knew a gimmick with potential when he saw one. When Paul Heyman was called back up to run the new ECW, Punk was one of the first developmental wrestlers to make his debut on the show, again keeping his name and his gimmick thanks to Paul Heyman's lobbying.

Now I have to admit I was extremely skeptical about the Punk/Hardy feud. After all, with all the controversy surrounding drug use in professional wrestling and WWE's current PG environment, it's hard to see WWE allowing drug use to become an issue. Even if they did, it's incredibly hard to do a tasteful drug use angle. I loved the Eddie Guerrero redemption angle they did, first with Chavo Guerrero and then with Brock Lesnar, but in general using real life issues like that it just comes off as cheap exploitation.

Any doubts I had were silenced at Night of Champions. The promo Punk cut in the crowd was not only one of the most well-executed heel turns in recent years, but it was also exactly the kind of promo that made Punk's feud with Raven great. He was up close and personal with the fans, attacking them directly, but doing so in a way that was just a little uncomfortable because deep down inside we know that there's truth in his words.

But even now I can still see one problem: Jeff Hardy is no Raven. While he definitely has the fan support, he simply doesn't measure up to Raven on the mic, but then again very few wrestlers do. At the same time, I can't really see Punk and Hardy having the same kind of drawn-out series of violent matches that Punk and Raven had. While there have been plenty of hardcore stipulation matches in the past few months, they have definitely been less violent than they once were, with blood being all but completely absent.

At this point however, the Punk/Hardy feud is already far better than I expected it to be, and I can't wait to see where it goes next. Even if we won't get violent matches, we're still getting a deeply personal feud that's incredibly compelling, and is an easy contender for WWE's feud of the year.


AL-CO-HOL! AL-CO-HOL! AL-CO-HOL!



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